Those of you who were excited to learn of the coming publication of JRR Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf might be interested to read John Garth’s extended analysis at The Guardian of Tolkien’s love of the Old English epic, and of Middle Earth’s indebtedness to it.

Until recently, I wasn’t aware that Tolkien had done a translation of Beowulf, though I recalled from my college days that he had written a massively influential critical essay on the epic, titled “The Monster and the Critics.” Garth reminded me that the basic argument of that essay was that Beowulf should be studied as art, and not just history; and specifically, that the monster, Grendel, should be center stage in interpretations of the work. Here’s Garth:

Tolkien pushed the monsters to the forefront. He argued that they represent the impermanence of human life, the mortal enemy that can strike at the heart of everything we hold dear, the force against which we need to muster all our strength – even if ultimately we may lose the fight. Without the monsters, the peculiarly northern courage of Beowulf and his men is meaningless. Tolkien, veteran of the Somme, knew that it was not.

But it’s when Garth gets deep into the links between Tolkien’s Middle Earth books and ancient epics like Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (which Tolkien also translated), and the Old Norse Völsungasaga, that things get really interesting. I’m a Tolkien fan but not quite a fanatic, so this got a little arcane for me—but it’s fascinating stuff nonetheless.

“[Tolkien's] imaginative strength comes fundamentally from the way he engaged with ancient texts,” says Garth. “He was fascinated by both what they said and what they left unsaid.” And since ancient texts leave so much unsaid—Beowulf makes multiple references to a vibrant tradition of coexisting tales that have been lost time time—there were plenty of places for his imagination to get in.