h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tolkien wrote more than Middle Earth ya know.

Posted Oct 26, 1999

At the bookstore today, I just picked up a copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as translated by the great JRR Tolkien himself. I'd heard mention of this before, but never bothered to track it down. Being the English Major that I am, I studied SG&tGK this semester for a class. The translation, by Marie Borrof, was good, easy to read, and fairly easy to understand. About normal for Lit. History classes. However, reading Tolkien's version is much more enjoyable. The tale is the same, but the language is different. This is a man who more fully understood the mind of the medieval writer, and could offer a better translation. (Note for the uninitiated: SG&tGK was written in Middle English around the 13th century. The language is somewhat understandable, if you fight with it, but not at all what we're used to. (And you thought Shakespeare was hard) Anyway.) If you ever get the urge to read the poem, (and I'd suggest getting that urge.) find Tolkien's version and read it. It really is better. While I'm blabbering on, why is it that few (if any) professors or teachers of English will even acknowledge the existence of Lord of the Rings? It has rich langauge, good plot structure, and many of the things that are supposed to define 'classic' literature. Maybe things are different in England where Tolkien originated, but in America, he's rarely mentioned. I stumbled across him due to a classmate who was from England suggesting him to me when I was 12.

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Latest reply: Oct 26, 1999