Tolkien and Homer

Wed, 21 May 2008 06:19:51 GMT from Sean_Q_ <nospam DeleteThis @no.sapm>:
> The Iliad and the Odyssey have been famous epics for over 2500 years.
> And yet they're nowhere near as readable as Tolkien.
>
> "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit." No problem; even
> a toddler could relate to that and get interested.
>
> It's a lot more work trying to read Homer.

Well, /The Hobbit/ was written for children, and Homer wasn't.

Beyond that, Homer wasn't *written* -- it was meant to be spoken (or
maybe sung or chanted). Narrative poetry is much harder to read on
paper than to listen to -- look at Shakespeare's plays.

> For instance here are
> the opening lines of the Odyssey:
>
> Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who traveled far and wide
> after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,
> and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was
> acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save
> his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might
> he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer
> folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god
> prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these
> things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them.

That's a translation, of course, and a prose one to boot. It doesn't
seem all that hard to read.

> Now why couldn't Homer have started out by writing, "In a leaky old boat
> there sat a king."

I don't see a smiley there, but perhaps you are overlooking the
opening of /The Silmarillion/:

"There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made
first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his
thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he
spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang
before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each
alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each
comprehended only that part of me mind of Ilúvatar from which he
came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but
slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding,
and increased in unison and harmony."

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On May 21, 2:19 am, Sean_Q_ <nos... RemoveThis @no.sapm> wrote:
> The Iliad and the Odyssey have been famous epics for over 2500 years.
> And yet they're nowhere near as readable as Tolkien.

> Now why couldn't Homer have started out by writing, "In a leaky old boat
> there sat a king."

A quick Amazon.com search returns 11,644 results for "Homer Odyssey".
I can't say how many different translations that would represent, but
I /am/ sure that it includes everything from scholarly glosses on the
text to children's books. In fact, there are 332 results returned
within the category "children's books" alone! The Wishbone Classics
version begins (after a slight framing bit about a lost cat)

Queen Penelope sat weeping in her chamber. Twenty
years ago, her husband, King Odysseus, had gone away
to war, and he hadn't yet returned.

Not quite up to JRRT, but it does at least lack the archaisms in your
own quote...

Jim Deutch (JimboCat)
--
"Google: Replacing Your Brain Since 1998." -- Michael Ash
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