The researchers believe the document was probably translated by Tolkien in either 1955 or 1956.
The typescript was accompanied by a 1985 note from Tolkien’s late son, Christopher, which referred to the translation being found by Alan Bliss, Tolkien’s former student, in 1983. They add that Tolkien wrote unpublished notes on the text and dated the original to around 1210.
They describe Sawles Warde as “an allegory in which the body – stronghold of the immortal soul and under the attack of vices governed by the Devil – is represented as a house”, writing that “various roles in the household are allegorical representations: the master is Reason, the mistress Will”.
They add: “Tolkien has rendered the text quite literally into fluent modern English of a slightly archaic variety. He freely uses the pronoun thou…
“He does not attempt to recreate the rich alliterative patterns of the original text, so that a line such as ‘wununge of wanunge, of grure ant of granunge, heatel ham ond heard wan of alle wontreaðes’… becomes ‘dwelling of lamentation, of terror and of groans, hateful home and cruel abode of all afflictions’.”