Charles Tolkien-Gillett
The items presented here represent my interest in the reception of Old English and Icelandic literary cultures in the post-medieval era, chiefly across the twentieth century. My academic work centered largely on the translations of Gavin Bone (1907–1942), a contemporary of Auden’s at Oxford and later tutor to Amis and Larkin. Bone produced a wilful corpus of Old English poetic translations along with vivid illustrations of Beowulf—a project wholly unlike the creative engagement with medieval material that comes to mind when thinking of Oxford at Mid-Century.
And because Bone’s posthumously-published translations have not enjoyed sustained popularity, it was my search for his poetry that began my life as a book collector—to read Bone was to read first editions.
The intellectual culture surrounding questions of translation, adaptation and creative engagement with the past is the backbone of my collection, delimited to Early Medieval England and Iceland. From academic articles, dictionaries and textual editions to popular novels and poems that record varied responses to the Middle Ages, I enjoy learning about intersections of academic and creative productivity—and especially about figures who engage in both, blurring the line between scholarship and artistry.
Gavin Bone.
Beowulf, in Modern Verse with an Essay and Pictures.
Oxford: Blackwell, 1945.
Bone’s Beowulf was published posthumously by his parents, Sir Muirhead and Lady Gertrude Bone, after his death aged 34. Tolkien was not a fan of Bone’s “wilful” treatment of Beowulf, but Lewis wrote of Bone’s welcome departure from the “sawdusty manner of most work on such subjects” that pervades his writings. Bone’s illustrations, too, reflect his bold prerogative as an artist-scholar. Compare this pre-battle excerpt (bottom of p. 31) with Crossley-Holland’s (top of p. 53).
Kevin Crossley-Holland.
Beowulf.
London: Macmillan, 1968.
All translations force one to confront one’s priorities in bringing a text from the distant past into the present. As a poet and librettist, Crossley-Holland is always
mindful of crafting an engaging story—and his Beowulf achieves this masterfully. Included here is Macmillan’s request for a review from preeminent medievalist Dorothy Whitelock. Crossley-Holland and I have been unable to track down any such review, but its absence clearly has not hampered Crossley-Holland’s long term reception.
William Jackson Hooker.
Journal of a Tour in Iceland in the Summer of 1809.
Yarmouth: Not Published, 1811.
Hooker sailed with Danish revolutionary Jørgen Jørgensen, who temporarily freed Iceland from the Twin Realm of Denmark-Norway by imprisoning its governor, declaring himself ‘Protector’ and promising to reinstate its medieval parliament—earning him the epithet hundadagakonungur (the Dog-Days’ King). Hooker’s observations were destroyed when, on the return journey, saboteur Danish prisoners set their ship alight. This privately-circulated edition is thus largely based on notes from Joseph Banks, who had encouraged Hooker to sail with Jørgesen.