Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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50 free Sir Gawain and the Green Knight trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the strangest and most gripping of the Arthurian romances: a giant green stranger rides into Camelot, offers his own head to the axe, and then calmly picks it up again. What follows is a test of courage, courtesy and plain honesty, and readers still argue about whether its hero passes. This quiz covers the whole poem in order: the challenge at court, the winter journey, the days of hunting and temptation at the castle, and the reckoning at the Green Chapel. It also asks about the pentangle shield, the green girdle, the anonymous poet and the lone manuscript that saved the story, plus the translations, films and opera the poem has inspired. It is written for students revising for a class test, for teachers who want ready multiple-choice questions, and for anyone who has just finished the poem or watched a film version and wants to see how much stuck. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which James Bond star played the Green Knight in the 1984 film Sword of the Valiant?
Sean Connery
Sean Connery took the part opposite Miles O'Keeffe's Gawain, in director Stephen Weeks's second attempt at filming the poem after a 1973 version.
Q 02Which fantasy novelist co-edited a 1925 scholarly edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien prepared the medieval text with E. V. Gordon, and his own verse translation followed in 1975, after his death.
Q 03Which British actor plays Gawain opposite Ralph Ineson in the 2021 film The Green Knight?
Dev Patel
Dev Patel plays Gawain as a young man setting out to test his courage, in a film that David Lowery wrote, directed, produced and edited.
Q 04In the Green Knight's bargain with Gawain, the return blow falls due after which stretch of time?
A year and a day
A year and a day carries the tale round to the next New Year's Day, so the whole story opens and closes in the dead of winter.
Q 05Which sorceress, seen as an aged lady at the castle, devised the Green Knight's test of Gawain?
Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay learned her arts from Merlin, the Green Knight says, and she enchanted the lord of the castle to test the pride of the Round Table.
Q 06What does Sir Gawain hand the lord of the castle each evening in exchange for the day's kill?
Kisses
Kisses are what Gawain wins indoors from the lord's wife, and he pays them over faithfully each night without ever saying who gave them.
Q 07What power does the lady of the castle claim for the green girdle that Sir Gawain agrees to keep?
Its wearer cannot be killed
Its wearer cannot be killed, she promises, and with the axe awaiting him next morning Gawain takes the silk belt after refusing a costlier gift.
Q 08What does Sir Gawain do at the Green Knight's first swing of the axe at the Green Chapel?
He flinches
He flinches, shrinking his shoulders from the blade, and the Green Knight jeers that the real Gawain never feared any army.
Q 09Which Anglo-Saxon poem, like Sir Gawain's later tale, survives in one Cotton library manuscript?
Beowulf
Beowulf was charred at the margins when fire swept the collection in 1731, a blaze the Gawain manuscript came through as well.
Q 10Which evergreen does the Green Knight carry in one hand, opposite his axe, as he rides into Camelot?
A holly branch
A holly branch shows that he comes in peace, the Green Knight tells Arthur, though the giant axe in his other hand suggests otherwise.
Q 11What is Sir Gawain to King Arthur, a tie he cites when asking for the Green Knight's challenge?
His nephew
His nephew: Gawain calls Arthur his uncle before the whole court and argues that so foolish a contest does not befit a king.
Q 12At the Green Chapel, the Green Knight reveals that he is which lord, Sir Gawain's recent host?
Bertilak de Hautdesert
Bertilak de Hautdesert had been changed in shape by magic, which is how the same genial host could pick up his own severed head at Camelot.
Q 13Which keepsake does Sir Gawain refuse from the lady of the castle before she offers the girdle?
A gold ring
Q 21How do Arthur's knights respond when Sir Gawain comes home wearing the girdle as a mark of shame?
They wear one too
They wear one too: the court laughs kindly at his confession, and every knight of the Round Table adopts a bright green band in his honour.
Q 22According to the Green Knight, which fault earns Sir Gawain the small cut from the third stroke?
He hid a gift
He hid a gift, the girdle, from his host on the last evening; the Green Knight calls it a small lapse made for love of life, and forgives it.
Q 23What does the Green Knight call the exchange of blows he proposes to Arthur's court in Camelot?
A Christmas game
A gold ring set with a blazing stone is her opening offer; Gawain says he has nothing to give in return, then accepts the plainer-looking belt.
Q 14Which animal does the lord of the castle bring home from his third hunt in Sir Gawain's tale?
A fox
A fox is the day's only catch, and critics pair its twisting attempts to escape with Gawain's own bid to cheat death that same morning.
Q 15On which November feast does King Arthur hold a farewell banquet for Sir Gawain before his quest?
All Saints' Day
All Saints' Day, the first of November, is when Arthur feasts him; Gawain arms and rides out the next morning with two months of winter ahead.
Q 16What is the name of the warhorse Sir Gawain rides from Camelot in search of the Green Chapel?
Gringolet
Gringolet carries Gawain through several medieval romances, and here the poet lingers on a harness studded with gold that glitters like the sun.
Q 17Whose image is painted on the inside of Sir Gawain's shield to keep his courage from failing?
The Virgin Mary
The Virgin Mary looks back at him from inside the shield, and it is to her that Gawain prays when lost and freezing, just before a castle appears.
Q 18The Gawain poet says the pentangle on the hero's shield was first devised by which biblical king?
Solomon
Solomon set it as a token of truth, the poet says, in a passage that holds the first recorded use of the word pentangle in English.
Q 19What name for the pentangle on Gawain's shield does the poet say the English use everywhere?
The endless knot
The endless knot can be drawn in one unbroken stroke, a fitting badge for a knight the poet calls faithful in five ways, five times over.
Q 20At the feast that opens Sir Gawain's tale, what will King Arthur not do until he hears of a marvel?
Begin eating
He will not begin eating on a high feast day until he has been told some strange tale, and the Green Knight's arrival more than satisfies him.
A Christmas game is all he asks, since it is Yule and New Year; he says he left his armour at home because he wants no fight.
Q 24Which queen did the Green Knight's enchantress hope to scare to death with his talking severed head?
Guinevere
Guinevere was the target of the whole spectacle, and once the horseman has gone Arthur makes light of it for her sake as a festive interlude.
Q 25What happens to the Green Knight's axe in Camelot after he gallops out holding his head?
It hangs above the dais
It hangs above the dais on a tapestry as a wonder for all to see, after Arthur tells Gawain that the blade has hewn enough.
Q 26Near the Green Chapel, what does the guide provided by Sir Gawain's host urge the knight to do?
Ride away
Ride away, the servant begs, swearing never to tell a soul that Gawain fled; the knight thanks him and goes on down to the chapel alone.
Q 27What does the Green Chapel turn out to be when Sir Gawain finally reaches it on New Year's morning?
A hollow grassy mound
A hollow grassy mound with holes in its sides is all he finds, and Gawain mutters that the devil himself might say prayers there at midnight.
Q 28Asking to face the Green Knight, how does Sir Gawain rank himself among Arthur's knights?
The weakest
The weakest, he says, and the feeblest of wit, whose life would be the smallest loss; such polished modesty is part of his fame for courtesy.
Q 29Through which region does Sir Gawain ride on his way to the wilderness of the Wirral?
North Wales
North Wales is one of the few real places the poet names, and scholars have used it to map the hero's road from Camelot to the Green Chapel.
Q 30On Sir Gawain's shield, the gold pentangle is painted against a field of which colour?
Red
Red, called gules in heraldry, sets off a star of pure gold, and the poet spends dozens of lines explaining what the device means.