Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Quotes

“And wonder, dread and war
have lingered in that land
where loss and love in turn
have held the upper hand.”
― Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“Yet though I must lose my life, fear shall never make me change colour.”
― W.A. Neilson, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“Now take care, Sir Gawain,
Not to shrink from danger.
This is quite an ordeal
That you have taken on.”
― Bernard O'Donoghue, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“Why should I not defy
Destinies strong and dear;
What can man do but try?

(Kirtlan translation)”
― Ernest J.B. Kirtlan, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Rendered Literally Into Modern English From the Alliterative Romance-poem of A.D. 1360, From Cotton Ms. Nero Ax in ... and Gawain Sagas in Early English Literature

“My God . . . that grinding is a greeting.
My arrival is honored with the honing of an axe”
― Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“And [Gawain] constantly enquires of those he encounters / if they know, or not, in this neck of the woods, / of a great green man or a green chapel. / No, they say, never. Never in their lives. / They know of neither a chap nor a chapel / so strange.”
― Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“Then red fur rips--Reynard
out of his pelt is prised.”
― Simon Armitage, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“So the year passes into many yesterdays, and winter comes again, as it needs no sage to tell us.”
― Jessie L. Weston, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“Beside the refined, almost Greek, simplicity of Chaucer's poetry, the ornamented verse of the contemporary north-western poet rears like A Hindu temple, exotic and densely fashioned.”
― Brian Stone, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“The Gawain-poet can do an incredible number of things in brilliant style. His sensibility is both delicate and powerful, as is his language; he can sing like a choirboy or like an angry blacksmith; he can draw characters so vividly that they breathe, he can paint pictures so vitally that one sees them, almost feels them. He can weave a compelling and tightly organized plot out of disparate and sometimes fragile elements; he can be passionaltely moral; he can be wickedly comic.”
― Burton Raffel, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“The Gawain-poet can do an incredible number of things in brilliant style. His sensibility is both dielcate and powerful, as is his language; he can sing like a choirboy or like an angry blacksmith; he can draw characters so vividly that they breathe, he can paint pictures so vitally that one sees them, almost feels them. He can weave a compelling and tightly organized plot out of disparate and sometimes fragile elements; he can be passionaltely moral; he can be wickedly comic.”
― Burton Raffel, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

“In rede rudede vpon rak rises þe sunne,
And ful clere costez þe clowdes of þe welkyn.”
― Unknown, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight