RE: VIRGIL: teaching Aeneid in translation

[David Wilson-Okamura]

At 01:28 AM 1/5/2004 +0000, Vincentius Crupi wrote:
>>>>
Sin autem in Scholis secundariis seu superioribus (quas vos Angli - nisi fallor - 'High Schools vocatis') minima sunt pericula, praesertim si Vergilius legitur cum Homero – ut dicis. Sed sane Vergilius cum Tolkien ridiculum mihi videtur. At discipuli tui legunt Robert Graves? Absit iniuria verbis meis. Nescio utrum philologorum opus an totius humanae scientiae tibi proposuisti aut proposuit tibi structura Americanorum cuccirulorum studiorum.
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I teach and write at a large public university in eastern North Carolina (not to be confused, I am afraid, with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is a much better school). As for Tolkien and Virgil, I do not take offense at your words. My courses are usually offered in the English department. This content of this particular course is defined very loosely. I have chosen books that (a) are worth teaching and (b) cohere together as a group. We think of Tolkien as a scholar of Old English, but the man also knew his classics. This is clear from his lectures and letters. But it also comes out in his fiction. Have you ever noticed, for instance, that there are no birds in the Dead Marshes? The point is made two or three times in the text, even though it has no bearing on the plot. Why? Because Frodo and Sam are on their way to Mordor, and Tolkien wants us to think of the underworld. Cf. Aen. 6.237ff:

spelunca alta fuit uastoque immanis hiatu,
scrupea, tuta lacu nigro nemorumque tenebris,
quam super haud ullae poterant impune uolantes
tendere iter pennis: talis sese halitus atris
faucibus effundens supera ad conuexa ferebat.
[unde locum Grai dixerunt nomine Aornum.]

"A false lie," as the King would say, but an interesting one all the same! Tolkien would have approved. As an inventor of languages, he "knew" what the words meant and where they came from. But he also invented corruptions. A simple example is the river Brandywine. Originally, it was called the Baranduin, a word that means, in the high Elvish tongue, "brown river." But the Elves left and the place was settled by hobbits. Bibulous folk and ignorant, they heard a word that sounded like brandy-wine. Which is wrong, but still a good name for a river.





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David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED]
East Carolina University Virgil reception, discussion, documents, &c
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