Storybook Plan!

I'm planning on using one source for all of my stories, Jessie Weston's translation. It's easily accesible and most importantly, it's the easiest version that I've come across in terms of understanding. Middle English is absolutely challenging! This version is excellent in terms of language adaptation, however, so I'm going to stick with it. I'm probably going to tell this with a third person narrator.

The story that I want to tell here is different here in terms of how the story is structured. A lot of his character is hinged greatly on valor and honor, it's part of the five points of his pentagram on his shield to be courteous and basically excellent at all times. I believe that I would like to start at the end of his journey, or at least have an introduction that alludes to the fact that he failed his thing with Lord Bertilak. Beginning with him withered and disappointed will help emphasize the difference between the man at the beginning that is lively and stronger, I guess for lack of a better word. There's not really any feasible way for me to retell the entire story, but I've broken it into a few key points.

The first story I would like to do is going to be the regular beginning of the story. It's Christmas and the Green Knight shows up, challenging anyone to a battle. Gawain takes the offer, beheads him in the fight, the knight picks up his head, tells him to look for him in a year, and departs. I would like to do this as short as I possibly could, skipping then to a year later. Remembering his promise, he leaves the court and goes to the castle.

The second story is probably going to be the one with Lady Bertilak trying to seduce Gawain. He rejects her advances, but agrees to the one kiss because chivalry. Gawain gives Lord Bertilak the kiss he received as part of their promise to exchange winnings. I might reference the other two kisses received, but I'm not set on making it a scene. He accepts the girdle and keeps it a secret. I'll have to mention the two days of hunting here as well.

I can't decide if I want to do three of four stories, but I think three will be fine. The Green Knight shows up and they have their little fight thing. He explains the reason that Gawain only received a scratch on his neck. He thinks highly of Gawain, though because he did fail to disclose the girdle, Gawain considers this a failure. I... I don't know if I want to mention the part about Morgan le Fay. Arthur considers the girdle/sash whatever as a token of his bravery and pride as a knight. No one knows that Gawain is deeply ashamed by all of this and having to see a reminder of his failure for the rest of his time alive is deeply shameful and haunting. Who could he tell about this? It would absolutely ruin his reputation as a knight. He keeps it a secret.

Topic Research: Gawain

Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Jessie Weston

Because this one is so long, I would want to split it up into 3/4 parts and focus on the key moments of it. There's a lot of failing to meet expectations, anxiety, temptations, and games. I think that Gawain is sort of a flawed hero and towards the end of it he's understanding that more about himself. I find it compelling because he cares about his reputation, but it's really just his own standards that he's trying to live by and then fails to meet his own expectations. I wanted to tell this maybe after he gets back from the mission and is sort of downcast after his failures. He strikes me as someone who would try to save face and would possibly embellish the story a bit to impress others, but would ultimately tell the truth because chivalry and honor. It would be fun to tell this from someone trying to mend that gap in their self esteem. 

The Marriage of Sir Gawain from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child

Okay, honestly I didn't know what some of this was saying, but I tried my best. I keep trying to think of gimmicks for these, but I think this would be another one that would be fun to retell in in its original setting, but with modern language. The whole thing is very fun, keeping with the theme of challenges and games. I like that he lets the "hag" choose which form that she wants. I know that he's a knight of maidens, but it's nice to see him paired with someone, though the circumstances are not typical. I would like to tell this from King Arthur's perspective, possibly. Because of the beginning with the challenge thing at the beginning, I almost would have to or choose a third person narrator. I think that I could also split this one up into all of the parts that I need, but I'm not sure. 

Gawain's Adventure in Search for Owain by Lady Charlotte Guest

I like that there are so many colors included in these stories... The green knight, the yellow man. That's fun. I also am enjoying the magical quest thing. I enjoy the appeal of that for this story a lot.  That could be the theme that I do and just pick parts of each of these to retell. Anyway, I found the match that went on for a very long time to be quite amusing. They really did not know that they knew each other. I like that there's so much dramatic irony in all of these. There's at least one little twist like that in each of the stories I picked out. I think that this is also something to consider...

Gawain and the Green Knight (Wikipedia)

Topic Brainstorm

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Jessie Weston

I like the original story and thought it might be fun to retell this one in a MUCH abridged setting. I think that it offers a lot of grounds for interesting storytelling and Gawain as a narrator sounds fun. I haven't quite figured out how I would break this up or if it would even be possible, but I like Gawain and thought it would be fun to do a thing on him. I could just choose him as a spotlight and do other stories, though I know this is one of the more notable ones for him, so I'm not sure! I haven't read the piece in its entirety, but I do know the gist of it. I find the concept of chivalry vs. his own expectations to be quite interesting and could be framed in a way that's relatable to the readers. I think the only thing I don't like about this is that I have no idea what thing I could add to it to make it more than just a retelling, though it might be fine as is. 

Ballads of Robin Hood By James Francis Child

My entire thought process for this was: Oh, Robin Hood is an outlaw... outlaws were in the wild west... Robin Hood but set in the west and he's a cowboy. I thought it would be fun to set this in a different setting and change the titles of characters to make it fit the time period/setting. Theres' a lot of room to set it up in many different ways which I like. I thought about framing it like an old movie script or in an old saloon and people are trading stories about the legends of Robin Hood. I don't have any prior knowledge outside of the Disney movie. I find his whole thing about robbing from the rich to give to the poor to be excellent. 

The Epic of Gilgamesh from Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria by Lewis Spence

There was a section in here about his descent into tyranny that I liked a lot. When you think of heroes, especially one as famous as Gilgamesh, you don't really think about their bad behavior or what they did later in life, or at least I don't. I tend to think about the key moments, but it's all important to the story as a whole. I like the Epic of Gilgamesh on its own, I don't think he's a great person (I don't think any of these characters are,) but it's fun to talk about. They're famous for a reason. I like the idea of picking out a few key stories from the tablets and telling them in a modern setting.

Women Saints
The Golden Legend Edited by F.S. Ellis
I only listed the Saint Martha story because I would definitely want to talk about her. I think hers is my favorite out of these women, but they all have cool stories! I think the focus here would be women doing cool things, but phrased much better than I did just now. I wanted to just do it on Saint Martha, though I'm not sure how I could stretch that out at all. The concept of this woman slaying a dragon is so good. I'm interested in women of the bible and women of history and myth in general, so there's a lot I could do with this. Maybe the women are telling their stories online, something along those lines.

Saint Martha and the Tarasque (Wikimedia Commons)