Green Knight Calling
Reading WS Merwin's new translation of Sir Gaiwan and the Green Knight -- ah, rapture. James got it for me for Christmas, having with his loving boy eyes seen me spot it in a bookstore and go: Oo! Oo! Oo! (Also rapture: a boy who knows me.)
I adore Merwin's translations (have got The East Window and From the Spanish Morning just about memorized) and the period fascinates me just now. So between the two, and the whirling day with the snow falling in great
curtains, I am excited and content. I like that combination.
For a year and a bit now I've been snatching and hording everything from about the Rune poem to about the Pearl. I thought I was taking in materials for my own rune poem, and for Too Strong to Stop, which has a bit of a medieval flavour to it. But today I had a wild thought that someone should do a rendering of The Green Knight (my favourite of the Arthurian tales) for older children. And maybe it should be me. And before I knew it I'd written a few lines, using the Beowulf-influenced long line with caesure I've been working with on Book of Wisdom.
So through the green wood
Gawain went riding,
seeking his own death,
drawn on by honour.
Somebody tell me not to do this, before it's too late.
6 Comments
Do it! Do it!
(taking up Crystal’s chant) Do it! Do it! Do it!
It will be hard, but I think you could do it. And that it would be worthwhile. Do I need to express for you the Tolkien translation I have somewhere in the basement?
It’s too late. Press on with it.
Thrive!, O
Our Tolkien copy is handier I think. Oh, and don’t let yourself be too fettered by the original story if it flows that way.
Go for it Erin! I too like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.