The Legend Of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
April 13th, 2008You may be familiar with the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Here is a synopsis:
Composed in medieval England by an unknown poet and set in what were (even then) the old days of King Arthur, the tale of Sir Gawain begins when a magical warrior with green skin and green hair interrupts the Christmas party at Camelot with a bizarre challenge: If a person here present, within these premises is big or bold or red blooded enough to strike me one stroke and be struck in return in once year’s time, says the knight, I shall give him as a gift this gigantic cleaver. Pure, loyal Sir Gawain accepts the agreement: the adventures that ensue include a boar hunt, a deer hunt, and an extended flirtation with a noble lady, designed to test Sir Gawain’s bravery, fidelity and chastity, and to explore—with some supernatural help—the true meaning of virtue.
The Gawain-poet, as he is known to scholars, wrote in Middle English though it is slightly harder to read than Chaucer, the grammar is more or less our own. Armitage (The Shout), one of England’s most popular poets, brings an attractive contemporary fluency to the Gawain-poet’s accentual, alliterative verse: We hear the knights of Round Table chatting away charmingly, exchanging views.
There is a new book out with a new translation and it is available on Amazon Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
But the story is also available for free in several different versions from gutenberg Here is a nice HTML version of it You can also search Gutenberg.org for other, more difficult versions.
There is also a book by Tolkien on this legend . It is his translation and he preserves the alliteration of the narrative as only the master philologist can 
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