Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Burton Raffel has taught English, Classics, and Comparative Literature at universities in the United States, Israel, and Canada. His books include translations of Beowulf, Horace: Odes, Epodes, Epistles, Satires, The Complete Poetry and Prose of Chairil Anwar, From the Vietnamese, Ten Centuries of Poetry, The Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich, Mandelstram (with Alla Burago), and Poems From the Old English and The Annotated Milton; several critical studies, Introduction to Poetry, How to Read a Poem, The Development of Modern Indonesian Poetry, and The Forked Tounge: A Study of the Translation Process; and Mia Poems, a volume of his own poetry. Mr. Raffel practiced law on Wall Street and taught in the Ford Foundation’s English Language Teacher Training Project in Indonesia.
Burton Raffel has taught English, Classics, and Comparative Literature at universities in the United States, Israel, and Canada. His books include translations of Beowulf, Horace: Odes, Epodes, Epistles, Satires, The Complete Poetry and Prose of Chairil Anwar, From the Vietnamese, Ten Centuries of Poetry, The Complete Poetry of Osip Emilevich, Mandelstram (with Alla Burago), and Poems From the Old English and The Annotated Milton; several critical studies, Introduction to Poetry, How to Read a Poem, The Development of Modern Indonesian Poetry, and The Forked Tounge: A Study of the Translation Process; and Mia Poems, a volume of his own poetry. Mr. Raffel practiced law on Wall Street and taught in the Ford Foundation’s English Language Teacher Training Project in Indonesia.

In this Middle English romance, written by an unknown poet in the 14th century, Sir Gawain is challenged by a mysterious visitor to King Arthur's court, setting in motion a series of adventures. The original poem is written in a dialect of northwest England, and there is a hint of that region (almost certainly unintentional) in Jasper Britton's accent during his entertaining narration of this modern translation. Poetry of this period is alliterative, relying on the repetition of initial word sounds rather than rhyme, and this verse form can be cloying to modern ears. But Britton is entirely comfortable with the technique, and he captures the rhythm of the lines without overemphasizing the alliteration. D.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine