Sellic Spell: una fiaba bilingue di J.R.R. Tolkien

As a result of his life-long interest in the poem Beowulf and its plot, in the early ‘40s Tolkien wrote a fairy-tale (published in 2014) entitled Sellic Spell “A wondrous tale”. Here, he wanted to tell the true story behind the first part of Beowulf which is centred on the character of a bear-boy raised in the forest. On joining the society of men, the boy spends an unpromising youth mostly on his own, to then grow incredibly strong, gain confidence, defy monstruous adversaries, become wise and finally marry the king’s daughter, living with her happily ever after. The aim of this paper is to offer a close examination of a second version of Sellic Spell Tolkien wrote in Old English, but which he left unfinished after completing one third of the story. In particular, we investigate the reasons behind Tolkien’s decision to write a bilingual fairy-tale and the method he adopted; it is likely that he began composing the ‘asterisk story’ in Old English first (as he himself declared in writing), trusting that an immersion in the ancient language would then help him find the right mode of expression also for the modern version. A second point we raise is that the Old English text is very carefully wrought and reveals a deep and sympathetic knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon language, based on Tolkien’s wide readings and excellent memory: he borrows words and phrases from a variety of texts (poetry, prose, glossaries) but also reshapes some material with a firm hand and a strong sense of the language’s evolution, creating forms which are likely, though not attested. As an Appendix, the first translation of Sellic Spell is offered, together with the original text.