I just finished reading Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
\nI’d read the story before (not really one of my favorites) but had never experienced J.R.R.’s alliterative verse before.
\nIt’s fun to read out loud:<\/p>\n
“At whiles with worms he wars, and with wolves also”<\/p>\n
Thousands of lines and nearly every line has 3-5 words with the same beginning consonant.<\/p>\n
This epic was so over-the-top though in it’s grandiose descriptions of even the smallest thing. I just didn’t get that much of a kick out of, for example, the several pages spent describing the tack on his horse. Oh well. I copied down this section where he is journeying through the forest, battling bad guys left and right with ridiculous frequency for the largely uninhabited north of Britain in the seventh century.<\/p>\n
Many a cliff he climbed o’er in countries unknown,
\nfar fled from his friends without fellowship he rode.
\nAt every wading or water on the way that e passed
\nhe found a foe before him, save at a few for wonder;
\nand so foul were they and fell that fight he must needs.
\nSo many a marvel in the mountains he met in those lands
\nthat ‘twould be tedious the tenth part to tell you thereof.
\nAt whiles with worms he wars, and with wolves also,
\nat whiles with wood-trolls that wandered in the crags,
\nand with bulls and with bears and boars, too, t times;
\nand with ogres that founded him from the heights of the fells.
\nHad he not been stalwart and staunch and steadfast in God,
\nhe doubtless would have died and death had met often;
\nfor though war wearied him much, the winter was worse,
\nwhen the cold clear water from the clouds spilling
\nfroze ere it had falled upon the faded earth.
\nWell-night slain by the sleet he slept ironclad
\nmore nights than enow in the naked rocks,
\nwhere clattering from the crest te cold brook tumbled,
\nand hung high o’er his head in hard icicles.
\nThus in peril and pain and in passes grievous
\ntll Christmas-eve that country he crossed all alone
\nin need.
\nThe knight did at that tide
\nhis plaint to Mary plead,
\nher rider’s road to guid
\nand to some lodging lead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I just finished reading Tolkien’s translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I’d read the story before (not really one of my favorites) but had never experienced J.R.R.’s alliterative verse before. It’s fun to read out loud: “At whiles with worms he wars, and with wolves also” Thousands of lines and nearly every line … <\/p>\n