English M.A. Alum Publishes Translation of Old English Poem With Tolkien Fans in Mind
The cover of ‘The Wanderer,’ left, and Bethany Cole with her dog Baer.
The Wanderer: A New Translation for Middle Earth Readers, written by English M.A. alum Bethany Cole, was released by Barnes and Noble Press this fall.
The final publication of the book was several years in the making.
When Cole was an undergraduate student, she took a course focused on the literature that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing of The Lord of the Rings. Class members were assigned to read Norse mythology and Arthurian legends, as well as the Old English poem The Wanderer.
“As someone who is deeply in love with Tolkien’s mythology, my imagination was blown wide open seeing where these beloved characters and ideas came from,” Cole said.
After starting her English M.A. program at the U of A in 2020, Cole had the chance to re-read The Wanderer in a course taught by associate professor Josh Smith. This time, though, class members did not start off by reading translations of the poem; instead, they were first encouraged to read and translate The Wanderer on their own, from the original Old English.
After Cole did so, she compared her translation to previously published ones, like those by Peter Baker and by Aaron K. Hostetter. She found that she was often dissatisfied with the plain translation style used by others.
“My favorite part of studying languages is seeing the richness unique to each one — how it conveys meaning between the lines, how the words elude direct translation because of their nuance, etc.,” Cole said. “Much of the rich meaning that we unearthed in [Dr. Smith’s] class wasn’t carried over into the modern translations.”
Tolkien, on the other hand, “had captured quite a lot of the ethos of the poem in some of his characters and plot threads.”
As a result, Cole decided to write her own translation of The Wanderer, one that would pay homage to Tolkien by using his language and themes “to bring out more of the beauty of the Old English.”
An example is the Old English word “earth-stepper,” the translation of which is often debated but is typically translated as “the wanderer.”
“Tolkien’s Aragorn character — who was called a ranger in the books — maps onto the wandering figure of the poem surprisingly well,” Cole explained. “In my translation, I chose to translate ‘earth-stepper’ as ‘ranger’ so that Tolkien fans would immediately associate the characteristics of Aragorn with the figure in the poem, instantly giving them a better understanding of the nuances contained in the original Old English.”
When asked what her favorite translated passage is, Cole replied, “That’s a difficult question to answer! But I think it would have to be two lines that are extremely cryptic in the Old English, and translating them in grammatically correct modern English is quite a challenge. When translated literally, they read ‘not at all brandished gold, / not at all earth’s glory.’ Since the meaning of these lines is enigmatic in the original and likely metaphorical, I chose to render them similarly to the poem that Tolkien wrote for Aragorn, who was a crown-less king without glory at the beginning of the novel: “For not all that is brandished is golden, / not all of the earth are its glory.”
Cole not only translated The Wanderer; she also illustrated her text with beautiful watercolor paintings.
Though never having illustrated a book before, Cole found it to be a natural next step. When she was young, she wrote and illustrated her own comic strips (for the entertainment of her siblings). In addition, Cole has always loved art and has continued to teach herself new mediums.
“Watercolor is the newest of my artistic pursuits,” she noted, “and I find it to be an incredibly relaxing art form. It has an otherworldly quality to it.”
Cole knew that watercolor was the perfect medium for her to use to illustrate The Wanderer.
Asked how she chose certain passages of the poem to illustrate, Cole responded that she let the text itself along with her artistic and interpretive instincts guide her: “I am a landscape painter primarily, and the poem would stir up images of landscapes in my imagination. If I felt that an idea in my mind would be a good representative of the essence of a particular passage, I would paint it for the book.”
It was not always easy to choose which illustrations she ultimately wanted to include. Difficult, too, was the process of preparing the book for printing, which Cole was able to accomplish after graduating with her M.A. in spring of this year.
“I went the self-publishing route and had to do most everything myself,” Cole said. “If I do a project like this in the future, I would like to (hopefully) find a publisher who will help take care of the more technical side of things!”
However, the process was rewarding for Cole, as well, especially when she was able to hold a printed copy of her text for the first time. “It was a surreal experience to see all of that work come together into a finished book!” she said.
Also rewarding was simply the act of translating, providing Cole with “an even deeper appreciation for not only Old English poetry, but also Tolkien’s creative genius.”
Now that Cole has completed her translation of The Wanderer, she is beginning to plan her next project, which will be somewhat similar to this one.
“One of my other favorite poems from Old English was The Husband’s Message, and I would love to create a book for that poem as well!” she said. “Some of that poem was lost due to the original manuscript being burned, which leaves room for the imagination to fill in the gaps. I think it would be a fun companion to my copy of The Wanderer!”