Dear Gawain supporter,
I thought I would share a very quick update with you concerning a couple of events recently.
Firstly, for those of you with an interest in castles, I was approached by BBC History magazine to wriite a piece on my 10 favourite castles in Great Britain for their History Extra section. The problem with a proposal like this is how do you choose 10 when there are probably at least 100 I would firmly recommend anyone to visit?
However, my selection of castles worth seeing is available here:
Above: hand-painted shield based on those in King Arthur's Death (see blelow)
Secondly, progress on my translation of King Arthur's Death is moving on a pace. We're now at 52% funding with 170 patrons to date. I've just uploaded some new - and UNIQUE - pledge options featuring the fabulous heraldry accurately described by the anomymous Arthur-poet.
His understanding of heraldry is profound - you can find out more about his use of it here
Here's a flavour of the type of language the Arthur-poet uses; in this case, when Sir Gawain is wounded by the mysterious Sir Priamus. It's still alliterative (like Gawain) but moves at a faster pace (the caesura is included to help read it aloud to yourself):
“Yah!” said Gawain, “you grieve me but a little.
You think to bring terror on me with your taunts;
You trust my heart falters with all of your talk?
You will entail trouble, if you turn from here now,
Unless you tell me tightly and not tarry longer
What may staunch this blood that thus runs so fast.”
Isn't it wonderful? Don't forget, if you've not done so already and you'd like to be a patron of this new telling of King Arthur's Death - a poem which just keeps on getting better and better the more I delve into it - please do pledge; it can only happen with your help - simply go to www.unbound.com/books/king-arthurs-death
Thank you again for supporting my work. I hope you are really enjoying Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - King Arthur's Death builds on this work and, similarly, will be packed with loads of additional information about the period, the influences on the poet, and what he might have been trying to say.
Kind regards
Michael Smith