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Writing a poetic translation: translating dialect

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 page of notes continues Armitage's defence of, or explanation for, various elements of Gawain.

The dialect words in the centre of the page – “bide”, “laike”, “childer”, “barlow” and “samen” amongst others – show Armitage listing words from Gawain that were familiar to him as Yorkshire dialect, which possibly helped him to identify with the Gawain poet.

Armitage uses dialect terms throughout his translation. Some are a direct crossover from the original, and some have made their way into other sections of the poem.

For example: “every hill wore a hate of mizzle on its head” (l. 2081). Mizzle is derived from the Middle English word “misy” (swamp or bog) and is still current in parts of the UK in the form of “mizzle” (drizzling rain).