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Simon Armitage – translating Gawain

Gawain evolving drafts once crop
Notes and drafts for Simon Armitage's translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' show how his working practices evolved as he worked on the poem.
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Introduction to resource, written by Simon Armitage
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Gawain evolving drafts once crop
Description of the evolving drafts in Simon Armitage's translation of Gawain
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p1
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, page one.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p2
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages two and three.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p4
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages four and five.
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Gawain first section typed draft from Early Notes file BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of first typed up draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain first section early notes from BC/MS 20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of annotated printout of first stanza of Gawain.
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Gawain first section, draft #1 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of first typescript draft of first stanza of Gawain
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Gawain first section typed draft #2 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Description of second typed up draft for first stanza in 'Gawain'
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Gawain first section typed draft #3 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Third typed draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain first section typed draft #4 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1
Fourth typed up draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain Lines in detail once
Description of development of first two lines of 'Gawain'.
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Gawain Evolving drafts Now crop
Description of drafts for lines 691-739.
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Gawain Evolving drafts Now crop
Description notebook drafts for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section early notes from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
Typescript early notes for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section typed draft #1 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
First typed draft for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section typed draft #2 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
Second typescript draft of lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Gawain line 691 section typed draft #4 from BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 (1of2)
Third typed draft of lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p200
Notes on the introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p199
Notes on introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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BC/MS20c/Armitage/1/21/1 notebook p198
Notes for introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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Research resources for Simon Armitage's 'Gawain'
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Extended bibliography 1
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Resources for studying Armitage and Ecocriticism
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Extended Gawain Bibliography
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This research spotlight explores the creative process behind Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The material shown here was selected by Armitage from his Literary Archive at the University of Leeds. Images were chosen to illustrate his working practices, and to show some of the challenges faced during this project.

The resulting feature takes us behind the text and allows us to trace the evolution of the poem across notebooks, loose sheets and printouts, giving new insight into one of the most important translations of Gawain.