Still working on the opening version of my Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight.
Ancarret had some great suggestions in her comments on Sunday's version. I've tried to take them, and think they've brought back some of the delight and decadence that I liked in my original, but felt missing in my trimmed up version. After working with the extreme understatement of Ghost Maps for, um, fifty-seven years now, a bit of over-the-top makes me happy.
And it makes me happy to work on something that makes people smile. I do like Gawaine, he's such a sweetie. I found a picture of him, and of the pale lady, though the illustrator (Howard Pyle, one of my favourite American golden age illustrators) intended them as drawings of other people.
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In Camelot before the sorrows
Shut up snug against the snow
Arthur and his court sat feasting
In bright midwinter, long ago
Arthur golden as a lion
Sat by Guinevere his queen
With Lancelot, a living legend
The best sword that the world had seen
There was Galahad, dove-hearted
Elaine and Bedivere and Kay
Vivian scheming, Tristan harping
Their tales would take a thousand days
Among them sat Gawaine the farmboy
A new-made knight both shy and plain
He had grown up chasing chickens
And had yet to earn his name
This was in the twelve-day feasting
That follows every Christmas night
The hall was hung with berried holly
The hall was bright with Merlin's lights
On New Years' Eve the court made merry
With platters going to and fro
With knights and ladies stepping carols
Till midnight bells rang out in snow
And as they rang the hall was shaken
By a knocking at the door
A knock so loud the lintel quivered
Shook its garland to the floor
So the doorguard lifted latches
So the knights and ladies rose
To watch the door as it creaked open
Onto the night of stars and snows
Oh yeah I really like this! It sounds great when read out loud. It's a joy to read; thank you Erin, it made my day.
I'm not sure if you're working with an exact syllable scheme, but this stanza:
" Arthur golden as a lion
Sat by Guinevere his queen
With Lancelot, a living legend
The best sword that the world had seen"
It caught me off guard when I read it aloud, the Guinevere line has 7 syllables and the last has 8. Checking other pairings, they're 8 syllables. Maybe I'm not putting enough syllables in Gwen-iv-ere?
Other than my being picky :), I love it. I really like the bit of the 'night of stars and snows', which I find fitting considering the whole pale lady afterwards. And I love the details that paint the scene without being over-detailed.