What I found less predictable about this poem's plot was that Sir Orfeo abandoned his kingdom and left his young steward in charge while he wandered as a shaggy vagabond with his harp for ten years, looking for his wife. Then after he has found her and won her back, he shows up again in his kingdom as an unrecognizable figure, leaving his wife at an inn at the edge of his capital city, while he seeks out his ruling steward. But his loyal steward recognizes his master's harp, even if he cannot recognize Orfeo.
In lines 530-576 of the Tolkien translation of [i]Sir Orfeo[/i] was wrote:The steward looked and looked again;
the harp in hand at once he knew.
'Minstrel," he said, 'come, tell me true,
whence came this harp to thee, and how?
I pray thee, tell me plainly now.'
'My lord,' said he, 'in lands unknown
I walked a wilderness alone,
and there I found in dale forlorn
a man by lions to pieces torn,
by wolves devoured with teeth so sharp;
by him I found this very harp,
and that is full ten years ago.'
'Ah!' said the steward, 'news of woe!
'Twas Orfeo, my master true.
Alas! poor wretch, what shall I do,
who must so dear a master mourn?
Ah! Woe is me that I was born,
for him so hard a fate designed,
a death so vile that he should find!'
Then on the ground he fell in swoon;
his barons stooping raised him soon
and bade him think how all must end--
for death of man no man can mend.
King Orfeo now had proved and knew
his steward was both loyal and true,
and loved him as he duly should.
'Lo!' then he cried, and up he stood,
'Steward, now to my words give ear!
If thy king, Orfeo, were here,
and had in wilderness full long
suffered great hardship sore and strong,
had won his queen by his own hand
out of the deeps of fairy land,
and led at last his lady dear
right hither to the town's end near, and lodged her in a beggar's cot;
if I were he, whom ye knew not,
thus come among you, poor and ill,
in secret to prove they faith and will,
if then I thee had found so true,
thy loyalty never shouldst thou rue:
nay, certainly, tide what betide,
thou shouldst be king when Orfeo died.
Hadst thou rejoiced to hear my fate,
I would have thrust thee from the gate.'
Then clearly knew they in the hall
that Orfeo stood before them all.
This poem seems more for children than is the case for
Sir Gawain or
Pearl, so maybe that's why I like it less than those other two poems, but it probably has a longer heritage, because it sounds like something adapted from a Greek legend.
Of the three poems Tolkien translated in his book
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo, I like
Sir Gawain the best, because it has the most intriguing plot and I feel I get to know the characters the best in that poem.