Introduction:

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written by an unknown author, referred to as the Gawain-poet, in the late 14th Century. In 1839, it was found in the British Library. The British Library obtained the poem from the Cotton Library, and Sir Robert Cotton obtained it from a library in Yorkshire. The Gawain-poet lived somewhere in the Midlands of England, near Stafford. Upon finding the poem after four hundred years, it was not discarded because it was written on an unusual substance parchment, cow or sheep skin.

The poem was dispersed and examined by the curator of the library. The curator found the poem to be a literary work of the highest quality. The poem is the finest Celtic Arthurian poem in the English language. This poem is regarding King Arthur's court and the Knights of the Round Table, more specifically their most famous knight Sir Gawain. The Gawain-poet knew Latin and French, which is where the poet encountered the source stories of the Beheading Game, Temptation Story, and Exchange of Winnings. The plot of the poem, with its elements of supernatural and amorous intrigue was derived from medieval French poets, such as Chretien de Troyes.

The formulaic style of this poem is alliterative verse, a form which has fallen into disuse since the fifteenth Century. The alliterative tradition in Middle English is descended from the alliterative tradition in Old English poetry. Old English poetry roots may be traced back to its Germanic heritage of heroic legends recited in verse. The presence of alliterating formulas in modern English expression like good as gold, lay of the land and worse for wear are connected with the lost Germanic poetic inheritance of the English language. The alliterative line consists of words beginning with the same letter.

This poem is divided into four passus, passus I through IV. The poem consists of 101 irregular stanzas, and each stanza is concluded with what is referred to as the bob and wheel. The bob and wheel is a five-line rhyming group. The first line has one stress and is referred to as a bob. The four subsequent lines have three stresses per line, and is referred to as a wheel.  Each bob and wheel has a rhyming scheme of ABABA.

This poem was written in Middle English, more specifically Middle English with a dialect from the midlands of England closely associated with Germanic languages. The literary information provided will include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight summary by etymologizing, searching for the historical definition of the words, Modern English Translation and Middle English Manuscript. The summary of the poem shall be in prose by passus and stanza.

Works Cited:

Manuscript:

Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain reproduced in facsimile from MS. Cotton Nero A. x with Introduction by Sir I. Gollancz, E.E.T.S. 162, 1923.

Editions:

Syr Gawayne, ed. Sir F. Madden, Bannatyne Club, 1839.

Sir Gawayne and The Green Knight, ed. R. Morris, E.E.T.S. 4, 1864, revd. Sir I. Gollancz 1897 and 1912.

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, Oxford, 1925.

The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Eds. Malcom Andrew, and Ronald Waldron. Exeter: U of Exeter, 1987.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Middle Ages. 8th ed. Vol. A. Eds. Alfred David, and James Simpson. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006. 160-213. Print.

Oxford English Dictionary Online. 2nd ed. 1989. Lane Library, Ripon College, Ripon, WI. <http://dictionary.oed.com>

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