Tolkien as Translator and Translated

Sponsoring Organization(s)

History Dept., Texas A&M Univ.-Commerce

Organizer Name

Judy Ann Ford

Organizer Affiliation

Texas A&M Univ.-Commerce

Presider Name

Judy Ann Ford

Paper Title 1

Tolkien’s Beowulf and the "Correcting Style"

Presenter 1 Name

Dean Easton

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Independent Scholar

Paper Title 2

Sir Orfeo, the Classical Sources, and the Story of Beren and Lúthien

Presenter 2 Name

Sandra Hartl

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Otto-Friedrich-Univ. Bamberg

Paper Title 3

Translator and Language Change: On J. R. R. Tolkien's Translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Presenter 3 Name

Maria Volkonskaya

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Higher School of Economics, National Research Univ.

Start Date

14-5-2015 10:00 AM

Session Location

Bernhard 204

Description

This session focuses on Tolkien’s work as a translator of medieval sources. Two papers examine aspects of translations produced by Tolkien, namely, those of Beowulf and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The former explores Tolkien’s efforts to remain true to what he believed to be the two strands underpinning the story of Beowulf: historical legend and fairy story, while the latter analyzes his treatment of French loan-words in "Sir Gawain." The third paper considers the influence of Sir Orfeo, which, like Beowulf, was one of Tolkien’s works of translation published posthumously, on the story of Beren and Lúthien, which appears in many of Tolkien’s fictions set in Middle-earth.

Judy Ann Ford