Sir Gawain and the green knight ; Pearl and, ; Sir Orfeo

by J. R. R. Tolkien (Translator)

Other authorsChristopher Tolkien (Editor)
Paperback, 1995

Publication

Imprint: London : HarperCollinsPublishers, 1995. Responsibility: Translated from the Middle English by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. OCLC Number: 34035303. Physical: Text : 1 volume : vii, 158 pages ; 20 cm. Features: Includes appendix, glossary.

Call number

Epic / Arthurian / Gawain

Barcode

BK-08243

ISBN

9780261102590

Original publication date

ca. 1360 - 1400 (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight & Pearl)
ca. 1330 (Sir Orfeo)
1975 (English: J.R.R. Tolkien)

CSS Library Notes

Description: Interpreted in a form designed to appeal to the general reader, J.R.R. Tolkien's vivid translations of these classic poems represent the complete rhyme and alliterative schemes of the originals. -- from back cover

Table of Contents: Preface
Introduction
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Pearl (Middle English poem)
Sir Orfeo (Middle English poem)
Glossary, appendix, Gawain's leave-taking

FY2020 /

Physical description

vii, 158 p.; 20 cm

Description

This elegant deluxe slipcased edition of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour, features a beautifully decorated text and includes as a bonus the complete text of Tolkien's acclaimed lecture on Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl are two poems by an unknown author written in about 1400. Sir Gawain is a romance, 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, and are uniquely accompanied in this special deluxe slipcased edition with the complete text of Tolkien's acclaimed 1953 W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture that he delivered on Sir Gawain.… (more)

Language

Original language

English (Middle)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jburlinson
Certainly well worth the expense to have 3 medieval classics in one volume. Tolkien's translations are far more than adequate, although his Sir Gawain is not, to my mind, as effective as Marie Boroff's, which appears in the Norton Anthology, beloved of college sophomores everywhere. The
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alliteration is a little to insistent and the meter is a little to regular for my taste. But that's coming from a person totally unqualified to make such judgments with any degree of credibility. I am amused, a little, by Tolkien's habit of introducing allusions to LOTR into his translation. Just one example: early in the poem, we find the line "Such a fole vpon folde, ne freke þat hym rydes." "Tolkien gives us "Such a mount on middle-earth, or rman to ride him." "Folde" means, simply, "earth" or "the world". By saying "middle"-earth, Tolkien certainly adds another "m" to the alliteration, but, of course, also sets the poem directly in a terrain somewhere between the Shire and the land of the elves.
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LibraryThing member klai
Quite good translations of difficult medieval poetic metres and rhyme schemes. I wholly enjoyed Gawain, found Pearl a bit tedious (probably due to topic rather than language), and liked Sir Orfeo well enough. Would have preferred glosses to be provided at the foot of the page rather than at the
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back, but that's a minor quibble.
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LibraryThing member aethilwald
I wish I could assign this book to my students, because Tolkien's attempt to replicate the complex metrical forms of _Sir Gawain_ and _Pearl_ is extremely impressive. But the cover is a grotesque embarrassment...
LibraryThing member cdddddd
Sir Gawain is a weird story, but Sir Orfeo is a cool story (the Middle English version of the myth of Orpheus), and Pearl is really good too.
LibraryThing member DarthDeverell
Though by Tolkien, this book is largely academic, and is the Professor's translation of three middle English poems from the west of Britain around the same time that Chaucer wrote. Chaucer used the dialect of London and the elite and so was better remembered. The author of the three poems used a
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different dialect that was subsumed by Chaucer's dialect. The translations are eminently readable and readers can easily see these poems' influence on Tolkien's later work.
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LibraryThing member nebula21
The first two poems in this book are by an unknown author written around 1400.I liked Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The translation had a great narrative and the quality of the original poetry was clear. I found Pearl incomprehensible in places and was put off by the amount of religious dialogue
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and dogma.Sir Orfeo is an earlier poem but like Sir Gawain it has a clear and compelling narrative.The rhyming nature of the poem is quite charming,as is the fairytale theme.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
This slim volume, put together by Christopher Tolkien, collects three translations done by J.R.R. of 14th-century British poems, together with writings by Tolkien Sr. on the poetry.

'Gawain and the Green Knight' is the classic, and not surprisingly, the best. Originally written in an alliterative
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style, Tolkien reflects that style in his translation, but the verse-form is such that it is not distracting to the story - it's very readable.
The story is, of course, that of one of Arthur's knights who agrees to a (rather foolish contest) with a strange, fey knight of mysterious powers. Bound by his word to seek out the knight (and, undoubtedly, his own death) the next year, he wanders in search of the knight and his appointed meeting - but encounters the hospitality of a merry lord and his all-too-seductive wife....

'Pearl' didn't do it for me, I have to admit. The narrator encounters the ghost of his dead daughter, who tells him, at great length, about how the dead are with god and the living have to accept it, blah blah blah religious dogma blah blah.

'Sir Orfeo,' however, is a very interesting poem, especially considering how old it is. It's a very intentional 'updating' of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, making the characters a British lady, and her lord, who seeks her when she has been taken under the hill by Faerie. Pretty cool that we can see that in the 14th century, people were adapting stories to their own mythologies (as they've always done, of course)
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LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
I'm mostly here for Sir Gawain; Pearl is very much medieval theology, and thus interesting primarily for academic reasons, and Sir Orfeo is an interesting retelling of Orpheus set in England with faeries but of that style of poetry that's liable to put you to sleep if you don't pay close attention.
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The Sir Gawain, however, is fantastic, and if you can parse the deep language of academia, the translation notes are rather enlightening on medieval English styles of poetry.
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LibraryThing member donpickles
This poem was written about 1400 and provides an insight into the medieval mind. It contains three accounts of hunts and one can appreciate the excitement of the participants. At the end of the hunt the deer/boar is butchered and one feels the importance of meat to the people in those days; animals
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were slaughtered at the beginning of winter and the meat salted. For most of the year one would be lucky to be eating salted meat. A fresh juicy steak with plenty of fat would have been really mouth watering.

The poem also contains accounts of the knight being robed and having his armour put on. One can appreciate how important a knight's appearance was. The clothes and armour would represent more money than an ordinary person could earn in a lifetime.

A marvellous poem.
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LibraryThing member scottjpearson
The Oxford don J.R.R. Tolkien is mostly known for composing the Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, before this trilogy, he built his academic career as an acclaimed expert on Anglo-Saxon culture, language, and literature. In his work, he translates three works from the Middle English into modern
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idiom. The quality of the translation demonstrates the vastness of Tolkien’s literary brilliance.

Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales are the two most-read works from the Old English and Middle English tongues. As suggested by Tolkien, these three tales deserve to have a prominent place in this literary canon as well. As with Beowulf, their original author or authors is/are unknown. They were probably passed down orally (think stories by the fire at night) before being inscribed at some point. Nonetheless, they share interesting tales that illustrate the quality of life during medieval England and represent an early triumph of the expanding English tongue.

Sir Gawain makes great use of alliteration in Tolkien’s translation. Many lines repeat words starting with one letter. In addition, this work encodes a story of love, honor, duty, and courage. It describes a sacred quest by a knight from King Arthur’s time. Humanistic qualities in addition to literary quality place it among the great works of Old and Middle English.

Pearl describes holy beauty, symbolized by a pearl and a child, in the midst of a profane, ugly world. It is marked by a complex rhyming structure. Indeed, this lyrical frame probably aided in memorization at some point in history. This poem contains much Christian theology and deals with quintessentially medieval, Augustinian views on God and life.

Sir Orfeo is a comparatively short poem, also rhymed, of a king’s quest for redemption and inner nobility. It lauds a servant – a medieval everyman – who dutifully honors his lord and is rewarded in the end.

These translations are entertaining and masterful. They contain words that are not common to American usage – words like “gramercy” and “bayed.” Diction like these expands our imagination into medieval Britain and the language of Middle English. Through this translation, we see Tolkien’s scholarly mastery of the ancient Anglo-Saxon world and are enriched by its gifts.
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LibraryThing member sarahlh
Sir Gawain's story was pretty interesting, as was Sir Orfeo's. Pearl was just . . . boring. And long.

Rating

½ (354 ratings; 3.9)
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