G awain ‐Poet

Abstract

The Gawain ‐poet refers to the presumed and anonymous author of the Middle English alliterative poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , Pearl , Patience , and Cleanness . The poems are believed to have been written sometime in the later fourteenth century. They survive in the only Middle English manuscript containing solely alliterative verse, British Library Cotton Nero A.x. (article 3). From manuscript evidence (dialect), and internal evidence, such as poetic form and interest, it is commonly assumed that the same person wrote all four poems. While some scholars have attempted to identify the poet, none of the theories have been widely accepted. Current scholarship traditionally accepts that the poet was from the northwest Midlands of England, was well read and familiar with courtly traditions, and was perhaps a cleric.