This research guide is designed to point students to resources dealing with the works of the Gawain-Poet available through the MDC Library (and beyond). The "Gawain-Poet" is the name scholars have given to the anonymous poet who wrote the Middle English masterpiece Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A second masterwork is attributed to him (or her?), the poem known as "Pearl," and so some scholars call this author the Pearl-Poet. The Gawain-Poet is said to have written three other important poetic works: "Cleanness" (also known as "Purity"), "Patience", and "St. Erkenwald." This poet, while a contemporary of Chaucer, who was bringing rhyme into English poetry, was part of the Alliterative Revival, writing in a style employing alliteration, which was more characteristic of English poetry before Chaucer.
Dream visions were used by medieval poets as a means to explore alternative realities, secular and sacred, and to encounter archetypes and abstractions (Erotic Love, Fame, Fortune, Earthly Honour, and so on). We will read some pre-modern dream theory in order to understand how these dreams were interpreted and positioned in the medieval period. We'll also read Pearl (a vision of a dead child in the earthly paradise, by the Gawain poet), and two early dream visions by Chaucer: The Book of the Duchess and The House of Fame (Riverside Chaucer).
The Green Knight has just just picked up his severed head and reminds Gawain of his bargain.
From the Cotton Nero A.X. manuscript, British Library. Source: https://www.luminarium.org/medlit/gawain.htm
The narrator, in his grief, falls asleep and begins to dream.
From Cotton Nero A.x. manuscript, British Library. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012fbkb
In his dream, the narrator see his daughter Pearl in Heaven.
From the Cotton Nero A.x. manuscript, British Library. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The lady of the castle comes to tempt Gawain.
From the Cotton Nero A.x. manuscript, British Library. Source: https://www.luminarium.org/medlit/gawaintx.htm