Gawain and The Green Knight - YR Ponsor

Published by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.: New York, 1979.

This tale is a modern "prose adaptation" of "a poem written about 1400 by an unknown author" (page ix). It tells the story of Gawain, a knight from King Arthur's court, and his encounter with the magical Green Knight. The knight arrives at King Arthur's court and challenges someone to give him a single blow with an axe, which he will return a year and one day later. Gawain takes up the challenge, removes the knight's head with a single stroke and is then horrified when the knight picks up his severed head, reminds Gawain of his promise, and leaves.

The story follows Gawain as he seeks the whereabouts of the Green Knight to honour his promise, and spends a lot of time at a castle he encounters on his travels where the queen seeks to seduce him!

The story is a fairly simple one, but there are times you can tell the original text was written in a very different time to our own. During hunting scenes, for example, large portions of time are devoted to cutting up the prey, which feel like elements we probably would not focus on as much nowadays. The ritual and devotion of Gawain's faith - including a prayer to Mary, "the goddess of heaven" - seem also somewhat outside of our time (not to mention highlighting a fairly unorthodox and corrupted Christianity by today's standards).

Taking these points into account though, the story is an interesting look at a time period very different to our own, and reads as an extended fairy tale or morality fable. It is aided in this style by the addition of very old-fashioned illustrations that open each chapter.

Completed 10 April 2020.


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