Written in the 14th century by the Gawain poet, 'Pearl' is an elegiac poem reflecting on the death of a young daughter, pictured as a pearl lost in a garden. It is considered a masterpiece of Middle English verse, incorporating both the older tradition of alliterative poetry as well as rhyme, centered around the development of an intricately structured image. Sophie Jewett's translation from the Northern dialect of the original renders much of the poem's liveliness and beauty accessible to modern readers, whilst encouraging them to pursue their reading further, to read the original itself. This recording is dedicated to the memory of Pearl Jean Shearman, 1914-2012.

King Arthur lies at Camelot upon a Christmas-tide and will not eat until he hears tell of a marvel of knightly feats. In among them rides the Green Knight and challenges any knight of the Table Round to the beheading game; one of them, he suggests, can strike off his head and, at the end of a year, if he survives, he will then strike off his beheader's. Gawain accepts the challenge and strikes off his head; the Green Knight gathers up his head and charges him to meet him at the year's end at the Knight's Green Chapel to receive the fatal blow. What betides him on his journey, how he falls into temptation yet fails to fall, is the subject of this all too human tale of an ordinary man, as he come to discover, caught up in a tale he cannot fathom of ritual and romance.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English alliterative romance outlining an adventure of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table. In the tale, Sir Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin. The "Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts, and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty. This 20th Century rendering is by WA Neilson.

Published in 1903, Gawayne and the Green Knight is a modern-language retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th-century verse romance following a young knight of the Round Table. During Christmas celebrations, a mysterious, entirely green knight presents a challenge to King Arthur's court: that any may strike the stranger a single blow with his green axe, provided he assent to receiving the same a year later. Gawayne accepts the challenge, and its unexpected outcome leads to a great test of his courage and knighthood. A significant addition to this version is the Lady Elfinhart, whose back-story and romance with Gawayne are tightly interwoven with the plot.

This poem celebrates Christmas by exploring the mystery of Christ's mission on earth: his death, resurrection, and second coming as judge of all human souls. Sir Gawain is cast in the role of Everyman. At the feast of the New Year, an unarmed green giant rides his green horse into the banqueting hall of King Arthur and challenges any member of the assembled company to behead him with a huge axe and then to submit to the same treatment from his victim the next year. Gawain volunteers to prevent Arthur from accepting this challenge, fairly confident that the challenger will be unfit to return the blow. However, when the green knight rides out of the hall carrying his severed head, Gawain must wait a year under what amounts to a sentence of death. At the end of this period his quest for the green knight leads him first through perilous adventures comparable to the life-threatening dangers confronting all mortals in their earthly sojourn and then, when his travels are at an end, through a series of temptations that represent allegorically the spiritual challenges determining not the time of death but the fortunes of the soul after death. The spot where Gawain then meets his foe closely resembles a graveyard superintended by the green knight, now converted, in effect, from a victim into a judge, as Christ was murdered by mankind but survived to be our judge at the end of time. A couple early footnotes may help in appreciating two details in the conclusion of the tale: First, Catholics believe that to perform the sacrament of Confession while intending to commit another sin deprives the priest's absolution of effect. Second, it was generally believed, in the Middle Ages and even today, that evil spirits cannot cross running water. This belief appears in "Tam o'Shanter," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," and The Lord of the Rings.