Gawayne and the Green Knight (Lewis Translation)

In a hall decked with holly andhire, a green-skinned giant appears with a single challenge: strike me, and I shall strike you back. So begins one of the most haunting medieval romances ever written, a poem that tests the bounds of chivalry, faith, and human frailty through a game that might cost a knight his head. Sir Gawayne accepts the bargain, hewing the Green Knight's neck in one devastating blow, only to watch the severed head rise, speak, and remind him of his promise: meet me at the Green Chapel in one year's time. What follows is a journey into the unknown, where Gawayne is tested by thelusts of a castle and the cold logic of a bargain he cannot escape. Charlton Miner Lewis renders the Gawain Poet's intricate alliterative verse into modern language that preserves the roll and thunder of the original, letting modern readers feel the dread and beauty of this 14th-century masterpiece. The poem asks what no one wants to answer: when mortality stares you in the face, how much of your honor is truly yours?