Poetry is about manner as much as it is about matter – the manner in which words behave under certain conditions and in particular surroundings From the Introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Gawain
McKellen Reads Gawain
I enjoyed the Radio 4 version of Simon Armitage’s Gawain and the Green Knight over Christmas. A lot of actors tend to (over)act poems rather than read them, but I thought Ian McKellen and the other performers made a pretty good job of it. And the sound effects were atmospheric without intruding too much on […]
Simon Armitage on Gawain and the Green Knight
Great article by Simon Armitage in today’s Guardian about translating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of my all-time favourite poems. The Green Man at the October Plenty Festival in Southwark (courtesy of my wife’s blog) I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to translating medieval poems – it’s not that hard […]