Armitage, Simon [translation].

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Illustrations by Diana Sudyka.

London, The Folio Society, 2008. 25.5 cm x 32 cm. 114 pages. Original Hardcover with original slip case. Original publisher’s cloth with gilt lettering and decoration. Unusually excellent condition with only very minor signs of wear.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance. It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folklore motifs, the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. The Green Knight is interpreted by some as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important poem in the romance genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess, and it remains popular to this day in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.

It describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious “Green Knight” who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving Lady Bertilak, the lady of the Green Knight’s castle. (wikipedia).

• Keywords: Catalogue No.10 – International Literature · Catalogue Two – Children’s Books · English Literature · English Literature – Rare
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 75424AB

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