Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | 
My third year starting Sir Gawain during Christmastide, fifth reading overall, and fourth translation. As you can see behind the book, there's no snow on the ground today (Dec 29) here in northern Utah, USA, a place that someone once told me was 'the great white north'.
Recent acquisition for our personal library.
pickSimon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was always my favourite. It might not be the most strictly accurate, but it's the one that tries to be earnest in reflecting the sounds and joy of the original, rather than trying to be scholarly. There's a place for both.
pick★★★★☆
This translation was, at times, both easier and more difficult than others I have read.
p. 14
'Then they showed forth the shield, that shone all red,
With the pentangle portrayed in purest gold.
About his broad neck by the baldric he casts it,
That was meet for the man, and matched him well.
...
For it is a figure formed of five points,
And each line is linked and locked with the next
For ever and ever, and hence it is called
In England, as I hear, the endless knot.'
p. 7
'And so I call in this court for a Christmas game,
For 'tis Yule and New Year, and many young bloods about;
If any in this house such hardihood claims,
Be so bold in his blood, his brain so wild,
As stoutly to strike one stroke for another,
I shall give him as my gift this gisarme noble,
This ax, that is heavy enough, to handle as he likes,
And I shall bide the first blow, as bare as I sit.
⬇️
Started Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation by Marie Borroff
Join me on LibraryThing, BookWyrm, & Goodreads @bibliothecarivs.
It's that time of the year to re-read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 💚❤️💚
This time around, it's Simon Armitage's revised translation, with lots of luscious illustrations. When I first flicked through this version, it didn't sit well with me, but as I'm actually sitting down with it to read through, it's actually flowing nicely.
🙇🏻🩸🪓🧌
Recent acquisitions:
📖 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation by Marie Borroff
#UniteAgainstBookBans and #LetUtahRead
so-soI‘m sorry Gawain poet, I didn‘t totally get along with your Arthurian poetic epic, and your pagan green knight in his games with the temptation of your hero. I tried to read your original language, and appreciate your alliteration (and rhyme). Alas, I prefer the French Lais, and, dare I say, your contemporary, Chaucer, and his joy of life collection. Please forgive.
Well, that might be an odd quote from introduction, but i was stunned reading the one line out loud and seeing the alliteration that i completely missed reading silently. So it stuck.
Anyway, i started this today and just read Amitage‘s introduction and kind of fell in compositional love. It‘s a quietly perfect and beautiful and an enlightening introduction to the poem and to all poetry in translation.
"In his one hand a holly twig,
That is greenest when groves are bare,
And an axe in his other,
A huge and prodigious one,
A weapon merciless almost beyond description."
- Adaptation by John Reppion
#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl
pickWe had an afternoon in Liverpool today, so I naturally popped into News From Nowhere, and popped out with this GN adaptation of the classic poem. The story is told in Reppion's modern alliterative rhyming couplets, which work well. At first I found Penman's art style a bit too cartoony in places, but it quickly grew on me, and actually I think it's a striking interpretation. The colouring is fantastic, the black inks being splashed with vivid ⬇️
pickListened to the audiobook narrated by Simon Armitage. Great narrative of a young knight of King Arthur's court, Sir Gawain as he volunteers to challenge the green knight and the ensuing quest and adventures.
'Yet keeping calm the knight
just quipped, "Why should I shy
away. If fate is kind
or cruel, man still must try."'
'Each year, short lived, is unlike the last
and rarely resolves in the style it arrived.'
'Folly finds the man who flirts with the fool.'
#Midwintersolace
I'm exploring winter reads for a cosy night and can't decide. I discovered this great selection of winter reads from the Guardian archive. Sir Gawain is on my list! 🐲🎄❄️
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/24/top-10-winters-in-literature?CMP=S...
I had half a lime left over from cooking tea, which it would be criminal to waste, so I juiced it, added triple sec, dry vermouth, freezing gin and a dash of bitters. I'm calling it a Green Knight, as after drinking this I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my head 🍸🪓😄
pickForsooth!!! I enjoyed listening to this medieval poetry of courtesy and bravery!!! #ChildrensClassicsChallenge @TheBookHippie
pickWritten around 1400,this is definitely the oldest book that I have read this year. It is a poem that describes a quest that Sir Gawain of King Arthur‘s Round table accepts at a Christmas celebration. An emerald skinned giant dressed in green enters the castle and makes a strange request. Violent hunting scenes did disturb me. A mystery. An adventure.Part romance.Part morality tale of the time with some added magic.
#childrensclassicread2021⬇️
The book bank is empty for now but….worth it 😆
pickI have had this on my shelf for decades!😅 I bought it in university but never got around to reading it. Glad I finally did! If you enjoy Arthurian legends and tales of knights, this one‘s for you. And if you get a little lost like I did at times, Wikipedia will set you back on the right path. 😁3/5⭐️
pick'sir Gawayn & þe grene knyȝt' from north-west England in the late 1300s has a fantastic plot and composition. This edition (Penguin Classics) has a great translation and essays by Brian Stone. I read much of it out-loud and would love to hear it performed (oh, to have witnessed the 1971 play at Newcastle!). ⬇️
pickThe audiobook is only 5+ hours long and, halfway through the story is over— So what is taking up the other half?
It turns out it‘s a reading of the poem in the original Early Middle English (“Chaucer‘s English”)! Even though I couldn‘t understand most of it (a handful of words here and there), knowing the story helped a lot. The original has a cadence of its own and is performed lyrically and beautifully by the narrator, Bill Wallis. #AllTheStars
Also translated from Early Middle English (“Chaucer‘s English”) is this anonymous story about chivalry and honor: Sir Gawain steps up and accepts a challenge thrown down by the Green Knight and, well it doesn‘t turn out like anything you would expect! I‘m really enjoying the translator‘s preserving the alliterative nature of the work as well as the lyrical quality. Beautifully done and the narrator serves it all equally well. 🎧
pickMy 3-month-old grandson‘s name is rooted from the Welsh name Gawain and the Arthurian legend so I thought it incumbent upon me to learn this tale. I‘ll regale Gavan a g-rated version where the horse, Gringolet, shares a starring role. . ...And this translation may contain my favorite description of an elderly woman - she was ‘altered by age‘ -lol!
pickIs it really Christmas if a Green Knight doesn‘t bust into your feast demanding to play a game that ends in decapitation?? 🎄 🗡 🛡 🪓💋👑
Always a joy to read some Arthurian medieval tales 😊
I saw the amazing movie trailer for The Green Knight and discovered I have never read the poem, so ordered a copy.
so-soI read this with my son for school, and I‘ve read it in previous years with my daughters #homeschool
It‘s good, but I didn‘t love it like I have some of the other hero tales we‘ve studied. There is a lot here in the way of moral character and flaws and humility, and I like all of the symbolism with the Christian faith. But this one just doesn‘t make me as excited as Beowulf or Chaucer‘s Tales 🤷🏻♀️
pickexcellent poem🛡⚔️♥️
Preserved on a single surviving manuscript dating around 1400,Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was rediscovered only 200 years ago and published for the first time in 1839. One of the earliest great stories of English literature, the poem narrates the strange tale of a green knight on a green horse who rudely interrupts the Round Table festivities one Yuletide, casting a pall of unease over the company and challenging one of their number to a wager
Just saw the trailer for the new Green Knight movie and it‘s ... intriguing. Not just for Dev Patel related reasons but because I really do love this text. Simon Armitage‘s version is hugely enjoyable - definitely recommended reading!
Trailer for a new film adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I can't tell if I'm pleased or not. At all events, I don't recall him having a fox companion 🙄🦊 (though it is cute) Fingers crossed 🤞🏻
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJc2tH3WBw&feature=youtu.be#di...
Did anyone hear about this movie!!!!! It‘s based on the Arthurian poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! I am so excited for this. I love every thing about the Arthurian Legends and Sir Gawain has always been one of my favorites. I am so excited to see a producer reach outside the safety of The Sword in the Stone story. We all know that story. I hope this does extremely well and inspires other Arthurian legends to be made into movies!!
I‘ll stretch it and say this is a Christmas read as it‘s set at King Arthur‘s court during the Yuletide celebrations. 😆 (The illustrations are AMAZING).
#BookAdventCalendar
Day 19
pickSeems like I'm on a bit of King Arthur spree atm - One of my favourite stories is The Green Knight and this was probably the first poetry book I bought for myself as a teenager.
While I love the original Middle English poem, I am so thankful for Armitage‘s masterful translation. Other translations make the poem accessible to students, but this one brings it alive.
On Monday, I was presenting at a Graduate conference organized by my university. My presentation adressed the reversal of gender norms through seduction in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. SGGK is one of my favorite piece of literature from the Middle Ages. Lady Bertilak woos like the most courtly of knights. Seduction empowers her, and it is delightful to read.
Started this and already loving it. Everything like the alliteration is so powerful! :D
#SimonArmitage #GreenKnight #NoelNoel
A gift from one of my students at the end of today's Brit Lit I lecture.
#MarchInBooks #GreenBooks Sir Gawain & the Green knight 💚
