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Article: `Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,' translated by W.S. Merwin; Alfred A. Knopf.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)
- Article from:
- Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
- Article date:
- October 9, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," translated by W.S. Merwin; Alfred A. Knopf (208 pages, $22)
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There is a ghost that haunts English literature, a towering, shadowed figure at least a thousand years old now _ the ghost of a warrior, a hero, a dragon-slayer whose name was Beowulf.
Second only to this Beowulf in stature stands another ghost, younger by perhaps four centuries, yet even more mysterious _ for he was partly human and partly the creation of sorcery, and was known as "the Green Knight."
And now he walks again.
Two years ago Irish poet Seamus Heaney constructed a new verse translation of "Beowulf," the great Old ...