It provokes strong sensations in the reader one wants to yell out the line. Collectively, the alliteration and rhythm creates an anxious, trembling tone in the line. The combination of grating, hard c alliteration and the placement of that alliteration in the line creates a demanding rhythm. The Gawain-poet wrote “Corsed worth cowarddyse and couetyse boþe.” The poet employs a hard c alliteration, grabbing the reader’s attention. Tone and mood change in translations of line 2374 of Sir Gawain. Through the maintenance of the alliterative verse in a translation, the tone of the Gawain-poet is preserved and brings a translation closer to the original text. The alliterative verse the Gawain-poet employs creates a tone and mood that is characteristic to the original text. A literal translation of this stanza is included in the appendix.

While the Knight forgives Gawain for breaking their agreement, Gawain expresses his guilt over the matter. The Knight chastises Gawain for not exchanging the girdle with him, as per their agreement. This stanza details Sir Gawain’s final confrontation with the Green Knight, who references the agreement that he made with Gawain to exchange three days’ worth of prizes to each other. In this essay, the following lines are taken from stanza 95 in the fourth part of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain follows Gawain’s struggle to fulfill the pact he made with the Green Knight. Tolkien, three of the most prominent of Sir Gawain translators, each attempt to retain the alliterative verse (with varying degrees of successes) and therefore allow their readers a way to more directly experience the original text. Simon Armitage, Marie Borroff, and J.R.R. Forgoing the alliterative verse alters those characteristics that define the untranslated Sir Gawain: the original tone and mood, the Gawain-poet’s intent, and its subtle nuances. However, while translating for meaning is important, the most authentic translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one that primarily focuses on preserving the alliterative verse of the Gawain-poet. These translators instead focus on making the Middle English comprehensible to modern audiences, allowing the alliterative verse to again fall into obscurity. Some translators of the Gawain-poet’s Middle English, however, do not emphasize the preservation of the poet’s alliterative verse. Using the parameters of alliterative verse, the Gawain-poet conjures revulsion toward betrayers and traitors and anticipation for the coming story. “On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez wyth wynne” (Line 15) “ Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt” (Line 3) The Gawain-poet uses alliteration to his advantage, forming memorable, powerful lines using the stressed syllables and rhythm of alliterative verse in Sir Gawain, such as: Alliterative verse seemed rustic to southern England (Tolkien 14) it only remained prevalent in midland and northern regions in this century, before it disappeared in the fifteenth century (Borroff XV).

The Gawain-poet’s use of alliterative verse was rare in the fourteenth century.

One thing, however, is certain about the Gawain-poet: he was a master of alliterative verse. The identity of the author who wrote Sir Gawain remains a mystery and the author’s biography conjecture. Untitled and virtually unknown until the nineteenth century, the small manuscript containing the poem that would later become known as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight languished in obscurity.

Gawain poet