I don't really know what to say about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight other than that I feel well out of my depth talking about it. I'm not a linguist, I don't know an awful lot about the 14th century and I'm not even an English graduate. I sense that trying to unravel much about it is well beyond my meagre mind, especially without any serious kind of scholarly study.
Yet it certainly has enough elements to it that interest me enough to read it, not least the fact I'm not very down with my Arthurian legend knowledge yet it's something I have always been intrigued by, but have not done a lot to find out about. My own bizarre internal contradictions inside, I picked up a copy of Tolkien's translation (along with Pearl and Sir Orfeo) and decided to give it a spin.
What first struck me about all of the works is that they are undeniably very well constructed in terms of verse, form, alliteration and rhyme. Which also means the translator deserves credit for rendering them in such an accessible yet true to form manner. They were, as I suppose they were intended to be, easy to read. It also gave of all the elements of a good epic, a good romance, a good story. Whatever the symbolic meanings and themes running throughout – virtue, temptation, hunting, nature – it all comes together to present a fine tale of the Middle Ages. Whether the author (an unknown) intended anything more from it is a matter for debate (probably seems to be the answer), but the sheer volume of different interpretations of it suggest to me that it is a very good piece of writing in that so many different readings of it can be made.
Of the three pieces, I liked Pearl the least, it's Christian virtues doing nothing for me even though it was well written. I completely understand the time in which it was written, but such Biblical stories are not my cup of tea. Sir Orfeo, despite being a very short work, I actually really liked. It was exactly the kind of fairy story or fable that I've always liked. A folk tale with a bit of magic, a bit of mystery and a happy ending – what's not to like? I doubt that I have shed any new (or frankly old) light on these works, but it was interesting to read them and overall liking two out of three ain't bad.
Book number: 19
Title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Category: Books with colours in the title
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