Simon Armitage – translating Gawain
Simon Armitage – translating Gawain
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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Evolving drafts of 'Once the siege...'
Description of the evolving drafts in Simon Armitage's translation of Gawain
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First version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, page one.
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Second version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages two and three.
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Third version of ‘Once the siege…’ in the Gawain notebook
Drafts for first section of Gawain from Gawain notebook, pages four and five.
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Early drafts of ‘Once the siege…’
Description of first typed up draft of first stanza of 'Gawain'.
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First draft of ‘Once the siege…’
Description of first typescript draft of first stanza of Gawain
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Second draft of ‘Once the siege…’
Description of second typed up draft for first stanza in 'Gawain'
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'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Description notebook drafts for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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First version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Second pages of drafts
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Second version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Third page of drafts in Gawain notebook
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Third version of 'Now through England's realm...' in the Gawain notebook
Pages of drafts from Gawain notebook.
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Early notes for 'Now through England's realm...'
Typescript early notes for lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Second draft of 'Now through England's realm...'
Second typescript draft of lines 691 - 739, Gawain.
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Writing a poetic translation: defending the work
Notes on the introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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Writing a poetic translation: translating dialect
Notes on introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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Writing a poetic translation: pronunciation
Notes for introduction to Gawain, back of Gawain notebook.
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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.