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05-26-2005, 08:01 AM
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Lady of Letters
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England
Posts: 2,476
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I just read it and enjoyed it. The Green Knight figure is very interesting from the point of view of combining pagan and Christian myths, as is the alliterative metre. I liked the opening bit of context putting Arthur's Britain into a mythical lineage, and the evocation of the natural world - especially the part about the passing of the year:
After Crystenmasse com þe crabbed lentoun Þat fraystez flesch wyth þe fysche and fode more symple; Bot þenne þe weder of þe worlde wyth wynter hit þrepez, Colde clengez adoun, cloudez vplyften, Schyre schedez þe rayn in schowrez ful warme, Fallez vpon fayre flat, flowrez þere schewen... etc.
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And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool. |
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