Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Matter of Britain Document

Summary: A green giant rides into Camelot at New Year and offers an exchange of blows. Gawain takes the axe, beheads him, and the man picks up his head and reminds Gawain to come and take his own blow in a year. The finest Arthurian poem in English, and structurally a test not of courage but of whether a man will admit to a small cowardice.
Date: c. 1375-1400 (BL Cotton Nero A.x)
Language: Middle English (North-West Midlands)
Note: Not descended from Geoffrey or Chretien. The alliterative English tradition is its own line, and it keeps Gawain as the best knight long after the French demoted him.