The Gawain Poet

This book treats separately all four poems: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain. There are also chapters on: the history of the poems and their rediscovery; alliterative verse; and what little is known about the author. The main emphasis falls on interpretation, and on such explanations as a modern reader may require. All quotations cited from the poems are translated as well.

John Burrow is Emeritus Professor and Research Fellow, University of Bristol. He has had a distinguished academic career as a medieval specialist at the Universities of London, Oxford, Yale and Bristol and is Honorary Director of the Early English Text Society. His many publications include: A reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1965); as editor, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1972); Ricardian Poetry (1971); Medieval Writers and Their Work (1982).