The Green Knight’s Challenge at Arthur’s Court
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
In the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a mysterious green visitor arrives at Arthur’s court and proposes a beheading game. Gawain accepts the challenge, setting in motion a journey that tests courage, truthfulness and the obligations of a knight.
The poem survives in a unique medieval manuscript now held by the British Library. Its plot belongs to literary romance, not to a documented episode in the life of a historical Arthur. The Green Knight’s striking appearance and the ritualised exchange make the episode an important example of the way medieval writers used marvels to explore human conduct.
Evidence: medieval literary manuscript. Source trail: British Library, Cotton MS Nero A X, the manuscript containing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.