Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the French Arthurian Romance [Hardcover]

This is an innovative and original exploration of the connections betweenSir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best-known works of medieval English literature, and the tradition of French Arthurian romance, best-known through the works of Chretien de Troyes two centuries earlier. Putter comparesGawainwith a wide range of French Arthurian romances, exploring their recurrent structural patterns and motifs, their ethical orientation, and the social context in which they were produced. He presents a wealth of new sources and analogues, which provide illuminating points of comparison for analysis of the self-consciousness with which theGawain-poet handled the staple ingredients of Arthurian romance.

[Putter's] book...reveals a professionally comprehensive command of romance tradition accompanied by perceptive reading of texts and levelheaded insights into medieval culture. This is a very good book, both in it promise for the future and in what it offers us now. --Speculum

...a richly documented work, ambitious in its aims and admirable in its achievement...an extraordinarily informative and thought-provoking contribution to the study ofSir Gawainthat no serious student of medieval romance can afford to ignore. --Modern Philology