Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The 14th-century alliterative masterpiece in which Gawain's exchanged blows with a green giant become a test of honour.

Core Characteristics

Survives in a single manuscript with three religious poems, by an anonymous northwest Midlands poet.
The Green Knight's challenge: a beheading game repaid a year later at the Green Chapel.
Gawain passes the trial of courage and fails the smaller test of honesty, keeping the green girdle — and confesses it.