Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Poetry. SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT by the anonymous Gawain-Poet (or Pearl-Poet) is like Beowulf one of the greatest classics of English literature. Hailed as the finest Arthurian romance this technically brilliant tale of enchantment faith temptation and chivalry is tautly constructed with a wonderfully rich vocabulary and vivid language that blends sophisticated atmosphere with psychological depth. John Ridland's new Modern English translation unlike most presentations is complete covering every passage and word of the Middle English Northwest Midland dialect original with the same line numbering contents and meaning. His is the only version written in a familiar modern meter—pleasurable to modern ears yet retaining the spirit of repetition and alliteration of the medieval original. And Dr. Ridland's introduction and notes are enlightening. This translation is a must-have for unlocking all the pleasures and delights of the original classic. With his loving rendition of a great classic into vigorous metrical lines John Ridland has given SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT a fresh lease on life. I've seen several other versions of this masterpiece but none so engagingly readable as Ridland's. His preface too is useful and illuminating. Here is a book to enjoy right now and to cherish forever.—X.J. Kennedy. John Ridland gives us a recognizably English GAWAIN and a very pleasurable one at that. The language is ours. It is slightly elevated as befits a work so finely crafted but only enough to demand our attention. Originally written in the same alliterative verse as Beowulf SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT was archaic in its own day; now over six-hundred years later alliterative verse can be as inaccessible as the pentatonic harp tunes that apparently accompanied it. Ridland gives the poem a long loose line that sings in the lyrical passages creeps in the spooky ones and cavorts in the comic ones. Just as important the densely mythic ethos fully intact enriches every word.—Richard Wakefield Panoramas of banqueting and hunting closely observed rituals of dressing arming and game preparation and rich descriptions of landscape and weather—Ridland's translation presents these in all their delightful over-the-top particularity.—Maryann Corbett The language in which the consummate poet and translator John Ridland serves up this delicious story in verse is exactly what it deserves. The descriptions are exuberant the narrative flows and exhilarates like the wine at the courts we're asked to imagine and the exchanges between complex characters so subtly flavored by intelligent diplomacy that it makes the dialogue of much current fiction seem by contrast like a six-pack on the front stoop. Read this book. I suspect that like all enchantments it shifts and assumes different forms to different eyes. But I do guarantee surprises and inexhaustible delight.—Rhina P. Espaillat