It exists in only one manuscript, MS Harley 2250 in the British Library. The first line in the manuscript begins with a rubricated letter "A" two lines high and line 176 begins with a similar letter "T". The first modern edition was published by HL Savage and Israel Gollancz in 1926. The author is unknown, but there is some evidence it may have been the Pearl Poet, who wrote the poems "Pearl" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", among others.