The Tale of Gawain

Gawain and the Green Knight is the celebrated poem from the time of Chaucer, written in the dialect then current in the north of England. Chaucer's language outlasted this dialect. The poem draws on rich Arthurian and folk traditions involving the Green Man and knightly virtue. It has been frequently translated but John Watson has chosen to devise a version running parallel to the original while avoiding direct translation. Here Gawain struggles afresh with the Green Knight's gruesome challenge and overcomes mysterious temptations in order to preserve the precept of Virtue as required at the Round Table.