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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Did everything right except one tiny thing, and now you can't stop replaying it? Sir Gawain has entered the chat. Everyone forgave him but him. 💚
Who it's for
Gawain does almost everything right: he keeps an appointment he believes will kill him, resists a seductive lady three days running, and is courteous throughout, but he keeps a green girdle that promises to save his life and hides it from his host.
Feelings it meets
What it is
This anonymous late-14th-century Middle English poem, attributed to the 'Pearl Poet,' begins when a mysterious Green Knight arrives at King Arthur's court at Christmas and proposes a game: someone may strike him with his axe if he can return the blow a year later. Gawain accepts and beheads him, but the knight survives and leaves.
Where to find it
Public domain in older translations (e.g., Jessie L. Weston's 1898 prose version), free on Project Gutenberg. Simon Armitage's translation (Faber/Norton) and Tolkien's translation are in print and in.
Before you start
Heads up: A beheading and animal butchering.
Age: Ages 12+
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Clothes”
