The Translator’s “Ofermod”: Reconsidering Maldon’s “For His Ofermode” (89) in Translation through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth

Abstract

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth (1953) originated as his academic attempt to explain the meaning of Maldon’s “ofermod” and established a classic critical referent on Maldon. Notwithstanding, although critics have always revisited the meaning of “ofermod,” very few attempts have been made —or hardly any— to evaluate how translators of OE poetry have dealt with interpreting “ofermod” in The Battle of Maldon. The main aim of this article is to revise how such a task has been accomplished by the main English and Spanish translations of the The Battle of Maldon in the light of the interpretative difficulties of “ofermod” established by Tolkien and by the critical tradition that followed his seminal essay. As a conclusion, I will also try to argue that the only way of presenting The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth to the reading audience of any language is by offering them a joint edition/translation that includes both Tolkien’s text and The Battle of Maldon.