--- product_id: 3928953 title: "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" price: "4735 som" currency: KGS in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.kg/products/3928953-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight store_origin: KG region: Kyrgyzstan --- # Sir Gawain and the Green Knight **Price:** 4735 som **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - **How much does it cost?** 4735 som with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.kg](https://www.desertcart.kg/products/3928953-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The classic story that inspired the film starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander. "A medieval romance…but also an outlandish ghost story, a gripping morality tale and a weird thriller.…I couldn’t put down Simon Armitage’s compulsively readable...energetic, free-flowing, high-spirited version." ―Edward Hirsch, New York Times Book Review One of the founding stories of English literature, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight narrates the strange tale of a green knight on a green horse who rudely interrupts Camelot’s Round Table festivities one Yuletide, casting a pall of unease over the company and challenging one of their number to a wager. The virtuous Gawain accepts and decapitates the intruder with his own axe. Gushing blood, the knight reclaims his head, orders Gawain to seek him out a year hence, and departs. The following Yuletide, Gawain dutifully sets forth. His quest for the Green Knight involves a winter journey, a seduction scene in a dreamlike castle, a dire challenge answered―and a drama of enigmatic reward disguised as psychic undoing. Preserved on a single surviving manuscript dating from around 1400, composed by an anonymous master, this Arthurian epic was rediscovered only two hundred years ago and published for the first time in 1839. Following in the tradition of Ted Hughes, Marie Borroff, and J.R.R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage―one of England’s leading poets―has produced an inventive translation that resounds with both clarity and spirit. His work, presented here with facing original text and a note by Harvard scholar James Simpson, is meticulously responsible to the sophistication of the original but succeeds equally in its ambition to be read as a totally new poem. It is as if two poets, six hundred years apart, set out on a journey through the same mesmerizing landscapes―acoustic, physical, and metaphorical―to share in and double the pleasure of this enchanting classic. 2 illustrations Review: New best Gawain translation - I've read a lot of translations of the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (I regularly teach it), and I thought that nobody could outdo the standard, quite wonderful version by Marie Borroff (also published by Norton). Well, I've just finished reading Simon Armitage's amazing translation, and I was wrong. Armitage's should be the new standard version used by students and lay readers everywhere. It captures both the energetic alliteration of the original and also its wonderful toggling between formal and colloquial registers. It does a magnificent job of approximating the galloping rhythm of the long verses, but is equally stunning at managing the "bob and wheel" that brings each long verse to comically neat closure (e.g., see Armitage's description of Gawain's emblem, the pentangle -- "[he] bore that badge on both / his shawl and shield alike. / A prince who talked the truth. A notable. A knight," ll.636-39). It takes some poetic chutzpah to fiddle with the Gawain-poet in this way. But Armitage has the versifying courage and the nervy tone just right. I think the 14th-century poet, whoever he was, would admire and appreciate this new version. That's also because Armitage shows humility as a translator too when it matters. For example, he works hard to preserve the delicate moral ambiguities of the original poem. It's difficult to translate Gawain's refusal to give the seductress, the lady of the manor (where his humility, his loyalty and his self-control are tested) a token of his affection with the perfect blend of courtesy and self-regard that is there in the original ("Hit is not your honour to haf at this tyme / A glove for a garysoun of Gawaynes giftes," ll. 1806-07), but Armitage's "it strikes me as unseemly that you should receive / nothing greater than a glove as a keepsake from Gawain" hits the mark pretty well; by placing Gawain's reference to himself in the third-person at the end of the line, he makes us wonder if the hero isn't buying in a bit too easily to the reputation that has preceded him. I'm not going to repeat the plot of the whole poem here; it's well known, easy to find online, and other desertcart reviewers have gone over it. Armitage's confidence as a translator is expressed in his willingness to provide the original language of the poem on a facing page (Borroff's translation does not do this), so the reader can take a long look at the luscious original. Sure, he changes a word here or there (every translation does this), but Armitage is scrupulously true to the spirit of the original. Review: Very Satisfying - First of all, note the five stars and don't read too much negativity into this review. It's just that I like the translation very much and a few missteps (as they appear to me) make me want to speak out. It has been said elsewhere that in some places Armitage chose to stray from the original even where the original is quite natural to the modern ear and, in rare cases, he used language which is jarring and discordant. I agree. Here is an example which, for me, was the most discordant ... Original: But in his honde he hade a holyn bobbe, That is grattest in grene when greves ar bare, And an ax in his other, a hoge and unmete, A spetos sparthe to expoun in spelle, quo-so myght. Translation: but held in his hand a sprig of holly--- of all the evergreens the greenest ever--- and in the other hand held the mother of all axes, a cruel piece of kit I kid you not Those last two lines made me blink. This is early in the poem and I almost gave up on the translation right there but am glad I did not. Other than a few rare examples like that (and none other so glaring) I enjoyed it immensely. This is a "five star" translation. What Armitage has done in this translation is not easy and deserves respect. He manages more than mere "accessibility" for the modern reader but also maintains a natural sense of speaking along with alliteration like the "percussive hoof beats" mentioned in another review. As they say, pure poetry. Anyway, here is my attempt at a translation of the above: but in his hand he had a holly sprig, that is greenest of green when groves are bare, and an ax in his other, huge to excess, a wicked war-ax to put into words, if one could. Note that the first two of those lines are nearly unchanged from the original, an example of where the (almost) original reads quite naturally. I'm still not satisfied with that last line but have had my nose so close to it I can no longer see the forest for the trees so will let it stand as it is (for now). ## Features - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight By Armitage Simon ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #30,066 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #6 in Medieval Poetry #41 in Ancient & Classical Poetry #446 in Folklore (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,312 Reviews | ## Images ![Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81I9RNZbqbL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ New best Gawain translation *by W***D on March 27, 2010* I've read a lot of translations of the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" (I regularly teach it), and I thought that nobody could outdo the standard, quite wonderful version by Marie Borroff (also published by Norton). Well, I've just finished reading Simon Armitage's amazing translation, and I was wrong. Armitage's should be the new standard version used by students and lay readers everywhere. It captures both the energetic alliteration of the original and also its wonderful toggling between formal and colloquial registers. It does a magnificent job of approximating the galloping rhythm of the long verses, but is equally stunning at managing the "bob and wheel" that brings each long verse to comically neat closure (e.g., see Armitage's description of Gawain's emblem, the pentangle -- "[he] bore that badge on both / his shawl and shield alike. / A prince who talked the truth. A notable. A knight," ll.636-39). It takes some poetic chutzpah to fiddle with the Gawain-poet in this way. But Armitage has the versifying courage and the nervy tone just right. I think the 14th-century poet, whoever he was, would admire and appreciate this new version. That's also because Armitage shows humility as a translator too when it matters. For example, he works hard to preserve the delicate moral ambiguities of the original poem. It's difficult to translate Gawain's refusal to give the seductress, the lady of the manor (where his humility, his loyalty and his self-control are tested) a token of his affection with the perfect blend of courtesy and self-regard that is there in the original ("Hit is not your honour to haf at this tyme / A glove for a garysoun of Gawaynes giftes," ll. 1806-07), but Armitage's "it strikes me as unseemly that you should receive / nothing greater than a glove as a keepsake from Gawain" hits the mark pretty well; by placing Gawain's reference to himself in the third-person at the end of the line, he makes us wonder if the hero isn't buying in a bit too easily to the reputation that has preceded him. I'm not going to repeat the plot of the whole poem here; it's well known, easy to find online, and other amazon reviewers have gone over it. Armitage's confidence as a translator is expressed in his willingness to provide the original language of the poem on a facing page (Borroff's translation does not do this), so the reader can take a long look at the luscious original. Sure, he changes a word here or there (every translation does this), but Armitage is scrupulously true to the spirit of the original. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Satisfying *by B***K on November 3, 2008* First of all, note the five stars and don't read too much negativity into this review. It's just that I like the translation very much and a few missteps (as they appear to me) make me want to speak out. It has been said elsewhere that in some places Armitage chose to stray from the original even where the original is quite natural to the modern ear and, in rare cases, he used language which is jarring and discordant. I agree. Here is an example which, for me, was the most discordant ... Original: But in his honde he hade a holyn bobbe, That is grattest in grene when greves ar bare, And an ax in his other, a hoge and unmete, A spetos sparthe to expoun in spelle, quo-so myght. Translation: but held in his hand a sprig of holly--- of all the evergreens the greenest ever--- and in the other hand held the mother of all axes, a cruel piece of kit I kid you not Those last two lines made me blink. This is early in the poem and I almost gave up on the translation right there but am glad I did not. Other than a few rare examples like that (and none other so glaring) I enjoyed it immensely. This is a "five star" translation. What Armitage has done in this translation is not easy and deserves respect. He manages more than mere "accessibility" for the modern reader but also maintains a natural sense of speaking along with alliteration like the "percussive hoof beats" mentioned in another review. As they say, pure poetry. Anyway, here is my attempt at a translation of the above: but in his hand he had a holly sprig, that is greenest of green when groves are bare, and an ax in his other, huge to excess, a wicked war-ax to put into words, if one could. Note that the first two of those lines are nearly unchanged from the original, an example of where the (almost) original reads quite naturally. I'm still not satisfied with that last line but have had my nose so close to it I can no longer see the forest for the trees so will let it stand as it is (for now). ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Loved It *by N***S on January 10, 2020* I cannot overstate how shocked and impressed I was by this version. Gawaine and the Green Knight has been done many times by many authors. The original is in Middle English which means you're reading a translation. That means most authors offering Gawaine are stodgy professor types. What makes this effort different was that Simon Armitage spent so much effort presenting the alliterative nature of the original text. The result is that his poem rolls off the tongue. The verse pulls you in. It reads like an adventure story. You get graphic descriptions of food that sound like the author is advertising a buffet. You get dialogue between characters that sounds like heroes bantering with each other on a movie screen. In short, it's fun. This Armitage translation shows you why Gawaine and the Green Knight was a popular story before it became the subject of academic study. ## Frequently Bought Together - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso) - Catiline's Conspiracy, The Jugurthine War, Histories (Oxford World's Classics) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.kg/products/3928953-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight](https://www.desertcart.kg/products/3928953-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight) --- *Product available on Desertcart Kyrgyzstan* *Store origin: KG* *Last updated: 2026-06-07*