Dreaming of Dragons: Tolkien's Impact on Heaney's Beowulf

Abstract

As a result of surging interest in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of Rings, due in part to Peter Jackson film adaptations and in part to publication of Michael D. C. Drout's variorum edition of Tolkien's Beowulf and Critics, both popular and scholarly audiences have come to understand role that Old English literature, particularly Beowulf poem, plays in Tolkien's literary worldview. Anglo-Saxonists widely acknowledge their dependence upon Tolkien ground broken by his 1936 essay, Beowulf: Monsters and Critics. Without Tolkien's intercession, Beowulf may never have come to be treated as work of it is. Any discussion of Beowulf criticism invariably begins with a reference to Tolkien. Peter S. Baker introduces his recent collection of essays by saying that Tolkien's Beowulf: Monsters and Critics continue[s] to be influential and is still worth student's attention (xi). So present is Tolkien within critical mind of Anglo-Saxonist that Roy Michael Liuzza, in his essay about dating of Beowulf closing same volume, references Tolkien's unconditional acceptance of the attribution of Beowulf to 'age of Bede'(281). placement of Tolkien at alpha and omega of Beowulf-scholarship in this particular collection demonstrates prominence Tolkien occupies within Anglo-Saxonist imagination. (1) Tolkien's influence is also felt in literary treatments of poem that may not always be as welcomed by Anglo-Saxonists as they are by contemporary readers nursed on Tolkien's fantastic treatments of poem's narrative elements. Both scholars and poets assert centrality of Tolkien's role in Beowulf criticism. Bruce Mitchell comments that The Greenfield and Robinson Bibliography records seventy items on 'Literary Interpretations' of Beowulf before J.R.R. Tolkien's lecture and two-hundred-and-fifty between its publication and end of 1972 (209). Seamus Heaney credits Tolkien with an epoch-making paper that takes for granted poem's integrity and distinction as a work of art wherein Tolkien proceeded to show in what this integrity and distinction inhered--a major departure from litany of ostensibly non-literary scholarly treatments of poem that precede his discussion of Tolkien (Introduction xi). Few Anglo-Saxonists would quibble with Heaney's characterization of Tolkien's significance, even though much has been said concerning Heaney's faithfulness to original poem. (2) For scholars, poets, and students alike, Tolkien's essay has become central to our understanding and treatment of poem. At same time, Old English literature is central to our understanding of Tolkien's own literary canon. (3) Tolkien's re-imaginings of Beowulf in his fiction emerge seamlessly from his critical treatment of poem. Thus, in Heaney's translation of 11. 2287-2290 we find a perfect parallel to Tolkien's recasting of dragon episode in Hobbit. Although Heaney's unfamiliarity with Hobbit makes it unlikely that Tolkien's fiction influences his translation directly, Tolkien's scholarship clearly prompts Heaney to select same literary trope to represent dragonly consciousness: dream. (4) Heaney translates 11. 2287-2290 quite freely. original poem presents dragon awakening to awareness that a thief has trespassed on his hoard. reader gets a glimpse of dragon that resembles a bloodhound, casting about scent left by interloper: [THORN]a se onwoc, wroht waes geniwad; stonc da aefter stane, stearcheort onfand feondes fotlast; he to ford gestop dyrnan craefte dracan heafde neah. (2287-2290) (5) [When dragon awoke, anger was renewed. stark-hearted sniffed after stone, discovered footprints of enemy; he stepped too near, with secret craft, to head of dragon.] In Old English, dragon is a wyrm characterized first, and most significantly, by its sense of smell. …

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