SOURCE: Prior, Sandra Pierson. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” In The Pearl Poet Revisited, pp. 92-127. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994.

In the following essay, Prior offers a critical reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a medieval romance and asserts that its author did not believe in offering firm conclusions concerning moral issues, considering them outside the scope of the genre.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the last poem in the manuscript, is by far the best known and the most popular of the poet's works. A romance tale combining various Celtic and folk motifs with traditions about King Arthur and his knights, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight recounts Gawain's adventures after he accepts a challenge to play a beheading game with a gigantic green man. This poem is unique among the Pearl poet's works, set apart from the other three by both...