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15. A Weird Faerie Sex Game.
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight and Tolkien’s posthumously published translation of said poem.
Written around 1400 by a still anonymous author in the West Midlands region of
England, Sir Gawain has long been one of the most notable works of late
medieval English literature, and Tolkien both worked on a scholarly edition of
the poem with his colleague E.V. Gordon first published in 1925 as well as
developing the translation which he finished in the early 1950s, and which has
since become his most well-known work on the text. What possible influence on
Tolkien’s own work can be found in the poem—or is there any real influence as
such at all? What could be the significance of the seemingly contrasting
elements of fairy story, chivalry and blunt, almost documentary-like detailing
of hunting procedures? What was Tolkien aiming for with his own particular
translation and how does it differ from others? And maybe above all else: how
DO you pronounce Gawain’s name, much less spell it?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle for
the episode. I mean, you might as well go for it.
Black Lives Matter and there it is.
Anyway yes, Samuel R. Delany! Octavia E.
Butler! N. K. Jemisin!
Marlon James! Zetta
Elliott! Many many many more besides. Why deny
yourself great writing?
As for, shall we say, militarized police forces in non-Shire settings,
there’s plenty of reading out
there.
The ramping up of filming in New Zealand is
happening, not without various questions and concerns, but we’ll see where it
goes.
Print-to-order hardback History of Middle-earth books? Go
nuts.
There is a LOT of scholarship out there on Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight and
we’re not going to pretend to be able to give a proper survey of it. If you’d
like to see the original untranslated text, though, here you
go, and if
you want more on spelling and (maybe) pronunciation, a starting point is
here.
Here’s Luke Shelton’s post about how the name Tulkas, one of
the Valar, may be derived from the Sir Gawain poem.
Courtly love? Oh there’s a lot
out there about that too.
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman is indeed a cracking read.
Patrick Wyman’s Tides of History is a very enjoyable podcast for sure. Some of the specific episodes
covering the period of English history the Gawain poet lived in have
apparently passed out from being available for whatever reason, but
these
episodes
in
particular make for informative
listening and for scholarly recommendations.
The Green Chapel is very clearly a neolithic site, as evidenced by the
Newgrange site in Ireland.
There is indeed an official audiobook version of Tolkien’s
translation, read by medievalist and Monty Python cast member
Terry Jones.
Alternate translations noted by Jared: Bernard
O’Donoghue’s and Simon
Armitage’s.
E.R. Eddison was indeed a skilled writer. But,
as they say, a caution. Tolkien’s assessment of him, positive and negative,
can be found quoted at the end of this short
piece.
The Matter of Britain is
ultimately rather French.
Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur is an interesting experiment, if incomplete.
The Gawain Poet’s identity is
still up for debate.
The history of hunting in England is rather extensive. Leave it to the Daily
Telegraph to review a book about
it back in 2007. (Thankfully not everyone is
fond of the sport’s modern
incarnation.)
Homoeroticism in Sir Gawain? You don’t
say!
Turns out there are three film versions of Sir Gawain—the
first,
from 1973, was remade into 1984’s Sword of the
Valiant by the same
director one decade later, but yeah, Miles O’Keeffe and Sean Connery and
company don’t exactly stick the landing. In the meantime, we await A24 and
Dev Patel.
Some Order of the Garter info if you need it.
Support By-The-Bywater on Patreon and help
us create the show. (There are other causes worth supporting as
well.)
View all episodes
By Jared Pechaček, Oriana Scwindt, and Ned Raggett
4.8
3232 ratings
Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Jared’s choice of topic: Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight and Tolkien’s posthumously published translation of said poem.
Written around 1400 by a still anonymous author in the West Midlands region of
England, Sir Gawain has long been one of the most notable works of late
medieval English literature, and Tolkien both worked on a scholarly edition of
the poem with his colleague E.V. Gordon first published in 1925 as well as
developing the translation which he finished in the early 1950s, and which has
since become his most well-known work on the text. What possible influence on
Tolkien’s own work can be found in the poem—or is there any real influence as
such at all? What could be the significance of the seemingly contrasting
elements of fairy story, chivalry and blunt, almost documentary-like detailing
of hunting procedures? What was Tolkien aiming for with his own particular
translation and how does it differ from others? And maybe above all else: how
DO you pronounce Gawain’s name, much less spell it?
Show Notes.
Jared’s
doodle for
the episode. I mean, you might as well go for it.
Black Lives Matter and there it is.
Anyway yes, Samuel R. Delany! Octavia E.
Butler! N. K. Jemisin!
Marlon James! Zetta
Elliott! Many many many more besides. Why deny
yourself great writing?
As for, shall we say, militarized police forces in non-Shire settings,
there’s plenty of reading out
there.
The ramping up of filming in New Zealand is
happening, not without various questions and concerns, but we’ll see where it
goes.
Print-to-order hardback History of Middle-earth books? Go
nuts.
There is a LOT of scholarship out there on Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight and
we’re not going to pretend to be able to give a proper survey of it. If you’d
like to see the original untranslated text, though, here you
go, and if
you want more on spelling and (maybe) pronunciation, a starting point is
here.
Here’s Luke Shelton’s post about how the name Tulkas, one of
the Valar, may be derived from the Sir Gawain poem.
Courtly love? Oh there’s a lot
out there about that too.
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman is indeed a cracking read.
Patrick Wyman’s Tides of History is a very enjoyable podcast for sure. Some of the specific episodes
covering the period of English history the Gawain poet lived in have
apparently passed out from being available for whatever reason, but
these
episodes
in
particular make for informative
listening and for scholarly recommendations.
The Green Chapel is very clearly a neolithic site, as evidenced by the
Newgrange site in Ireland.
There is indeed an official audiobook version of Tolkien’s
translation, read by medievalist and Monty Python cast member
Terry Jones.
Alternate translations noted by Jared: Bernard
O’Donoghue’s and Simon
Armitage’s.
E.R. Eddison was indeed a skilled writer. But,
as they say, a caution. Tolkien’s assessment of him, positive and negative,
can be found quoted at the end of this short
piece.
The Matter of Britain is
ultimately rather French.
Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur is an interesting experiment, if incomplete.
The Gawain Poet’s identity is
still up for debate.
The history of hunting in England is rather extensive. Leave it to the Daily
Telegraph to review a book about
it back in 2007. (Thankfully not everyone is
fond of the sport’s modern
incarnation.)
Homoeroticism in Sir Gawain? You don’t
say!
Turns out there are three film versions of Sir Gawain—the
first,
from 1973, was remade into 1984’s Sword of the
Valiant by the same
director one decade later, but yeah, Miles O’Keeffe and Sean Connery and
company don’t exactly stick the landing. In the meantime, we await A24 and
Dev Patel.
Some Order of the Garter info if you need it.
Support By-The-Bywater on Patreon and help
us create the show. (There are other causes worth supporting as
well.)
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