Sellic Spell

[bunn]

Tolkien Gateway says that the short story Sellic Spell is "re-creating the (lost) folk-tale underlying the Norse Hrólfs saga kraka" which was translated by one of Tolkien's students and over that translation, there seems to be some copyright dispute.

But my copy of Beowulf, A Translation and Commentary together with Sellic Spell says Sellic Spell is a retelling of Beowulf, and indeed, that's how I took it when I read it, because it seemed to be directly derived from the Beowulf story.

I get that both stories are operating in a similar sort of space, and I haven't read Hrólfs saga kraka in translation (or original!) but the Wikipedia entry for Hrólfs saga kraka doesn't sound very Beowulfy, whereas Sellic Spell does. And Christopher Tolkien says 'Beowulf' and Tolkien's note about it also says 'Beowulf'.

On the other hand, 'no, this really isn't a retelling of a source I've never read, you've got it wrong, I am the correct one!' is an order of correction of Tolkien Gateway that I don't normally undertake, as a very non-studious fanwriter who is simply in the process of stealing ideas from Sellic Spell to mung it up with The Hobbit.

Does anyone know any more about this? Why would TG think it was Hrólfs saga kraka ?

Comments

[anna_wing]

David Bratman is a very serious Tolkien scholar and is on DW as calimac, and I'm sure he'd have a view. Though he also for whatever reason hates fanfiction with a great and enduring hate.

I'd be curious too. When I read "Sellic Spell", I thought it was just a version of Beowulf too.

[bunn]

The reference that TG gives for the association is The History of the Hobbit, which I don't have. I'm hoping someone who has a copy can check the footnote and find out if it really does say that. Even if it does, you'd think the actual official publication of Sellic Spell by CT would probably trump it...

[lferion]

I do have a copy of The History of the Hobbit, and would be very happy to look it out for you. Will need to be after I finish work though.

[bunn]

(belatedly) thank you! Anerea & hhimring dug out the details for me via the SWG discord.

It looks like the idea that Bee-wolf was a feral child raised by bears is the part that derives from Hrólfs saga kraka - I assumed that bit was just suggested by the name, but it seems to be the important connecting factor.

[sally_maria]

Quotes from the first edition of the History of the Hobbit, I don't know if anything changed in later editions:

"The original story is lost, but elements of it can be glimpsed from works it influenced, including both Beowulf and Hrolf Kraki's Saga. Underlying both the epic poem and the saga according to some theories is a folk-tale about a feral child raised by bears, the Bear's-Son Story. Tolkien himself was greatly interested in these speculations, and actually re-created the lost folktale in an unpublished short story, "Sellic Spell"*."

*Footnote, which says Tolkien sold Sellic Spell for publication to Gwyn Jones, a friend who had translated Hrolf Kraki's Saga, but the magazine ceased publication before it was printed, and the manuscript is in the Bodleian.

He doesn't say where he got that it was a re-writing of the the lost story from, though it does sound like a Tolkienian thing to do.

[sally_maria]

Sorry, too many comments...

So I'm not sure why they're asserting it's just underlying the Hrolf Kraki's saga, rather than both it and Beowulf, which seems to be the natural assumption.

[bunn]

(belatedly) it does seem that TG has missed the Beowulf connection, which seems more obvious to me, but then I've actually read Sellic Spell, and not Hrolf Kragi.

Anerea dug out a further note from the History of the Hobbit, which may explain why they thought it was more to do with Hrolf Kragi, since Sellic Spell itself, with its obvious-to-the-reader Beowulfy links, wasn't yet published at the time when History of the Hobbit came out, so presumably they were working with notes *about* Sellic Spell, rather than the full text?

Anyway, I shall paste Anerea's quotes in here so I have them where I can find them again, and on the offchance you are interested :-D

"As so often, the figure of Medwed/Beorn marks one of those grounds where Tolkien’s scholarship and his storytelling for his children meet.
In this case, the flash-point is the story of Bothvar Bjarki. The lost Bjarkamál, a poem apparently similar to those preserved in the Elder Edda, told the story of a man who could at times assume the form of a bear. The original story is lost, but elements of it can be glimpsed from works it influenced, including both Beowulf and Hrolf Kraki’s Saga.
Underlying both the epic poem and the saga according to some theories is a folk-tale about a feral child raised by bears, the Bear’s-Son Story. Tolkien himself was greatly interested in these speculations, and actually re-created the lost folktale in an unpublished short story, ‘Sellic Spell’. Bothvar’s story is only part of the greater saga of King Hrolf and his champions, ...

And then in the notes to *History*:
Hrólfs Saga Kraka (Hrolf Kraki’s Saga) was written in the latter half of the fourteenth-century ... but the work survives only in seventeenth-century paper copies. The Bothvar Bjarki story derives from the lost Bjarkamál, which influenced not only Hrolf Kraki’s Saga but also the Bjarkarimur ... and Skjödunga Saga. [Both lost] ... And, of course, the Beowulf-poet ... knew either Bothvar’s story or (more likely) some analogue thereto.

further notes:
Hrolf Kraki, or ‘Rolf the Beanpole’, makes an appearance in Beowulf as Hrothulf, King Hrothgar’s nephew; ... Note that whereas in the English tradition as represented by Beowulf old King Hrothgar is remembered as the wise monarch overthrown by his treacherous nephew, in Danish tradition it is the nephew who overthrew the elderly tyrant and ushered in an all-too-brief golden age.

hhimring suggested that Sellic Spell is "neither a reconstruction of the lost ancestor of Beowulf nor the lost ancestor of lost Bjarkamál, but a bit of both, with some extra literary input. Like a hypothetical great-uncle"

Which, as a concept, I LOVE. A HYPOTHETICAL GREAT-UNCLE!

[sally_maria]

Thank you - I wasn't sure how much of the note would be useful, but it's good to have the whole thing.

A hypothetical great-uncle definitely sounds like a Tolkien thing to create.