The classic tale of Sir Gawain of King Arthur's court, and the knight's face-off with a mysterious, seemingly immortal foe, gets a muscular new translation from poet Simon Armitage.
I am a fan of Seamus Heaney's landmark translation of Beowulf and thought this one followed in its footsteps, from the hard-bitten prose (mirrored on facing pages with the original language) right on down to the clunky, rusty armor on the cover. But it will be hard to beat Heaney's idea of changing the traditional storytelling opening of "Once Upon A Time..." to "So..."
Still, Armitage's translation stands on its own merits. He has created a clean and easy read, and the storytelling is highly interesting for its various subtexts and nuances; overall an offbeat tale in the Camelot pantheon of stories.
I checked this out from the Morrison-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana.
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