Pearl and Sir Orfeo

by J.R.R. Tolkien (Translator), Terry Jones (Narrator)

This 14th-century poem, translated into modern English here by J.R.R. Tolkien, tells the story of a man who goes into a graveyard to mourn the death of his baby daughter, who he has lost like a pearl in the grass. Falling asleep, he dreams of the glorious new world she has entered.

Genres: Poetry, Fantasy, Medieval, Fiction, Classics

2 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien’s most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium’ that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children’s stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.

Reviews

[Cori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pearl and Sir Orfeo are two separate poems translated by J.R.R. Tolkien from old texts. I SO appreciate all the work he put into preserving these, but I can honestly say they missed the mark for me. Which I can also say without any guilt of feeling I have betrayed my favorite author, because they aren't his original work.

They were hard to listen through. I may have enjoyed reading them more as opposed to listening to them; my mind wandered constantly.

I'd rate these a PG.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were both beautiful poems of love and loss and then reuniting. The olde English text was a little difficult to read at times, but as it went on I got into the groove of the writing. Pearl especially was a beautiful illustration of losing a daughter and then a vision of seeing her in heaven. So wonderful.

[klau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sir Orpheo -> find yourself a man who would leave his throne and go into exile in the woods just because he can't live without you, 3,5/5 (didn't like the end)

Pearl -> pretty quotes but waaay too confusing :( 2/5

(english literature class reads)

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

God-tier translating from the master himself. We love a king who keeps the original poetic form and meter while also retaining the entire meaning of the original poems!!!!

[John Damon Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the greatest short works of Christian literature I've ever encountered.

Pearl is a magnificent piece of theological poetry that seriously impacted how I view the Christian Life and our relationship with the communion of saints gone by. Presumably written by a grieving father, a pilgrim-like character converses with his daughter who has passed away and receives a glimpse of heaven as well as an answer to his grief. I was struck by the timelessness of both the author's struggles and of Christian hope.

Sir Orfeo, on the other hand, should serve as an excellent example of what Christianity can do for culture. It takes the poignancy of the Orpheus myth and transforms it into something pure.

(As a side note: I read this in an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. However when I read the green knight a couple years back, I skipped these two short stories much to my shame)

[Flannery · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed both thoroughly, but not quite enough for five stars. Think of the Pearl like Paradiso lite (super lite), and Sir Orfeo like Hermes did something weird with time so that Hadestown was in the middle ages for one of the rewinds and it DID work out this time

[Forked Radish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating is for Sir Orfeo only.

[Gr1972 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 out of 5

[Aggie-Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful flowery language. But not a favorite

[Joanne van der Vlies]

"For I dare say with firm conviction, had a man endured that favour, even if all physicians were to have him in their care, his life would be lost under the moon."

[Laurel Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful reading of Tolkien's translations of two anonymous Middle English books.

[Chris J. Knudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful

A timeless tale of a grieving father.

[Onur · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the place of Tolkien's translation of "Pearl" only.