Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: With Pearl and Sir Orfeo. Джон Руэл Толкиен
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father is at last convinced that his Pearl, as a baptized infant and innocent, is undoubtedly saved, and, even more, admitted to the blessed company of the 144,000 that follow the Lamb. But the doctrinal theme is, in fact, inseparable from the literary form of the poem and its occasion; for it arises directly from the grief, which imparts deep feeling and urgency to the whole discussion. Without the elegiac basis and the sense of great personal loss which pervades it, Pearl would indeed be the mere theological treatise on a special point, which some critics have called it. But without the theological debate the grief would never have risen above the ground. Dramatically the debate represents a long process of thought and mental struggle, an experience as real as the first blind grief of bereavement. In his first mood, even if he had been granted a vision of the blessed in Heaven, the dreamer would have received it incredulously or rebelliously. And he would have awakened by the mound again, not in the gentle and serene resignation of the last stanza, but still as he is first seen, looking only backward, his mind filled with the horror of decay, wringing his hands, while his wreched wylle in wo ay wrazte.
IV
Sir Orfeo
Sir Orfeo is found in three manuscripts, of which the earliest gives very much the best text; this is the Auchinleck manuscript, a large miscellany made about 1330, probably in London, and now in the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh. The other manuscripts, both of the fifteenth century, offer very decrepit versions of the poem; but the Auchinleck text has also suffered from the corruptions of error and forgetfulness, if much less so than the others. The translation follows the Auchinleck text (with some emendations), except at the beginning, where a leaf is lost from the manuscript. Auchinleck begins with Orfeo was a king (line 25 of the translation); but the manuscript Harley 3810 precedes this with the 24-line prologue which is here translated. This prologue appears also in a very corrupt state in the third manuscript, Ashmole 61; and, remarkably, also elsewhere in the Auchinleck manuscript, as the prologue of another poem, Lay le Freyne, which has been thought to be the work of the same author. In addition, lines 33-46 in the translation are introduced from the Harley manuscript; they are agreed to be genuine lines of the original. It is agreed that the references to England (line 26) and to Winchester (lines 49–50, and line 478), which are peculiar to the Auchinleck version, are not authentic.
It cannot be said where or when Sir Orfeo was composed with any more precision than probably in the south-east of England in the latter part of the thirteenth century, or early in the fourteenth; and it seems at any rate more probable than not that it was translated from a French original.
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Editions
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, Oxford 1925. This has been extensively revised in a second edition by Norman Davis, Oxford 1967.
Pearl, edited by E. V. Gordon, Oxford 1953.
Sir Orfeo, edited by A. J. Bliss, second edition Oxford 1966. This edition contains all three texts of the poem, and a discussion of the origins of this treatment of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.
The Auchinleck text, with the same insertions as are made in the translation, is given in Fourteenth Century Verse and Prose, edited by Kenneth Sisam, with a glossary by J. R. R. Tolkien (Oxford University Press).
VI
Note on the text of the translations
The details of presentation (most notably, the absence of line numbers in Sir Gawain and Pearl, and the use of inverted commas in interior quotations in Pearl) are in accordance with my father’s wishes.
Line 4 in stanza 42, and line 18 in stanza 98, of the translation of Sir Gawain are not in the original. They were introduced into the translation on the assumption that at these points lines had been lost from the original poem, and they are based on suggestions by Sir Israel Gollancz (edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Early English Text Society, 1940).
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
I
WHEN the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy, and the fortress fell in flame to firebrands and ashes, the traitor who the contrivance of treason there fashioned was tried for his treachery, the most true upon earth – it was Æneas the noble and his renowned kindred who then laid under them lands, and lords became of well-nigh all the wealth in the Western Isles. When royal Romulus to Rome his road had taken, in great pomp and pride he peopled it first, and named it with his own name that yet now it bears; Tirius went to Tuscany and towns founded, Langaberde in Lombardy uplifted halls, and far over the French flood Felix Brutus on many a broad bank and brae Britain
established full fair,
where strange things, strife and sadness,
at whiles in the land did fare, and each other grief and gladness oft fast have followed there.
2 And when fair Britain was founded by this famous lord,
bold men were bred there who in battle rejoiced, and many a time that betid they troubles aroused. In this domain more marvels have by men been seen than in any other that I know of since that olden time; but of all that here abode in Britain as kings ever was Arthur most honoured, as I have heard men tell. Wherefore a marvel among men I mean to recall, a sight strange to see some men have held it, one of the wildest adventures of the wonders of Arthur. If you will listen to this lay but a little while now, I will tell it at once as in town I have heard
it told,
as it is fixed and fettered
in story brave and bold,
thus linked and truly lettered,
as was loved in this land of old.
3 This king lay at Camelot at Christmas-tide
with many a lovely lord, lieges most noble, indeed of the Table Round all those tried brethren, amid merriment unmatched and mirth without care. There tourneyed many a time the trusty knights, and jousted full joyously these gentle lords; then to the court they came at carols to play. For there the feast was unfailing full fifteen days, with all meats and all mirth that men could devise, such gladness and gaiety as was glorious to hear, din of voices by day, and dancing by night; all happiness at the highest in halls and in bowers had the lords and the ladies, such as they loved most dearly. With all the bliss of this world they abode together, the knights most renowned after the name of Christ, and the ladies most lovely that ever life enjoyed, and he, king most courteous, who that court possessed. For all that folk so fair did in their first estate abide,
Under heaven the first in fame,
their king most high in pride;
it would now be hard to name
a troop in war so tried.
4 While New Year was yet young that yestereve had arrived,
that day double dainties on the dais were served, when the king was there come with his courtiers to the hall, and the chanting of the choir in the chapel had ended. With loud clamour and cries both clerks and laymen Noel announced anew, and named it full often; then nobles ran anon with New Year gifts, Handsels, handsels they shouted, and handed them out, Competed for those presents in playful debate; ladies laughed loudly, though they lost the game, and he that won was not woeful, as may well be believed. All this merriment they made, till their meat was served; then they washed, and mannerly went to their seats, ever the highest for the worthiest, as was held to be best. Queen Guinevere the gay was with grace in the midst of the adorned dais set. Dearly was it arrayed: finest sendal at her sides, a ceiling above her of true tissue of Tolouse, and tapestries of Tharsia that were embroidered and bound with the brightest gems one might prove and appraise to purchase for coin any day.
That loveliest lady there
on them glanced with eyes of grey;
that he found ever one more fair