Gawain and the Green Knight

A horrific apparition interrupts the Christmas festivities at King Arthur’s Camelot. A green giant throws down a deadly challenge: one of the gathering must cut off his head, after which he will return the favour in a year’s time! King Arthur must accept this challenge or appear a coward, but it’s left to young Sir Gawain to act. Gawain chops off the giant’s head and, horror of horrors, the giant strides over to pick up his head, which then begins to speak. He holds Sir Gawain to his promise, and rides off into the wintry night. A year passes and Gawain sets off with terrible dread to find the Green Knight and keep to his side of the bargain. Can he avoid his certain doom?

Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world’s greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.