Reviews
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
barschuft's review
3.0
Sir Orfeo is fantastic, the Pearl is painful and Sir Gawain is great,. but I do prefer the Armitage translation!
heb307's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I enjoyed this much more on a second/third read. There is a lot of masterful foreshadowing within the text, and I enjoyed the parallel story structures within. Gawain himself is a complex character, and I enjoyed watching him experience a challenge to his code of chivalry.
malu's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
gsroney's review against another edition
3.0
I wonder if some of the more recent translations may have felt less archaic. I always love Arthurian stories like this, while at the same time I always have difficulty appreciating literature of the Middle Ages.
ikon_biotin_jungle_lumen's review against another edition
5.0
What a gem! Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a marvelous work of poetry. As Tolkien commented, it is certainly a darker and more contemplative work than those of Chaucer (one of the few known contemporaries of the unknown author), but no less magnificent. In my estimation, Tolkien's mastery of the language surpasses all other modern renderings of Sir Gawain.
I have been largely unversed in alliterative poetry, to my discredit. It pounds at you with a sublime rhythm, harrowing the heaving heart. It's a refreshingly bold style filled with peril and grandeur, devoid of the sickening sweetness of other poetic schemes.
I did not expect the moral nature of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight—all other versions of this tale that I have encountered have downplayed or removed that aspect entire. The author plainly intended Gawain to be an symbolic type of Christ. I would have titled this work "The Temptations of Sir Gawain," which befits the moral tale more than the bewitched ogre so commonplace to heraldic mythology.
I have been largely unversed in alliterative poetry, to my discredit. It pounds at you with a sublime rhythm, harrowing the heaving heart. It's a refreshingly bold style filled with peril and grandeur, devoid of the sickening sweetness of other poetic schemes.
I did not expect the moral nature of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight—all other versions of this tale that I have encountered have downplayed or removed that aspect entire. The author plainly intended Gawain to be an symbolic type of Christ. I would have titled this work "The Temptations of Sir Gawain," which befits the moral tale more than the bewitched ogre so commonplace to heraldic mythology.
_jessica_08_'s review
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rainpunk's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the Sir Gawain poem and the Sir Orpheo poem. Didn't care for Pearl.
caliesha's review
Reading an anonymous author makes me uncomfortably aware of how I'll never truly understand the past. Without an author to call upon, a name to whisper, how do we approach these poems? As sentences that never existed and then suddenly did?
I'm writing a review on the Internet of a book I read on my laptop based on material from a single surviving manuscript by an unknown author who lived 700 years ago and would not even understand the language their work has been translated into, let alone the world it exists in.
And yet, not all hope is lost. We know incredibly little about the Gawain Poet's life, and they know absolutely nothing of ours - but somehow we can still share the poetry. Across time and space, we'll always have poetry.
So yes, reading an anonymous work makes me uncomfortable, as does rating 14th-century literature. But, alliterative revival makes me happy, as does Orpheus, so this was an enjoyable read.
I'm writing a review on the Internet of a book I read on my laptop based on material from a single surviving manuscript by an unknown author who lived 700 years ago and would not even understand the language their work has been translated into, let alone the world it exists in.
And yet, not all hope is lost. We know incredibly little about the Gawain Poet's life, and they know absolutely nothing of ours - but somehow we can still share the poetry. Across time and space, we'll always have poetry.
So yes, reading an anonymous work makes me uncomfortable, as does rating 14th-century literature. But, alliterative revival makes me happy, as does Orpheus, so this was an enjoyable read.