TOLKIEN IN PROSEFrom J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1926 prose translation of “Beowulf,” to be published this week:

Time passed on. Afloat upon the waves was the boat beneath the cliffs. Eagerly the warriors mounted the prow, and the streaming seas swirled upon the sand. Men-at-arms bore to the bosom of the ship their bright harness, their cunning gear of war; they then, men on a glad voyage, thrust her forth with her well-joined timbers.

TOLKIEN IN VERSEFrom Tolkien’s alliterative verse translation of part of “Beowulf” (originally published in 1940):

Time passed away. On the tide floated

under bank their boat. In her bows mounted

brave men blithely. Breakers turning

spurned the shingle. Splendid armour

they bore aboard, in her bosom piling

well-forged weapons, then away thrust her

to voyage gladly valiant-timbered.

(First and second excerpts) Copyright © 2014 by The Tolkien Trust. With permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

HEANEY IN VERSEFrom “Beowulf: A New Verse Translation” by Seamus Heaney (2000):

Time went by, the boat was on water,

in close under the cliffs.

Men climbed eagerly up the gangplank,

sand churned in surf, warriors loaded

a cargo of weapons, shining war-gear

in the vessel’s hold, then heaved out,

away with a will in their wood-wreathed ship.

Copyright © 2000 by Seamus Heaney. With permission of W. W. Norton & Company.