Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

A late 14th-century Middle English romance in which Sir Gawain accepts a beheading challenge from the Green Knight and faces tests of courage, courtesy, and integrity.

Beheading game: A challenge in which one participant may strike a blow and must later receive an equivalent return blow. The Green Knight’s exchange of axe blows sets the plot in motion.
Alliterative verse: A poetic form organized chiefly by repeated initial sounds within lines rather than end rhyme. The poem’s long lines use alliteration as their main organizing sound pattern.
Pearl Poet: The anonymous poet conventionally credited with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and three other poems in the same manuscript. The poem’s author is unknown; shared dialect and style support this scholarly attribution.
Chivalric ideal: An imagined standard of knightly virtue combining honor, courage, loyalty, and courtesy. Gawain’s conduct falls short of the flawless ideal represented by his pentangle.
Exchange of winnings: A rule-bound contest in which participants exchange whatever they win during the day. At Hautdesert, this game tests whether Gawain will surrender what he receives from the lady.
Middle English: The diverse forms of English spoken and written from roughly the late 11th through the late 15th century. The poem survives in a regional Middle English dialect that can challenge modern readers.
Cotton Nero A.x: A late 14th-century manuscript containing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and three other Middle English poems. It is the sole surviving manuscript witness to the romance.
Gawain's girdle: The green belt Gawain keeps after accepting it as protection from death. His concealment of the girdle marks the failure he judges more severely than the Green Knight does.
Temptation: A trial in which desire or pressure challenges a person’s commitments or self-control. The lady’s advances test Gawain’s courtesy and loyalty alongside his physical courage.
Chivalry: A medieval code of conduct associating knights with martial duty, loyalty, courtesy, and honor. Gawain’s public identity rests on knightly ideals that the plot tests against fear and desire.

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