Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo
1995 · book
Sir Gawain and the Green Knightand Pearlare two poems by an unknown author written in about 1400. Sir Gawainis 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. Pearlis apparently an elegy on the death of a child, a poem pervaded with a sense of great personal loss: but, like Gawainit is also a sophisticated and moving debate on much less tangible matters. Sir Orfeois 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.