Cabinet 17: Famously Anonymous Texts

British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x is regarded as one of the most important manuscripts of Middle English poetry, and contains the only surviving copies of the narrative poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Patience, and Cleanness. Written in a North West Midland dialect of Middle English, the author of the poems remains unknown.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Simon Armitage, illustrated by Diana Sudyka (London: Folio Society, 2008) Special Collections PR 2065 G3 A328 2008

Frontispiece illustration from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight © Diana Sudyka, from the 2008 edition published by The Folio Society, reproduced with permission.