Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English: "Sir Gawayn and þe Grene Knyȝt") is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance. It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folklore motifs, the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who
Treason in Arthurian legend of noble birth, while a death by hanging, drawing and quartering was reserved for those deemed “ignoble.” The English would also disembowel or burn the entrails of those executed for treason, in a practice distinct from the French. Those executed for treason in later medieval England would also often have their bodies put on display to symbolize their shamefulness and their “excision from the body politic.” Treason is a major feature throughout Arthurian romances. Knights constantly commit acts of treason as does Guinevere herself. The treason of Lancelot, Guinevere, Agravain and Mordred eventually destroy Arthur's court and his downfall is