Page:Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Tolkien and Gordon - 1925.djvu/27

Rh are correct, the descent of the legend is expressed in the following table:—

What is common to Sir Gawain and the French analogues may be taken to have passed through the lost French original. There is little in the action of Sir Gawain which is not also found in these analogues: hence it appears that in relating the story the English poet followed his source closely, as he promised to do:

The author of Sir Gawain appreciated the aims and virtues of French romance as few English romancers did. His poem is as human, as skilfully diversified, and at all times as courtly as the best French romance. In these very qualities he probably surpassed his original, as he undoubtedly surpassed the existing romances of the beheading and temptation. He has, further, a special gift for description.