Published by Folio Society, London in 1983. The book is in very good condition, with pictorial cloth covers in a brown slipcase. This version has lithographs by Virgil Burnett. 
 
As one of the stories around King Arthur's knights of the round table, this tale sees the New Year having been rung in when a terrifying stranger rides into Camelot, a green knight who challenges King Arthur's knights to a wager. One of them may strike him with the Green Knight's own axe, but in return, the Green Knight must be allowed to strike a return blow in a year and a day. Sir Gawain accepts the challenge, and bravely beheads the stranger, but to the court's horror, the headless knight rides off, holding Gawain to his promise. A year later, Gawain sets off through the snowy wastes, towards an encounter that will test his courage, his chivalry and his very soul.
 
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a masterpiece of medieval literature. Hailed by writers from J. R. R. Tolkien to Seamus Heaney, it is at once a stirring supernatural adventure and a profound meditation on courage, loyalty and human imperfection.