Companion to the Gawain-Poet

A. S. G. Edwards is Honorary Professor of Medieval Manuscripts at the University of Kent at Canterbury. The late Derek Pearsall was Emeritus Gurney Professor of Middle English Literature at Harvard University; he wrote extensively on Chaucer, Gower, Langland and Lydgate, including biographies of Chaucer and Lydgate, an edition of the C-text of Langland's Piers Plowman. JANE GILBERT is Professor of Medieval Literature and Critical Theory at University College London, UK. NICHOLAS WATSON teaches English at Harvard University. His research focuses on medieval English and North European literature, intellectual history, visionary writing and the role of the written vernacular.

• Introduction - Derek S BrewerTheories of Authorship - Malcolm AndrewPoetic Identity - A C Spearing ***Gender and Sexual Transgression - Jane GilbertThe Historical Background - Christianity for Courtly Subjects: Reflections on the Gawain-Poet - David AersThe Materials of Culture: Landscape and Geography - Ralph W V ElliottThe Materials of Culture: Castles - Michael ThompsonThe Materials of Culture: Feasts - Derek S BrewerThe Materials of Culture: Jewels in Pearl - Felicity RiddyThe Materials of Culture: The Hunts in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Anne RooneyThe Materials of Culture: Armour I - Michael LacyThe Materials of Culture: Armour II: The Arming Topos as Literature - Derek S BrewerThe Materials of Culture: The Colour Green - Derek S BrewerThe Materials of Culture: Some Names - Derek S BrewerThe Manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x - A S G EdwardsMeter, Stanza, Vocabulary, Dialect - Hoyt N DugganSources I: The Sources of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Elisabeth BrewerSources II: Scriptural and Devotional Sources - Richard G. NewhauserThe Supernatural - Helen CooperThe Gawain-Poet as a Vernacular Theologian - Nicholas WatsonAllegory and Symbolism - Priscilla MartinNarrative Form and Insight - Nick DavisCourtesy and Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Order of Shame and the Invention of Embarrassment - Derek PearsallSIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS The Grene Knight - Gillian E RogersSIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS Sir Gawain at the fin de siècle: Novel and Opera - Barry A WindeattSIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS Sir Gawain in Films - David J. WilliamsBibliography

This superb collection of introductory essays by leading scholars and critics provides an excellent one-volume guide to the works of the anonymous Gawain-poet.