The Aesthetic Value of the Original Text as the Axis of the Translation Process: J. R. R. Tolkien's Beowulf

Authors

  • Ariadna García Carreño Universidad de Almería

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/epos.38.2022.31503

Abstract

This paper consists of an analysis of the translation of Beowulf made by Tolkien in 1926. The aim is to explore the modifications that his translation process applies to alliteration, kennings and archaisms, essential stylistic features in Anglo-Saxon poetry. These changes seem inevitable given 1) the differences between Anglo-Saxon poetic conventions and Present-Day English speech and literature, and 2) the needs of Tolkien’s target audience, his students at Oxford. Still, such changes pursue Tolkien’s main purpose, which, influenced by the ideas of New Criticism and Modernism, aims to maintain in translation the aesthetic value of the three stylistic features mentioned above. We follow Bassnett’s (1998) theoretical perspective to indicate that the traditional definition of ‘translation’ as a ‘copy’ of the original is not enough to qualify Tolkien’s translation: the innovations applied turn the translation into a new ‘original’.

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Author Biography

Ariadna García Carreño, Universidad de Almería

Ariadna García Carreño is a member of the research group HUM-602 of the English Department of the University of Almería, Spain, and a PhD student currently researching the fin de siècle period in American poetry with a special focus on the authors George Sterling and Ambrose Bierce. Another of her interests is Translation Studies, a field to which she has contributed with two bilingual editions of Sterling’s and Bierce's poetry as well as with several projects focused on translation strategies applied in areas such as the translational process of medieval Anglo-Saxon poems including Beowulf, The Wife’s Lament and Wulf and Eadwacer.

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Published

2022-12-19

How to Cite

García Carreño, A. (2022). The Aesthetic Value of the Original Text as the Axis of the Translation Process: J. R. R. Tolkien’s Beowulf. Epos : Revista de filología, (38), 86–102. https://doi.org/10.5944/epos.38.2022.31503

Issue

No. 38 (2022): Epos. Revista de filología

Section

Articles

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