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ssgoosecookie 's review for:
Sir Gawain and the green knight
by Susan Hellard, Unknown
Enjoyable! I haven't read anything like this since high school, but other than a few obscure stanzas, I found I could follow it reasonably well. I was grateful for the introduction, which gave an overview of the plot and the poetic form that the translator tried to keep to. It was short, at xiii pages for the introduction and 54 pages for the main text.
This review turned into an essay, but for those who are tl;dr: Very well-put-together plot, for a fairy tale, with a surprise twist at the end. Would read again.
The story is about one of the knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain, and his encounter with the Green Knight. It's the original trope: Arthur and his knights and court are celebrating at New Years, when an unknown, massive man dressed in green intrudes and demands a contest with one of the renowned knights. The contest is simple: that day, the knight will be permitted one chop at the Green Knight's neck with a huge, razor-sharp axe. In one year's time, the Green Knight will take his turn and chop off the knight's head.
Of course, the contest is somewhat fundamentally flawed because the Green Knight would presumably be dead. Nobody really knows what to do, but the Green Knight insults Arthur until he agrees to it. Gawain steps up, chops the Green Knight's head off, which rolls across the floor all spurting and bloody. Whereupon the Green Knight goes and picks it up, dusts it off and the head declares that Gawain needs to meet him in a year's time at the Green Chapel. Then he rides off.
Gawain doesn't know where the Green Chapel is, but heads off after All Hallows the next year to courageously meet his doom. At Christmas, he still hasn't found it, and he prays that he'll find some place to spend Christmas Day and pray and stuff. And lo! a wild castle appears. Gawain is welcomed gladly and he spends the next week in revelry and enjoyment. The master of the castle knows where the Green Chapel is so Gawain can just bide his time till the New Year.
Gawain and the lord of the castle have a deal: if the lord feeds him his stories and his hunted meat, Gawain will give the lord anything he received during the day. The lady of the castle is very beautiful and very agreeable. She tempts Gawain three times, one per day, while her husband is out hunting. Each night, Gawain kisses the lord the number of times that the lady kissed him. (Medieval logic! She wanted Gawain to do much more than that. If he had, this would have been a very different book).
On the last day before he leaves, the lady begs Gawain accept a token of her love. He refuses a ring, but then she offers her girdle, claiming it will protect him from harm. Gawain is all "eh, why not? I've been good!" and accepts the girdle. When the lord asks Gawain that night, Gawain doesn't give back the belt. I think he fell just a little bit in love with the lady.
On the hunt for the Green Knight, Gawain goes out to where the Green Chapel is, and the knight is there. Sharpening an axe, of course! The Green Knight tells him to stay still, and Gawain does it. The Green Knight makes two false blows, not hitting Gawain, while teasing him with his death. Gawain is getting pretty pissed.
On the third strike,the Green Knight gashes open the side of Gawain's neck, and then reveals that he is the lord of the castle. He explains that it was all a test for the knights. Morgan Le Fay was behind it all, because she'd heard that the knights were proud. She magicked the lord so that he was green and invulnerable. Gawain had proven himself fallible because he took the trinket from the lord's wife, and for that he got a gash on the neck.
Excellent value for the $1 I paid for it at the used book store.
This review turned into an essay, but for those who are tl;dr: Very well-put-together plot, for a fairy tale, with a surprise twist at the end. Would read again.
The story is about one of the knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain, and his encounter with the Green Knight. It's the original trope: Arthur and his knights and court are celebrating at New Years, when an unknown, massive man dressed in green intrudes and demands a contest with one of the renowned knights. The contest is simple: that day, the knight will be permitted one chop at the Green Knight's neck with a huge, razor-sharp axe. In one year's time, the Green Knight will take his turn and chop off the knight's head.
Of course, the contest is somewhat fundamentally flawed because the Green Knight would presumably be dead. Nobody really knows what to do, but the Green Knight insults Arthur until he agrees to it. Gawain steps up, chops the Green Knight's head off, which rolls across the floor all spurting and bloody. Whereupon the Green Knight goes and picks it up, dusts it off and the head declares that Gawain needs to meet him in a year's time at the Green Chapel. Then he rides off.
Gawain doesn't know where the Green Chapel is, but heads off after All Hallows the next year to courageously meet his doom. At Christmas, he still hasn't found it, and he prays that he'll find some place to spend Christmas Day and pray and stuff. And lo! a wild castle appears. Gawain is welcomed gladly and he spends the next week in revelry and enjoyment. The master of the castle knows where the Green Chapel is so Gawain can just bide his time till the New Year.
Gawain and the lord of the castle have a deal: if the lord feeds him his stories and his hunted meat, Gawain will give the lord anything he received during the day. The lady of the castle is very beautiful and very agreeable. She tempts Gawain three times, one per day, while her husband is out hunting. Each night, Gawain kisses the lord the number of times that the lady kissed him. (Medieval logic! She wanted Gawain to do much more than that. If he had, this would have been a very different book).
On the last day before he leaves, the lady begs Gawain accept a token of her love. He refuses a ring, but then she offers her girdle, claiming it will protect him from harm. Gawain is all "eh, why not? I've been good!" and accepts the girdle. When the lord asks Gawain that night, Gawain doesn't give back the belt. I think he fell just a little bit in love with the lady.
On the hunt for the Green Knight, Gawain goes out to where the Green Chapel is, and the knight is there. Sharpening an axe, of course! The Green Knight tells him to stay still, and Gawain does it. The Green Knight makes two false blows, not hitting Gawain, while teasing him with his death. Gawain is getting pretty pissed.
On the third strike,
Excellent value for the $1 I paid for it at the used book store.