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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The “Green Knight” offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain’s struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty.

The poem survives in a single manuscript, the Cotton Nero A.x., that also includes three religious pieces, Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience. These works are thought to have been written by the same unknown author, dubbed the “Pearl Poet” or “Gawain poet.” All four narrative poems are written in a North West Midland dialect of Middle English. The story thus emerges from the Welsh and English traditions of the dialect area, borrowing from earlier “beheading game” stories and highlighting the importance of honour and chivalry in the face of danger.

For those who cannot read early forms of olde English (not surprised), here is a jump to the more “Modern” English version of the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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2nd ed.edited by: J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon. Revised by: Norman Davis xxviii, 232 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. : Clarendon PressOxford 1967 Note: The printed text contained illustrations which are not noted in the electronic textNote: First ed. published in 1925 Note: Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-156)

Originally Published: 1400
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“folio” n=”91r”

-1-

SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,Þe bor3 brittened and brent to bronde3 and askez,Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wro3tWatz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erþe:Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicomeWelne3e of al þe wele in þe west iles.Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swyþe,With gret bobbaunce þat bur3e he biges vpon fyrst,And neuenes hit his aune nome, as hit now hat;Tirius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes vp homes,And fer ouer þe French flod Felix BrutusOn mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez wyth wynne, Where werre and wrake and wonder Bi syþez hatz wont þerinne, And oft boþe blysse and blunder Ful skete hatz skyfted synne.Ande quen þis Bretayn watz bigged bi þis burn rych,Bolde bredden þerinne, baret þat lofden,In mony turned tyme tene þat wro3ten.Mo ferlyes on þis folde han fallen here oftÞen in any oþer þat I wot, syn þat ilk tyme.Bot of alle þat here bult, of Bretaygne kynges,Ay watz Arthur þe hendest, as I haf herde telle.

“folio” n=”91v”

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The Magna Carta (The Great Charter 1216AD)

Link here
Preamble:
John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishop, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciaries, foresters, sheriffs, stewards, servants, and to all his bailiffs and liege subjects, greetings. Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement of his holy Church and for the rectifying of our realm, we have granted as underwritten by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry, archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of Master Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the Knights of the Temple in England), and of the illustrious men William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, William, earl of Salisbury, William, earl of Warenne, William, earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerold, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert De Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip d’Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and others, our liegemen.

1. In the first place we have granted to God, and by this our present charter confirmed for us and our heirs forever that the English Church shall be free, and shall have her rights entire, and her liberties inviolate; and we will that it be thus observed; which is apparent from this that the freedom of elections, which is reckoned most important and very essential to the English Church, we, of our pure and unconstrained will, did grant, and did by our charter confirm and did obtain the ratification of the same from our lord, Pope Innocent III, before the quarrel arose between us and our barons: and this we will observe, and our will is that it be observed in good faith by our heirs forever. We have also granted to all freemen of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever.

2. If any of our earls or barons, or others holding of us in chief by military service shall have died, and at the time of his death his heir shall be full of age and owe “relief”, he shall have his inheritance by the old relief, to wit, the heir or heirs of an earl, for the whole baroncy of an earl by L100; the heir or heirs of a baron, L100 for a whole barony; the heir or heirs of a knight, 100s, at most, and whoever owes less let him give less, according to the ancient custom of fees.

3. If, however, the heir of any one of the aforesaid has been under age and in wardship, let him have his inheritance without relief and without fine when he comes of age.

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Every ode of the Gododin is equivalent to a single song, according to the privilege of poetical composition. Each of the Gwarchans is equal to three hundred and sixty-three songs, because the number of the men who went to Catraeth is commemorated in the Gorchans; and as no man should go to battle without arms, so no bard ought to contend without that poem. Here now begins the Gwarchan of Maelderw. Taliessin sung it, and it is a privileged ode. His three Gwarchans are equal in poetical competition to all the odes in the Gododin.

The noise of two Abers1 around the Caer!2
Arouse thyself to arms and splendour!
Cold is the passing and repassing of the breach of battle.
Lover of fame, seekest thou to sleep?
The variegated texture, the covering of heroism,
For the shelterless assault shall be woven.
The breach that has been attempted will not be effected.
Bear the patient exertion of heroism.
Sharply in arms he used to frown,
But mildly allured he the intellectual world.
A man that will run when thou pursuest,
Will have the rounded house of the sepulchre for his bed.
Call together, but do not reproach the over-anxious;
And meddle not with the fierce and violent.
Let him who has a just claim break the boundary.
He does not calculate upon praise
Who defends his shelter.
Praise is the meed of those who have made impressions.
The victor gazed towards the fair one.
Of bright and prominent uplifted front,
On the ruddy dragon, the palladium of Pharaon,3
Which will in the air accompany the people.
Dead is every one that fell on his mouth
In the repulsion of the march of Teth and Teddyd.
Courteous was the great retinue of the wall, of ashen spears.
To the sea thou mayst not come;
But neither thy retreat nor thy counsel will fail,
Thou magnanimous soul in the defence of his boundaries.
No more can they extricate themselves,
Extricate themselves before the barrier of Eiddyn.4
Cenan, the fair wall of excellence,
Placed a sword on the entrenchment of warriors.
Victorious was the chief
In disposing the sovereign, I
The inconstant
Gray-headed chief of ministers,
Whose counsels were deep.
The mutually sweet will not produce the mutually bitter.
I have mutually wished,
I do mutually wish for the repose of Enlli
The fair aspect of which is filled with deep interest,
On the course on a serene morning.
It allures me, it plays upon my strong desire.
I will ask the men for a dwelling,
In order to lessen the loss.
Happiness was lost and recovered.
The northern Run, chieftain, thou hast caused to withdraw;
The fat one in returning thou wilt cause to return to me.
They call more for large trees than for honeysuckles.

(Three lines untranslated).

Let the sovereign stand firm between the looks of Dremrudd,
The ruddy glancer, whose purpose cannot be viewed for a sufficient time,
Whose purpose cannot be viewed for a sufficient time,
By those who with impunity plough the noisy sea.
First to be satisfied is the pale one,
The eccentric, whose throne is of complete form.
Before he was covered, Gownddelw
Was a tall man of great worth like Maelderw.
I will extol him who wields the spear,
Whose course is like that of the ruler of the mount,
The pervader of the land, by whose influence I am moved.
With active tumult did he descend to the ravine between the hills,
Nor was his presence a running shadow.
Whatever may befall the high land,
Disgrace shall never happen to the assembled train.

1. aber: the mouth of a river; a delta.
2. caer: lit. an encampment, but essentially is equivalent to the Latin “castra,” from which we get our term “chester,” as seen in such placenames as “Gloucester” or “Worcester”–that is, they once served as Roman encampments, and towns grew up around them.

3. “dragon… Pharon”: this refers to the story of “Lludd and Llefelys”, wherein two dragons are discovered fighting–a red one and a white one. This fighting has destroyed Britain, and so Lludd seeks the help of his brother Llefelys, who tells him to imprison the dragons under the mountains in Snowdon, as we are told in the Red Book. However, according to Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, when Vortigern wanted to build his fort on this mountain–Dinas Pharon (City of the Pharaoh? for reasons no one has been able to satisfactorally explain)–the dragons prevent it, until the boy Merlin–here called Merlin Ambrosius/Myrddin Emrys–tells him to let the dragons loose. The red dragon kills the white, and Merlin Ambrosius explains that the red dragon represents the leader of the Welsh, while the white dragon represents the leader of the Saxons; i.e., that Uther Pendragon and his son Arthur would defeat the Saxon invaders. The red dragon is now on the flag of Wales:

4. Eiddyn: Duneiddyn, which is Edinburgh.

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