Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
- Publisher: Del Rey
- Edition: Paperback (December 1979)
- Average Customer Rating:
One of the best
- J.R.R. Tolkien is best known as a fantasy writer. But his lesser-known profession was that of an professor and linguist, working at Oxford for over three decade. These three translated poems are excellent examples of his non-Middle-Earth work.
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a relatively little-known Arthurian legend, in which the knight Sir Gawain must forfeit his life to a knight who allowed Gawain to behead him -- then picked up his head and rode out. "Pearl" is a beautifully written, though somewhat more difficult to read, poem that chronicles the death of a child (possibly allegorical). "Sir Orfeo" is a version of the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Tolkien's method for these works is unusually readable -- most translators sacrifice either readability or meaning; as far as I can tell, Tolkien sacrificed neither. "Sir Gawain" is probably the easiest translation I have come across; "Pearl" is haunting, laced with religious references, and very beautifully written; "Orfeo" is not so substantial as the first two, but still entertaining. It's a bit like a medieval ballad. This book is not so much for fans of Middle-Earth, as for fans of all Tolkien's works. Beautifully written, highly recommended.
A Masterpiece of Literature
- This book gets five stars because it contains "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" - not because Tolkien translated it (although that probably helps)
"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is one of the masterpieces of the English language, one of those books we are asked to read in school over and over again (I personally read in in 12th grade AP English, my freshman year Arthurian legends class and Introduction to British Lit. my sophomore year). At first it is hard to read and you wonder why it is a legend. Then I read it out loud, the words sounded better than they read. I also began looking into the mythology behind the story (why Troy is important in the first lines for instance). In the end, I have come to love this poem. To be honest, although I like this edition quite a bit, I haven't gotten around to reading the other two poems. I mean to though, any time now.
Pearl of Wisdom
- Gawain is the Tolekin translation of one of many versions of the story. The story is exciting but ultimately disappointing because of the incongruence of the ending with the opening. The opening indicates that King Arthur is all too aware of the false beheading trick being played in his court as he primes the action for the hapless Gawain. The ending indicates the Green Man alone instigated the trick with Morgan le Fay. The point missed by Tolkein (jnr) in the Introduction is that the brocade is the sole tangible due to the green man in the exchange of acquisitions, so a real dishonour. Anyway Camelot' s self advertised mythology is well and truly pricked.
Pearl, on the other hand is a true medaeval pagan gem, arguing that religion is the exploitation of bereavement. Religion claims the deceased for heaven; it offers reunion to the survivor conditional on temporal faith. If the departed is beloved of a survivor then that cat runs headlong into the priest' s bag with little prompting. The poet becomes so seduced by the vision of the New Jerusalem he comes to see his former reason as madness and so went the world.
The strength of Christian theology surely developed from these kinds of rational resistence. Ultimetely reason conquered and theology relapsed to a dogmatic statement of faith in the shape of pearl (Aquinas). A great and thoroughly authentic work of transitional pagan genius saved by Tolkein.
|
