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 Treason in Arthurian legend The concept of treason can be dated back to the early Roman republic, but was defined by nebulous criteria. Frederic William Maitland, author of The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I, has said that "treason is a crime [with] a vague circumference and more than one centre." Early French and Anglo-Saxon laws for the prosecution of persons deemed traitorous were inspired by, and in some cases, directly pulled from, late Roman and Germanic conceptions of the crime. It would be the common laws of this time period which would most directly influence