Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

A splendid translation of the classic Arthurian tale of enchantment, adventure, and romance, presented alongside the original Middle English text-from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and "one of the greatest poets of our age … the Thoreau of our era" (Edward Hirsch).****
It is the height of Christmas and New Year's revelry when an enormous knight with brilliant green clothes and skin descends upon King Arthur's court. He presents a sinister challenge: he will endure a blow of the axe to his neck without offering any resistance, but whoever gives the blow must promise to take the same in exactly a year and a day's time. The young Sir Gawain quickly rises to the challenge, and the poem tells of the adventures he finds-an almost irresistible seduction, shockingly brutal hunts, and terrifyingly powerful villains-as he endeavors to fulfill his promise.

Capturing the pace, impact, and richly alliterative language of the original text, W. S. Merwin has imparted a new immediacy to a spellbinding narrative, written centuries ago by a poet whose name is now unknown, lost to time. Of the Green Knight, Merwin notes in his foreword: "We seem to recognize him-his splendor, the awe that surrounds him, his menace and his grace-without being able to place him … We will never know who the Green Knight is except in our own response to him."