Gawain, spelled many ways, is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legendary cycle. The prototype of Gawain appears under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest Welsh sources. He has subsequently appeared in many Arthurian tales in Welsh, Latin, French, English, Scottish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian, notably as the protagonist of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight… In the Arthurian chivalric romances, Gawain is typically depicted as King Arthur’s closest companion and an integral member of the Round Table… Gawain is notably the hero of one of the greatest works of Middle English literature, the alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where he is portrayed as an excellent, but human, knight. Here, Gawain strongly resembles the Irish mythological hero Cuchulainn. In the poem, he must go to the titular Green Knight to, presumably, be killed by the Knight. Gawain does this as it pertains to a deal made between the two without knowing that it is all a test by the Knight…
Alias Sir Gawain
Real Names/Alt Names Gwalchmei, The Knight of the Silver Tongue
Appearance List Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th c.) by Anonymous (“Gawain Poet”); The Greene Knight (c. 1500); King Arthur and King Cornwall; Syr Gawayne (1765, published in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry) by Thomas Percy; Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (1864) by Richard Morris; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1897) by Israel Gollancz; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1898) by Jessie L. Weston; The Story of King Arthur and His Knights (1903) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]; The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions (1907) by Howard Pyle [Internet Archive]; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by J.R.R. Tolkein (published 1975). Film: Gawain and the Green Knight (1973) by Stephen Weeks.
Sample Read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1929) [Internet Archive]
Description Gawain, spelled many ways, is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legendary cycle. The prototype of Gawain appears under the name Gwalchmei in the earliest Welsh sources. He has subsequently appeared in many Arthurian tales in Welsh, Latin, French, English, Scottish, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian, notably as the protagonist of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight… In the Arthurian chivalric romances, Gawain is typically depicted as King Arthur’s closest companion and an integral member of the Round Table… Gawain is notably the hero of one of the greatest works of Middle English literature, the alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where he is portrayed as an excellent, but human, knight. Here, Gawain strongly resembles the Irish mythological hero Cuchulainn. In the poem, he must go to the titular Green Knight to, presumably, be killed by the Knight. Gawain does this as it pertains to a deal made between the two without knowing that it is all a test by the Knight…
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