Audiobook

Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knicht

The Gawain Poet

A mysterious Green Knight arrives at King Arthurs court at Camelot to propose a New Year's game. Strike the Knight a blow with his axe, and receive the same blow one year hence. Sir Gawain takes up the challenge and beheads the Green Knight, who coolly picks up his head and rides away, leaving instructions for Gawain to meet him one year later at the Green Chapel. The year goes by and as winter draws on Sir Gawain sets out on his quest. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a 14th century chivalric poem written in a northern dialect of Middle English. The unknown author, often called the Gawain poet, is thought to have lived in Cheshire. Only a single copy of the manuscript survives. This version of the manuscript, edited by Sir Frederic Madden in 1839, is read in Middle English alliterative verse, as it would have been heard by the poet's contemporaries. This recording can be listened to in conjunction with several modern English translations and retellings of the Gawain poem in the Librivox catalogue. - Summary by Phil Benson