Sometimes described as the Battle of Camlann, King Arthur's last battle is described nowhere as vibrantly and poignantly than in the fourteenth century Alliterative Morte Arthure.

The arming of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is testament to the poet's descriptive skill and accuracy. But the ritualistic nature of the arming of Gawain also builds the dramatic tension as our hero faces unknown terrors.

The reputation of King Arthur and the Round Table takes a great knock in the fourteenth century masterpiece Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This article discusses how the Gawain-poet's critique of Arthur also applies to kings and kingship.

In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, King Arthur gives the Roman ambassadors just seven days to travel from Carlisle to Kent and leave his Kingdom. His demands tell us much about how medieval writers understood their land and how to move about it.

William of Palerne (The Romance of William and the Werewolf) is seen as one of the earliest works of the so-called Alliterative Revival of the fourteenth century and with links to Langland - but what is its real history and significance?

A lost, mysterious lake near High Hesket, Cumberland, provided the setting for a series of Arthurian romances written in the fifteenth century and now largely lost to time. Here, Michael Smith explores its reputation and cultural influence.

The lais of Bisclavret, a poem by Marie de France about a knight condemned to roam abroad as a werewolf, is remarkable for what it tells us about twelfth century morality and how men and women were treated differently. This articles summarises the story and reflects upon its meaning.

The literary landscape of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a powerful evocation of a magical possibility existing at the fringes of our known imagination. How does the poet evoke this?

The poems of the Alliterative Revival may date from the fourteenth century but their content has much to tell us about the need for good government today - and how to avoid the tyranny of terrible leaders we are starting to see.

The symbolism of the colour green in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has often been attributed to the supernatural. But is there a simpler reason behind the poet's choice, one based on narrative technique and audience expectation?

Michael Smith reviews an astonishing graphic novel version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by John Reppion and Mark Penman.

An explanation of how the challenges in translating a fourteenth Middle English text into modern English are overcome.

An explanation of the translation approach undertaken to create the first ever alliterative edition of William of Palerne in modern English.

The message of Christmas which emerges from an alternative reading of the Middle English masterpiece, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

How a fourteenth-century alliterative romance has come alive once more, richly illustrated with linocut prints.

Michael Smith reveals the processes involved in the making his latest linocut of Sir Gawain as he ventures in search of the Green Knight.

Michael Smith discusses the Gawain-poet's castle Hautdesert, showing how its place in the landscape reflected the zeitgeist of his time.

The poet in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight calls the Green Chapel 'nobot an olde cave' with huge understatement. It was a house of horror.

I have been working for some time on a new translation of William of Palerne , which Madden in the nineteenth century called the “romance of William and the Werewolf ”. It is a fascinating story in that it translates a long French romance into a shorter, alliterative telling. William , and a number of other poems from this period form part of a canon of works written in the alliterative style, as opposed to stanzaic tail-end rhymes. This group of romances is now defined as fo

A review of Dr Debbie Cannon's magnificent play about Lady Bertilak and her love for Sir Gawain - as seen from the point of view of The