A Fragment of an Epic: Before Jerusalem Richard Makes an End of Speech
1911 poem by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Fragment of an Epic: Before Jerusalem Richard Makes an End of Speech is an eight-paged poem about King Richard I of England and the Third Crusade that was written by J.R.R. Tolkien in June or July of 1911.
First stanza
Background
In June and July of the year 1911, Tolkien wrote the only known version of the poem entitled A Fragment of an Epic: Before Jerusalem Richard Makes an End of Speech. After writing it, he wrote "July 1911" on the same day. Tolkien also gave the poem an alternative name, "Fragment of Epic" (Crusades), and an Old English name, Richeard Englenacyning maþeleþ fore fyrdum ("Richard, King of England, Speaks before the Army"), in a poetry notebook. The words "June and July 1911" were written besides that alternate name.
At some later date, Tolkien wrote "Also in June and July 1910 "A Fragment of an Epic" herein infixed" on the first version of the poem The Dale-lands, but he later deleted the phrase, likely because the date was incorrect.
It is likely that Tolkien intended to nominate his poem for the 1912 Sir Roger Newdigate Prize for English verse at the University of Oxford since "Richard I before Jerusalem" was the theme for submitted poems at the time.
On 26 January of 1914, Tolkien slightly revised line 75 of the poem for unspecified reasons.
In September of 2024, the poem, entitled with a comma between Jerusalem and Richard in the index, was published for the first time as entry 7 in The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Referencias
1. Esta ficha se ha importado inicialmente de TolkienGateway.net el día 20/05/2026.
