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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Composed during the fourteenth century in the English Midlands, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes the events that follow when a mysterious green-coloured knight rides into King Arthur's Camelot in deep mid-winter. The mighty knight presents a challenge to the court: he will allow himself to be struck by one blow, on the condition that he will be allowed to return the strike on the following New Year's Eve. Sir Gawain takes up the challenge, decapitating the stranger - only to see the Green Knight seize up his own severed head and ride away, leaving Gawain to seek him out and honour their pact. Blending Celtic myth and Christian faith, Gawain is among the greatest Middle English poems: a tale of magic, chivalry and seduction.
Bernard O'Donoghue's elegant, lyrical verse translation skilfully conveys the force and imagery of the original, while his introduction considers the work's influences. This edition also includes a note on the translation and an extract from the original Middle English text.
94 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1350
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
April 11, 2013
The perfect link between Beowulf and Chaucer. The alliteration is phenomenal and I think he just makes up words to sound fabulous. A green man, a challenge, King Arthur's court, a bet, a perilous situation, an alluring woman, and an embracing host with lots of magic and feasts. What more could one ask for?
This translation gets right to the heart of the ME without being in ME. A wonderful translation with excellent essays in the back. If you don't feel like tackling the Middle English, but still want to embrace some medieval literature, look no further.
This translation gets right to the heart of the ME without being in ME. A wonderful translation with excellent essays in the back. If you don't feel like tackling the Middle English, but still want to embrace some medieval literature, look no further.
March 14, 2025
Trade offer: you cut my head off and I'll cut your head off in a year and a day.
November 20, 2021
sexy medieval lord and lady looking for a third
October 30, 2022
Stop perquè estic apreciant la literatura medieval I MHA AGRADAT. Also EL PLOT TWIST??? Slay
July 26, 2022
One of my favorite works of medieval literature, and a lovely single-sitting read. A classic example of a book that flummoxed me in high school, but which one really needs the tools of criticism in order to truly understand. It is, essentially, a golden paradigm of the worldview of the High Middle Ages, best read alongside Lewis's Discarded Image. The ending is a high ideal of the purest literary comedy, and the green knight is one of the great vindications of archetypal analysis. Though far from being an allegorical representation of Christ, his qualities and actions allow us to reflect on some of the most beautiful and mysterious attributes of the Savior—everything from his unconventional, unexpected initial appearance on Christmas, to his veiled orchestration of everything in the poem, to his levying of forgiveness and revelation of identity at the end contribute to the icon-like effect of the work as an object of sacred contemplation. Gawain himself represents everything rich and glorious about the chivalric code as well as the subversive questioning of it. All great epochal literature does both these things, and Gawain is a great epochal character. Strange miracles and earthy yet profound theology fills the poem. I still need a new translation though—the Bernard O'Donoghue one for Penguin is pretty disappointing as it doesn't keep any of the original features (not even the rhyming bob and wheel) and sounds like second-rate contemporary poetry. The Tolkien is on my endless to-buy list. And the Middle English of this is simply deliriously fun to read—something like a cross between Chaucer, Hopkins, Tennyson, and Dr. Seuss; an absolute marvel of poetic diction.
January 5, 2025
A wonderful whimsical story to end/start the year with. With luscious descriptions of foods, fabrics, merriment and enchantment. It was my second read of Gawain’s story, which I enjoyed even more than my first. I could forever lose myself in Arthurian legends. There is something truly magical about them.
October 17, 2021
3.5 ⭐️
March 26, 2024
(Reread for ENGL203)
I LOVE THIS POEM
I LOVE THIS POEM
March 3, 2025
I love this story:) would love to go back and dive deeper into the historical context that influences the events of the epic. It was very fun to compare to the movie (2018) and pull on the threads of differences made by the director/screenwriters and this version of the text
May 11, 2022
First reading:
I loved it. A little tricky explaining some of the subject matter to the kids, but they enjoyed it very much.
Second reading:
My first time reading this was with my kids for our Medieval school year, and it was long enough ago that I did not remember the ending. This time I read it for my WEM challenge. I am simply fond of this romantic English poem for its themes, and the verse is charming as well. The author is unknown, but I found the translation agreeable.
The setting is during the time of King Arthur's court at Christmastime. After the narrator recapped Britain's founding and the purpose of the writer: "to describe an adventure," a monstrous green sight appeared before the court. Everything about him was green and he requested the most noblest knight to enter a challenge: to strike him and in a year receive the same in return. King Arthur believed it a foolish request, but he honored it, and Gawain stepped forward.
For more review: https://withfreedomandbooks.blogspot....
I loved it. A little tricky explaining some of the subject matter to the kids, but they enjoyed it very much.
Second reading:
My first time reading this was with my kids for our Medieval school year, and it was long enough ago that I did not remember the ending. This time I read it for my WEM challenge. I am simply fond of this romantic English poem for its themes, and the verse is charming as well. The author is unknown, but I found the translation agreeable.
The setting is during the time of King Arthur's court at Christmastime. After the narrator recapped Britain's founding and the purpose of the writer: "to describe an adventure," a monstrous green sight appeared before the court. Everything about him was green and he requested the most noblest knight to enter a challenge: to strike him and in a year receive the same in return. King Arthur believed it a foolish request, but he honored it, and Gawain stepped forward.
For more review: https://withfreedomandbooks.blogspot....
June 15, 2018
It’s the snowy mid-winter of Christmastime in Camelot. The ladies and men of the court are carousing and rejoicing in their exchanges of kisses and gifts. With the change of the calendar on New Year’s Day, and the doubling of courses at the top table, King Arthur requests from his guests to hear a story of marvel before starting the feast. As if in answer, a great and strange green figure appears in his hall: a massive knight all in green armour and attire, with green hair and beard, sitting atop a green steed and armed with a great green axe ornamented with gold. Amid his play and taunts to Arthur and his knights, he lays down the terms of a deal: he’ll receive a single blow on this day from one who is willing, but in exchange he’ll return the blow in a year and a day. Arthur, at first, steps up to deal the blow himself. But, interrupting on behalf of the King’s honour, in steps the chivalrous Sir Gawain, and with words to Arthur and one swift blow decapitates the Green Knight. And here, without faltering or falling, the headless knight picks up his head. And that head speaks; it reiterates the terms of the agreement and bids Gawain seek out the Green Chapel when the times comes. With that oddness done, the headless knight rides off. And Arthur and Gawain, and indeed the queen and the whole court, are left to marvel at what has taken place. Soon the dread of the deal becomes apparent and Sir Gawain sets out northerly and solitary on his venture, to find the Green Chapel and meet his foe and to honour the deal and be struck his blow. What follows is a remarkable tale of magic and adventure, chivalry, romance, and faith.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a long poem written in Middle English and dated roughly to the late period of the fourteenth century. Its author is known alternatively as the Pearl Poet and the Gawain Poet, because the single manuscript by which the poem is known and survived is shared with several other poems, including the long dream narrative poem (itself of some substantial acclaim) Pearl. And there is reasonable evidence through analysis of the shared dialect of these poems, situated as North West Midland, and the shared formal structures and skill with these structures, that they are from the same poet.
The original poem is written in alliterative verse and is often considered of a piece with the alliterative revival as it’s theorised to have taken place in English poetry and of note in this time and region – “revival”, because it was a form common to or dominant in Old English poetry. Now, the alliterative verse form in Sir Gawain is quite famous not only for its adherence to this structure and tradition but also for its looseness and its dissents from it, and perhaps best so for the author’s technique of ending stanzas with the work's characteristic “bob and wheel”. In this technique, a short line of sometimes two syllables (the bob) proceeds from the longer alliterative part of the stanza and is then proceeded by a four-line rhyming quatrain (the wheel) that tidily ends the stanza.
Though the author of Gawain is thought to have been contemporaneous with Chaucer, the history of the latter’s work is one of saturation or continued presence throughout the subsequent generations of English literature, whereas the former's comes down to us perhaps by an accident of survival and has a new history of less than 200 years. There have been various translations over that time, including a notable but now somewhat flowery and archaic version from Tolkien, a vivid example from Armitage, a highly skilled and equally vivid attempt by Borroff, and also the modernised translation I have in my hands by O’Donoghue. This late edition of the text is admirable: it attempts to draw on the poem’s energy and form. But it’s also worth noting that it gives up substantial parts of that form, such as the alliteration and the full alliterative and rhyming effect of the bob and wheel, to achieve this. And so, while it gives a closer glimpse of the original poem by way of its sprint and its directness and voice, it concedes some of the poem's most famous and respected ornaments to its cost.
Gawain is a great tale and the richest excursion into, and evocation of, Arthurian legend and romance that I’ve read. It’s closer to modern sensibilities of readership than you might think a Middle English poem has a right to be. Its frank sexual politics and almost outright homoeroticism in its approximation of homosociality make it sharp to modern interpretive efforts. Its narrative variety and strengths, its ironic and characteristic Gawain poet voice and delight in descriptive details, also make it just a terrific gift to a reader. There are stanzas about the sensual qualities of a knight dressing and being attired, of lively courts feasting and carousing, of an adventurer in his own wilderness of feats and isolation; there are vicious hunts and kills, there are slaughters and whole passages about butchering; and there are the touchstones of romance put into the service of a tale that somehow seems more than a chivalrous romance. Several devices of the time (the beheading game, the seduction, the exchange of winnings, and the tradition of romance) are woven together into one ornate structure. And they turn the poem into something that at first glance is just a paradigmatic and traditional form of these, but that somehow becomes a resolution of all of them into each other.
It’s a terrific story put into beautiful form. And it’s an excellent piece of English literature.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a long poem written in Middle English and dated roughly to the late period of the fourteenth century. Its author is known alternatively as the Pearl Poet and the Gawain Poet, because the single manuscript by which the poem is known and survived is shared with several other poems, including the long dream narrative poem (itself of some substantial acclaim) Pearl. And there is reasonable evidence through analysis of the shared dialect of these poems, situated as North West Midland, and the shared formal structures and skill with these structures, that they are from the same poet.
The original poem is written in alliterative verse and is often considered of a piece with the alliterative revival as it’s theorised to have taken place in English poetry and of note in this time and region – “revival”, because it was a form common to or dominant in Old English poetry. Now, the alliterative verse form in Sir Gawain is quite famous not only for its adherence to this structure and tradition but also for its looseness and its dissents from it, and perhaps best so for the author’s technique of ending stanzas with the work's characteristic “bob and wheel”. In this technique, a short line of sometimes two syllables (the bob) proceeds from the longer alliterative part of the stanza and is then proceeded by a four-line rhyming quatrain (the wheel) that tidily ends the stanza.
Though the author of Gawain is thought to have been contemporaneous with Chaucer, the history of the latter’s work is one of saturation or continued presence throughout the subsequent generations of English literature, whereas the former's comes down to us perhaps by an accident of survival and has a new history of less than 200 years. There have been various translations over that time, including a notable but now somewhat flowery and archaic version from Tolkien, a vivid example from Armitage, a highly skilled and equally vivid attempt by Borroff, and also the modernised translation I have in my hands by O’Donoghue. This late edition of the text is admirable: it attempts to draw on the poem’s energy and form. But it’s also worth noting that it gives up substantial parts of that form, such as the alliteration and the full alliterative and rhyming effect of the bob and wheel, to achieve this. And so, while it gives a closer glimpse of the original poem by way of its sprint and its directness and voice, it concedes some of the poem's most famous and respected ornaments to its cost.
Gawain is a great tale and the richest excursion into, and evocation of, Arthurian legend and romance that I’ve read. It’s closer to modern sensibilities of readership than you might think a Middle English poem has a right to be. Its frank sexual politics and almost outright homoeroticism in its approximation of homosociality make it sharp to modern interpretive efforts. Its narrative variety and strengths, its ironic and characteristic Gawain poet voice and delight in descriptive details, also make it just a terrific gift to a reader. There are stanzas about the sensual qualities of a knight dressing and being attired, of lively courts feasting and carousing, of an adventurer in his own wilderness of feats and isolation; there are vicious hunts and kills, there are slaughters and whole passages about butchering; and there are the touchstones of romance put into the service of a tale that somehow seems more than a chivalrous romance. Several devices of the time (the beheading game, the seduction, the exchange of winnings, and the tradition of romance) are woven together into one ornate structure. And they turn the poem into something that at first glance is just a paradigmatic and traditional form of these, but that somehow becomes a resolution of all of them into each other.
It’s a terrific story put into beautiful form. And it’s an excellent piece of English literature.
October 27, 2025
Inicialmente comecei por ler a tradução de Tolkien sobre este conto, mas como o livro continha mais dois contos (que por enquanto não estão dentro da minha vontade em ler) tive que dar um dnf temporário e trocar a edição (ehehe). Nevertheless, dou a mesma review que dei quando acabei de ler Sir Gawain
"O jogo de ficar sem a tola é só cómico, o próprio conceito é de rir porque, depois de ler, chegasse à conclusão que "boys will be boys no matter the age" (se tivesse lido na Idade Média, teria ficado horrorizada)"
"O jogo de ficar sem a tola é só cómico, o próprio conceito é de rir porque, depois de ler, chegasse à conclusão que "boys will be boys no matter the age" (se tivesse lido na Idade Média, teria ficado horrorizada)"
February 26, 2025
"strange goings-on are fitting at Christmas"
"'What should I fear?' he said;
For whether kind or harsh
A man's fate must be tried.'"
"Following this wild boar until the sun went down.
So they spent the day in this manner, in this wild chase,
While our gracious knight lies in his bed:
Gawain, happily at home amid bright-coloured bedding
So rich."
"'Ma foi' said the gay lady, 'you could not be refused;
You are strong enough to force your will if you wish,
If any woman were so ill-mannered as to reject you.'
'Yes, indeed,' said Gawain, 'what you say is quite true;
But in my country force is considered ignoble,
And so is each gift that is not freely given.'"
"'What should I fear?' he said;
For whether kind or harsh
A man's fate must be tried.'"
"Following this wild boar until the sun went down.
So they spent the day in this manner, in this wild chase,
While our gracious knight lies in his bed:
Gawain, happily at home amid bright-coloured bedding
So rich."
"'Ma foi' said the gay lady, 'you could not be refused;
You are strong enough to force your will if you wish,
If any woman were so ill-mannered as to reject you.'
'Yes, indeed,' said Gawain, 'what you say is quite true;
But in my country force is considered ignoble,
And so is each gift that is not freely given.'"
June 2, 2025
Moral of the story: women are vindictive, scheming whores who cannot be trusted‼️
December 29, 2025
I will be interested to try some different translations.
Read
September 25, 2025“I offered you a stroke”🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Read
November 20, 2024✨NO RATING✨
May 26, 2016
A very epic poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was an enjoyable read.
One of the more amusing verses...
"Then at last the hunters came flocking back in
and quickly made a pile of the salughtered dear.
The leaders arrived there with troops of their
followers,
selected the animals with the most flesh on them,
and cut them open by the most skillful means.
Some of them first examined the brisket
and found a good two fingers of flesh in the leanest
They cut through the throat, siezed hold of the gullet,
cut it with a sharp blade and tied up the gut.
They cut of the four legs and stripped the hides,
opened the belly and pulled out the bowels,
careful not to break the knot of the gut.
They grasped the throat and rapidly severed
the gullet from the windpipe, and pulled out the
entrails."
And so it goes on, for several verses, a glorified tale of butchering deer xD
But that is about the most of it. The tale generally centers around Gawain and his chivalry. I found it most amusing that he most strongly refuses to "dishonor his host's bed" yet apparently finds nothing wrong with sitting around and flirting for hours on end with said barely clothed lady. -.0
Still, he's noble, and it is a fun, adventerous tale. Very interesting, a good read.
One of the more amusing verses...
"Then at last the hunters came flocking back in
and quickly made a pile of the salughtered dear.
The leaders arrived there with troops of their
followers,
selected the animals with the most flesh on them,
and cut them open by the most skillful means.
Some of them first examined the brisket
and found a good two fingers of flesh in the leanest
They cut through the throat, siezed hold of the gullet,
cut it with a sharp blade and tied up the gut.
They cut of the four legs and stripped the hides,
opened the belly and pulled out the bowels,
careful not to break the knot of the gut.
They grasped the throat and rapidly severed
the gullet from the windpipe, and pulled out the
entrails."
And so it goes on, for several verses, a glorified tale of butchering deer xD
But that is about the most of it. The tale generally centers around Gawain and his chivalry. I found it most amusing that he most strongly refuses to "dishonor his host's bed" yet apparently finds nothing wrong with sitting around and flirting for hours on end with said barely clothed lady. -.0
Still, he's noble, and it is a fun, adventerous tale. Very interesting, a good read.
September 17, 2021
Indovinate chi si guarda subito il film con Dev Patel? Io, perché sono impaziente di vedere come verrà reso visivamente questo poema cavalleresco davvero avvincente (e divertente, a tratti) per quanto “antico”.
June 1, 2022
2022: re-read after watching the film adapation The Green Knight.
Very enjoyable Arthurian adventure story, and I was happily suprized that it was quite understandable too!
Very enjoyable Arthurian adventure story, and I was happily suprized that it was quite understandable too!
August 4, 2022
ok... what? discounted beowulf, is that you???
...........sin!
...........sin!
August 30, 2020
I love this story. Such an epic story and it’s so fun to talk about the symbolism of each moving part.
May 14, 2022
I couldn’t get the style to work with me. It was nice to be able to read in the course of a day, but overall a big let down after seeing the great movie.
April 12, 2023
Magical book, one I didn't expect to love this much. Favourite section was the description of the changing seasons.
February 10, 2025
I really enjoyed the reverence of life in this, The Green Knight sparing go away because he kept the green sash in hopes that it would protect him, though I was a bit surprised that that didn’t extend to the description of the hunt, calling the Fox a villain, calling the Boar a beast
But I loved Gawain , the definition of chivalrous, I can see where the fair lady was coming from , even if her husband was the one who set up the plan
I also really appreciated this translation, it was very rhythmic and had a good meter
But I loved Gawain , the definition of chivalrous, I can see where the fair lady was coming from , even if her husband was the one who set up the plan
I also really appreciated this translation, it was very rhythmic and had a good meter
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2024
I surprisingly really enjoyed this book
June 16, 2024
A gay classic. To me.
March 26, 2025
3,5⭐️
Sorprendentemente me ha gustado
Sorprendentemente me ha gustado
September 26, 2025
Shoutout to Gawain, bisexual king.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews