Reviews

Gawayne and the Green Knight (Illustrated): A Fairy Tale by Charlton Miner Lewis

orjustjona's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

english_lady03's review against another edition

2.0

Interesting story, well executed compellingly told, excellent and sometimes beautiful use of language and good moral messages. Would give a higher rating but for the ending.

When everything is done, and Gawain completes his quest, and the moral aspects of the story are dealt with (truth, honour, keeping word, resisting temptation etc), the Green Knight reveals the identity of the Old Woman in his castle as none other than Morgana le Fey, Arthur's mortal enemy and practitioner of Black Magic- who put him up to challenging Arthur's knights.

Said Green Knight seems to have no problem Morgana living in his manor, and doing what she says, and asks dear Gawain to come in and say hello to her because she is his Aunt-- so apparently he has no problem with her association with 'the black arts' and thinks it is perfectly acceptable for a 'good Christian' to be involved with such.

The other issue was with the translation whilst generally good, the use of some overtly modern terms and phrases could be questionable.

linorris_'s review against another edition

5.0

Quería empezar este año releyendo este clásico que, junto al Lazarillo, fue el que me introdujo de verdad en la lectura en 3º de la ESO. Me gustó mucho entonces, pero evidentemente no sabía a ciencia cierta por qué. La relectura me ha permitido descubrirlo, animada por el tráiler de The Green Knight que está produciendo A24..

La historia del libro es bastante simple o, por lo menos, conocida: una prueba o desafío a un caballero de la corte de Arturo, sir Gawain, que ejemplifica a lo largo de su historia las cinco virtudes de un caballero: liberalidad, bondad, castidad, cortesía y, sobre todo, piedad, según el poema. Lo mítico del desafío final y la cotidianidad de estas pruebas contrastan y ofrecen una serie de paralelismos muy interesantes: los tres cortes contrastan con las tres pruebas a las que es sometido en el castillo. Pero aún más, esas tres pruebas son paralelas literaria y temporalmente con las escenas de caza: primero la inocencia de la cierva, después la ferocidad del jabalí y, por último, la astucia del zorro.

Spoiler

Será el zorro, la astucia, la promesa de salir con vida del lance final lo que hará que Gawain cometa una falta en esas virtudes. Una falta, sin embargo, excusable, tanto por el Caballero de Verde como por el propio Arturo y su corte, que a raíz de ella comenzará a utilizar el cinto verde (la prueba de su falta) como distintivo.

Lo que más me ha sorprendido es la traducción, sin haber leído el original, claro. Pero mantener en un poema, pese al trasvase a la prosa, ciertas cadencias, ritmos y figuras es un gran mérito. El poema entronca con la tradición del poema aliterativo, del que tenemos sendos ejemplos en el libro a pesar del tiempo y la distancia entre los idiomas:

La sangre brotó del cuerpo a borbtones, brillante sobre el verde.

[...]gozando lejos, por bosques y brezales, en pos de las ciervas estériles.

Cubrieron luego sus pies con calzado de acero, le envolvieron las piernas con grebas arrogantes, completadas con bruñidas y relucientes rodilleras de dorada charnela; después le pusieron bellos quijotes, bien sujetos con correas, que cubrieron hábilmente sus muslos musculosos.

En fin, es una lectura corta, ligera y enormemente bella. Las descricpiones (especialmente las de la caza y el invierno, como bien apunta Luis Alberto de Cuenca en la introducción) son maravillosas y sugerentes, así como se trata el tema del amor cortés y sus límites. Una gran lectura que me ha hecho querer conocer más sobre el Ciclo Artúrico.

samfah's review against another edition

3.0

Wee bit gey

hillersg7's review against another edition

4.0

Just got round to reading this - been on my shelves for some years. It's great - a visceral tale, with some great rhythm of language and alliteration, often funny. Probably really needs to be read out loud.

laura_reads_stuff's review against another edition

3.0

This book was written in the 14th century, and described to me as a tale of chivalry, which in all honesty didn't sound appealing. I got to read this in its original language, which was both challenging and fulfilling. While there were parts of the story I disliked (e.g. the fact women are basically deemed "evil" temptresses), overall it was an enjoyable read. And how remarkable to think that a book written so many hundreds of years ago is still being read today!

drowsyreaper's review against another edition

4.0

Best graduation ceremony reading ever. Annoying elitest cheerleader giving the valedictorian speech? Screw her. Go read about knights chopping off heads and getting seduced by married noblewomen.

Brian Stone does good work - understandable foot notes and some nicely done appendices. I've no complaints.

bookishchloo's review against another edition

4.0

loved this middle english translation. i have read it before, but have to again for a seminar. one of the more accessible texts from the period!

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

4.0

The poem commonly known as Gawayn and þe Grene Knyȝt is written in the North West Midlands dialect of Middle English, employing alliterative verse and the bob-and-wheel combination. The original text, which survives in a single manuscript (Cotton Nero A.x., late 14th c.), consists of 101 stanze, or 2530 lines. The Middle English text of the poem is available online for what I would hope would be obvious reasons. The translations I have on hand are, in chronological order of publication, Jessie L. Weston (1898), William Allan Neilson (1917), Brian Stone (1959), Marie Borroff (1967), Burton Raffel (1970), Keith Harrison (1983), W.S. Merwin (2003), Bernard O'Donoghue (2006), and Simon Armitage (2007).

Here are the first seven lines of the first fit:

Siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,　1
Þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondeȝ and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erþe:
Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,　5
Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicome
Welneȝe of al þe wele in þe west iles.

Grene Knyȝt is believed to have been written around the same time as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, i.e., sometime at the end of the 14th century. While the majority of the vocabulary is actually quite understandable to a modern reader fluent in the current form of English, the syntax is far more flexible, a relic of Germanic influence. (The German-style verb endings will also be noticeable.) Roughly translated, as literally as possible, this section reads as follows:

Since the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy,
The [borough] (city) destroyed and burnt to [brands] (chars) and ashes,
The traitor that the (machinations) of treason there wrought
Was tried for his treachery, the truest on earth:
It was Aeneas the (nobleman), and his (well-born) kind,
That since (subjugated) provinces, and [patrons] (masters) became
Well-nigh of all the wealth in the west isles.

Words in brackets are the direct descendant of the Middle English word; those in parentheses differ significantly either in meaning or gloss. As you can see, with the exception of "city," "chars," "machinations," "nobleman," "well-born," "subjugated," and "masters," every word is essentially understandable without assistance. Additionally, the original text does not actually rhyme. Keep all of this in mind when reading the following translations.

Weston (1898):

Since Troy's assault and siege, I trow, were over-past,　1
To brands and ashes burnt that stately burg at last,
And he, the traitor proved, for treason that he wrought,
Was fitly tried and judged,—his fortune elsewhere sought
The truest knight on earth, Æneas, with his kin,　5
Who vanquished provinces, and did, as princes, win
Of all the Western Isles, the wealth and worth alway;

Neilson (1917):

1. After the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy, the city been destroyed and burned to brands and ashes, the warrior who wrought there the trains of treason was tried for his treachery, the truest on earth. This was Aeneas the noble; he and his high kindred afterwards conquered provinces, and became patrons of well night all the wealth in the West Isles.

Stone (1959):

The siege and the assault being ceased at Troy,　1
The battlements broken down and burnt to brands and ashes,
The treacherous trickster whose treasons there flourished
Was famed for his falsehood, the foulest on earth.
Aeneas the noble and his knightly kin　5
Then conquered kingdoms, and kept in their hand
Wellnigh all the wealth of the western lands.

Borroff (1967):

Since the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy,　1
The walls breached and burnt down to brands and ashes,
The knight that had knotted the nets of deceit
Was impeached for his perfidy, proven most true,
It was high-born Aeneas and his haughty race　5
That since prevailed over provinces, and proudly reigned
Over well-night all the wealth of the West Isles.

Raffel (1970):

Once the siege and assault had done for Troy,　1
And the city was smashed, burned to ashes,
The traitor whose tricks had taken Troy
For the Greeks, Aeneas the noble, was exiled
For Achilles' death, for concealing his killer,　5
And he and his tribe made themselves lords
Of the western islands, rulers of provinces,
And rich:

Harrison (1983):

After the battle and the attack were over at Troy,　1
The town beaten down to smoking brands and ashes,
That man enmeshed in the nets of treachery—the truest
Of men—was tried for treason; I mean
Aeneas, the high-born, who, with his noble kinsmen,　5
Conquered many countries and made themselves masters
Of almost all the wealth of the Western Isles.

Merwin (2003; bilingual):

Since the siege and the assault upon Troy were finished,　1
The city destroyed and burned down to embers and ashes,
And the man who made the decoys that deceived them
Was tried for his treachery, though no man on earth was more true,
It was the noble Aeneas and his high-born kin　5
Who came to conquer provinces and become the lords
Of almost all the wealth of the Western Isles.

O'Donoghue (2006):

When the war and the siege of Troy were all over　1
and the city flattened to smoking rubble,
the man who’d betrayed it was brought to trial,
most certainly guilty of terrible crimes.
Then the noble Aeneas and his royal line　5
swept across Europe and lived as the rulers
of every country in the western world.

Armitage (2007; bilingual):

Once the siege and assault of Troy had ceased,
with the city a smoke-heap of cinders and ash,
the traitor who contrived such betrayal there
was tried for treachery, the truest on earth;
so Aeneas, it was, with his noble warriors
went conquering abroad, laying claim to the crowns
of the wealthiest kingdoms in the western world.

My favourite is automatically Merwin's because it's bilingual and relatively well-translated, but I'd put Borroff's at a close second, then Armitage's right behind.

monenti_antoniae's review against another edition

5.0

very very gay I love it