RALPH HANNA (ed.), The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane. From materials collected by the late W. R. J. Barron.

Abstract

THIS is the first full critical edition of the remarkably fine alliterative poem Golagros and Gawane, surviving in a single witness from an early edition by Chepman and Myllar, printed in Edinburgh in 1508. The copy is bound into a booklet, today National Library of Scotland, Advocates Library 19.1.16, together with ten other short printed books produced by the same press. The poem is characterized by its difficult language and complex metrical structure, organized in thirteen-line stanzas, composed of nine alliterating long lines followed by a ‘wheel’ of four short lines, and has remained one of the most challenging alliterative works for editors and readers alike. With Ralph Hanna, working from the notes of the Late W. R. J. Barron, the poem has found an editor to match its sophistication. Hanna is an expert in all things alliterative, and can illuminate this difficult poem with his previous experience as an editor of alliterative works, such as the Siege of Jerusalem or The Awntyrs off Arthure, the latter sharing Golagros’ thirteen-line stanza form.