This smart new paperback edition contains the full text of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and featuring themes of romance, tragedy, love, sex, and honor. It includes a beautifully decorated text and a bonus: the complete version of Tolkien's acclaimed lecture on Sir Gawain.

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Pearl" are two poems by an unknown author written around 1400. "Sir Gawain" is a romance, a fairy tale for adults, full of life and color; but it is also much more than this, serving as a powerful moral tale that examines religious and social values.

"Pearl" is apparently an elegy on the death of a child, a poem filled with a sense of great personal loss; however, like "Gawain," it is also a sophisticated and moving debate on less tangible matters.

"Sir Orfeo" is a shorter romance, belonging to an earlier and different tradition. It was a special favorite of Tolkien's.

The three translations represent the complete rhyme and alliterative schemes of the originals and are uniquely accompanied by the complete text of Tolkien's acclaimed 1953 W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture on "Sir Gawain.".