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bloodygranuaileIn the medium-sized pile of books I claimed when Kyle was cleaning out his bookshelf was one little book of J. R. R. Tolkien’s translations of medieval poems. The collection only has three poems so instead of the collection having its own title, the book is just titled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight/Pearl/Sir Orfeo (which are the three poems, if that wasn’t obvious).
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is probably the most famous poem here, as the story has been adapted into a variety of easier-to-read (or watch) formats as a common bit of Arthuriana, most recently as a movie starring Dev Patel that I have not watched because I am terrible at watching movies. It takes place around Christmas and New Year’s making it officially Seasonal to read right about now. The very short version is that it involves Sir Gawain getting into some very ridiculous circumstances due to his absolute commitment to doing whatever is knightly and chivalrous, so it also serves as an interesting morality play of what people at the time considered honorable and courtly behavior. This includes exploring some awkward contradictions, like that knights aren’t supposed to refuse requests from high-born ladies but they are also not supposed to commit adultery or cuckold their hosts, leading so a very awkward set of scenes where the lady of the house keeps sneaking in to Gawain’s bedroom and trying to seduce him and he has to keep talking around it in order to refuse without being so offensive as to say no outright. The gender dynamics there are, shall we say, very interesting to watch, and also OH MY GOD LADY BACK OFF. But it all turns out basically for the best because it turns out it was a Test and done with the full knowledge of her husband, who is secretly also the Green Knight that Gawain is involved in his stupid contest with, this doesn’t count as spoilers because the story is 600 years old. Anyway it is a lot of fun if you are a big enough nerd to be able to find reading 100 pages of alliterative verse fun. An especially amusing part is that an alternate version of Gawain’s name is “Wawain” and that gets used any time it would fit the alliteration better.
Pearl is a vision poem from the point of view of a mourning poet who has a dream about a young girl who has died, who is presumably his daughter. It is a very religious poem about grieving and the afterlife and what a great place the dead girl is in now, which is important because otherwise it would probably just be a maudlin ghost story about how much white one ghost can wear. Unsurprisingly, pearls figure very heavily in the poem, both metaphorically and in what people are wearing.
Sir Orfeo is a Britain-based retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, here significantly changed to better match the kind of themes that medieval British poetry likes, like tests of loyalty to one’s king and elaborate descriptions of fancy castles. When King Orfeo’s wife Lady Heurodis is kidnapped by fairies, the King leaves his throne in the hands of his steward, grabs his harp, and runs off into the woods to live as a beggar. From there he makes his way into the fairy kingdom and bargains to get his wife back. There is no test about not looking backwards; Orfeo instead stashes his wife somewhere in the city and goes back to his throne room to pull an Odysseus-esque test of loyalty on his steward, by reporting that he had picked up the harp of a corpse in the woods. The steward is appropriately upset at this news that King Orfeo had died and therefore is allowed to live and is named Orfeo’s heir for whenever he dies for real. Orfeo, Heurodis, the steward, and everybody else then have a big feast, because big feasts are the staple happy ending of medieval British poetry.
In short, they are all good wintery poems, it’s nice to read some real literature once in a while, and translating out of Middle English is a lot harder and more interesting than you might think it’d be.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is probably the most famous poem here, as the story has been adapted into a variety of easier-to-read (or watch) formats as a common bit of Arthuriana, most recently as a movie starring Dev Patel that I have not watched because I am terrible at watching movies. It takes place around Christmas and New Year’s making it officially Seasonal to read right about now. The very short version is that it involves Sir Gawain getting into some very ridiculous circumstances due to his absolute commitment to doing whatever is knightly and chivalrous, so it also serves as an interesting morality play of what people at the time considered honorable and courtly behavior. This includes exploring some awkward contradictions, like that knights aren’t supposed to refuse requests from high-born ladies but they are also not supposed to commit adultery or cuckold their hosts, leading so a very awkward set of scenes where the lady of the house keeps sneaking in to Gawain’s bedroom and trying to seduce him and he has to keep talking around it in order to refuse without being so offensive as to say no outright. The gender dynamics there are, shall we say, very interesting to watch, and also OH MY GOD LADY BACK OFF. But it all turns out basically for the best because it turns out it was a Test and done with the full knowledge of her husband, who is secretly also the Green Knight that Gawain is involved in his stupid contest with, this doesn’t count as spoilers because the story is 600 years old. Anyway it is a lot of fun if you are a big enough nerd to be able to find reading 100 pages of alliterative verse fun. An especially amusing part is that an alternate version of Gawain’s name is “Wawain” and that gets used any time it would fit the alliteration better.
Pearl is a vision poem from the point of view of a mourning poet who has a dream about a young girl who has died, who is presumably his daughter. It is a very religious poem about grieving and the afterlife and what a great place the dead girl is in now, which is important because otherwise it would probably just be a maudlin ghost story about how much white one ghost can wear. Unsurprisingly, pearls figure very heavily in the poem, both metaphorically and in what people are wearing.
Sir Orfeo is a Britain-based retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, here significantly changed to better match the kind of themes that medieval British poetry likes, like tests of loyalty to one’s king and elaborate descriptions of fancy castles. When King Orfeo’s wife Lady Heurodis is kidnapped by fairies, the King leaves his throne in the hands of his steward, grabs his harp, and runs off into the woods to live as a beggar. From there he makes his way into the fairy kingdom and bargains to get his wife back. There is no test about not looking backwards; Orfeo instead stashes his wife somewhere in the city and goes back to his throne room to pull an Odysseus-esque test of loyalty on his steward, by reporting that he had picked up the harp of a corpse in the woods. The steward is appropriately upset at this news that King Orfeo had died and therefore is allowed to live and is named Orfeo’s heir for whenever he dies for real. Orfeo, Heurodis, the steward, and everybody else then have a big feast, because big feasts are the staple happy ending of medieval British poetry.
In short, they are all good wintery poems, it’s nice to read some real literature once in a while, and translating out of Middle English is a lot harder and more interesting than you might think it’d be.