The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, by Anonymous

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Title: Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight
An Alliterative Romance-Poem (c. 1360 A.D.)

Author: Anonymous

Release Date: January 3, 2005 [EBook #14568]

Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Sir Gawayne

and

The Green Knight:

AN ALLITERATIVE ROMANCE-POEM,
(AB. 1360 A.D.)

BY THE AUTHOR OF
"EARLY ENGLISH ALLITERATIVE POEMS."

RE-EDITED FROM COTTON. MS. NERO, A.x., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
BY
RICHARD MORRIS,
EDITOR OF HAMPOLE'S "PRICKE OF CONSCIENCE,"
"EARLY ENGLISH ALLITERATIVE POEMS," ETC.;
MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED, 1869.

LONDON
MDCCCLXIV.

JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.

* * * * *

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

In re-editing the present romance-poem I have been saved all labour of
transcription by using the very accurate text contained in Sir F. Madden's
"Syr Gawayne."

I have not only read his copy with the manuscript, but also the
proof-sheets as they came to hand, hoping by this means to give the reader
a text free from any errors of transcription.

The present edition differs from that of the earlier one in having the
contractions of the manuscript expanded and side-notes added to the text to
enable the reader to follow with some degree of ease the author's pleasant
narrative of Sir Gawayne's adventures.

The Glossary is taken from Sir F. Madden's "Syr Gawayne,"[1] to which, for
the better interpretation of the text, I have made several additions, and
have, moreover, glossed nearly all the words previously left unexplained.

For a description of the Manuscript, and particulars relating to the
authorship and dialect of the present work, the reader is referred to the
preface to Early English Alliterative Poems.

R.M.

LONDON,
December 22, 1864.

[Footnote 1: Sir F. Madden has most generously placed at the disposal of
the Early English Text