Sir Orfeo is a Middle English poem by an unknown author, dated from the latter part of the 13^th or the early 14^th century, possibly adapted from a now lost original in Old French (Tolkien subscribed to this opinion). We know it from three later manuscripts; the oldest one, called Auchinleck, was copied around 1330 and gives the best reading by far, whereas the two others from the 15^th century, the Harley 3810 and the Ashmole 61, provide quite corrupt versions. The story latter survived in folklore: it is thus attested as the 19^th of the Child Ballads, an anthology of traditional English, Scottish and American ballads collected by Francis James Child in the second half of the 19^th century.

The poem is one of several English 13^th and 14^th century emulations of a poetic form of possible Celtic origin and name but French in language: the narrative lays or Breton lays. They are stories in octosyllabic couplets, of delicate and refined character (in contrast with the fabliau), moderately long – typically a few hundred lines – and told in concision and ellipsis (in contrast with the romance). The plot usually revolves around love and fantasy and is often but not always taken from the matter of Brittany. The model was set in the later 12^th century by the twelve lays of Marie de France, the first known female poet in the French language (in its Anglo-Norman dialect).

Sir Orfeo is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as a fairy tale. Orfeo, a king of England and a famous harper, holds court in Winchester. His queen Heurodis is warned in a dream that she is soon to be magically abducted, which eventually happens despite all precautions. In his grief, Orfeo forsakes his kingship and lives as a hermit in the woods for more than ten years, without any comfort but his harp. From time to time he sees the king of Faërie’s hunt passing, and one day spots Heurodis in the ladies’ company. He follows them into a wondrous land and finds accommodation as a minstrel in a magnificent castle. The king of Faërie enjoys his skill and rashly promises him whatever he will. Orfeo of course asks for Heurodis, and to keep his word the king must give her to him. They go back to Winchester. Orfeo makes sure that his steward has remained faithful to him, and the royal couple comes back in general mirth.

On Sir Orfeo by J. R. R. Tolkien we know both a restitution of the Middle English text and a translation into modern English. The restitution was published anonymously and rather discreetly in Oxford in 1944 as a twenty page booklet, and reedited in 2004 by Carl F. Hostetter in the first issue of Tolkien Studies. It is based on the Auchinleck manuscript as edited by Kenneth Sisam, Tolkien’s tutor and later his colleague at the University of Oxford, but makes some changes to improve the meter and bring the language in line with the 13^th century Middle English of South-eastern England, after Tolkien’s opinion about the date and geographic origin of the poem. He thus attempts to get closer to the putative primary version, before it was altered by being transmitted and copied by scribes familiar with other dialects, whose influence can already be felt in the Auchinleck. Tolkien’s modern translation in verse is evidently based on this restitution; it was published posthumously in 1975 by his son Christopher.

The selected sample – how Orfeo recovers Heurodis – is presented after Tolkien’s restitution edited by Hostetter. However, we have made the spelling closer to the Auchinleck’s by omitting the breve on certain o’s (ŏ) and replacing the digraph th by the letter thorn (þ). The translation is also Tolkien’s.

The text’s transcription rather resembles the kind of blackletter writing known as textura prescissa or sine pedibus, typified by the lack of serifs on descenders. This style appeared at the end of the 13^th century and spread much in England in the Late Middle Ages. We made use of Robert Pfeffer’s typeface Pfeffer Simpelgotisch.