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Forrhy, sir, this enquest I require yow here,
That ye me telle with trawthe if ever ye tale herde
Of the grene chapel, quere hit on grounde stondes,
And of the knyght that hit kepes, of colour of grene.

I finally finished it Wednesday night, but I've been too preoccupied with LudoNarraCon to write anything about it. Hell of a poem. I was reading Simon Armitage's side-by-side translation after a friend recommended it. I have Tolkien's translation kicking around somewhere, so I may give that one a go in the future. Some of Armitage's alliterative choices made me raise my eyebrows, but I'm glad he decided to do the traditional alliterative method in the first place since I previously hadn't known about that poetic structure. Now I've been indoctrinated.

I read passages one by one, but I always read the original passage all the way through before looking at its translation. Even without a scholar's grasp of Middle English, the story voice is very strong in Gawain, and the characters' personalities, especially Gawain's, come through clearly. There's a bias about "old writing" being dry/without flourish that it turns out I hadn't shaken off before reading Gawain. It thoroughly proved me wrong. I didn't expect to become so drawn in, but, by the time I reached the final scene in the Green Chapel, I was standing up while reading. I say this fully cringe, but that exchange was deliciously catty; it had swag; etc. It is just about the only scene I feel The Green Knight film approaches in atmosphere, and barely. "What more needs there be?" does a LOT to carry it... okay, I'm ending this before it becomes "is the book better than the film."

Dev Patel, bi saynt Gile, ye ar the best that I knawe. Sir Gawain, 'til next time.



P.S. There's still a projected two months before I can borrow The Priory of the Orange Tree again. Guess I'm going to read a few Sherlock Holmes stories? I'll let you know.