"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and French Arthurian Romance

This is an innovative and original exploration of the connections between Sir 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 compares Gawain with 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 the Gawain-poet handled the staple ingredients of Arthurian romance.