Beowulf is the Anglo-Saxon epic that J.R.R. Tolkien translated and that was published posthumously in 2014.
Tolkien’s Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary was edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and released by HarperCollins in 2014. The volume combines Tolkien’s prose translation with commentary on the poem and includes his related fictional work “Sellic Spell.”
Tolkien was one of the twentieth century’s leading Beowulf scholars. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped redirect academic attention toward the poem’s literary structure and its monsters, rather than treating it merely as a historical document.
The Old English poem tells of Beowulf’s battles with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. Tolkien’s translation project was distinct from his translations of Middle English works such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The 2014 edition presented material that had remained unpublished during his lifetime.