On DVD
Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight
an abridged performance in Middle English
Linda Marie Zaerr, Dramatic Narration
Shira Kammen, Vielle
Laura Zaerr, Harp
Produced by TEAMS and the Chaucer Studio
A green knight rides into King Arthur's banquet hall and offers
an axe to the knight who will play a game, an exchange of blows. Sir Gawain accepts the
challenge and beheads the green knight, but the man does not fall over and die. He picks
up his head and rides away, reminding Gawain to come find him in a year. The story follows
the bewildering challenges and conflicts Gawain discovers in a strange realm far removed
from Arthur's court.
With dance-like pantomime and evocative music on medieval instruments, this performance
invites modern viewers to appreciate one of the finest and most astonishing poems in
Middle English.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight invites dramatic performance.
While there are no documents of its performance in the Middle Ages, here is one possible
approach to how the poem might have been performed.
Here action and music with lively narrative allow the modern viewer to enjoy the difficult
northwest midlands dialect of Middle English. This fifty-minute performance presents the
entire story using lengthy excerpts in Middle English with brief Modern English summaries
between.
As a companion to the text of the romance, this DVD demonstrates the vitality of the
performance tradition and moves the experience of the language out of the printed page and
into an oral/visual context.
Those intrigued by how music might have been used with Middle English texts will hear the
rhythms of the text interact dynamically in concord and tension with the rhythms of the
music.
