An American scholar, Michael Drout, was researching Anglo-Saxon scholarship and asked to see a copy of Tolkien’s lecture on Beowulf given in 1936. In the box of materials he was brought he discovered four bound volumes at the bottom of the box.

“I started looking through, and realised I had found an entire book of material that had never seen the light of day. As I turned the page, there was Tolkien’s fingerprint in a smudge of ink.”

During the summer of 2003, Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf, which is thought to have inspired the Lord of the Rings, will be published, along with the his line-by-line interpretation of it’s meaning.

More can be found in this article on C|Net News Australia.

Ironically, I’ve always wanted to read Beowulf, but I’ve had a hard time finding a copy at local bookstores. With Tolkien’s name on this translation, I suspect I won’t have any difficulties finding a copy.