Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

By: J. R. R. Tolkien

Narrated by: Terry Jones

Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

A collection of three medieval English poems, translated by Tolkien for the modern-day reader and containing romance, tragedy, love, sex and honour.

©1975 J.R.R. Tolkien Copyright Trust; (p)1997 HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, London, UK

Critic reviews

"The introduction to Gawain is a little masterpiece." (Times Higher Educational Supplement)
"This magnificent Arthurian tale of love, sex, honour, social tact, personal integrity and folk-magic is one of the greatest and most approachable narrative poems in the language. Tolkien's version makes it come triumphantly alive, a moving and consoling elegy." (Birmingham Post)

Contains bonus stories

The title of this audiobook would have you believe that it's entire contents are Sir Gowain and the Green Knight. Sir Gowain's story is here but there are also the Tolkien translations of two other medieval English works: Pearl and Sir Orpheo. Pearl is a poem that acts as a vessel for medieval Catholic theology, but also contains a rather colorful description of Heaven as a tiered city (not unlike Minas Tirith, but made out of different types of stone). Sir Orpheo is a medieval anglicization of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I found both additional works to be enjoyable, if unexpected.

Also, Terry Jones, of course, does a great job reading these works and their introductions.

Don't worry Arthur. I've got this. (Gawain)

What made the experience of listening to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the most enjoyable?

It was great listening to something of such an ancient date. I may have never listened to this before, but then I saw J.R.R. Tolkien and thought I could give it a try. It's a good story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?

The first appearance of the Green Knight.

What does Terry Jones bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I cannot say.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I did not. It's a great short story. I don't remember how old it is, but what a great way to get people interested in ancient stories by having a great and well known Author rewrite it.

Good performance.

The narrator did a good job of putting emotion into the verses. It was a little hard to follow, but I really enjoyed all three stories.

Epic British Poetry

excellent narration. great listen for lovers of ancient epic poetry, with inciteful explanations by a great scholar.

pretty cool Tolkien poems

I never heard many of these other tolkien works. I'm glad to hear them as they show his skill as a writer and a poet

Great reader

Not sure why some reviews are so unhappy with thr narrator, because he is an excellent reader (and pretty well known at that). This was a delight, introductions from Tolkien were really interesting and I got so much more out of hearing this than I did when I read on the page...poetry should be heard, and Tolkien did such a wonderful job of translating while being true to the sound and feel of medieval poetry. To the complaints on the chapter divisions, it's clearly a book on CD quickly changed over to digital, and the choice is probably between this and having no digital version at all, so I'll take it quite happily.

A lovely performance of these rare poems.

If you enjoy these poems, or are now learning about them, you are in for a treat. Terry Jones does a masterful and knowing job of narrating Tolkien's lucid translation.

Enjoyed Tolkien’s translation.

Those who enjoy J.R.R Tolkien’s fictional works, so full of magic, imagined history, and beautiful languages, will find pleasure too in reading through this example of Tolkien’s creativity at his “day job”: he was one of the finest philologists in the world. Timeless stories of adventure, gracious chivalry at its best, faith, loss, and love are translated from Middle English to modern tongue with wit, depth, and lyricism. I thoroughly enjoyed these three tales from medieval Britain.

An absolute delight!

I read Gawain in college in a different translation. I found revisiting the tale through Tolkien’s translation to be incredibly enjoyable. Pearl and Orfeo are two works that were previously unknown to me, and I am so glad they were included in this compilation. A real treasure! The alliterative verse is music to the ears. The performance of the reading of these three masterpieces is excellent!

Easy to Enjoy

I liked the narrator, the story, and Tolkien’s translation and commentary. I found the narrator’s way of speech endearing, not annoying like some are saying. All these folks writing 1 star reviews saying its boring or slow need to go watch a marvel movie or something with explosions every 10 seconds. This is obviously not their kind of content.