Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight

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Title: Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight
An Alliterative Romance-Poem (c. 1360 A.D.)
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: January 3, 2005 [EBook #14568]
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR GAWAYNE AND THE
GREEN KNIGHT ***
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Sir Gawayne
and
The Green Knight:
AN ALLITERATIVE ROMANCE-POEM,
(AB. 1360 A.D.)
BY THE AUTHOR OF
"EARLY ENGLISH ALLITERATIVE POEMS."
RE-EDITED FROM COTTON. MS. NERO, A.x., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, BY

RICHARD MORRIS,
EDITOR OF HAMPOLE'S "PRICKE OF
CONSCIENCE,"
"EARLY ENGLISH ALLITERATIVE POEMS," ETC.;

MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED, 1869.
LONDON
MDCCCLXIV.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
In re-editing the present romance-poem I have been saved all labour of transcription by
using the very accurate text contained in Sir F. Madden's "Syr Gawayne."

I have not only read his copy with the manuscript, but also the proof-sheets as they came
to hand, hoping by this means to give the reader a text free from any errors of
transcription.
The present edition differs from that of the earlier one in having the contractions of the
manuscript expanded and side-notes added to the text to enable the reader to follow with
some degree of ease the author's pleasant narrative of Sir Gawayne's adventures.
The Glossary is taken from Sir F. Madden's "Syr Gawayne,"[1] to which, for the better
interpretation of the text, I have made several additions, and have, moreover, glossed
nearly all the words previously left unexplained.
For a description of the Manuscript, and particulars relating to the authorship and dialect
of the present work, the reader is referred to the preface to Early English Alliterative
Poems.
R.M.
LONDON,
December 22, 1864.
[Footnote 1: Sir F. Madden has most generously placed at the disposal of the Early
English Text Society any of his works which it may determine to re-edit.]

INTRODUCTION.
No Knight of the Round Table has been so highly honoured by the old Romance-writers
as Sir Gawayne, the son of Loth, and nephew to the renowned Arthur. They delighted to
describe him as Gawayne the good, a man matchless on mould, the most gracious that
under God lived, the hardiest of hand, the most fortunate in arms, and the most polite in
hall, whose knowledge, knighthood, kindly works, doings, doughtiness, and deeds of
arms were known in all lands.
When Arthur beheld the dead body of his kinsman lying on the ground bathed in blood,
he is said to have exclaimed, "O righteous God, this blood were worthy to be preserved
and enshrined in gold!" Our author, too, loves to speak of his hero in similar terms of
praise, calling him the knight faultless in his five wits, void of every offence, and adorned
with every earthly virtue. He represents him as one whose trust was in the five wounds,
and in whom the five virtues which distinguished the true knight were more firmly
established than in any other on earth.
The author of the present story, who, as we know from his religious poems, had an utter
horror of moral impurity, could have chosen no better subject for a romance in which
amusement and moral instruction were to be combined. In the following tale he shows
how the true knight, though tempted sorely not once alone, but twice, nay thrice, breaks
not his vow of chastity, but turns aside the tempter's shafts with the shield of purity and
arm of faith, and so passes scatheless through the perilous defile of trial and opportunity

seeming safe.
But while our author has borrowed many of the details of his story from the "Roman de
Perceval" by Chrestien de Troyes, he has made the narrative more attractive by the
introduction of several original and highly interesting passages which throw light on the
manners and amusements of our ancestors.
The following elaborate descriptions are well deserving of especial notice:--
I. The mode of completely arming a knight (ll. 568-589).
II. The hunting and breaking the deer (ll. 1126-1359).
III. The hunting and unlacing the wild boar (ll. 1412-1614).
IV. A fox hunt (ll. 1675-1921).
The following is an outline of the story of Gawayne's adventures, more or less in the
words of the writer himself:--
Arthur, the greatest of Britain's kings, holds the Christmas festival at Camelot,
surrounded by the celebrated knights of the Round Table, noble lords, the most renowned
under heaven, and ladies the