Gawain and Lady Green
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“You love me, Lady Green. Even as I love you.”
Gwyneth wasn’t supposed to fall in love with Gawain. Not like this. Gawain was the May King—a sacrifice offered to the Goddess for a bountiful harvest in return. Gwyneth knows this. His fate has been decided by powers beyond her control. But the warmth of his touch and the taste of his lips have blurred the lines of what she knows to be true. Now Gwyneth is willing to risk everything to keep Gawain alive, even if it means losing him forever...
In truth, in very truth, I do…
“A famous knight must rely on a woman to comprehend the chivalric virtues in this subversive and deliciously witty feminist retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“The book is unique in its presentation of Lady Green as a strong female character, and many teens will identify with the choice she made for love.”
—School Library Journal
“In her fine reworking of the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Crompton explores honesty, promise-keeping, honor, and the power of women. Recommended.”
—Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A famous knight must rely on a woman to comprehend the chivalric virtues in this subversive and deliciously witty feminist retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. As the story opens, a hungry Gawain charges out of the forest on his steed toward tables laden with a May Day feast. He fully expects the crowd to make way, but they unsaddle him instead, dragging him over to their May Queen, Lady Green, who crowns him May King. When Gawain learns that he, like the grain, will lose his head at harvest-time, he promises to marry Lady Green (with whom he's been sleeping as May King) if she'll help him escape. She betrays her own people to do so, only to be abandoned by the great knight as soon as he feels safe. Gawain returns to Camelot, and the story melds into the events covered in the medieval poem, though with Crompton's entertaining spin. A giant green knight barges into King Arthur's New Year's Feast, challenging any knight to try to lop off his head. Sir Gawain obliges. A year and a day later, he must present himself in the Green Chapel so the giant might have a reciprocal swipe at his head. As Gawain searches for the Green Chapel, he encounters Lady Green. Utterly forgiving and chivalrous, she presents her betrayer with her magic green girdle to protect him from the Green Knight's ax. It is a gift that will force him to confront his own failings. Crompton's (Merlin's Harp) ironic examination of chivalric codes, courtly love and outmoded archetypes is a true Rites-of-Spring experience.
