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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

by Unknown, Neil D. Isaacs, Burton Raffel (Translator)

3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 · rating details · 22,198 ratings · 590 reviews

One of the greatest works of the Middle Ages, in a marvelous new verse translation

Composed in the fourteenth century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is as beloved as it is venerable, combining the hallmarks of medieval romance-pageantry, chivalry, and courtly love-with the charm of fairy tales and heroic sagas.

When a mysterious green knight rides on horseback into Kin

...more

Mass Market Paperback, 144 pages

Published November 2001 by Signet Classics (first published 1390)

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May 22, 2012 Terry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arthurian, that-northern-thing

One of the best of the 'classic' Arthurian tales. Gawain is presented a bit differently here from many of the other ones. Usually he's a bit of a braggart and kind of a jerk, especially to women, but here he is presented as the perfect exemplar of courtoisie. He's also a bit young and still untried, so maybe that explains it for those who want to be able to have a grand unified theory of Arthuriana.

Anyway, you probably all know the story: Arthur is about to have a New Year's feast, but accordin...more One of the best of the 'classic' Arthurian tales. Gawain is presented a bit differently here from many of the other ones. Usually he's a bit of a braggart and kind of a jerk, especially to women, but here he is presented as the perfect exemplar of courtoisie. He's also a bit young and still untried, so maybe that explains it for those who want to be able to have a grand unified theory of Arthuriana.

Anyway, you probably all know the story: Arthur is about to have a New Year's feast, but according to tradition is waiting for some marvel to occur. Right on cue in trots the Green Knight on his horse, a giant of a man who proceeds to trash the reputation of the entire court and dare someone to cut off his head as long as he gets to return the favour. No one makes a move and Arthur decides he better do something about this until Gawain steps up and asks to take on this quest himself. Everyone agrees and Gawain proceeds to smite the green head from the Knight's body. Everyone is fairly pleased with the result until the Green Knight gets up, picks up his smiling head, and says: "See you next year, G. Don't forget that it's my turn then." (I paraphrase, the middle english of the poet is far superior.) Needless to say everyone is a bit nonplussed by this.

The year passes and Gawain doesn't seem to do much of anything until he finally decides it's time to get out and find this green fellow and fulfill his obligation...hopefully something will come up along the way to improve his prospects. What follows is a journey to the borders of the Otherworld as well as a detailed primer on just how one ought to act in order to follow the dictates of courtliness. Gawain ends up being the guest of Sir Bertilak, a generous knight who says that the Green Chapel, the destination of Gawain's quest, is close by and Gawain should stay with them for the duration of the holidays. We are treated to some coy (and mostly chaste) loveplay on the part of Bertilak's wife from which Gawain mostly manages to extricate himself without contravening the dictates of politeness, as well as the details of a medieval deer, boar and fox hunt with nary a point missing.

In the end Gawain goes to the chapel and finds that his erstwhile host Bertilak was in fact the Green Knight. Gawain submits himself and is left, after three swings, with only a scratch as a reward for his courteous behaviour in Bertilak's castle. Despite the apparent success of Gawain, he views the adventure as a failure since he did not come off completely unscathed and he wears a girdle he was gifted by Bertilak's wife as a mark of shame to remind himself of this. Harsh much?

The language of the Gawain poet's middle english is beautiful and I highly recommend reading it in the original with a good translation at hand to catch the nuances of meaning. The poem is replete with an almost dreamlike quality that is made real by all of the exquisite details of medieval life that are interspersed throughout the text. This is a great book to read at Christmas time.(less)

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Dec 05, 2011 Tanja (Tanychy) St. Delphi added it

Shelves: classic

I didn't know where to post this so I think this is a good place!
It remains me of my Literature professor, in a good way of course! :)

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Jun 07, 2009 Mark Adderley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arthurian-studies

It’s always puzzling to know what to do with a book subtitled “A New Verse Translation.” It’s all very well for the moment, of course, but what about in a few years? When the translation is no longer new, will it need a new title? I have similar reservations about terms like “postmodern.” What comes after it? Post-postmodern? And is modernism now called pre-postmodernism?

All of which doesn’t seem strictly relevant, except that I can’t help feeling that there’s something slightly self-conscious a...more It’s always puzzling to know what to do with a book subtitled “A New Verse Translation.” It’s all very well for the moment, of course, but what about in a few years? When the translation is no longer new, will it need a new title? I have similar reservations about terms like “postmodern.” What comes after it? Post-postmodern? And is modernism now called pre-postmodernism?

All of which doesn’t seem strictly relevant, except that I can’t help feeling that there’s something slightly self-conscious about Simon Armitage’s new verse translation of the Middle English masterpiece Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is somehow symbolized by the subtitle.

The other thing about the subtitle is that it is exactly the same as Seamus Heaney’s new verse translation of Beowulf, which, since it was published in 1999, isn’t really new any more. On the front cover of Armitage’s translation is a glowing review from Heaney, and in the Acknowledgements section, Armitage acknowledges Heaney himself and his translation as one of his inspirations. Inside the jacket-flap, another reviewer, this one anonymous (like both the Beowulf- and Gawain-poets, ironically) but writing for the Sunday Telegraph, enthuses about how both Armitage and, earlier, Heaney, have helped “to liberate Gawain [or, presumably, Beowulf:] from academia.” Like Heaney’s Beowulf, Armitage’s Gawain has a facing-page original text and translation; like Heaney’s Beowulf, Armitage’s Gawain has a black cover with a stylish armoured figure on it; like Heaney’s Beowulf, Armitage’s Gawain has ragged pages along the vertical edge, making is I suppose equally difficult to turn the page.

Heaney’s Beowulf was well known, among other things, for bringing the ancient poem right up-to-date—the new date, that is, not the eighth-century date at which the poem was composed. Thus, Heaney translated the poem’s famous opening word, “Hwæt!” as “So.” Further down the page, the Old English “þæt wæs god cyning!” became “That was one good king.” Such translations as these made many academics wonder about the advisability of providing “new verse translations” of medieval poems. But since, as the Sunday Telegraph’s reviewer enthusiastically proclaimed, the aim of both translations was to liberate the poems from academics, what they thought really didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that Faber and Faber in Britain, and W. W. Norton in America were turning not to translators with a knowledge of the Middle Ages for these translations, but to poets who had to learn the language as they went.

I’ll give you some examples from Armitage’s Gawain. Early in the poem, when the feast in Camelot, the Gawain-poet writes that the canopy over the royal dais “were enbrawded and beten wyth the best gemmes / That myght be preved of prys wyth penyes to bye / in daye” (78-80). This can be literally translated as “were embroidered and beaded with the best gems that could be proved of value to buy in that day.” The translation is rough and unpleasant, but it’s literal. Armitage translates that the tapestry was “studded with stones and stunning gems. / Pearls beyond pocket. Pearls beyond purchase.” Here’s it’s not specifically the translation that’s at issue. Armitage has translated into a style that is hip for the moment—the use of parallelism and fragment—but which, for one, gives undue emphasis to a rather unimportant feature of the description and, for another, uses a poetic trick that pulls the reader out of the world of the poem and into the modern world. That was one good canopy.

Here’s another example. When Gawain arms to face the Green Knight at the end of the poem, the poet describes his armour as “The gayest into Grece” (2023). Acknowledging that “into” might better be translated as “unto,” we can see that the line is supposed to imply that Gawain’s armour is the most splendid in Europe—in the known world, in fact. in the medieval imagination, Greece was the edge of the civilized world. It included Byzantium, the seat of the eastern Roman Empire, known for its stylized art, gold and blue, richness and wealth. The description places Gawain’s armour in that oriental world, giving audiences a mental image of splendour, brightness, colour, vividness. Armitage writes that “no man shone more, it seemed / from here to ancient Greece.” Armitage specifically limits the reader to thinking not of Byzantine art, but of the Greece of mythology. The original line held both implications. The translation directs us exclusively to one.

In all fairness, Armitage defends this practice in his introduction and, as we might expect, his argument is airtight. So would an argument be from the opposite perspective. That’s the nature of argument. But I can’t help wondering if there’s something wrong with entrusting the translation of a masterpiece of medieval literature to someone whose expertise is modern poetry—Ted Hughes and the like. It’s like entrusting brain surgery to a heart specialist. Sure, he knows enough anatomy to get away with it. But I’m not sure that “getting away with it” is really enough. I’d like to be imaginatively transported to the world of medieval romance, not of new verse translations.

It’s also only fair to add that this is a highly readable translation. You speed through these pages, and time flies away from you. You’ve just met Arthur at Camelot, and before you know it, you’re reading the concluding lines. Some lines are particularly beautiful, particularly the famous passage of the seasons, and one passage actually made me think about the poem in a different way. (It was the section detailing Camelot’s craven assertion that it would be “Cleverer to have acted with caution and care” [line 677:]; that puts their eventual glib and joyous acceptance of Gawain’s error into a wholly different perspective, for me.)

Ultimately, I think, we have to see a book like this not so much as a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but as Simon Armitage’s poem inspired by it. As such, it’s a beautiful achievement—certainly as beautiful as Heaney’s Beowulf—and will hopefully lure many readers to its source, the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
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Nov 12, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, in-by-of-england, poetry, tam-lin, gods-myths-heroes, reviewed, fey

I have meant to read a translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ever since I read Gillian Bradshaw's Hawk of May. I was reminded when I read Gawain and Lady Green by Anne Eliot Crompton. I loved both of these books. I loved the story of Sir Gawain. But somehow I didn't get to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight until now. (As I read the first of these books as a teenager, I think I can safely say that it's been a long time).

Why now? Because I wanted to read Simon Armitage's notes on translatio...more

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May 17, 2008 Erik Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In no way was I prepared to enjoy this as much as I did. Auden once said something to the effect that the difference between poetry and prose is that prose can be translated. Whether or not this new translation is "good" I'm hardly smart enough to declare, but Seamus Heaney liked it, as did John Ashberry, and they ought to know. I guess I picked up the book because it was one I thought I should read. I'd read a prose translation of it years ago, in high school, and I've decided prose translation...more

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May 24, 2009 Mark Adderley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arthurian-studies

This is probably the greatest medieval romance ever written. Maybe that's extravagant praise--there's also Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, Dante's Divine Comedy, and a few others, but I do think that if it hadn't been for Chaucer, the anonymous Gawain-poet would have been considered the greatest medieval English poet.

The story is about a beheading test--the Green Knight challenges Gawain to exchange beheadings. Gawain will behead the Green Knight now, and then undergo the same thing a year hence...more

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Apr 26, 2009 Leslie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, read-in-2009, required-reading, ooh-fantastical

Thoughts:

I imagine if you’re interested in quests and bravery and peril this poem is pretty top notch.

Quests, bravery and peril are not my cup of tea.

I wanted more supernatural drama with the Green Knight and less courtship and hunting (though like a creep I enjoyed the detailed doe-, boar- and fox-gutting passages).

I found the pageantry of knighthood both tedious and fascinating. It was like reading Lucky magazine; no tassel or surface on a knight suit went unnoticed. Same goes for the detai...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Eddie Watkins rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: youthful mediaevelists

I'd been attracted to this poem for years and years, but somehow never read it; tiptoeing 'round it like a gentleman too dignified to display his blood-gorged book lust. The title itself attracted me - the name Gawain and the idea of a Green Knight evoked plenty of mental imagery: greenery and silver clashings in fecund fairy tale landscapes. I also like the way Tolkien's name looks and sounds (evocative of tangled teeming forests clearly delineated) so I dipped into his version a while ago, but...more I'd been attracted to this poem for years and years, but somehow never read it; tiptoeing 'round it like a gentleman too dignified to display his blood-gorged book lust. The title itself attracted me - the name Gawain and the idea of a Green Knight evoked plenty of mental imagery: greenery and silver clashings in fecund fairy tale landscapes. I also like the way Tolkien's name looks and sounds (evocative of tangled teeming forests clearly delineated) so I dipped into his version a while ago, but it seemed stiff and wooden, even opaque, or something, so I didn't pursue it. Then along came this version, translated by a fairly young English poet, Simon Armitage, with a back blurb by John Ashbery (a favorite poet of mine), so I gave it a whirl.

All of these old books should be translated by young poets. What freshness! What verve and bounce! I cantered right through it like a glossy horse over tight green turf. This is a remarkable poem; its literary sophistication tempered by rustic intemperence, striking imagery, bejeweled descriptions of gracile angelic maidens and boar hunting gore, and mysterious castles and the Woodwose (or Wodwo) the Wildman of the Woods. I'm sure scholars have taken issue with Armitage's obvious strayings from literal translation, but who cares! The point is to keep these old texts alive, and Armitage does that in sprightly spades. Instead of dead paper this book should've been printed on live leaves.

It's a fairly simple and well-known story, so I won't go into its details, but I must mention the overall chaste (yet pan-sexual) sexiness of it. Gawain is one of the great androgynous heroes in literature, but then the Middle Ages were filled with the likes of him - dandies with blood-smeared swords, lithe curvy athletes in bright body-hugging armor - and his mild, ambiguous undoing in the poem is his acceptance of a green silk girdle proffered to him by a temptress. The author momentarily lingers over his description of this silk garment worn beneath his shining armor, emphasizing the muscled curves. The girdle will protect him from harm; the harm being his accepting as part of a deal to be beheaded by the Green Knight (the Green Knight allowed Gawain to behead him at the beginning, before trotting off with his green head under his green arm). Mutual beheading? Green silken undergarment and a sword? There is some dense pan-sexual coding in that scene. But the sword merely knicks Gawain's extended neck, and he's allowed to return to Camelot lightly shamed, with a fast fading scar.(less)

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May 24, 2009 Mark Adderley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arthurian-studies

The appeal of this book is the Middle English text of the poem on one side, and the modern English translation on the other. However, I don't like the translation very much, and I don't care for the author's use of regular English characters for the Middle English thorn and yogh symbols. There are superior texts, and there are superior translations; the advantage of this text is that it combines the two.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Sir Orfeo

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, Pearl Verse Translations

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Jul 10, 2012 Adam Floridia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good gravy, the great Gawain and that gigantic Green Knight gave this guy an alliteration glut. (How could I have forgotten about the Alliterative Revival?)

And still,
one other technique is
this whole poetic deal
that the writer uses--
it's called the bob and wheel.

Although a cynical, jaded 2012 reader will likely find some of this a bit pietistic (or corny), it's nice to harken back to the days of chivalry, of chaste knights adamantly defending their beds from lascivious ladies, and of giant green...more

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Nov 27, 2007 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent translation of a favorite work. Like Heaney's Beowolf, the original text is set facing the translation.

What I particularly loved about Armitage's work is his devotion to alliteration throughout the work. As he explains in his preface, the Gawain poet was writing in a form that hearkens back to Anglo-Saxon poetry, where alliteration within the line instead of rhyming at the end is key to the music of the poem. Really, his introductory musings on poetry is a big part of why I enjoyed...more

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May 08, 2013 Anna rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: medieval-literature

Interesting story, well executed compellingly told, excellent and sometimes beautiful use of language and good moral messages. Would give a higher rating but for the ending.

When everything is done, and Gawain completes his quest, and the moral aspects of the story are dealt with (truth, honour, keeping word, resisting temptation etc), the Green Knight reveals the identity of the Old Woman in his castle as none other than Morgana le Fey, Arthur's mortal enemy and practitioner of Black Magic- who...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Gale rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-adventure-young-adult, british-classics, medieval-young-adult

"The Quintessential Essence of Chivalry--by Day and by Knight"

This medieval poem from approximately 1350 represents one of the earliest pieces of literature extent in prototype English. At first glance the manuscript, housed in a special collection at the British Museum, appears to be in a foreign language; it is characterized by archaic spelling and specialized vocabulary known mainly to medieval scholars. But conscientious study proves rewarding; scholars may view the birth of English, or at...more "The Quintessential Essence of Chivalry--by Day and by Knight"

This medieval poem from approximately 1350 represents one of the earliest pieces of literature extent in prototype English. At first glance the manuscript, housed in a special collection at the British Museum, appears to be in a foreign language; it is characterized by archaic spelling and specialized vocabulary known mainly to medieval scholars. But conscientious study proves rewarding; scholars may view the birth of English, or at least a stillborn twin, of the modern descendent. A unique example of a translation from oldest into
modern English, this Penguin Classics edition includes notes on the bottom of the pages, explaining words or references to scholars and legendary figures.

Constructed in four basic Parts the plot is elegantly simple. During a Christmas feast at Camelot Arthur and his knights are amazed at the rude intrusion of a brawny giant of man on horseback—with both rider and steed appareled in green. The intruder taunts the bravery of the members of the famous Round Table—challenging any one among them to swap blows in the Beheading Game. Although modest in his self assessment, young Sir Gawain feels compelled to answer this insolent challenge—speedily salvaging the honor of Arthur’s court. (A literary aside: this chaste and loyal warrior is also Arthur’s nephew; the uncle-nephew bond is the most sacred human relationship in medieval lais.) Gawain’s failure to defend Arthur’s reputation—a year hence--would prove even more shameful than if ignored by the other knights.)

After the Challenge and Acceptance of Part One, we enter Part Two: Preparation and Departure. We read of the perils and hardships of Gawain’s odyssey as he seeks the Green Chapel—the site of the assignation as designated by the insolent Green Knight--throughout England without any true sense of direction. Part Three may be subtitled Hunt and Temptation: a 3-day sojourn at the castle of a most hospitable lord, who promises to provide his guest with a guide to the very Green Chapel which he seeks at year’s end. The poet alternates scenes of the hunt in the forest with softer struggles in Gawain’s bedchamber, as he is assaulted most delicately but insistently by the Lady of the manor, who seems enamored of her husband’s guest and oblivious to her reputation. To further complicate secret affairs, the Lord jocularly insists that Gawain and he swap the spoils of each day’s exertions. Gawain is hard pressed not to betray either the laws of chivalry toward the Lady or the lavish hospitality of the Lord. He insists on departing after three days of trial by seduction—determined to meet his fate at the hands of his mysterious adversary.

Part Four may be considered Trial by Axe and Conscience. Sir Gawain, barely escaping Venus’onslaughts (ut secretly wearing the Lady’s green girdle beneath his armor) eaches the scene of his probable doom--a curious natural structure called the Green Chapel. This is a wonderful read, rich in Anglo-Saxon alliteration with vivid details of medieval hunting, feasting and personal combat. Thought-provoking themes abound such as the role of Chivalry, the dictates of Hospitality, and the influence of the French creation: Courtly Love. As the representative of King Arthur Sir Gawain is constantly being tested. Individual readers must determine for themselves how well he succeeds in his quest to honor his lege lord by lday and by night.

(April 9, 2013. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)(less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Sally rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry

I've been curious to read this 'modern translation' of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - I find the modern translations an interesting phenomenon. Armitage's introductory essay is an engaging and persuasive read, and did contextualise his translation.

The 'modern' translations are often criticised for lack of textual fidelity to the original - and it's certainly true that some of Armitage's phrasing is startlingly non-medieval. But translations will always bear the mark of their translator and th...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Nathan "N.R." Gaddis marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: swords-sorcerers-chivalry

This'll be fun.

Opening lines comparison:

Brian Stone's of the Penguin, 1959.

"The siege and the assault being ceased at Troy,
The battlements broken down and burnt to brands and ashes,
The treacherous trickster whose treasons there flourished
Was famed for his falsehood, the foulest on earth."

He preserves the alliteration rather nicely.

W.S. Merwin's of Knopf, 2002.

"Since the siege and the assault upon Troy were finished,
The city destroyed and burned down to embers and ashes,
And the man who made the...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Nikki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, medieval-literature, favourites, arthurian, myth-legend-saga-etc

"Note: you have also reviewed the following editions of this book:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Paperback) (isbn )
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Paperback) (isbn 0140440925)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Paperback) (isbn 0140424539)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (isbn 0719055172)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (isbn 0571223281)
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight (Paperback) (isbn 0030088801)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Paperback) (isbn 1146360738)"

Oops.

Anyway, I reread Simon Arm...more

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Dec 23, 2011 Priscilla rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this for one of the courses I took for this semester.

The narration was indeed flawless but I guess maybe it's just my soft spot for Middle Age English where thou's and ye's are common (is my history correct?). This just actually part of the collection of stories and adventures about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, full of chivalry and valor of course. Along the way, it got predictable considering my background with books in the adventure/mystery genre. But, for me,...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Omri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: poetry, the-classics

Reading 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' took me over 10 years. I'm not a slow reader, but it did take me time to mature enough in order to understand and appreciate it. This version of 'Sir Gawain' is a rather simple, easy-reading, flowing one. It was a fantastic read for a classic, although I have a feeling that it is not delivering the exact intention and message as the original, maybe due to its somewhat contemporary mindset. Still, it is a perfect place to start with.

I go the book at an ol...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Robyn Blaber rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-literature

In modern times, when we want a tale about good vs. evil we turn to the comic books. These larger than life epic tales capture the imaginations of nearly everyone and of course Hollywood has paid homage to nearly ever super-hero (and super-villain) of note.

In earlier times, the likes of King Arthur and Robyn Hood bore the weight of moral leadership for the wide-eyed imaginations of the youth of pre-comic book generations. What hero is more daring, honest, and virtuous than a knight? What parent...more

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May 18, 2011 Jenny J rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, read-in-2011, poetry

An Arthurian poem in Middle English (written around 1400), accompanied by a very readable modernization by Simon Armitage. The story is simple: As King Arthur, his Queen, his knights, and their ladies are enjoying a Christmas feast, they are interrupted by the axe-wielding Green Knight, who challenges Arthur's champion, Sir Gawain (the purest and bravest and, well, you know the drill). His deal is this: Sir Gawain gets to deal him one blow with the axe, and the Green Knight won't fight back. The...more

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Jan 25, 2011 Dusty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Dusty by: Anita Riedinger

Shelves: graduate-school, read-in-2011, read-before-2007

For one very brief moment I considered becoming a scholar of medieval literature. That moment came and went about the (second) time I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the finest example of early, adventurous, English romances. On one hand, I wish the book were as well-known and revered outside the academic world as is its less satisfying older brother, Beowulf. But on the other hand I'm glad I've so far not been subjected to a Zemeckis-directed CGI bastardization of it. In a nutshell, the b...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Armitage's translation seems very readable, an enjoyable modern version of the poem in its own right. But I'm so drawn to the strange Middle English of the original poet, so different from his contemporary, Chaucer, that I found it difficult to read the modern version.

This is a beautiful book with two wonderful versions of a great tale, but I found one thing frustrating. Although I appreciate Armitage's gifts and the readable new version of the poem, one of the biggest benefits of a facing-page...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, middle-ages, reading-through-history

The meter on this thing is pretty impressive: a strict alliterative pattern of two stresses, a pause, and two more stresses, with a five-line rhyming stanza (a short line followed by four with an ABAB scheme) at the end of each passage. It should be terribly constrictive, but the Gawain poet flows through it like it's nothing.

Not that I can read the original, of course, so I have to take Armitage's word for it that it's as good as his translation, which I did like. This edition has the original...more

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Mar 14, 2010 Nikki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arthurian, classics, contemporary, myth-legend-saga-etc, medieval-literature, poetry

Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is certainly a very modern one. I think it's important to remember, when reading anything in translation, that nothing is immune to the translator's own views and intentions. This is especially apparent in translations like Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, and this translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but it's always the case. Even when it's a group of undergrads doing awkward prose translations -- I always use the...more Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is certainly a very modern one. I think it's important to remember, when reading anything in translation, that nothing is immune to the translator's own views and intentions. This is especially apparent in translations like Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf, and this translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but it's always the case. Even when it's a group of undergrads doing awkward prose translations -- I always use the example of Wulf and Eadwacer. There is no way you can translate that poem without personal interpretation. Even if you consciously translate the poem in order to keep all the ambiguities in place, that's an interpretation. Knowing this, and having read the introduction to this translation, it was easy for me to settle down and just enjoy Simon Armitage's translation. It's not literal, and it's colloquial, and it's contemporary, and it will probably quickly become dated. I don't think it's suitable for commenting on the poem in an academic context, unless you're actually commenting on the different translations, because it's very much an interpretation and in "plain English" and doesn't hold all the richness of the original.

It's also very readable, and rich in its own way. If you want to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and you're daunted by the idea of the "Old English"*, this translation is great -- lively and, I think, playful. I enjoyed the language a lot, not least because of how very Yorkshire it is (I grew up in Yorkshire). Armitage makes a good attempt at using the alliterative metre, and the poem practically begs to be read aloud and savoured.

The story itself has become less and less important to me as I've read the poem in various different translations (Armitage's, Brian Stone's, a prose translation, the original...) and instead I've found myself focusing on the tone of the poem (is the narrator being ironic?) and details like the missing day (count 'em up carefully), and the use of adjectives ("good Gawain", etc). Still, there's an interesting story there, too -- the testing of Sir Gawain, a tension between courtly manners and Christianity, etc, etc.

*It's actually in Middle English, and all of the translations will be Modern English.(less)

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Oct 23, 2011 Keith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is a beautiful tale of magic and chivalry that I’ve read many times. I’m not familiar with other translations, but I enjoy Brian Stone’s translation and his deft use of alliteration. (I’ve never tried to read the poem in its original North West Midland dialect – that might be something to try, though I’ve heard it is much more difficult than reading Chaucer, which I find very slow going.)

The story, familiar to many, is exquisitely told and the characters are charming and lively. The descri...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Penny rated it 3 of 5 stars

I actually read this book after reading Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur and I'm kinda glad that I did. It was really interesting to read a story just centered on Gawain and it seems to be a different Gawain than the one in Malory. Despite a few setbacks he is a brave and repentant knight that does care when he has sinned and has enough will to take on the Green Knight. Another plus is that Launcelot is just a name in this story. Generally when people think about King Arthur and his knights the first...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Vickie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-year-university

"When the mysterious Green Knight arrives unbidden at the Round Table one Christmas, only Gawain is brave enough to take up his challenge...

This story, first told in the late fourteenth century, is one of the most enthralling, enigmatic and beloved poems in the English language. Simon Armitage's new version is meticulously responsive to the tact, sophistication and dramatic intensity of the original. It is as if, six hundred years apart, two northern poets set out on a journey through the same m...more "When the mysterious Green Knight arrives unbidden at the Round Table one Christmas, only Gawain is brave enough to take up his challenge...

This story, first told in the late fourteenth century, is one of the most enthralling, enigmatic and beloved poems in the English language. Simon Armitage's new version is meticulously responsive to the tact, sophistication and dramatic intensity of the original. It is as if, six hundred years apart, two northern poets set out on a journey through the same mesmeric landscape - physical, allegorical and acoustic - in the course of which the Gawain poet has finally found his true tranlator."

"Rich, eerie and intoxicating...Armitage honours the original and it will win its readers." - Sean O-Brien, Sunday Times.

"I enjoyed it for its kick and music, its high spirits, its many memorable passages. I enjoyed it because, like the Gawain poet, Armitage is some storyteller." - Kevin Crossley-Holland, Guardian.

"Compelling and dramatic, made all the more vigorous by the manner of its telling." - Michael Glover, Independent.

I've got to be honest. I have ALWAYS been something of a sucker for tales about knights (it explains why "The Sword in the Stone" is probably one of my favourite Disney films) - which has definitely been excaberated by the BBC TV series "Merlin" (yes - I know that it doesn't stick completely to the legend, but I love it). So when I came across the name "Gawain" I got extremely excited - as it seemed familiar, because he was already shaping up to be one of my favourite characters in "Merlin". On top of this, at GCSE, Simon Armitage was probably my favourite of the poets we studied, especially as I loved his readings of his own poems.

So, it is easy to understand why I was already leaning favourably to this epic poem. However, this is not just a bit of an adventure romp, this is full of court politics and intrigue, magic and deception. It's a LOT of fun to read: I was reading it on the train and couldn't help but read some of the lines aloud because of the extensive alliteration. I stopped after I attracted a few strange looks, but I was OK with it. I had fallen in love with this poem. It doesn't take long to read, the rhythym is quick, the tone quite light-hearted (although you can make it darker if you wish) - so before you know it you've unfortunately reached the end.
A top-notch epic poem. (less)

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Aug 07, 2011 Annemarie Donahue rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, medieval-li, religious

This was an excellent book, very fun adventure story, and a very deep insight into the medieval mind. Sir Gawain is the perfect knight, albeit very young. He has the best manners, the best attitude and is Arthur's nephew and will inherit the throne. At Christmas he is challenged by an amazing giant of a knight who allows Gawain to chop off his head. The Green Knight picks up his head and makes Gawain promise to meet him at his castle one year from today to recieve his blow. It's an odd set up, I...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Ed Smiley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: once-a-knight-is-enough

This is a rather magical tale.

The images are very intense, and incise themselves in one's mind. The translation into latter-day English leans a lot on alliteration, mirroring the method of the original maker. The original Middle English used such a technique of rhymed but alliterative verse, only ending in rhyme at the end of each part. For the most part the translation is quite effective, only once in a while sounding forced; the original, I suspect*, was more artless and direct. (I am quite t...more

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Dec 30, 2008 JoDean rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, middle-ages-knights-and-stuff

My 16yo son received this book for Christmas from his uncle. One of the recommendations on the back cover described this translation as "luscious." I wanted to read it to see if it was luscious language or luscious flirtation or more. It's the former.

I very much enjoyed reading this. Poetry is hard to translate; either exact word for word translating or the rhyme and meter must be sacrificed. Armitage choose to keep the strong alliteration.

This edition has a strong introduction, a note on Middle...more

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