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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 821.1 EAN: 9780393060485 ISBN: 0393060489 Label: W. W. Norton Manufacturer: W. W. Norton Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 352 Publication Date: October 08, 2007 Publisher: W. W. Norton Studio: W. W. Norton Editorial Review: Product Description: 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 Composed 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - New translation; new voice(This review refers to the 2007 hardcover edition) I read W.S. Merwin's (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) 2002 verse translation of this medieval poem, and so thoroughly enjoyed his rendering that I flagged it to read again. However, I heard good things about Armitage's translation, so bought it to add to my library. Figuring I'd read it someday, I flipped to the first page of the translation to see what it was like, and was immediately pulled into the narrative by the now familiar setup ... Read More Rating:  - Very SatisfyingFirst 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 ... Read More Rating: - Chivalric revival'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, ... Read More Rating: - Sir Gawain and the Green KnightSIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT: A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION TRANSLATED BY SIMON ARMITAGE: In February of 2000, renowned poet Seamus Heaney published a new verse translation of the classic anonymous epic poem "Beowulf." While not a complete literal translation, Heaney's version set out to emulate the poetic style and meter of the original writers of the poem. "Beowulf" was first committed to parchment around the year 1000, up to then it had only existed as a oral poem recited to friends, families and subjects ... Read More Rating: - Falls on the ear with the percussion of hoof beatsEvery age produces its own version of Arthur and Camelot. The alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is separated from us by over 600 years but by even more from any putative historical Arthur. Its imagery belongs to the late medieval period rather than anything the post-Roman Dark Ages might have looked like. The juxtaposition of Christian and mythical elements is disconcerting and the real subject of the story (quite apart from the fantastic adventure elements) is far from obvious. It is actually ... Read More |
