Pearl-Gawain Manuscript
Type:
Illuminated manuscripts
Date:
ca. 1400
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
United Kingdom
Medium:
Parchment
Dimensions:
18 × 15.5 cm
Description:
The so-called Pearl (or Pearl-Gawain) Manuscript is a collection of four anonymous poems written in Middle English. These poems are known by their later titles, Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In addition to large initials in red and blue, the manuscript includes twelve full-page illustrations.
Pearl focuses on a man who falls asleep in a garden and encounters the Pearl Maiden, who shares heavenly visions and Christian doctrine. Cleanness uses biblical narratives as allegories for bodily virtue, and the illustrations in this section include Noah's Ark and Daniel at Belshazzar's feast. The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance adapted in the 2021 film The Green Knight, includes several illustrations as well. On one folio, Gawain, King Arthur, and Guinevere sit at a table. Gawain stands before the decapitated Green Knight on the lower half of the same folio. A different illustration features Lady Bertilak by Gawain's bed. Feminist readings of the poem have focused on Lady Bertilak and Morgan le Fay as the most powerful characters in the story.
Pearl focuses on a man who falls asleep in a garden and encounters the Pearl Maiden, who shares heavenly visions and Christian doctrine. Cleanness uses biblical narratives as allegories for bodily virtue, and the illustrations in this section include Noah's Ark and Daniel at Belshazzar's feast. The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance adapted in the 2021 film The Green Knight, includes several illustrations as well. On one folio, Gawain, King Arthur, and Guinevere sit at a table. Gawain stands before the decapitated Green Knight on the lower half of the same folio. A different illustration features Lady Bertilak by Gawain's bed. Feminist readings of the poem have focused on Lady Bertilak and Morgan le Fay as the most powerful characters in the story.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
10
Repository and Online Resources:
• Look through the Pearl-Gawain manuscript on the website of the British Library.
Image Credits:
British Library
