Myths and Legends Boxed Set (4冊合售)

《托爾金學術遺產典藏套書（第五輯）》這是專為慶祝克里斯多福．托爾金（Christopher Tolkien）文學編輯貢獻所推出的第五套精裝盒裝系列，書衣為雙面設計，收錄四部由 J.R.R. 托爾金翻譯與創作、並由其子克里斯多福親自編輯的重要作品

1.《高文爵士與綠騎士》
此冊收錄三首十四世紀英詩改編作品：
《高文爵士與綠騎士》：一部成人奇幻騎士浪漫詩，充滿色彩與生命力。
《珍珠》：表面是哀悼亡女的輓歌，實則探討抽象哲思與靈魂不滅的寓意。
《奧菲歐爵士》：源自更早期傳統的短篇浪漫詩，是托爾金最喜愛的作品之一。
特別收錄托爾金於 1953 年發表的知名演講〈W.P. Ker 紀念講座〉完整講稿，深入解釋《高文爵士》的文學價值。

2.《西格魯與古茹恩的傳說》（The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún）
以北歐詩體創作的長詩，重現傳說英雄屠龍者西格魯與其復仇妻子古茹恩的史詩故事，改編自《詩體埃達》與《伏爾松傳奇》。全詩由托爾金創作，並由克里斯多福編撰註解，結合神話、詩藝與文學批評於一體。

3.《亞瑟王的殞落》（The Fall of Arthur）
托爾金唯一涉足不列顛王亞瑟傳說的長詩作品，以古英語頭韻詩法書寫，講述亞瑟王最後的日子。詩後附註暗示此版本的亞瑟神話與《精靈寶鑽》宇宙存在隱秘關聯，是托爾金語言技藝與創作野心的高峰表現。

4.《貝奧武夫：譯文與評論》（Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary）
托爾金於1926年完成此古英詩譯本，並於1930年代在牛津大學講授相關內容。此版本收錄詩作翻譯與托爾金親筆評論，展現其深入詩境、如身臨其境般的語言與歷史感知。此外收錄托爾金自創的《賽利克咒語》（Sellic Spell），為想像中的「無史詩包袱版貝奧武夫」民間故事形式。

套書特色：
首次合輯出版這四部極具代表性的作品
全由克里斯多福．托爾金親自編輯與註釋
呈現 J.R.R. 托爾金語言學、詩藝、神話研究與文學創作的交會時期
為托爾金學術遺產的核心精粹，亦是北歐神話與中世紀文學愛好者的珍藏之選

Fifth in a series of hardcover boxed sets celebrating the literary achievement of Christopher Tolkien, featuring double-sided dustjackets. This slipcase contains Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, The Fall of Arthur, and Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl are two poems by an unknown author written in about 1400. Sir Gawain is a romance, a fairy-tale for adults, full of life and colour; Pearl is apparently an elegy on the death of a child but, like Gawain, it is also a sophisticated and moving debate on much less tangible matters. Sir Orfeo is a slighter romance, belonging to an earlier and different tradition. It was a special favourite of Tolkien’s. The three translations are here uniquely accompanied with the complete text of Tolkien’s acclaimed 1953 W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture that he delivered on Sir Gawain.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún tells the epic story of the Norse hero, Sigurd, the dragon-slayer, during a time of gods, betrayal and fierce battles, the revenge of his wife, Gudrún, and the Fall of the Nibelungs. Told in verse composed by J.R.R. Tolkien derived from the ancient poetry of the Poetic Edda and the prose Völsunga Saga, this masterful fusion of myth and poetry is accompanied by notes and commentary by Christopher Tolkien.

The Fall of Arthur tells the extraordinary story of the final days of England’s legendary hero, King Arthur. It is the only venture by J.R.R. Tolkien into the legends of Arthur King of Britain, and may well be regarded as his finest and most skilful achievement in the use of the Old English alliterative metre. The long narrative poem is accompanied by significant if tantalising notes, in which can be discerned clear if mysterious associations of the Arthurian conclusion with The Silmarillion.

The translation of Beowulf by J.R.R. Tolkien was completed in 1926: he returned to it later but seems never to have considered its publication. This edition is twofold, for the translation is here paired with an illuminating written commentary on the poem by the translator himself, prepared for a series of lectures given at Oxford in the 1930s. From these lectures there arises a sense of the immediacy and clarity of his vision. It is as if Tolkien entered into the imagined past: standing beside Beowulf and his men shaking out their mail-shirts as they beached their ship on the coast of Denmark, listening to the rising anger of Beowulf at the taunting of Unferth, or looking up in amazement at Grendel’s terrible hand set under the roof of Heorot.

These are accompanied by Sellic spell, a ‘marvellous tale’ written by Tolkien suggesting what might have been the form and style of an Old English folk-tale of Beowulf, in which there was no association with the ‘historical legends’ of the Northern kingdoms.

Published together for the first time, these four books – all edited by the author's son and literary executor – collect a fascinating period of Christopher Tolkien’s forty-year career devoted to presenting his father J.R.R. Tolkien’s scholarly writings on the myths and legends of northern Europe, a unique accomplishment that celebrates the academic brilliance and storytelling genius of one of the twentieth century's finest literary pioneers.