Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

I've read a lot of translations of the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (I regularly teach it), and I thought that nobody could outdo the standard, quite wonderful version by Marie Borroff (also published by Norton). Well, I've just finished reading Simon Armitage's amazing translation, and I was wrong. Armitage's should be the new standard version used by students and lay readers everywhere. It captures both the energetic alliteration of the original and also its wonderful toggling between formal and colloquial registers. It does a magnificent job of approximating the galloping rhythm of the long verses, but is equally stunning at managing the "bob and wheel" that brings each long verse to comically neat closure (e.g., see Armitage's description of Gawain's emblem, the pentangle -- "[he] bore that badge on both / his shawl and shield alike. / A prince who talked the truth. A notable. A knight," ll.636-39). It takes some poetic chutzpah to fiddle with the Gawain-poet in this way. But Armitage has the versifying courage and the nervy tone just right. I think the 14th-century poet, whoever he was, would admire and appreciate this new version. That's also because Armitage shows humility as a translator too when it matters. For example, he works hard to preserve the delicate moral ambiguities of the original poem. It's difficult to translate Gawain's refusal to give the seductress, the lady of the manor (where his humility, his loyalty and his self-control are tested) a token of his affection with the perfect blend of courtesy and self-regard that is there in the original ("Hit is not your honour to haf at this tyme / A glove for a garysoun of Gawaynes giftes," ll. 1806-07), but Armitage's "it strikes me as unseemly that you should receive / nothing greater than a glove as a keepsake from Gawain" hits the mark pretty well; by placing Gawain's reference to himself in the third-person at the end of the line, he makes us wonder if the hero isn't buying in a bit too easily to the reputation that has preceded him. I'm not going to repeat the plot of the whole poem here; it's well known, easy to find online, and other amazon reviewers have gone over it. Armitage's confidence as a translator is expressed in his willingness to provide the original language of the poem on a facing page (Borroff's translation does not do this), so the reader can take a long look at the luscious original. Sure, he changes a word here or there (every translation does this), but Armitage is scrupulously true to the spirit of the original.

First of all, note the five stars and don't read too much negativity into this review. It's just that I like the translation very much and a few missteps (as they appear to me) make me want to speak out. It has been said elsewhere that in some places Armitage chose to stray from the original even where the original is quite natural to the modern ear and, in rare cases, he used language which is jarring and discordant. I agree. Here is an example which, for me, was the most discordant ... Original: But in his honde he hade a holyn bobbe, That is grattest in grene when greves ar bare, And an ax in his other, a hoge and unmete, A spetos sparthe to expoun in spelle, quo-so myght. Translation: but held in his hand a sprig of holly--- of all the evergreens the greenest ever--- and in the other hand held the mother of all axes, a cruel piece of kit I kid you not Those last two lines made me blink. This is early in the poem and I almost gave up on the translation right there but am glad I did not. Other than a few rare examples like that (and none other so glaring) I enjoyed it immensely. This is a "five star" translation. What Armitage has done in this translation is not easy and deserves respect. He manages more than mere "accessibility" for the modern reader but also maintains a natural sense of speaking along with alliteration like the "percussive hoof beats" mentioned in another review. As they say, pure poetry. Anyway, here is my attempt at a translation of the above: but in his hand he had a holly sprig, that is greenest of green when groves are bare, and an ax in his other, huge to excess, a wicked war-ax to put into words, if one could. Note that the first two of those lines are nearly unchanged from the original, an example of where the (almost) original reads quite naturally. I'm still not satisfied with that last line but have had my nose so close to it I can no longer see the forest for the trees so will let it stand as it is (for now).

I cannot overstate how shocked and impressed I was by this version. Gawaine and the Green Knight has been done many times by many authors. The original is in Middle English which means you're reading a translation. That means most authors offering Gawaine are stodgy professor types. What makes this effort different was that Simon Armitage spent so much effort presenting the alliterative nature of the original text. The result is that his poem rolls off the tongue. The verse pulls you in. It reads like an adventure story. You get graphic descriptions of food that sound like the author is advertising a buffet. You get dialogue between characters that sounds like heroes bantering with each other on a movie screen. In short, it's fun. This Armitage translation shows you why Gawaine and the Green Knight was a popular story before it became the subject of academic study.

I learned about this version of Gawain when I watched a BBC documentary on finding Gawain hosted by Simon Armitage. This book is a compelling read. It brings to life many of Gawains moments in an easy to read verse translation that maintains the integrity of the poetic elements found in the original text. The original and new verse translation are on side-by-side pages.

'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' (ca. 1400) is chivalric romance literature of the late Middle Ages. It is often thought of in conjunction with 'Beowulf' (ca. 800), but these works are nearly 600 years apart, as near to one another as 'Sir Gawain' is to our own time. It is a part of the "chivalric revival" of the Hundred Years' War period, when the old order of knights and chivalry was giving way to longbow armed peasants who could unceremoniously kill from a distance, when the three-orders of knight, peasant and priest was breaking down. In this period of rising violence, social turmoil, the Black Death, famine and other "Crisis of the 14th century", there was a nostalgia among the nobility for the old days, the romantic stories from the 11th and 12th centuries found new popularity. 'Sir Gawain' then is a continuation updated with contemporary aesthetics and sensibilities- a chivalric revival. It's this type of work that 'Don Quixote' would devastatingly satirize 200 years later, effectively putting the final nail in the coffin of the medieval romance and opening the way to a new form: the novel. Armitage has done a great job with the translation, by keeping the alliteration intact it makes for excellent reading aloud, the tongue gets a real work-out but pretty soon the guttural Germanic accent takes over with a short, crisp, pounding rhythm. By the end you feel ready to become a good Medieval knight, or at least better understand the mindset.

I knew nothing about this saga when I ordered it, but after reading the introduction, could not wait to get started. Because of the introduction, I was immediately aware of the alliteration in nearly every line and found myself lip reading to appreciate the sounds. It's a great story and the poetry makes it perfect for reading out loud. A nice feature is having the original old English opposite each page, so that, if interested, you can try reading the original, or just see how this translation matches up. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book!

Characters with challenges and agendas--what's not to love? Knights and ladies and lords and mysteries! Get this and enjoy a foray into medieval entertainment.

This review has nothing to say about the translation, it’s perfect, 5 stars, and absolutely worth a read. This review is more to warn about the sheer disappointment that comes with the hardcover edition of this poem. Each and every illustration is displayed at an embarrassingly noticeable low resolution, and it’s extremely distracting for how many of them there are. Some images are worse than others, but when it gets bad, it gets really bad. I wish in my heart it wasn’t like this, because otherwise this would be a thousand times over one of the most perfect things you could own. But alas, maybe go with the standard paperback for this one.

This book was both surprisingly readable and surprisingly entertaining. The book tells the story of Sie Gawain, a nephew of KIng Arthur, who accepts a challenge from the Green Knight that will almost certainly result in his own death. I was always reluctant to pick up a book written circa 1400 in Middle English, but was motivated to pick up this book because of the positive reviews for Simon Armitage's translation of the work into contemporary English. Armitage even maintains a poetic feeling for the work.

Like The Iliad, which I have also read recently, this work is timeless. Or at least, it is when translated into modern idiom as well as Simon Armitage has done here. The story is surprisingly subtle. Gawain is a “Master of the Universe” in the same sense as Sherman McCoy was in 1980s New York. Related by blood to King Arthur himself, he is physically strong and beautiful. He has all the knightly virtues. Fearless on the jousting field with courtly manners, he prides himself on his ease and learned conversation with the court ladies. He is held in high regard at Camelot and clearly holds himself in high regard. Just as Sherman was taken out of his comfort zone, so is Gawain. The mysterious Green Knight crashes into the Round Table’s new year’s eve celebrations and Gawain finds himself entangled in an impossible duel. Gawain does not shirk. He intends to meet his obligations, even though they can only lead to his death. He enters into bargain with another man he meets on his quest, but this bargain he does not keep to the letter. Offered a token that will save his life in the upcoming meeting with the Green Knight, he takes it and keeps it, even though this is owed, under the terms of the bargain he made, to the other man. The Green Knight spares Gawain, leaving him with a scar on his neck to remind him of his insincerity. It is all done in good humour, but Gawain knows that his knightly honour has been compromised. He returns to Camelot a diminished man and his scar is a further symbol of the corruption that is at the heart of Camelot and will eventually bring it down. The beauty of the poem is in its humour and understatement. Gawain is not a bad man. He is proud and unthinking, and he is trying to live to an honour code that is almost impossible to keep. He takes the chance to save his skin. Who wouldn’t in his position? The author does not condemn him and nor should we, but it is the beginning of the end of Arthurian golden age. Of course, it is the Green Knight who is the instrument of his downfall. Green Knight/Green Man, symbol of the unstoppable thrust of nature. When Camelot falls, it will be overgrown by vegetation until it eventually disappears into the forest. This is the fate of us all. Master of the universe or not. The poem is magical and Armitage brings out the best in it. He has a lightness of touch that makes it an easy read. He wisely keeps the alliteration from the original, thereby retaining the poetry and the other-worldliness. My only complaint is that, in the dialogue especially, he tries too hard to render the modern vernacular. This is doomed to failure, because phrases like “Who is governor of this gaggle?” already sound more dated than the original. Note to Faber. Have you considered a parallel text? Armitage side by side with the original. I for one would appreciate it.

Armitage has managed a very skillful translation of this Middle English masterpiece, alliteration, bob and wheel and all. We glimpse, I sense, how the poem might have been received by the ears of the fourteenth century, who heard it fresh and newly minted. It is far better than the academic renderings we have had in the past, and certainly more sophisticated than the victorian rhyming versions I have come across. All in all an imoressive acheivement - but if you can, read it aloud!

Good edition.

RAS