2. Published translation
B(i) [Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tolkien A 29 B]
length: 32 page typescript
range:
• lines 1–1773 (translation); until »warrior of old wars, in age’s fetters did lament his«
• covering lines 1–2112 (Old English text)
design/layout: »made on very thin paper and using what he [scil. Tolkien] called his ›midget‹ type on his Hammond typewriter« (1)
condition: »in very poor condition, the righthand edges being darkly discoloured and in some cases badly broken or torn away, with the text at that point lost« (1)
amendments:
• »he wrote in most of the lost words in the margins (though occasionally this is not so).« (1)
• »fairly heavily emended, most substantially in the passage describing Grendel’s coming to Heorot and his fight with Beowulf (in the translation [lines] 574–632, which my father after preliminary emendation struck through and replaced with a rewritten passage in another type« (2f.); later very few further emendations
B(ii) [Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tolkien A 29 B]
translation period: completed April 1926
(cf. letter in the archive of Oxford University Press from J.R.R. to Kenneth Sisam)
range:
• lines 1773–end (translation); from »youth and strength in arms« (directly following B(i)’s »did lament his«)
• covering lines 2112/3(?)–end (Old English text)
length: ? page manuscript
C (= Copy) [Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tolkien A 29 C]
length: ? page typescript (existing also in a carbon copy)
production (= copy) period: 1940–42
(made by Chr. Tolkien)
amendments:
• »a good many emendations, but the majority were made at the time of the writing of the manuscript« (3)
status at the time of creation of C:
• most corrections of B(i) were incorporated into C;
• but a few corrections were made to B(i) after this incorporation into C
range:
• contains the whole text of the translation B = B(i) + B(ii)
• most corrections of B(i) were incorporated into C together with B(i) itself (except those corrections that have been made after the incorporation of the corrections into C)
• B(ii) was already in its final form
amendments:
• J.R.R. reviewed C and made changes of wording (dating not possible) but did not compare C with its antecendents thoroughly.
qualitative status of the C copy:
• B(i) part has »a surprisingly accurate rendering« (3)
• B(ii) part has »a fair number of mistakes« (3); a couple of plain misreadings
status at the time of creation of C:
• B(ii) was at this already in its latest form
»Thus, while the series of texts, B(i), B(ii), C, is simply stated, the layers of textual correction constitute an extremely intricate history.« (4)
2. Published translation
(cf. Tolkien 2016, 1–11)
2.1. Textual stages and witnesses (all prose translations)
(The page numbers in brackets refer to Tolkien 2016.)
A [Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tolkien A 29 A]:
• not incorporated into Christopher Tolkien’s edition
• partial alliterative translation, covering lines 1–594
• written 1920–25 while Tolkien was at Leeds)