FEB 2026 Armitage's "Sir Gawain..." FINAL THOUGHTS

Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

INTRODUCTION
PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
FINAL THOUGHTS (this thread)

What did you think?

Feel free to share your comments and to post your review here (see Attach Review below)

How is everyone going with Sir Gawain? Are you liking it, finished, been distracted?
I must admit that I have been distracted by other reading myself, but the plan is to finish this week.

I have been enjoying the topics of discussion here and hope to hear what you all conclude.
My apologies for not being more active, I struggle sometimes for something to say beyond I liked it or didn't.

Please know that even when I don't say anything I do enjoy your observations and reflections.

>2 TonjaE: Oh no! I, for one, definitely got--"Oh, look! A squirrel!"--sidetracked.

I'm going to resume where I left off and hopefully finish by the end of this month, a mere 5 days remaining.

Since the film adaptations came up in the thread for part two, I thought I'd post links to where they're streaming.

Gawain and the Green Knight {1973}: https://tubitv.com/movies/100002778/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight

Sword of the Valiant: https://tubitv.com/movies/100001014/sword-of-the-valiant

Gawain and the Green Knight {1991}: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBEv8xjBJf8

The Green Knight {2021}: Doesn't appear to be streaming anywhere for free.

>4 amanda4242: Thank you, Amanda! I never heard of tubitv before. I'll check it out later.

I'm still trying to finish before the first of March...

Stanza 33: A shining castle with a mote and the drawbridge is up.

Stanza 34:

it appeared that the place was cut from paper

Interesting. Is that some hint that this is a facade?

Stanza 35: That is some warm welcome. I bet he was happy to receive it.

Stanza 36: It's interesting to me that a person's physical self (the lord of the castle and Gawain) is revered as displaying and embodying their elevated positions. Detail to richly made garments do the same. The poet is using any and all devices to remind us we are dealing with "noble" people. I wonder who the intended audience was? Other nobles? Or lesser beings?

Stanza 37: Gawain is treated so luxuriously that one wonders if he has forgotten his mortal mission. (I can't say as I would blame him.)

Stanza 38: Once the guests learn it is Gawain of King Arthur's court, and at Christmas time too, they feel especially blessed by his presence.

Stanza 39:

She was fairest amongst them - her face, her flesh,
her complexion, her quality, her bearing, her body,
more glorious than Guinevere,

Uh oh. The plot thickens.

Then a comparison of the two ladies. The young one and the old one. Are they different faces of some magical spell? I know enough of the story to know that there is an evil one at large in that court. Prematurely, I object to it being an old woman!

Stanza 40: Gawain hangs out with the ladies. I'm not sure I followed that "hood" joke or pun or whatever it was. But he seemed to make a good impression, loosened up by wine and women, and went to bed late, happy.

Something to read after finishing. https://web.archive.org/web/20230314123644/https://the-toast.net/2015/06/03/sir-...

Sadly, you can't read all of the comments because it's an archived version. Truly tragic since The Toast had the best comments.

>8 amanda4242: Thanks Amanda, I should finish Saturday, just in the nick of time for this February read. Even without yet reading it, I'm bummed about those missing The Toast comments.

I just finished...at the 11th hour just I predicted. Of course, I'm always the last to finish any longer work.

What a strange tale.

First, its existence is strange, presevered all those years and came to light only after several centuries, fairly recently. And it is the only known version of this story, giving us virtually zero outside context for its creation.

Second, the story seems clearly to be a Christian layer added on top of an older pre-Christian story. That wouldn't be surprising. But also the Christianity in the story feels still a bit "new" itself, to me. Like those early Christian writings that are excluded from the bible. Just a feeling, I don't know enough to flesh that out any further.

Third, it's another peek into the importance of a person's raiment had been in history. The extreme focus on it in this poem is akin to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales as well. It seems like a very English Isles focus and here like it might a part of the larger fascination with the accruements of the rich. Now that I think of it, we haven't moved beyond that ourselves, if you think about tourism, depictions of beauty in films, and celebrity worship. It's like we all are bedazzled by precious bits and bobs.

Fourth, I wish I understood more of the meanings that might be simply lost to history. Like, why a green man? I have a theory that mankind has been both blessed by and cursed by plants, and that has caused the fascination with a green human. It's based in our long history of ignorance and slow, sometimes deadly, lessons. And that what we haven't understood we give special reverence. Like the stars in the night sky, female fertility, and other fascinations that have followed us into the present even though we have scientific explanations, the remnants of our far away past remain.

That's all the strangeness...it was certainly a FUN read, on its own as a story and as time spent back in history. I thought Armitage made it wonderfully accessible. I'm happy it is now part of my mental repertoire.

>4 amanda4242: I started watching the 1973 film.......what story is this? ha. I guess that's the way of stories like these, they are up for anyone's interpretation, even wild ones. Also, I remember I commented that year while Gawain traveled searching for the Green Knight would make for some exciting cinema. LOL, this one did that in spades.

I bailed, though. Far too many liberties with the story. And too campy to endure for an hour and half.

The good news is that you introduced me to a great resource, Amanda. A quick browse reveals several movies I've wanted to see, including The Man Who Killed Don Quixote! So, big thumbs up for that.

That was fun! The story still stands quite well after some hundreds of years, but I'm going to quietly say, I think I enjoyed the commentary of it here more! You guys are hilarious, thank you for joining in with this month's read. A round of applause!

I enjoyed the group read and also finally reading through the full text.

I'm very far behind in my reviews, which I write in order of completing the book. So it'll be zoinks before I get to this one, maybe I'll come up with something brilliant to say then and if so, I'll try to post a link here.

Nothing deep, but here's my review and rating...