Til the knight came himself, kicking his mount,
Sees him biding at bay, his hunters beside.
He leaps lightly down, leaves his courser,
Brings out a bright brand and strides bigly forth,
Forcing through the ford-waters towards the fell beast.
The wild one was aware of the weapon in his hands,
His bristles bunched, out burst such a snort
Those lads feared for their lord, lest befell him the worst.
The swine surged him out at the stalking man so,
The boar and Lord Bertilak fell both in a heap,
In the swift part of the water; the worst had the former,
For the man marks him well, as they meet first,
Set strongly the sharp in the swines throat,
Hit him up to the hilt, that the heart sundered,
And snarling he fell, was swept under the stream,
into its core.
A hundred hounds surged as he sank,
That bit on him full sore,
Servants dragged him to the bank
And dogs to death him tore.
There was blowing of prize in many brave horns,
Hunters hallooing on high with heaving lungs;
Brachets bayed over the beast, as their master bid,
Of that cheerless chase they had the chiefs been.
Then one that was wise in woodcrafts
To loose and unlace this boar he begins.
First he hews off his head and on high sets,
And then rends him all roughly down the spinal line,
brings out the bowels, burns them on embers,
With bread blended with them his brachets rewards.
Then he brings out the boar-meat in bright broad slabs,
And rips out the remnants, as is right to do;
And set those halves all whole so they hung together,
And certain on the strong shaft stoutly them hangs.
Now with this trophy they set course for home;
The boars head was borne before the bold lord
That had felled him by the ford by the force of his hand
so strong.
Till he could see Sir Gawain
In hall seemed him full long;
He called, and Gawain came
To get what to him belongs.
I recently bought this print:
From the 'Kill Six Billion Demons' webcomic and they accidentally sent me two instead of one. Its a 16x24 art print. If anyone is a fan and wants it, and doesn't mind paying shipping from the UK then leave a comment down below or on G+ and I will send it to you.
If multiple requests then I will pose some kind of context or tie-breaker.
Hey I would love that print if there are no there takers as of yet. I don't know how best to get the money for shipping to you or whatever but tell me how much and I'll figure it out.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm really enjoying this series, I usually enjoy the stuff you post, but this is a real treat. I wonder what kind of research the poet had to do to get that level of detail when describing butchery.
Thanks Luke, I will call you in on the G+ thread.
DeleteOk Luke, go here if you can https://plus.google.com/u/0/104778332638489294828/posts/dBEjn93KnAz
Deleteor if you can't, tell me, in one sentence, what you think the Green Knight means. Best answer gets the print.
Hmm, well part of the reason reading your latest entries has been nice is because of my own lack of experience with this part of the Arthur mythos.
DeleteAs a side note I've been looking into them more and I never realized how much of what I believed to be "true" to that story was influenced by the versions I was told as a child. I'm now finding that it is a tale that people have been adding parts of themselves to for a very long time and the legends we treasure now likely have very little to do with whatever tale was the original seed they grew out of.
Anyways, I'll stop stalling and try to give an answer.
The Green Knight is the living world, which tempts us and stains us no matter how we try to hold to our beliefs or virtues, it fucks with us but ultimately turns us into who we are meant to be.
That's probably too long of a sentence. Or kind of a couple of sentences strung together with commas. With things of this nature I struggle to be succinct. But that's the best that I in my ignorance could do.
(By the way I started writing a freaking essay of an answer, which was wandering all over the place and had me feeling like a kid trying to describe a dream to an adult but completely lacking the vocabulary due to ignorance, until I looked up and saw that I was supposed to answer in one sentence. I mean if defining a figure that's managed to puzzle the minds of scholars for ages wasn't challenge enough. It's probably for the best though, I tend to talk in circles and then fly up my own ass with these kinds of things.)
Luke you are the winnerrrrrr! if you send me your address (pjamesstuart at gmail dot com) then I will work out the postage and get back to you.
DeleteSeriously?! That's so cool, I've never won anything like this that actually required thought instead of random chance. Thanks a lot man.
Delete