Sir Gawain And The Green Knight - BBC Production
 

I've just got a Radio Times for the week before Christmas (16th-22nd issue, Doctor Who on the cover) and there was an article about a new production of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Not the Tolkien version, but a new one by Simon Armitage (should be good, he's a great guy), and narrated by Ian McKellen.

This will be on Radio 4 at 2:15pm on Thursday 21st, but should also be available afterwards to all via the 'listen again' web feature.

Here.

There's a bit about Tolkien in the Radio Times article too.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo....thank you so much for alerting me to this.

*drools over keyboard*

Long and interesting (and entertaining) article by Simon Armitage himself about Gawain in the Guardian here.

Now he mentions the place in Derbyshire I have another expedition to go on - I think I know where he means. Some very interesting stuff about the language and how some is retained today in modern dialect too; it maybe explains why I don't have a lot of trouble reading this kind of thing in the 'original'. ;)

Just listened to this. A couple of jarring moments, where words like "adolescents" or "feisty" are put into play, but also some beauty - amazing stuff like "entwined and twinned"...

I recommend Armitage's full text - the radio production missed out a few of my favourite bits.

Yes I listened in too, and it was good. It's made me want to go and search out the Green Chapel now, as I think I know exactly where it is supposed to be.

Did you notice them using the word 'Nithering'? I'm wondering now if that's in the original...

I also liked how the accents fitted in really well. Ian McKellen has not gone wholly RP and has lovely clear diction for reading.

Listening right now and enjoying greatly. Know what Ang means....eg "megablow"....but there's lots of really excellent poetry there, too.

If there's any way to "listen again" as was mentioned in post #1, please send along a link -- I can't find it on the BBC website. Thanks!

Dang! I knew there was one word which stood out to me as 'odd' yesterday when Anguirel was talking about that, and there it is...'megablow'! That jolted me out of the story for a moment. Of course, it could be there for good reason, in order to 'jolt' us, as poets tend to do that. However, it's a bit of an Armitage-ism to chuck in colloquialisms and incongruous words as he writes in his vernacular quite a lot.

i would've liked to have heard him read it himself actually, though I'm sure he might do a reading somewhere local at some point as he does a lot of appearances.

OK, here's the
Radio 4 home page. If you look on the right hand side of the page, it lists the programme under 'Listen Again'. I tried to bring up the actual broadcast selection but it brings up a gadget thing you can't link to. I;d suggest listening again soon, lest it disappears off the page. And anyway, it's good pre-Christmas listening!