Here's an interesting article by poet Simon Armitage on his new translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It obligingly includes a substantial and rousing excerpt. this blunt, matter-of-fact style of translation seems to be in vogue (am I the only person in the world who doesn't care for Seamus Heaney's Beowulf?), but I must admit that Mr. Armitage's version rolls along pretty nicely, keeps me wanting more. However, his treatment of the poem's characteristic shortened rhyming lines at the end of each stanza is simply unsatisfactory: the rhythms crash where they should be accelerating. I'll always be a fan of Tolkien's version (I don't mind archaisms), but this one might make a nice read.

Finally, Mr. Armitage's shock and awe at the gralloching of a deer are comically professorial.