内容简介
Tolkien'sfamoustranslationsandlecturesonthestoryoftwofifth-centuryheroesinnorthernEurope.ProfessorJ.R.R.TolkienismostwidelyknownastheauthorofTheHobbitandTheLordoftheRings,buthewasalsoadistinguishedscholarinthefieldofMediaevalEnglishlanguageandliterature.HismostsignificantcontributiontoAnglo-SaxonstudiesistobefoundinhislecturesonFinnandHengest(pronouncedHen-jist),twofifth-centuryheroesinnorthernEurope.ThestoryistoldintwoOldEnglishpoems,BeowulfandTheFightsatFinnesburg,buttoldsoobscurelyandallusivelythatitsinterpretationhadbeenamatterofcontroversyforover100years.Bringinghisuniquecombinationofphilologicaleruditionandpoeticimaginationtothetask,however,Tolkienrevealedaclassictragedyofdividedloyalties,ofvengeance,bloodanddeath.Tolkien'soriginalandpersuasivesolutionofthemanyproblemsraisedbythestoryrangedwidelythroughtheearlyhistoryandlegendoftheGermanicpeoples.ThestoryhastheaddedattractionthatitdescribestheeventsimmediatelyprecedingthefirstGermanicinvasionofBritainwhichwasledbyHengesthimself.ThisbookwillbeofinterestnotonlytostudentsofOldEnglishandallthoseinterestedinthehistoryofnorthernEuropeandAnglo-SaxonEngland,butalsoadmirersofTheLordoftheRingswhowillbefascinatedtoseehowTolkienhandledastorywhichhedidnotinvent.