J.R.R. Tolkien's translation of "Beowulf," as well as a collection of his lectures from Oxford about the poem and a short story, will soon be published. J.R.R Tolkien's son Christopher is releasing the materials almost 90 years after J.R.R Tolkien translated "Beowulf."

In 1926, "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien translated the 11th-century epic "Beowulf," Salon reports. Almost 90 years later, his son Christopher Tolkien is releasing an edited version of the translation to the public, complete with a series of his father's lectures at Oxford about the poem and a short story, "Sellic Spell."

Christopher Tolkien told the Guardian that his father "seems never to have considered its publication."

Tolkien, who died in 1973, called the Old English myth "sombre, tragic, sinister, curiously real," the Guardian reports. He also called the story "laden with history, leading back into the dark heathen ages beyond the memory of song, but not beyond the reach of imagination."

Christopher Tolkien told the publication that he sees his father "enter[ing] into the imagined past" of the heroes in this translation of "Beowulf."

"Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary" is the most recent in a series of previously unpublished writing to be released by the Tolkien estate, which include his unfinished Middle-earth tale, "The Children of Húrin," published in 2007, and "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún," in 2009, Salon reports

Tolkien's translation of "Beowulf" will be published by HarperCollins on May 22.