Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. Pearl and Sir Orfeo

THREE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH POEMS, TRANSLATED BY TOLKIEN FOR THE MODERN-DAY READER It's Christmas at Camelot and Arthur won't begin to feast until he has witnessed a marvel of chivalry. A mysterious knight, green from head to toe, rides in and brings the court's wait to an end with an implausible challenge to the Round Table: he will allow any of the knights to strike him once, with a battle-axe no less, on the condition that he is allowed to return the blow a year hence. Arthur's brave favourite for the challenge is Sir Gawain... Accompanying Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in this book are Sir Orfeo, a medieval version of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, a love so strong that it overcame death, and Pearl, the moving tale of a man in a graveyard mourning his baby daughter, lost like a pearl that slipped through his fingers. Worn out by grief, he falls asleep and dreams of meeting her in a bejewelled fantasy world. J.R.R. Tolkien's vivid translations of these classic poems are enriched in this new edition with the complete text of his acclaimed 1953 lecture on Sir Gawain.