Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales (TEAMS Middle English Texts)

It's a selection of great stories but the real gem about this book is the editing of the texts. It's subtly edited to make the spellings easier for a beginner in ME and includes definitions of any tough words right next to the line in which they appear (so you don't loose pace when reading) and each story includes a fantastic introduction that give you info on the origin of the text, summaries, themes, everything you need to know to be ready to dive in and appreciate them without needing to be a scholar. The book itself is like a paperback textbook, so that's the only downside. In my opinion it's a small price to pay for having a physical copy (all the texts are available through the TEAMS website for free btw)

Fans of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight will enjoy reading other medieval romances written in Middle English that feature Sir Gawain. Fun for the casual reading, essential for the scholar.

This book is a wonderful, friendly look for the casual scholar. I don't mean someone who saw Sword of the Valiant once, and I don't mean the doctor writing his thesis on Mallory's use of the poetic tradition, but the interim.I love it. It's been on my wishlist forever and I finally got it, and I couldn't be more happy.The essays are fantastic and open, and the texts are easy to figure out with the margins if you haven't done much reading with Middle English before.