Were it not for Geoffrey Chaucer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight would today be considered the undisputed masterpiece of medieval English literature; to many, it is anyway. Whoever wrote it–he remains anonymous–had a beautiful sense of style, as you can see from the extract printed below. He wrote in a form of poetry called alliteration, that is, he used the initial sound of syllables to create pleasing repetition, rather than the end of the word–which we call rhyme. In fact, he rhymes as well. Each stanza of alliterative verse ends with what modern scholars call the “bob and wheel”–a short line of two syllables followed by four longer lines, the second and fourth of which rhyme with the “bob,” the first and third of which rhyme with each other. The Gawain-poet was an absolute master of this verse form, indicating mood change, and creating emotional intensity, by such alliteration.

But he was not merely a master of style; he also shows an uncanny ability to shape the form of his poem. One premise of the poem is that of a beheading match: a knight offers to allow Gawain to strike off his head if, in return, Gawain will submit to the same blow twelve months later. The other premise of the poem is the exchange of winnings: Bertilak, Gawain’s amiable host, proposes to give Gawain all that he finds while out hunting if, in return, Gawain will give all that he finds while staying behind. The situation becomes more complicated when Bertilak’s wife tries to seduce Gawain. How can he give Bertilak that? How can he be courteous to the obviously desirable lady of Hautdesert whilst also retaining his honour and his faith to his host?

The Gawain-poet’s triumph is the combination of these two plot elements, unrivalled elsewhere in medieval literature. He seems to have used a variety of different sources. The beheading episode occurs ultimately in the Irish epic, Bricriu’s Feast, in which Cuchulainn is the brave hero who submits to decapitation; it recurs in a number of medieval French stories, notably the Perlesvaus, The Mule Without a Bridle, and Hunbaut, as well as the German The Crown. Notably, all of these stories are Arthurian. The seduction of a knight by his host’s wife or daughter is related in the French Lanzelet and Yder and the English Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle.

The poem is written with an acute sense of reality–the people all behave in very credible ways. Magic abounds, of course, but human psychology remains the same. Gawain has learned something humanly important at the end of the poem; the fact that neither Arthur nor anyone else at court understands this, that they take the symbol of Gawain’s shame and attempt, rather bull-headedly, to transform it into a badge of honour, gives us a timeless glimpse at human failings, human aspirations, and the inability to communicate.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written round about 1400, in the north-west of England. Its dialect seems very foreign to us today, but actually it is a little more recent than Chaucer. Chaucer’s dialect evolved into Modern Standard English, which probably explains the other mystery about the present poem. It only exists in one manuscript, Cotton Nero A.x, which indicates that it was not as popular as, say, Piers Plowman, which exists in fifty-three manuscripts. Perhaps medieval English readers were just unwilling to read a poem written in such a provincial dialect!

Here is a sample of the original language of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, along with a translation.  Note that there were a number of characters in the Middle English alphabet that are no longer in use: the thorn (þ) was pronounced like the modern th; the yogh (3) either like a y or a guttural g.  In most written work before the nineteenth century, the u and v were interchangeable—you have to figure out which one it is from its context. Below the translation is an image of the corresponding folio in the manuscript.

 When the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy,

The bor3 brittened and brent to brondez and askez,

 The burg battered and burned to brands and ashes,

The tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wro3t

 The knight who wrought the trammels of treason there

Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe:

 Was tried for his treachery, the truest on earth;

Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,

5

 It was Aeneas the Royal, and his noble kin,

Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicome

 Who then subjugated provinces, and became lords

Welne3e of al þe wele in the west iles.

 Wellnigh of all the wealth in the west isles.

Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swyþe,

 Then royal Romulus turned to the riches of Rome,

With gret bobbaunce þat bur3e he biges vpon fyrst,

 Settling that city straight away with great pomp,

And neuenes hit his aune nome, as hit now hat;

10

 And naming it after his own name, as now it is known;

Tirius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,

 Ticius raised houses in Tuscany,

Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes vp homes,

 Langberd lifted up homes in Lombardy,

And fer ouer þe French flod Felix Brutus

 And far over the French Sea Felix Brutus

On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez

 Landed in joy upon the many banks of broad Britain

Wyth wynne,

15

  Wherein

Where werre and wrake and wonder

War and strife and wonder

Bi syþez hatz wont þerinne,

By turns were wont therein,

And oft boþe blysse and blunder

And often bliss and blunder

Ful skete hatz skyfted synne.

Have alternated since.