Fitt 1.

1.194-8

And a long, tied thong lacing it tight 
was strung with gold bells which resounded and shone.
No waking man had witnessed such a warrior 
or weird war-horse - otherwordly, yet flesh and bone. 
-
And knit together with a knotted thong 
Along which a row of bells rang brilliantly.
No one watching had ever before beheld
A horse like that - and such a horseman had never crossed their

Fitt 1. 'No one watching had ever before beheld'; 'otherworldly, yet flesh and bone.'

2. 487-90 

But mind your mood Gawain,
keep blacker thoughts at bay,
or lose this lethal game.
you've promised to play. 
-
Harrison Translation

Now, Gawain, think of your quest,
And let no terror quell
Your courage in the test 
You have take on. Think well!

Fitt 1. 'Keep blacker thoughts at bay'

Fitt 2.

3. 509-15

Birds burble with life and build busily 
as summer spreads, settling on slopes as it should.
Now every hedgerow brims
with blossom and with bud,
and lively songbirds sing
from lovely, leafy woods.
-
Harrison Translation 

Birds start building, they call out loudly
For the calm of summer that spreads its balm on valleys and slopes.
Rich hawthorn-blossoms swell 
And burst in rows; in the copse 
New bird-sounds run, pell-mell,
Through the glorious full tree-tops.

Fitt 2. 'Now every hedgerow brims with blossom and with bud'; 'New bird-sounds run, pell-mell,'

4. 740-7

Next morning he moves on, skirts the mountainside,
descends a deep forest, densely overgrown,
with ancient oaks in huddles of hundreds
and vaulting hills above each half of the valley.
Hazel and hawthorn are interwoven,
decked and draped in damp, shaggy moss,
and bedraggled birds on bare, black branches
pipe pitifully into the piercing cold. 
-
Harrison Translation 

Through the morning he rides on merrily, beside a hill,
Into a dark wood, wonderfully wild. 
High hills all around; below, a grove of oaks,
Huge and Hoary, more than a hundred of them.
Hazel and hawthorn were tangled together there, 
And everywhere rough mounds of hairy moss.
Hunched on bare branches, doleful birds
Piped out pitiful calls in the bitter cold.

Fitt 2. 'bedraggled birds on bare, black branches pipe pitifully into the piercing cold.'

5. 763

No sooner had he signed himself three times 
than he became aware, in those woods, of high walls
in a moat, on a mound, bordered by the boughs
-
Harrison Translation 

Hardly had he made the sign three times,
When, in the midst of the wood, he saw a moated castle
On open ground, rising from a mound; boughs 
Of massive trees by the moat enclosed it.

Fitt 2. 'of thick-trunked timber which trimmed the water.'

Fitt 3. 

6. 1141

On the bugles they blew three bellowing notes
to a din of baying and barking, and the dogs 
which chased or wandered were chastened by whip.
As I heard it, we're talking a hundred top hunters at least.
The handlers hold their hounds,
the huntsmen's hounds run free.
Each bugle blast rebounds
between the trunks of trees. 
-
Harrison Translation 

They blew their bugles loudly: three bare notes.
At that, the hounds bayed, making a great furore,
And those that broke away were whipped and turned back.
These were, I'm told, a hundred men of the boldest hunting blood.
The keepers of the hounds
Took up their posts and stood
Waiting, while bugle-sounds
Echoed around the wood.

Fitt 3. 'Waiting, while bugle-sounds Echoed around the wood.'

7. 1368 

Warm friends, warm flames will meet
the huntsman's home return.
Gawain as well will greet 
his host. Bright hearth-fires burn. 
-
Harrison Translation 

A dancing fire at the hearth.
The lord enters with pride,
And when they meet there's mirth
And joy on every side.

Fitt 2. 'Now every hedgerow brims with blossom and with bud'; 'New bird-sounds run, pell-mell,'

Gawain Mono 001

Related tracks