The Tolkien Fan's Medieval Reader: Versions in Modern Prose (Cold Spring Press Fantasy)

Fans will thrill to read - for the first time in an accessible, modernized rendering - the medieval stories, myths and legends that were the driving force behind The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. Turgon (co-author of The People's Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien) and one of the founding members and main contributors of the Internet's most popular Tolkien fan website - theoneing.net - presents modern prose renderings of some of the essential works of medieval literature that were inspirations to Tolkien. For those daunted by the alliterative verse-form of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, even in Tolkien's own translation, here is the essential narrative of the poem to be read in readable, updated prose. It can thus be used as stepping stone in approaching Tolkien's excellent translation, where the artistry of the verse will be more quickly appreciated when the story is already familiar.