Patrick Stuart's Blog, page 75

Gawain 1020 - 1045, He really likes grabbing Gawain

Much delight was there drunk down that day and the next,
And the third as thickly thronged with pleasures many;
The joy of Saint Johns day was gentle to hear,
And was the last of their leasure, lords there thought,
Then were guests to go upon the gray morn,
Fortwith wonderly they woke and the wine drank,
Danced unceasingly with dear carols,
At the last, when late, they looked to their leave,
Each to wend on his way that was homeward inclined.
Gawain gives him good day, the lord grabs him up,
Leads him to his own chamber, the chimney beside,
And there he deeply commends him and dearly him thanks
Of the good grace that he, Gawain gave,
As to honour his house at that high time,
And to crown his castle with his bright cheer:
"Indeed, Sir, while I live my name is the richer
That Gawain has been my guest at Gods own feast."
"Grant mercy, Sir," said Gawain, "in good faith it is yours,
All the honour is your own - the high king bring you joy!"
And I wait at your will to work your desire,
As I am duty-held to do, in high and in low,
          by right."
The lord begs he remain
To hold longer the knight;
To him answers Gawain,
There is no way he might

Gawain 995 - 1019, Gawain really likes the guys wife..

On the morn, as each man minds that time
Our Deity for our destiny to die was born.
Well waxes in each personal world a wonderful joy.
So did it there on that day through many delights:
Both at breakfast and brunch and buffets as well
Dear men upon decks dressed of the best.
The old ancient wife the highest chair takes;
The perfect lord politely took his place beside.
Gawain and the gay lady together they sit,
Right in the center where courses came first,
Taken then through the hall, as them best seemed,
Till each guest by degree gravely was served.
There was meat, there was mirth, there was much joy,
That to tell of the tenth.. well, I've told this before,
And to pick out each point might pain my portrayal.
But say I know that Gawain and good lady had
Such comfort of their company clasped together
Through the deep dalliance of their dear words,
With clean courteous conversation (flirtation free),
Locked in play more pleasing than a princes game,
          were that pair.
Nakren sounded at leisure,
Trumpets blew their loud airs;
Each man attended his pleasure,
And those two attended theirs.

Gawain 970 - 994, Best party ever.

Gawains glance at that lady came graciously back,
With leave of the lord he leads them away;
The elder hails nobly, bowing full low,
The lovelier he loops a little in his arms.
He kisses her comely, gives his knightly name.
They crave his acquaintance, and he quickly asks
To be her servant, sincerely, if they himself like.
They take him between them, with talking him lead
To chamber, to chimney, and chiefly they ask
Sweetmeats, that unstinting men speeded them to bring,
Between bites, each time, sipped bubbling wine.
The lord full ofte leaped lightly aloft,
And smiling mandated mirth to be made,
Happily snatched off his hood and on a spear hung,
And tasked them to win the worship thereof
That most mirth made that Christmas while.
"And I shall claim, by my creed, to compete with the best
And win back my wearing, with help from my friends."
Thus with laughing laws the lord makes his aim
For to gladden Sir Gawain with games in hall
          that night.
Till dark turns the time
The lord commands light;
Sir Gawain the stairs climbs
To his bed he alights.

Gawain 928 - 969, One hot, one not.

When the dinner was done and the dukes full,
Time nosed at the night like a carnivore snout,
Chaplains to the chapel chose the bell,
Rung them full richly, right as they should,
For the dreaming evensong of that high time.
The lord leaves his table, the lady as well;
To a private pew she prudently goes.
Gawain glides full gay and goes the same way;
The lord latches him by the lap and leads him to sit,
And kindly he knows him and calls him by name,
And said he was the welcomest one of the world;
And he him thanked heartily, and each held the other,
And sat soberly the same the service while.
Then likes the lady to look on her knight,
She comes out from her closet with many clear girls.
She was the fairest in form, of flesh and of eye,
And of carriage and colour and cast, above all
And gleamed brighter than Guenevere, as Gawain thought.
She crosses the chancel to converse with that knight;
Another lady lead her by the left hand,
That was older than her, an ancient it seemed,
And highly honoured in the hall about.
But unlike to look on the two ladies were,
for if the first was fresh, the next was freeze-dried;
Rich red on that ripe one, her ruffled clothes,
Rough rankled cheeks on other one rolled;
Kerchiefs on that one, with many clear pearls,
Her breast and her bright throat bare displayed,
Shone more spotless than snow freshly shed on the hills;
That other with a gorger was geared over her, which
Climbed over her grim chin with chalk-white veils,
Her front folded in silk, en-doubled everywhere,
Turreted and trelated with trifles about,
That naught was bare of that bag but the black brows,
Between eyes and nose, the naked lips,
And those were sour to see and sadly bleared;
An eminent lady on earth we easily claim,
          by God!
Her body was short and thick,
Her buttocks bulged and broad;
More lovely on to look
Was that one she lead forward.

Gawain 875 - 927, The speed of speech un-spurred*.

A chair before the chimney, where charcoal burned,
Was gathered for Sir Gawain, garlanded with cloth,
With coverings and cushions all skill-quilted both.
And an autumnal mantle was on that man cast,
Of a brown burnet, embroidered full rich,
And fair furred within with fantastic skins,
All of ermine his edging, his hood of the same.
He sat in that settee-supreme and stared at the fire
And calmed his chest, and his cheer mended.
Soon was tended up a table on trestles full fair,
Clad with a clean cloth that clear white showed,
Set up with salt-cellar and silver spoons.
The wanderer washed at his will, and went to his meat.
Servants him served seemly enough
With several starter-stews, seasoned of the best,
Double-filled, as it fell, and fathomless fish,
Some baked in bread, some braised on the grill,
Some seared, some in stew savored with spices,
And all sauce so synthesized as that Sire liked.
Arthurs fighter called it a feast full freely and oft
With grace, when all there gathered replied him as one
          and said:
"This penance now you take,
And after this we amend."
That man much mirth can make,
For wine round his head wound.




Then were pryings and pokings politely engaged,
Questions of that quester made, he quickly replied
And courteously named, claimed the court he was part of:
Arthurs, the autarch, of his known knights one,
That is the right royal king of the Round Table,
And it was Gawain himself that from winter had walked,
Come here at Christmas, as chance had arranged.
When the lord had learned that here a lord lay,
Loud laughed he thereat, so lucky he thought,
And all men in that mansion made much joy
To appear in his presence to priestly see one
That all prize and prowess and pure thought
Appends to his person, and praised is ever;
Of all men molded, his eminence most.
Each servant full softly said to their friend:
"Now shall we see the seemly words
And the tactful terms of noble talk;
What speed is in speech-unspurred may we learn
Since we have found that fine father of verbs.
God has given us his grace in goodly truth,
That such a guest as Gawain he grants us to have,
When bands blithe at His birth shall sit
          and sing.
The meaning of matters dear
This brother shall us bring;
I hope any that him hear
Shall learn of love-talking."

*Possibly not a perfectly accurate translation.

Gawain 842 - 874, Gawain meets another really good-looking guy.

Gawain glanced up at the good gentleman's word,
And thought it a bold baron that this burgh had,
A huge horse-lord, humongous, and of a high age;
Broad and bright was his beard, and all beaver-hued,
Stern, stiff to the stride on stalwart shanks,
Face fierce as the fire, and free of his speech;
And well it seemed, sincerely, as our Sire thought,
He lead as their liege-man these ladies and lords.
The lord him conducts to a chamber and chiefly commands
To send him some servants, his self to assist;
And there were brought at his bidding butlers enough
That bore him to a bright bower, who's bedding was noble,
Of curtains of clean silk with clear gold hems,
And coverlets full curious with comely panes
Of effulgent ermine, embroidered besides,
Shrouds running on ropes through red gold rings,
Tapestries tight to the wall, of Toluse and Tars,
And strewn under step, several of similar kind.
There he was deposed, with speeches of mirth,
The steel from his shoulders and all his cool clothes.
Rich robes full radiant retainers him brought,
For to charge and to change and choose of the best.
When one he picked, and placed therein,
That sat on him seemly, with streaming skirts,
So suited the Chevalier, like jewel set in ring,
He brightened the boudoir, from winter brought spring,
Gleaming and lovely, all his limbs under,
That a comelier knight never Christ made
          or caught.
Wherever in the world he were,
They all thought he must
Be prince without peer
In field where fell fought.

Gawain 811 - 841, Everyone here agrees that Gawain is just great.

"Good sir," said Gawain, "would you give my request
To the high lord of this house, harbour to crave?"
"Saint Peter!" the porter said, "I'll promptly go sir
And you are welcome, wanderer to while away here."
Then slipped out the wise servant and came again swift,
And a good gathering with him, to greet the knight.
They let down the draw-bridge and decorously came,
And kneeled down on their knees upon the cold earth
To welcome the equestrian, as worthy him thought;
They beckon him through the broad gate, gaping wide,
He requests them to rise and rides over the bridge.
Several squires seize his saddle, while he alights,
And Gringolet is stabled by some serious grooms.
Knights and squires come rushing down
For to bring this Brave with bliss into hall;
When he hefted his helm, they hurried forth
To lift it from him lightly, his lordship to serve;
His brand and his blazon also were taken.
Then hailed he full honorably the household each,
And many proud men there pressed, that prince to honor.
All hasped in his harness they brought him to hall,
Where fair fire on hearth-flags fiercely burned.
Then the lord of this land leaves his chamber
For to merrily meet the man who arrived.
he said, "You are welcome to wear as you like
All that is here as your own, to have at your will
          and wield.
"Grant mercy," said Gawain,
May Christ be your shield."
As friends that seemed fair
They embraced in arms sealed.

Gawain 785 - 810, The castle, apparently, is pretty great.

The kings sister-son on the mares son remained
By the deep double-ditch that defended the place;
It's side slashed into the moat-stream, superbly deep,
And a full-huge height it haled overloft,
Of hard hewn stone up to the parapets,
Enboldened under the battlements, by builders law;
And several garrets full gay geared between,
With many lovely loopholes that locked full-clean:
A keener keep that knight had never come upon.
And even now, he beheld that hall full high,
Towers like a tridents tines rising full strong,
Fair fastnesses fitting neatly, fearsomly long,
With carved tower-crowns craftily set.
Chalk-white chimneys there he espyed
Upon gabled roofs, that gleamed full-white;
So many painted pinnacles were pitched everywhere,
Among the castle cornices clustered so thick,
That pared out of paper purely it seemed.
The foal's fine fellow it fair enough thought,
If he might contrive to come the cloister within,
To harbor in that hostel while Christs day kept
          it's warrant.
He called, and soon there came
A porter pure pleasant,
From the wall asked his name,
And hailed the knight errant.

Gawain 763 - 784, Gawain spies a castle in the distance.

(I am translating the old-english poem 'Gawain and the Green Knight. The poem itself runs from one Yuletide, through the other, ending twelve months and a day after it began  so I am doing one or two stanzas every day, ending on Christmas day.)


NOT A TRAP

He had not made Christs sign scarce three times'ere he was aware of a water-ringed houseAbove a cleft, on a crag, clasped by the boughsOf many titanic trees about the thwarting troughs:A castle the comeliest that ever knight had,Pitched on a pasture, a park all about,With a piked palisade prickling full thick,That enclosed its timbers a two-mile loop.At the Hold, across the moat gazed our Hidalgo,As it shimmered and shone through the sweet oaks:Then devoutly doffs his head-gear, and directly he thanksJesus and Saint Julian, that gentle are both,That had courteously heard him and hearkened to his cry."Now Saints," cried the Chevalier, "I beseech you safe rest!"Then goads he Gringolet with his gilt spurs.As he providentially had picked the prime path,That brought boldly the brave one to the bridge end          in haste.The bridge became a defilade,The gates were closed-in fast,The walls were well arrayed,It feared no winds blast.

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Ok, we now return you to your usual broadcast.

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Many cliffs he out-clambers in countries full-strange;
Flown far from his folk, friendless he rides.
At each warp-over-water where he wished he could cross
If he found no foe before him, a wonder it was
And one so foul and so fell that fight them he must.
So many marvels in mountains there the man finds,
It were too sore to tell of the tenth part.
Somewhile with wyrms he wars, and with wolves as well,
Somewhile with Woodwose who waited in stones,
Both with bulls and with bears, and boars otherwhile.
And Eoten that him attacked from the high fells;
If not grim and grit-hard and God he had served,
Doubtless he had been dead and dashed full ofte.
For war worried him not so much, that winter was worse,
When the cold clear water from the clouds shed,
And freeze ere it fall to the frail earth.
Near slain with the sleet he slept in his reins
Most nights in among the naked rocks,
There as clattered from the crest the cold-burning rains,
And hung high over his head in hard iisse-ikkles.
Thus in peril and pain and plight full-hard
The country carries this knight till Christmas-Eve,
          all alone.
The knight well that tide
To Mary made his moan,
That she would read his ride
And lead him to some home.

Book of hours, Bruges or Ghent 15th century Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 287, fol. 80r

By a mountain on the morn merrily he rides
Into a forest full deep, that fairly was wild,
High hills on each hand, and harsh woods under
Of hoar oaks full high a hundred together;
The hazel and the hawthorn were hooked in their tops,
With rough ragged moss ranging everywhere,
With many birds un-blithe upon bare twigs,
That piteously they piped for pain of the cold.
Gawain upon Gringolet glides them under,
Through many a mist and mire, a man alone,
Seeking for his soul, lest he fail should,
To see the service of that sire, that on that same night
Of a maiden was made, our madness to heal.
and therefore seeking he said, "I beseech thee lord,
And Mary, that is mildest mother so dear,
For some hearth near here where I might hear mass
And thy matins to-morrow, meekly I ask,
And thereto priestly I pray my Paternoster
           and Creed."
He rode in his prayer
And cried for his misdeed;
Made the lords sign with care
And said, "Christs Cross me speed!"