Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

By .

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Preface
4. Introduction
5. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
   1. Fit I
   2. Fit II
   3. Fit III
   4. Fit IV
6. Glossary
7. Endnotes
8. List of Illustrations
9. Colophon
10. Uncopyright

Imprint

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Preface

The original of the poem here printed can be found in several editions, of which the most accessible are that published by the Early English Text Society and the more recent Clarendon Press edition, excellently annotated by Tolkien and Gordon.

The present version, which is intended for the ordinary reader, is a lineal rendering, and has therefore the same number of lines as the original, viz. 2530; I have sought to preserve the alliterative metre (with certain simplifications mentioned in the Introduction) and as much of the language as was possible without being obscure. The rhyming pieces, which usually alliterate also, at the end of each stanza are often difficult, and I will only say that I have done what I could with them.

I have followed the text of the Clarendon Press edition mentioned above, and my obligations to that edition are hereby heartily acknowledged, though I have not invariably accepted its interpretations.

S. O. A.

Introduction

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem in four “fits,” and the story is as follows:

King Arthur is holding his Christmas court at Camelot, with feasting and revelry. On New Tear’s Day, just as dinner is being served, there enters, suddenly and unannounced, a green knight on a green horse. He rides straight up to the high table and, without dismounting, challenges the company to a Christmas game: he will take from anyone present a stroke with a huge axe which he carries, on condition that in a twelvemonth the striker submits to a return blow. After some parley Gawain accepts the challenge, and gives an undertaking to seek out the strange knight at his own place in a year’s time. Gawain now makes his stroke and cuts off the Green Knight’s head, so that it rolls along the floor; the decapitated man at once picks it up, leaps into his saddle, and, holding the head by the hair, adjures Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel on the appointed day; and so departs. (Fit I.)

A year quickly passes, and on All Saints’ Day Gawain rides to seek the Green Chapel. After many hardships and adventures, he comes into North Wales and then into the Wirral and the country beyond. On Christmas Eve he is still in the wilds, but his prayer that he may find some shelter for the holy tide is answered that day. He comes to a castle in a forest. Here he is welcomed and entertained until St. John’s Day by the lord and the two ladies of the castle, one of them the lord’s young wife, the other an ancient as hideous as the wife is beautiful. He now wishes to depart, but on being assured by the lord that the Green Chapel is not two miles distant and that he shall be escorted to it in good time, he consents to prolong his stay till New Year’s morning. The lord intends to hunt on the last three days of the year, while Gawain rests his weary bones at home, and he proposes to Gawain a playful compact that they shall exchange each evening whatever they have won during the day. (Fit II.)

On each of the three days while the lord is afield Gawain lies late in bed and is visited by the lady in his chamber, where she does all she can to get him to make love to her. Though hard pressed, he resists her wiles and will only consent to allow her to kiss him, once on the first day, twice on the second, and three times on the last. These kisses he faithfully delivers to the lord, but without telling him where he won them, and he receives in exchange the lord’s winnings afield, venison, a boar’s head, and a fox-skin. On the third day, however, Gawain has accepted from the lady a green lovelace, or girdle, which she tells him will protect anyone wearing it from being wounded, and this part of his winnings, at her request but contrary to his compact, he conceals from the lord. (Fit III.)

On New Year’s morning Gawain is escorted by a squire to the head of a wild valley, where he is given directions for finding the Green Chapel. After some search he finds it, a green mound or barrow; and on the hillside he hears a sound as of an axe being sharpened. The Green Knight appears, and after greeting Gawain bids him prepare for the stroke. As