Penguin Classics Legends from the ancient north. Beowulf. The Elder Edda. The Saga of the Volsungs. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Wanderer: Elegies, Epics, Riddles. These are the great epic stories that inspired J.R.R.Tolkien"s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Conjuring up a twilight world of quests, treachery, magic, evil and fellowship, they are the most ancient narratives from Northern Europe and bring us as near as we will ever get to the origins of Tolkien"s Middle Earth.