Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Material Information

Title:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Creator:
Gawain Poet ( Actor )
A. S. Kline ( Translator )
Publisher:
Poetry in Translation
Copyright Date:
2007

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Open Education Resources
Readings
English

Notes

Abstract:
"Written in Middle English of the late Fourteenth Century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight survives in a single manuscript which also contains three religious poems including Pearl, written it seems by the same author, who is therefore referred to as The Pearl Poet. The poem tells the story of an incident at the court of King Arthur, involving Sir Gawain’s acceptance of a challenge from the mysterious Green Knight, and leading to a test of his chivalry and courage. The poem is a lively, atmospheric, and cleverly-paced example of a quest tale, from which the hero emerges chastened and wiser, and contains an interesting mix of Celtic, French and English motifs. There are many and varied interpretations of the themes and symbols contained in the story, and echoes are found in many other folklore tales and legends. The Pearl Poet appears to have been a Fourteenth Century contemporary of Chaucer, and the dialect in which the poem is written suggests an origin in the English West Midlands. The poem is written in an alliterative style, in variable length stanzas, their lines containing two pairs of stressed syllables, and each stanza ending in a rhyming quatrain. It is seen as an example of work produced during the Alliterative Revival of the period, but by combining alliteration and rhyme leads forward to the flexible rhymed and unrhymed verse of later times. Various attempts have been made to identify the Pearl Poet with a historical personage but no candidate has been generally accepted." -A. S. Kline

Record Information

Source Institution:
Poetry in Translation
Holding Location:
Poetry in Translation
Rights Management:
This item is licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivative License. This license allows others to download this work and share them with others as long as they mention the author and link back to the author, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

MCC Membership

Aggregations:
Middlesex College
Middlesex County College OER