Search -
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl and Sir Orfeo Author:J. R. R. Tolkien This book presents a collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Pearl" are two poems by an unknown author written in about 1400. — "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a roman... more »ce, a fairy-tale for adults, full of life and colour; but it is also much more than this, being at the same time a powerful moral tale which examines religious and social values.
"Pearl" is apparently an elegy on the death of a child, a poem pervaded with a sense of great personal loss: but, like "Gawain" it is also a sophisticated and moving debate on much less tangible matters.
"Sir Orfeo" is a slighter romance, belonging to an earlier and different tradition. It was a special favourite of Tolkien's.
The three translations represent the complete rhyme and alliterative schemes of the originals.« less