Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo by J.R.R. Tolkien

'Pearl' tells the story of a man who goes into a graveyard to mourn the death of his baby daughter, whom he has lost like a pearl that slipped through his fingers into the grass. Worn out by his grief, he falls asleep and has a glorious vision of another, symbolically bejewelled, world, in which he meets his daughter again and discovers what has happened to her. In 'Sir Orfeo', a minstrel retells, this time with an English setting, the age-old story of the love of Orpheus for Eurydice, a love so strong that it overcame death. J R R Tolkien's translations of these 14th century poems bring them to life with the vividness that is the hallmark of 'The Lord of the Rings.'
 
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