Preserved on a single surviving manuscript dating from around 1400 composed by an anonymous master Sir Gawain & the Green Knight was rediscovered only 200 years ago & published for the first time in 1839 One of the earliest great stories of English literature after Beowulf the poem narrates the strange tale of a green knight on a green horse who rudely interrupts the Round Table festivities one Yuletide casting a pall of unease over the company & challenging one of their number to a wager The virtuous Gawain accepts & decapitates the intruder with his own axe Gushing blood the knight reclaims his head orders Gawain to seek him out a year hence & departs Next Yuletide Gawain dutifully sets forth His quest for the Green Knight involves a winter journey a seduction scene in a dream-like castle a dire challenge answered
- & a drama of enigmatic reward disguised as psychic undoing