UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER DR D’ARCY

ND
EN 2040 MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 2 YEAR

Sir Gawain and the

Green Knight
TEXTS

I
n addition to the extracts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight found in Middle English
Literature, ed. and rev. C. W. Dunn and E. T. Byrnes (New York and London, 1990), pp.
376-459, students are encouraged to consult the text and notes in Pearl, Cleanness, Patience,
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. J. Anderson (London, 1996. See also Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd rev. ed., N. Davis (Oxford,
1967); Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. and trans. W. R. J. Barron (Manchester, 1974);
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Critical Edition, ed. T. Silverstein (Chicago and
London, 1984).
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STUDIES AND ESSAY COLLECTIONS

Students are encouraged to consult some of the following works:

Arthur, R. G. Medieval Sign Theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Toronto, 1987).
Anderson, J. J. Language and Imagination in the Gawain-Poems (Manchester, 2005).
Barron, W. R. J. ‘Trawthe’ and Treason: The Sin of Gawain Reconsidered. A Thematic
Study of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Manchester, 1980).
Benson, L. D. Art and Tradition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (New Brunswick, NJ,
1965).
Blanch, R. J. (ed.). Sir Gawain and Pearl: Critical Essays (Bloomington, 1966).
Blanch, R. J. and Wasserman, J. N. From Pearl to Gawain: Form to Fynisment (Gainesville,

FA, 1994).
Borroff, M. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Stylistic and Metrical Study (New Haven
and London, 1962).
Brewer, D. and Gibson, J. (eds). A Companion to the Gawain-Poet (Woodbridge, 1997).
Brewer, L. E. From Cuchulainn to Gawain: Sources and Analogues of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight (Cambridge, 1973).
Brewer, L. E. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Sources and Analogues, 2nd ed..
(Cambridge, 1992).
Burrow, J. A. Ricardian Poetry: Chaucer, Gower, Langland and the Gawain-Poet (London,
1965).
Burrow, J. A. A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (London, 1965), repr.
London, 1977.
Davenport, W. A. The Art of the Gawain-Poet (London, 1978).

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UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER DR D’ARCY
ND
EN 2040 MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 2 YEAR

Howard, D. R. and Zacher, C. (eds). Critical Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
(Notre Dame, 1968).
Nicholls, J. W. The Matter of Courtesy: Medieval Courtesy Books and the Gawain-Poet
(Cambridge, 1985).
Putter, A. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance (Oxford, 1995).
Putter, A. An Introduction to the ‘Gawain’-Poet (London, 1996).
Spearing, A. C. The Gawain Poet: A Critical Study (Cambridge, 1970).
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ARTICLES

Ackerman, R. W. ‘Gawain’s Shield: Penitential Doctrine in Gawain and the Green Knight’,
Anglia 76 (1956), 254-65.
Anderson, J. J. ‘The Three Judgements and the Ethos of Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight’, Chaucer Review 24 (1990), 337-55.
Baughan, D. E. ‘The Role of Morgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, English
Literary History 17 (1950), 241-51.
Blenkner, L. ‘Sin, Psychology, and the Structure of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’,
Studies in Philology 74 (1977), 354-87.
Bloomfield, M. W. ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Appraisal’, Publications of the
Modern Language Association 76 (1961), 7-19, repr. in Critical Studies of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight, ed. D. R. Howard and C. Zacher (Notre Dame, 1968), pp. 24-55.
Burrow, J. A. ‘ “Cupiditas” in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Review of English Studies
n.s. 15 (1964), 56.
Champion, L. S. ‘Grace versus Merit in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Modern
Language Quarterly 28 (1967), 413-25.
Cooke, W. G. ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Restored Dating’, Medium Ævum 58
(1989), 34-48.
Cooke, W. G. and D’A. J. D. Boulton. ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Poem for
Henry of Grosmont?’, Medium Ævum 68 (1999), 42-54.
Carruthers, L. ‘The Duke of Clarence and the Earls of March: Garter Knights and Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight’, Medium Ævum 70 (2001), 66-79.
Davis, N. M. ‘Gawain’s Rationalist Pentangle’, in Arthurian Literature XII, ed. J. P. Carley
and F. Riddy (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 37-61.
Dove, M. ‘Gawain and the Blasme des Femmes Tradition’, Medium Ævum 46 (1972), 20-6.
Farley-Hills, D. ‘Gawain’s Fault in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Review of English
Studies n.s. 14 (1964), 124-31, repr. in Critical Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight, ed. D. R. Howard and C. Zacher (Notre Dame, 1968), pp. 311-24.
Foley, M. M. ‘Gawain’s Two Confessions Reconsidered’, Chaucer Review 9 (1974), 73-9.
Green, R. H. ‘Gawain’s Shield and the Quest for Perfection’, English Literary History 29
(1962), 121-39, repr. in Sir Gawain and Pearl: Critical Essays, ed. R. J. Blanch
(Bloomington, 1966), pp. 176-94.
Hanna, R. ‘Unlocking What’s Locked: Gawain’s Green Girdle’, Viator 14 (1983), 289-302.
Hardman, P. ‘Gawain’s Practice of Piety in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Medium
Ævum 68 (1999), 247-67.
Harwood, B. J. ‘Gawain and the Gift’, Publications of the Modern Language Association of
America 106 (1991), 483-99.

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UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER DR D’ARCY
ND
EN 2040 MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 2 YEAR

Heng, G. ‘Feminine Knots and the Other: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Publications
of
the Modern Language Association of America 106 (1991), 500-14.
Hieatt, A. K. ‘Sir Gawain: Pentangle, Luf-Lace, Numerical Structure’, Papers on Language
and Literature 4 (1968), 339-59.
Highfield, J. R. L. ‘The Green Squire’, Medium Ævum 22 (1953), 18-23.
Hills, D. F. ‘Gawain’s Fault in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Review of English Studies

n.s. 14 (1963), 124-31.

Horgan, A. D. ‘Gawain’s Pure Pentaungel and the Virtue of Faith’, Medium Ævum 56
(1987), 310-16.
Howard, D. R. ‘Structure and Symmetry in Sir Gawain’, Speculum 39 (1964), 425-33.
Ingham, M. and Barkley, L. ‘Further Animal Parallels in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’,
Chaucer Review 13 (1979), 384-6.
Jackson, I. ‘Sir Gawain’s Coat of Arms’, Modern Language Review 15 (1920), 77-9.
Jacobs, N. ‘Gawain’s False Confession’, English Studies 51 (1970), 433-5.
Kiteley, J. F. ‘The Endless Knot: Magical Aspects of the Pentangle in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight’, Studies in the Literary Imagination 4 (1971), 41-51.
Lass, R. ‘Man’s Heaven: the Symbolism of Gawain’s Shield’, Mediaeval Studies 28 (1966),
354-60.
Malarkey, S. and Toelken, J. B. ‘Gawain and the Green Girdle’, Journal of English and
Germanic Philology 63 (1964), 14-20.
Mann, J. ‘Sir Gawain and the Romance Hero’, in Heroes and Heroines in Medieval English
Literature, ed. L. Carruthers (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 81-96.
McClure, P. ‘Gawain’s Mesure and the Significance of the Three Hunts in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight’, Neophilologus 57 (1973), 375-87.
Mills, A. D. ‘An Analysis of the Temptation Scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’,
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 67 (1968), 612-30.
Mills, A. D. ‘The Rhetorical Function of Gawain’s Antifeminism?’, Neuphilologische
Mitteilungen 71 (1970), 635-40.
Moorman, C. ‘Myth and Medieval Literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Medieval
Studies 18 (1956), 158-72.
Morgan, G. ‘The Significance of the Pentangle: Symbolism in Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight’, Modern Language Review 74 (1979), 769-90.
Morgan, G. ‘The Validity of Gawain’s Confession in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’,
Review of English Studies n.s. 36 (1985), 1-18.
Morgan, G. ‘The Action of the Hunting and Bedroom Scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight’, Medium Ævum 56 (1987), 200-16.
Morgan, G. ‘The Perfection of the Pentangle and of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the
Green
Knight’, in Essays on Ricardian Literature in Honour of J. A. Burrow, ed. A. J. Minnis, C.

C. Morse, and T. Turville-Petre (Oxford, 1997), pp. 252-75.

Neaman, J. ‘Sir Gawain’s Covenant: Troth and Timor Mortis’, Philological Quarterly 55
(1976), 30-42.
Pace, G. B. ‘Gawain and Michaelmas’, Traditio 25 (1969), 404-10.
Pearsall, D. A. ‘Rhetorical “Descriptio” in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Modern
Language Review 50 (1955), 129-34.
Randall, D. B. J. ‘Was the Green Knight a Fiend’, Studies in Philology 57 (1960), 479-91.

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UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER DR D’ARCY
ND
EN 2040 MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 2 YEAR

Reichardt, P. F. ‘Gawain and the Image of the Wound’, Publications of the Modern
Language Association of America 99 (1984), 154-61.
Riddy, F. ‘The Speaking Knight: Sir Gawain and Other Animals’, in Culture and the King:
The Social Implications of Arthurian Legend: Essays in Honor of Valerie M. Lagorio
(Albany NY, 1994), pp. 149-62.
Robertson, D. W. Jr, ‘Why the Devil Wears Green’, Modern Language Notes 69 (1954), 470-
2.
Robertson, M. ‘Stanzaic Symmetry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Speculum 57
(1982), 779-85.
Savage, H. L. ‘The Significance of the Hunting Scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight’, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 27 (1928), 1-15.
Scattergood, V. J. ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Sins of the Flesh’, Traditio 37
(1981), 347-71.
Shedd, G. M. ‘Knight in Tarnished Armour: The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight’, Modern Language Review 62 (1967), 3-13.
Silverstein, T. ‘Sir Gawain, Dear Brutus, and Britain’s Fortunate Founding: A Study in
Comedy and Convention’, Modern Philology 62 (1964-5), 189-206.
Silverstein, T. ‘Sir Gawain in a Dilemma, or Keeping Faith with Marcus Tullius Cicero’,
Modern Philology 75 (1977-8), 1-17.
Smithers, G. V. ‘What Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is About’, Medium Ævum 32
(1963), 171-89.
Stokes, M. and Scattergood, J. ‘Travelling in November: Sir Gawain, Thomas Usk, Charles
of Orleans and the De re militari’, Medium Ævum 53 (1984), 78-83.
Trigg, S. ‘The Romance of Exchange: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Viator 22 (1991),
251-66.
Walker, G. ‘The Green Knight’s Challenge: Heroism and Courtliness in Fitt I of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight’, Chaucer Review 32 (1997), 111-28.
Watson, N. ‘The Gawain-Poet as a Vernacular Theologian’, in A Companion to the Gawain-
Poet, ed. D. Brewer and J. Gibson (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 293-305.
White, R. B. Jr, ‘A Note on the Green Knight’s Red Eyes (Gawain and the Green Knight,
304)’, English Language Notes 2 (1965), 150-2, , repr. in Critical Studies of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight, ed. D. R. Howard and C. Zacher (Notre Dame, 1968), pp. 223-6.
Whiting, B. J. ‘Gawain: His Reputation, his Courtesy, and his Appearance in Chaucer’s
Squire’s Tale’, Mediaeval Studies 9 (1947), 189-234.
Wirtjes, H. ‘Bertilak de Hautedesert and the Literary Vavasour’, English Studies 65 (1984),
291-301.
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BACKGROUND READING

Barron, W. R. J. ‘Alliterative Romance and the French Tradition’, in Middle English

Alliterative Poetry and its Literary Background’, ed. D. Lawton (Woodbridge, 1982), 75-
80.
Bennett, M. J. Community, Class and Careerism: Cheshire and Lancashire Society in the
Age of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Cambridge, 1983).
Elliott, R. W. V. The Gawain Country (Leeds, 1984).
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