Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

  • By: Pearl Poet
  • Narrated by: Jack Wynters
  • Length: 2 hrs and 26 mins
  • 1.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight cover art

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

By: Pearl Poet
Narrated by: Jack Wynters
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £6.39

Buy Now for £6.39

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Song of Roland cover art
King Henry IV cover art
Robert Browning: Selected Poems cover art
The White Company cover art
The Scarlet Forest cover art
The Age of Chivalry cover art
The Miller's Tale cover art
Alfred Tennyson cover art
The Canterbury Tales: The Pardoner's Tale (Modern Verse Translation) cover art
The Children of Hurin cover art
The Knight's Tale cover art
The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Tale (Modern Verse Translation) cover art
The Poetry of Browning cover art
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights cover art
The Children of Odin cover art
The Arabian Nights cover art

Summary

  • A modernization by A. S. Kline
  • Narrated by Jack Wynters

Written in the Middle English of the late 14th century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight survives in a single manuscript which also contains three religious poems including "Pearl", written it seems by the same author, who is therefore referred to as The Pearl Poet.

The poem tells the story of an incident at the court of King Arthur, involving Sir Gawain’s acceptance of a challenge from the mysterious Green Knight, and leading to a test of his chivalry and courage. The poem is a lively, atmospheric, and cleverly-paced example of a quest tale, from which the hero emerges chastened and wiser, and contains an interesting mix of Celtic, French, and English motifs. There are many and varied interpretations of the themes and symbols contained in the story, and echoes are found in many other folklore tales and legends.

  • About the Author: 

The Pearl Poet appears to have been a 14th-century contemporary of Chaucer, and the dialect in which the poem is written suggests an origin in the English West Midlands. The poem is written in an alliterative style, in variable length stanzas, their lines containing two pairs of stressed syllables, and each stanza ending in a rhyming quatrain. It is seen as an example of work produced during the Alliterative Revival of the period, but by combining alliteration and rhyme leads forward to the flexible rhymed and unrhymed verse of later times. Various attempts have been made to identify the Pearl Poet with a historical personage but no candidate has been generally accepted.

©2007 Adam Kline (P)2018 Adam Kline

What listeners say about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 1 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 0 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 0 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.