Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Into the Archive

 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo

Translations by J. R. R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, 2021)

One might wonder why I wanted another copy of this book since I had two editions already. The two editions I have:

Well, I’ve had them since at least middle school already. I wanted to get a new edition that was in conformity with what I call the Medieval Classics Edition. But most of all I found that it contained an extra bonus, Tolkien’s W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture on Sir Gawain.  This certainly justified a new copy, although upon further investigation I do have a copy of that under another title in Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics (and Other Essays). But it is tidy to have the Gawain materials together in one place.

Unfortunately, this copy of the book has a few strikes against it, which is almost certainly my fault for not paying close enough attention. It is a softcover; I was expecting a hardback. I knew it was a used book, but I did not expect the barcodes and identification marks all over it (ex-Denver Public Library). On the other hand, it was inexpensive and is perfectly readable. And that is important.

And so, into the Archive it goes. Just for interest’s sake, here are a few other editions that span the changing trends of Tolkien publishing since I got my Pauline Baynes’s cover way back in the days of innocency.