Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation) [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Simon Armitage (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2007

A spellbinding poetic translation of this six hundred year-old Arthurian story of beheading, romance, and the supernatural.

"Promises to drive the green force of the old poem through the Armitage fuse and set it a-buddin' and a-bloomin' for the new millennium."—Seamus Heaney, Nobel Laureate, best-selling translator of Beowulf

Com posed in the late fourteenth century by an anonymous author in the English provinces, this remarkable epic has enchanted readers for generations. The work itself is an unparalleled masterpiece of alliteration and rhyme, beginning at Christmastime in Camelot, when the festivities of the Round Table are interrupted by the sudden appearance of a fearful stranger, green from head to foot. A young knight, Gawain, rises to the challenge. What follows is a test of nerve and heart as Gawain travels north to meet his destiny at the Green Chapel in a year's time. Following in the tradition of Seamus Heaney, Simon Armitage, one of England's leading poets, has produced a virtuoso new translation that resounds with both clarity and verve.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Composed in medieval England by an unknown poet and set in what were (even then) the old days of King Arthur, the tale of Sir Gawain begins when a magical warrior with green skin and green hair interrupts the Christmas party at Camelot with a bizarre challenge: If a person here present, within these premises,/ is big or bold or red blooded enough/ to strike me one stroke and be struck in return in once year's time, says the knight, I shall give him as a gift this gigantic cleaver. Pure, loyal Sir Gawain accepts the agreement: the adventures that ensue include a boar hunt, a deer hunt, and an extended flirtation with a noble lady, designed to test Sir Gawain's bravery, fidelity and chastity, and to explore—with some supernatural help—the true meaning of virtue. The Gawain-poet, as he is known to scholars, wrote in Middle English (reproduced here); though it is slightly harder to read than Chaucer, the grammar is more or less our own. Armitage (The Shout), one of England's most popular poets, brings an attractive contemporary fluency to the Gawain-poet's accentual, alliterative verse: We hear the knights of Round Table chatting away charmingly, exchanging views. This is a compelling new version of a classic. (Oct.)
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Review

[Armitage] has taken an artifact from a remote era and made it his own, while simultanously restoring it to itself. (John Ashbery) REVIEW Brilliantly orchestrated....Armitage has produced a brilliantly well-tuned modern score for one of the finest surviving examples of Middle English poetry. -- Poetry Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (October 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393060489
• ISBN-13: 978-0393060485
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #316,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boar Hunts and Bedchambers, October 10, 2007

By 

Lightman (New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation) (Hardcover)

Also alliteration and a lot of it.

Simon Armitage has produced a contemporary translation of the noted 14th century Middle English poem. In so doing he has been faithful to the original work, while rendering it accessible and interesting to modern readers.

The action begins when the knights of King Arthur's Round Table are disturbed in their Christmas feasting by the arrival of a fearsome Green Knight who issues a remarkable challenge:

"if a person here present, within these premises,
is big or bold or red-blooded enough
to strike me one stroke and be struck in return,
I shall give him as a gift this gigantic cleaver
and the axe shall be his to handle as he likes.
I'll kneel, bare my neck, and take the first knock.
So who has the gall? The gumption? The guts?
Who'll spring from his seat and snatch this weapon?
I offer the axe - who'll have it as his own?
I'll afford him one free hit from which I won't flinch,
and promise that twelve months will pass in peace,
then claim,
the duty I deserve
in one year and one day.
Does no one have the nerve
to wager in this way?"

Gawain accepts the challenge, and lops off the Green Knight's head with a single swipe, only to have the Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The ensuing quest, culminating in an ambivalent and unexpected ending, weaves together themes of chivalry and the natural, hunting and seduction, as well as Christianity and paganism. The symbolism is many layered and ushers the reader into ever deeper understandings from an ancient era.

But it is the language, the evocative delighting in words, that I most enjoyed. Here is the description of a boar hunt that takes place while Gawain fends off the amorous advances of a beautiful mistress:

"The front men stepped forward to fire a shot,
aimed arrows at him that were often on target,
but their points could not pierce his impenetrable shoulders
and bounced away from his bristly brow.
The smooth slender shafts splintered into pieces,
and the heads glanced away from wherever they hit.
Battered and baited by such bombardment,
in frenzied fury he flies at the men,
hurts them horribly as he hurtles past,
so that many grow timid and retreated a tad.
But the master of the manor gave chase on his mount,
the boldest of the beast-hunters, his bugle blaring,
trumpeting the tally-ho and tearing through the thickets
till the setting sun slipped from the western sky.
So the day was spent in pursuits of this style,
while our lovable young lord had not left his bed,
and, cosseted in costly quilted covers, there he
remained.
The lady, at first light,
did not neglect Gawain,
but went to wake the knight
and to change his mind."

Recommended reading (once you start with the alliteration it's hard to stop).

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Above All, Readable, December 24, 2007

By 

New Yawkuh "New Yawkuh" (Queens, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation) (Hardcover)

I guess in an enterprise like this - creating the nth translation of an ancient classic - distinction of a given effort comes from the balance of readability poetry, and faithfulness.

This translation hikes the "readability" parameter all the way up. Most book reviewers of this translation use the "can't put it down" cliche, and it's true. No need to discuss further: if you're looking for a heckuva read, even if you're familiar with this work, you need look no further.

As for poetry, Armitage is a distinguished poet, and clearly invested great care in the music, nuance, and language (including, yes, tons of alliteration...in most cases working off a different consonant than the original). The result stands as a work of art, hence my five stars. One can't argue with greatness.

As for faithfulness...I'm no scholar, so don't take this as more than a comment from the peanut gallery. But as I read, I'd often glance over at the Middle English text and feel dismayed to find that more liberty was taken than I'd have preferred. In many cases, the Middle English is fully intelligible and quite affecting, yet Armitage chooses quite different language. On the other hand, his method is proven by the vibrantly engaging result.

My biggest quibble is that the translation contains three or four VERY jarring instances of discordantly modern colloquialisms (without discernible reason, to my eye) that come from out of nowhere. If I'd known I'd be writing this review, I'd have noted them, but never mind; as you read, you can't help but trip on them. Each time, I'd shake my head in disbelief. But, again, they're extremely infrequent.

So if readability and poetic sweep are your preference - and why wouldn't they would be if you're reading for pleasure? - this is definitely a book to own. If you're a Middle English scholar or a knowledgeable veteran of multiple previous Gawain versions, you ought to approach with a forgiving attitude. Armitage takes pains, in the introduction, to claim a minimally invasive approach. But don't all translators say the same?

Just an aside, perhaps naive: issues of spelling seem to constitute a great deal of the original's impenetrability. I'd love to read a truly minimally invasive translation, where spelling is modernized and only crucial obsolete words are individually replaced (alliteration be damned), in order to enjoy an easier undiluted taste of The Poet's voice. I hasten to note that even if such a translation existed, Armitage's work would still sit proudly on my shelf.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good attempt, January 19, 2008

By 

Donald Hunt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation) (Hardcover)

The newest translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the poet Simon Armitage is an interesting and easy to read addition to the list of translations of the fascinating Middle English poem.

Armitage decided to keep the original's alliteration and metre by taking some liberties with vocabulary. In other words, there were a lot of anachronisms, too many for my taste. But, on the other hand, the result is very readable and accessible to non-medievalists. And, for the medievalists, you can look at the original text on the right page.

Armitage clearly loves the poem and worked for a long time on the translation. He explains in the introduction that he felt called to do this, so this is not a project driven solely by a publisher's desire to capitalize on the popularity of Seamus Heaney's Beowulf translation.