A review by sonofatreus
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown, Simon Armitage
4.0
As this is such a short read (only around 2500 lines), I don't have too much to say. It's a fun story and the Green Knight is kinda cool. Gawain is okay, as far as knights go, but not all that impressive one way or the other.
I really liked this edition. Armitage's translation tries to capture some of the sound of the original — it has his translation on one page, and the original on the facing page — but it rarely sounds too forced. He uses a lot of alliteration and rhyming, and it's usually to good effect. Most instances are obvious when reading it silently, as I did, but I would occasionally say it out loud just to hear it and it really does make a difference. He makes a note about this in his intro, since some of the alliteration comes where the word is accented (i.e., it's not all the initial sound).
Anyway, I was hoping that reading it would explain the weird giants scene in the movie and, it turns out, they're just as weird in the original, even though the scene is much briefer.
I really liked this edition. Armitage's translation tries to capture some of the sound of the original — it has his translation on one page, and the original on the facing page — but it rarely sounds too forced. He uses a lot of alliteration and rhyming, and it's usually to good effect. Most instances are obvious when reading it silently, as I did, but I would occasionally say it out loud just to hear it and it really does make a difference. He makes a note about this in his intro, since some of the alliteration comes where the word is accented (i.e., it's not all the initial sound).
Anyway, I was hoping that reading it would explain the weird giants scene in the movie and, it turns out, they're just as weird in the original, even though the scene is much briefer.