Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (9 versions) torrent

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - 9 versions

7 versions are pdf files (based on scans) and 2 are epub/mobi files (based on retail versions). I've only included modern editions, not the older versions available on gutenberg and elsewhere. All but one of these contains a modern English translation; several also give the original Middle English text.

The versions in this torrent are as follows; they're pdf files unless otherwise noted:

Simon Armitage (Norton, 2007) Translation and Middle English on facing pages.

Marie Borroff (Norton, 1967) Translation only. This version appeared in various Norton literature anthologies for many years.

J. A. Burrow (Yale, 1972) Middle English only; contains extensive notes.

John Gardner (Univ. of Chicago, 1965, 2011) Translation only; includes lengthy intro and notes; Gardner also wrote Grendel, many novels, and several excellent books on fiction writing.

W. S. Merwin (Knopf, 2004) Poorly formatted -- the translation and the Middle English text are not properly divided. Epub/mobi. Merwin was the U.S. Poet Laureate in 2010-2011.

Bernard O'Donoghue (Penguin Classics, 2013) Translation only. Epub/mobi. Includes the usual Penguin Classics textual apparatus.

Burton Raffel(NAL, 1970) Translation only, with substantive intro and afterword. This was one of the most widely-read versions for many years.

Brian Stone (Penguin Classics, 1959; second edition, 1974) Translation only, with intro, essays, notes.

J. R. R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin, 1975) Translation only, together with Pearl and Sir Orfeo. Note that this is not the same book as the Middle English edition edited by Tolkien and E. V. Gordon in 1925, which I'm unable to locate.


about the book:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English: Sir Gawayn and þe Grene Knyȝt) is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance. It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, and is of a type known as the "beheading game". The Green Knight is interpreted by some as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in bob and wheel stanzas, it draws on Welsh, Irish and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important poem in the medieval romance genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess, and it remains popular to this day in modern English renderings.