Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Middle English romance poem written by
an anonymous West Midlands poet also credited with a lot of other poems written during
that time. The protagonist, Sir Gawain, survives two tests: a challenge, which he alone
without the assistance of King Arthur's knights accepts, to behead the fearsome Green
Knight and to let him retaliate a year later at the distant Green Chapel; and the temptation
to commit adultery with the wife of Lord Bercilak--in reality the Green Knight--in whose
castle he stays in en route to the chapel. This story is emblematic of lif…
