Gawain Poet

The “Gawain Poet” is the name used for the unknown author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The entirety of the Gawain Poet's known work exists in a single manuscript written in Middle English that dates to the late 14th century and is held by the British Library. This manuscript, a fairly small volume written on vellum, includes  illustrations, which was unusual for the time period. It is sometimes informally referred to as the “Pearl Manuscript” or, less often, the “Gawain Manuscript.” 

In addition to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this manuscript contains three other poems: “Cleanness” and “Patience,” biblical paraphrases of Jonah and accounts of immorality, respectively; and “Pearl,” a mystical dream vision. The small, distinctive handwriting throughout the manuscript convinced scholars that all four poems, some of the most-studied works written in Middle English, were copied by the same scribe. Similarities of dialect and style across the four poems indicate that all were also composed by the same poet.

Forensic language analysis of the manuscript has determined south-east Cheshire, near the Staffordshire border, as the author's locality. The Gawain Poet, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and William Langland, was knowledgeable about English and French romances and drew references to the 4th-century Vulgate and Roman de la Rose. Some scholars also detect the influence of works by Dante Alighieri. Whether the author was a layman or a priest is unknown.