Reference
- Gawain, SirA knight of King *Arthur, who plays a part in most of the Arthurian romances. The most remarkable of these is the 14th-cent. alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which Gawain comes almost unscathed through a long adventure offering many temptations...
- King ArthurKing Arthur was the legendary king of Britain who became the central figure in a literary tradition that spanned centuries and included hundreds of texts in the later Middle Ages and beyond, even into the 21st century. Over the course of the medieval period, the literary figure of Arthur developed from a Romanized Celtic “leader of battles” to a refined king presiding over the world's most glamorous court, and surrounded by the greatest, most chivalric of knights...
- Sir Gawain and the Green KnightOften considered the most elegantly written and stylistically perfect romance in Middle English, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight survives in only one copy and is found with three other poems in MS Cotton Nero A.x, Art. 3, in the British Library. The four poems are thought to have been written at the end of the 14th century, and all are generally considered to be the work of one author, although there are substantive differences between the poems. Of the four, Gawain alone is romance in genre; two are moral exempla with overt didactic intents, and the third is a dream vision whose moral and spiritual ethos connects it with the exempla poems. As a romance, and a fashionably chivalric romance, Gawain seems at some remove from its companion poems. Yet it shares with them a common dialect and composition tradition—they all belong to the native alliterative verse tradition in which the structure of the poems is determined by alliteration rather than rhyme...
- The Turke and Sir GawainThe Turke and Gawain is a late 15th-century romance in Middle English that is preserved in a 17th-century manuscript called the Percy Folio, along with three other late romances focusing on Sir Gawain, always the favorite of King Arthur's knights in medieval English literature. Along with The Grene Knight, The Carle off Carlile, and The Marriage of Sir Gawain, The Turke and Gawain is extant in a manuscript that appears to have been mutilated by household servants of the manuscript's owner, who tore half-pages from the text, apparently to light fires. Thus the surviving text of The Turke and Gawain has a number of large gaps, the 335 extant lines being only perhaps half of the original text...
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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Delve into the fascinating narrative of this highly sophisticated poem, following the great Sir Gawain through elaborate plot twists on his quest to fulfill an astonishing challenge. Investigate the meaning of his journey, and consider the important questions it raises concerning free will, loyalty, shame, and honor.
Online Resources
- Gawain: BritannicaGawain, hero of Arthurian legend and romance. A nephew and loyal supporter of King Arthur, Gawain appeared in the earliest Arthurian literature as a model of knightly perfection, against whom all other knights were measured. In the 12th-century Historia regum Britanniae, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gawain (or Walgainus) was Arthur’s ambassador to Rome; his name (spelled “Galvaginus”) is carved against one of the figures on the 12th-century archivolt of Modena cathedral in Italy...
- Panel from a Casket: Sir Gawain on the Marvelous Bed, 1300–50: Princeton UniversityAmong the subjects favored by fourteenth-century ivory carvers were themes of courtly love taken from troubadour songs, romances, and allegories, like the Roman de la Rose (the Romance of the Rose). This panel, thought to be from the same casket as the front plaque displayed nearby, shows an episode from Perceval, the Romance of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes (written 1181-90). In this poem, based on the rich traditions surrounding the court of King Arthur and the Round Table, the knights search for the Holy Grail, identified with the chalice used at the Last Supper...
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: British LibraryThe anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is considered one of the masterpieces of Middle English literature – a story of knightly deeds, sexual enticement and wild landscapes. It was composed in the West Midlands region of Britain at the end of the 14th century...
Understanding Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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Like Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, the anonymously authored Sir Gawain and the Green Knight represents a watershed in the development of the Arthurian tradition. Drawing on insights from Nicholas Perkins, a specialist on medieval English literature and manuscripts at the University of Cambridge; Arthurian expert Kevin J. Harty, of La Salle University; and Helen Cooper, authority on medieval literature at the University of Oxford, this program explicates this complex alliterative poem, examines its treatment of familiar Arthurian themes, and illustrates why it is considered one of the finest romances of the Middle Ages. A Films for the Humanities & Sciences Production. (24 minutes)
Perspectives
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The text is accompanied by a detailed introduction, an essay on the metrical form, the translator's note, marginal glosses, and explanatory annotations to assist readers in the study of this canonical Arthurian romance. "Contexts" presents two French tales of Sir Gawain and a passage from the Alliterative Morte Arthure, also translated by Marie Borroff, as well as three selections from the original Middle English poem. "Criticism" collects ten interpretive essays on the poem's central themes. Contributors include Alain Renoir, Marie Borroff, J. A. Burrow, A. Kent Hieatt, W. A. Davenport, Ralph Hanna III, Lynn Staley Johnson, Jonathan Nicholls, Geraldine Heng, and Leo Carruthers. A Chronology of important historical and literary dates and a Selected Bibliography are also included.
In the Footsteps of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowWritten around 1400 in Middle English by an unknown hand, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a mysterious poem about an uncanny event that takes place in the legendary realm of King Arthur. In this program, renowned Gawain translator Simon Armitage seeks a richer understanding of the poem by walking the fading trail that ends at the Green Chapel, the climax point of the famously alliterative epic that is equal parts adventure story, supernatural tale, steamy romance, parable, and tribute to nature. Enthralling! Readings and commentary by Armitage are interwoven throughout the narrative. Original BBC broadcast title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. (59 minutes)
Gawain and the Green Knight
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This beautifully dramatized version of the late-14th-century poem offers a bonanza to the English teacher: one of the best known of the Arthurian legends, a portrait of life in Arthurian days as the Pearl poet imagined it, a baker’s dozen of discussion topics about human virtue and human imperfectibility—and a fascinating plot involving a challenge by the Green Knight (green is of course the color of magic), who departs Arthur’s castle holding his own head, which Gawain has just lopped off; Gawain’s quest to keep his word and prove his worthiness while remaining alive; and the very moral surprise ending. (76 minutes)