The fifth installment in a series of hard-hitting collections honoring the literary work of Christopher Tolkien, includes double-sided covers. This case contains the works "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," "The Legendary Story of Sigurd and Gudrun," "The Fall of Arthur," and "Beowulf: Translation and Commentary."

"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Pearl" are two poems by an unknown author written around 1400. "Sir Gawain" is a romantic tale, an adult fairy tale, full of life and color, while "Pearl" appears as an elegy for the death of a child, but like Gawain, it is also a complex and poignant discussion of less tangible matters. "Sir Orfeo" is a weaker romantic tale, belonging to an older and different tradition, and was a particular favorite of Tolkien. The three translations are uniquely accompanied by the complete text of Tolkien's lecture in 1953 in honor of W.P. Ker, which presented on "Sir Gawain."

"The Legendary Story of Sigurd and Gudrun" tells the epic tale of the Scandinavian hero Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, in an age of gods, betrayal, and fierce battles, the revenge of his wife Gudrun, and the Fall of the Nibelungen. Told in verse derived from the ancient poetry of the Poetic Edda and the prose of the Völsunga Saga, this masterful composition of myth and poetry is accompanied by notes and comments from Christopher Tolkien.

"The Fall of Arthur" narrates the extraordinary story of the final days of the legendary hero of England, King Arthur. It is Tolkien's unique version of the Arthurian legends and can be considered his best and most skillful achievement in the use of Old English meter. The long narrative poem is accompanied by significant notes that reveal mysterious connections to the Arthurian finale and the "Silmarillion."

The translation of "Beowulf" by J.R.R. Tolkien was completed in 1926: he returned to it later but it appears that he never considered its publication. This edition is double, as the translation is accompanied by a illuminating written commentary on the poem by the translator himself, prepared for a series of lectures at Oxford in the 1930s. From these lectures emerges a sense of immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if Tolkien enters into the fantastical past: he stands beside Beowulf and his men as they shake their armored shirts upon disembarking in Denmark, hearing Beowulf's growing anger at Unferth's challenges, or gazing in awe at the terrifying hand of Grendel placed under the roof of Heorot.

Accompanied by "Sellic Spell," a "wonderful story" written by Tolkien, suggesting that it is the form and style of an old English folk tale from Beowulf, in which there was no connection to the "historical legends" of the Nordic kingdoms.

Published for the first time together, these four books – all edited by the author's son and executor of his estate – gather an exciting period of Christopher Tolkien's forty-year career, dedicated to presenting his father J.R.R. Tolkien's academic writings on the myths and legends of Northern Europe, a unique achievement that honors the wisdom and literary genius of one of the foremost literary pioneers of the 20th century.

Pages: 1328, Dimensions: 14.9x14.9cm