A great amount of critical commentary has been published on "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" since the poem first appeared in print in 1839. In recent years, it has become clearer that its author is dealing with profoundly important questions when he shows Gawain alone, in a baffling and inhuman world, drawn between the demands of the perfect truth to which he has pledged himself, and his own mortal imperfection. The essays in this book show the...