Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Brian Stone

And all were at last brought low

By a lover's malignant spell;

So grant me forgiveness, though

To women's wiles I fell.

Story of my life.

I have never been a fan of Arthurian literature, and I'm not really sure why not. Studying the lais of Marie de France was one of my favorite parts of college. But for some reason I get stuck on Arthur's court…in a bad way.

But I took a chance on Sir Gawain. I figured, meh, this might be fun. Unfortunately, it was just really way too blunt for me. The contrasts between courtoisie and the lady's actions, and the machismo of men and the conniving temptation of women just weren't subtle enough.

If you haven't read Medieval literature before, this might be a good place to start (and then you should read Marie de France and never look back!). It's short, easy to understand, and has a really basic plot. A mysterious green giant (like the one on the frozen peas!) visits the court at Christmastime and challenges Sir Gawain to a whacking contest. He'll let Gawain whack him now with an axe and in a year the knight gets to go on a quest to find the green giant who will whack him back (and since he's a puny, courtly man, probably kill him. Crazy adventures ensue! Actually, the adventures are pretty standard. But I won't tell you what they are so that you can be mildly surprised!

Honestly what kept me smiling was the translator's footnotes. Stone has a bit of sass in him and a dash of snark; it's refreshing! And he'll tell you exactly why a boar's hairs bristling in winter is relevant. You never know when that kind of information might come in handy! Good intro and appendices, too. The big downside to the edition I read is that it was published in the 50s, so other scholars might have had more modern contributions to make to the interpretation of the story in the last 60 years.

~6/10~