Gawain and the Green Knight

This fine poem, written in the West Midlands in the later 14th century, not only has a plot centred upon a shape-changing giant but is rich in details of interest to folklorists. The Green Knight's brusque entry at Arthur's New Year feast, bearing a holly branch, is suggestive of the masquerades and games common in medieval households at that season; the beheading challenge he proposes has folktale analogues; his home in a hollow knoll recalls legends in which prehistoric barrows are linked to giants. His colour and ability to survive decapitation have provoked speculation about seasonal symbolism and vegetation spirits. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell how much of this is due to the English poet drawing on customs and tales from his own culture, how much to his immediate source (a French poem now lost), and how much to the remote sources of the basic story, which were Celtic.

Bibliography
The full bibliography list is available here.

• Text ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925; many reprints).
• Full translation in J. R. R. Tolkien, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo (1975)