if you want to understand the definition of an anticlimactic ending, read this book. (2.5)

Christianising England
27 December 2020 - Adelaide

tFor a rather short, and somewhat uncomplicated story, there seems to have been an awful lot of writing having been done on this work. In fact, there is even a translation by Tolkien, but then again he did happen to be an expert in Medieval Literature, so I probably shouldn’t be all that surprised. In fact, it sort of makes me wonder if 600 years down the track whether some of the books that have been written now would attract the same level of criticism. Probably, but then again that sort of also comes down to the question as to whether they survive. For instance, a computer virus (or an electro-magnetic storm) could easily wipe out all the information that we currently have.

tLike, it isn’t as if we have all of the works that were written at the time, and we certainly don’t have all of the works that were written during the Greco-Roman era, but that is probably a good thing considering that there are Roman writers out there that point out that a lot of the stuff that was written is absolute garbage. In fact, some classical scholars, who have discovered lost works from that era, also realise that a lot of these works are absolute rubbish, so what has survived probably survived because, well, they were worth retaining.

tWhat we seem to be seeing with this work though is a merging of the pre-Christian English literature with the contemporary Medieval literature. From reading this book I get the feeling that much of the King Arthur mythos is actually pre-Christian, and what has happened is that the Medieval writers have been creating retellings to basically Christianise the stories. Further, since this is medieval literature, we are also seeing the additions of the chiverallic code to create these knights that are pure of heart, and are resistant to sexual temptations, something that seems to be consistent throughout these stories. Then again, that shouldn’t be all that surprising, considering that the lords would spend a lot of time out of the house, while their wives would wander around alone.

tThis is a clear theme from this story, since Gawain is staying at the castle of Sir Bertilac, and every day Bertilac goes out hunting, leaving Gawain and his wife alone. Each day the wife attempts to seduce Gawain, and Gawain continues to rebuff her. This happens until the wife gives Bertilac her garter, which is sort of something that a male that is not married to a woman should not really possess. Having a woman’s garter (which was a belt that held up the stockings), suggests that the man removed it, or that he had a bit of a twist with the woman.

tThe interesting thing is that it turns out that Bertilac’s wife is none other than Morgana le Fey, Arthur’s mortal enemy. She seems to be one of those characters that pops up regularly in the Arthurian legends, and when you see her you realise that nothing good can come from the encounter. Of course, the world in which we are exploring is a very male-centric world, and women seem to exist either as servants, or as wicked temptresses that seek to destroy the purity of the knight.

tIn fact, it sort of reminds me of a scene in the Quest for the Holy Grail, where one of the knights lands up in a castle full of virgins, and he is doing his best to resist their advances and at the point where he caves in, the other knights pour in and rescue to him save his chastity, of course to the knight’s objections. Yet this scene is a classic example of how things were viewed back in those days (or even today amongst certain circles) and that is that if you succumb to temptation it is because your mind has been lead astray, and you need to be rescued – and if you object it is not because you have changed your mind, but because you have succumbed to the devil.

tThen we have the Green Knight, who seems to symbolise the old, pre-Christian, English world, and the fight between Gawain and the Green Knight seems to represent the struggle between the new order that is Christianity, and the old order. Of course, the tale of King Arthur itself seems to represent the seismic shift in English culture at the time, as it moved into the more modern world that was considered to be the Christian world, a world at the time that seemed to represent civilisation. Of course this no doubt was inherited from the Roman roots in that everything outside of the boundaries of the Roman empire was considered savage and barbaric.

tIt is an interesting poem though, and it certainly shows us what literature was like back then. Mind you, one of the interesting facets of this work is the inclusion of the original text, or at lest a selection of it. Once again it goes to remind us of how different Old English was to the English that we are familiar with these days. In fact, from what I gather, the changes in English are much more than the changes in French and German (though of course these languages have also evolved over time).

I suppose I finally got around to this ! rly rly love

( remember ,the boyishness of king arthur

interesting

2/12/2022 Review:

“And the wars were one thing, but winter was worse: clouds shed their cargo of crystallized rain which froze as it fell to the frost-glazed earth.
With nerves frozen numb he napped in his armour, bivouacked in the blackness amongst bare rocks where melt-water streamed from the snow-capped summits and high overhead hung chandeliers of ice.”

3.75 || The backdrop to this tale is set during the Christmas period so I suppose this is my first festive read of this year? Armitage has done a really great job weaving the lyricism of his own writing style into the translation of the original iconic story of Sir Gawain, though as a Medieval literature fanatic I think I would/will be just as engaged reading the Middle English original text. I really enjoyed the exploration of the binaries between religion and carnival as well as the function of the supernatural and courtly lover within a court setting. I also appreciated how Mary is depicted within this, acting as a spiritual mother to male dominated knighthood (Considering my dissertation is about the agency of motherhood in medieval texts, I definitely got excited when Mary was mentioned and reflected onto certain characters.)

Aynı "Beowulf" gibi başka bir İngiliz destanı olan "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Sir Gawain ve Yeşil Şövalye", Kral Arthur ve Yuvarlak Masa Şövalyeleri’nden Sir Gawain’in dürüstlük sınavını eğlenceli bir şekilde okuyucuya sunan önemli eserlerden biri. İngiliz edebiyatının yapı taşlarından biri olmasının yanında döneminin klasik İsa ve Kutsal Kase esintilerini taşıyan eseri okurken özellikle tasvire yer verilen dizeleri okurken dikkatiniz dağılabiliyor. Buna rağmen sonlara doğru heyecanı artırarak vermek istediği mesajı şaşırtmacalı bir finalle okuyucuya vermeyi başarıyor.

19.02.2018
İstanbul, Türkiye

Alp Turgut

http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...

i know that this is a classic and i know that it is a poem of its time despite the translation, but i could not help but find this incredibly boring. perhaps a reread and further study will help but for now, no.

Wer auch immer das geschrieben hat, hat gekocht.

4.25/5

I read Tolkien's translation and it was beautiful.

It's King Arthur, need I say more? A story about the knights of the round table, this one is about Sir Gawain. At the beginning I couldn't help but have visions of the classic British film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. By the end, I remembered why after seeing Camelot as a summer community theater production, I enjoyed these tales about Arthur and his knights so much as a tween and teen.

Once in a while I need a chivalrous read. You know, the "strive to protect the helpless, protect your woman, and slay the evil guy or beast or both!" However, this book isn't what I thought. There is chivalry in it, and a woman, but there is really no "evil" guy, just a magical man who teaches Gawain honesty in a weird way.

This is a short novel and it is packed. I don't know how to review it without giving away spoilers. In short, Gawain is the youngest of King Arthur's knights. At a Christmas banquet, a green dude comes strolling up on his horse through the banquet hall door demanding that he challenge the king and his knights. Arthur agrees to take the challenge but the other knights want to take on the dude in booger green. Sir Gawain takes him on and, oddly, the man lets him cut his head off...yup...so much for a challenge! Buuuut the man gets up, takes his severed head and walks out. So now we know how the Legend of Sleepy Hollow REALLY begins!

As I described above, the beginning of the story is extremely bizarre but the story is a good one. Once in a while I really enjoy a story that has a moral lesson to it. In the knight's code, one of the most sacred of honors is honesty. This book showed the importance of what it means to be an honest knight and to always tell the truth. I loved how the message was that truth is always beautiful, even though it might hurt at first, but it always brings healing.

I’m stunned, partly by the poetry of vivid scenes, and partly by how much I’ve understood this. This translation by Simon Armitage also addresses the little quibbles that puzzled me when reading The Death of King Arthur  . In Peter Ackroyd’s book I kind of got the sense there was a connection between chivalry and the service a knight felt they were obliged to provide to women in distress. To my modern eyes this had romantic notions, but it just clashed with the function of a knight being armed to fight, where I could not work out how the religious aspect slotted into this picture. So, reading this translation, with its sumptuous poetry, is so much better than reading crib notes or an article that explains it.

As a read, I liked this much more than I thought I would. I felt sorry for Sir Gawain, who steps in for King Arthur to take the Green Knight’s challenge because he thinks he’s the least worthy knight, only to discover it was really all a test on his knightly values. And from the first sentence I was completely captivated to the last. Maybe it was the alliteration, which enhances rather than disrupt the drama. Or maybe it’s the many moments that stand out in this novella sized poem, like in Book / Fitt II, the gorgeous, breath-taking descriptions of seasons, or how the drama is wrenched up with the Lord of the Land’s hunting intercut with lady trying to seduce Gawain in Fitt III. Also, I was surprised to find the start of the story connect itself to the ancient city of Troy and Aeneid.

This is one read I’ve put off for too long, and I’m feeling silly about this as this is a wonderful read.