From Pearl to Gawain: Forme to Fynisment.

In their introduction, Robert J. Blanch and Julian N. Wasserman contend that, whereas the authors of books on the four poems generally attributed to the 'Gawain-Poet' tend to treat the poems separately, they will approach them as texts which 'are connected and intersect in fundamental ways that work against discussion in isolation' (p. 2). They are as good as their word. The main unifying characteristics of the poems are identified as a recurring interest in beginnings and endings and the theme of 'the first shall be last' (and vice versa), a recurring focus on 'the completed cycle of error and redemption/salvation' (p. 5), and a view of God as a creator who intervenes in human …