The works said to be by a single anonymous author known as the Gawain-Poet (sometimes called the Pearl-Poet) are Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness (or Purity), and Patience. If they indeed are the work of one man, these four poems mark the so-called Gawain-Poet as one of the three greatest English writers of the later Middle Ages--along with Chaucer and the author of Piers Plowman. It is proper to refer to the Gawain-Poet as so-called. There is no firm evidence to prove even that these four poems are the works of one man. They might have been written by the same poet, but, on the other hand, they might have been written by two, three, or four different poets who imitated a common source or who imitated each other.

Even so, the idea of a Gawain-Poet is accepted by most...