Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

I've been fascinated by Arthurian Legends since I was a girl, so much so that I took a class in the literature in college, covering everything from Geoffrey of Monmouth's pseudo-history to modern versions by T.H. White and Marion Zimmer Bradley. I especially loved the stories surrounding the Holy Grail, and I wrote my final paper about the Grail elements in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land (my professor's initial response: "You're very brave to tackle Eliot.").  But somehow, I never read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The release of the movie The Green Knight forced me to correct that; as always, I prefer to read the book first. So I picked up Tolkien's translation of the poem, in an edition that includes Tolkien's lecture on it and his translations of two other poems likely by the same poet.

It's an excellent translation. The original was written in a dialect of Middle English different enough from both Chaucer's English (the poet probably knew him) and modern that a translation is necessary, but Tolkien kept to the poetic style the author used: alliterative verse, where each line is divided in two but linked by the initial sounds of stressed words. As I read the story, I often found myself reading some of it aloud.

The story itself is about the contest the mysterious Green Knight challenges Gawain to: Gawain is to wield the strongest blow he can with the Knight's axe, but in return he much allow the Knight to do the same a year later. Gawain chops his head off, but the Knight just picks it up and goes on his way, reminding Gawain of his agreement. After spending most of the year ignoring it, he finally sets out to meet his obligation before eventually stopping at the castle of a lord near the meeting place. Paradoxically, this part is the most dangerous, as both the lord and his lady play games with Gawain to test him.

It also forms the heart of the story, as Tolkien explains in his lecture. Gawain is being tested on three levels -- the game (with its rules) he plays with the lord, the obligations of courtly love the lady demands, and Christian morality. Watching Gawain navigate the three until he finally must choose one to honor above the others is fascinating.

From what I've read, the movie is not a typical action/adventure-type fantasy; I'm hopeful, then, that it will reflect the moral and philosophical struggles of the text.