THE BOOK

What is Sir Gawain and the Green Maiden?  A new novel connected to Arthurian mythology, and a different way of writing about Arthurian things.  There are three storylines, one of which involves Gawain.

The Gawain story is told as though The Gawain Poet who wrote the fourteenth century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, returned to his material to develop and finish what he'd started so many years before.

That second poem is here, in SGGM, as though it's been translated into modern English for today's reader. 

And?
Another story.  A story that's more down to earth, something everyday.

What happens to Mark Thomas Redman, a young man who gets married, in a small township somewhere in the north of Wales towards the end of the fourteenth century.  

Over the span of four days he hears an itinerant bard deliver a further tale of Sir Gawain, and his life changes, subtly, but profoundly and irrecoverably.

Anything else?
Another story.  A framing story of two of the last of the Ellylon, the people who were there before the Cymri, and before the English, and the slight, tangential contact one young woman has with Mark, before destiny takes her to a quite different end.

Where to start?
Sir Gawain and the Green Maiden is a free-standing work, so plunge right in and enter the world of the fourteenth century.  Or follow the links from The Green Knight page on this website to find out more about the historical background and the great original poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Available in three formats


Sir Gawain and the Green Maiden tells the story of a young man living in a remote corner of Wales at the end of the fourteenth century. Should he leave home for a life of travel and scholarship in one of the great centres of learning in England, or settle down and marry the young woman who's set her sights on him for her husband?

A travelling bard comes to town and over four nights tells the story of Sir Gawain, how he met the Green Maiden and what happened between them.

This novel contains the full text of an imagined sequel to the great original medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Maiden comes to Camelot at Pentecost, but
 instead of an axe she wields an overwhelming question: should a man in love always do what his lady wants? Only Gawain has an answer, but it's not one she wants to hear, and she challenges him to repeat his answer in a year's time at a place she specifies: the fearsome Green Lake.

For Mark Thomas, the question has relevance as well: should he do what Magge wants? History has a way of making decisions for us, and the ending of this book will surprise and move in equal measure as the full truth about the bard and what happened to him is revealed and Mark Thomas's true role in history becomes clear.

For lovers of chivalric romance and all things Arthurian, Sir Gawain and the Green Maiden is a fantastic addition to the wealth of mythology and legends, and a surprisingly human story behind all the magic and mystery.



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