Bookshop of the Air © Copyright 1999

Gawain the White Hawk Marilyn Bechely Gawain takes part in more adventures than any other Arthurian knight. Two of the most entrancing are Gawain and the Green Knight and Gawain and the Loathly Lady. In the first he is challenged to a beheading contest by a green giant; in the second he is asked to marry a fearsomely ugly hag to save the king’s honour. Both encounters test to the full his professed ideals of courage, loyalty, courtesy and integrity. These fourteenth century narrative poems are retold in free verse and illustrated in the decorative style of the early Middle Ages by Marilyn Bechely. In these versions Gawain, the early Christian knight, has also the qualities of the Celtic sun-hero who foreshadowed him, the summer champion who won the goddess of the land as his bride. His conflicts and self-conquest are bound up with the seasons – the dying and rebirth engendered by the powers of nature. Kevin Crossley-Holland writes:- 'These are lovely and lasting versions of two of the very best Gawain legends. Marilyn Bechely combines clean, quick storytelling with simple and beautiful images. These are versions in which one quickly becomes aware the storyteller has something important to tell us about human longing and self-knowledge... and points to the deep meanings beneath the bright, sensuous surfaces of feasts, quests, tests and enigmas, courage and cowardice, attraction and revulsion. In a way, these are exuberant and haunting songs of innocence and experience. I read them with great joy, yet sometimes close to tears. Publisher: George Mann Publications / December 2001 ISBN: 0952442485 Style: Paperback / 128 pages / 10 colour illustrations Price: UK £9.50 per copy Postage: UK: £1.50 per copy / Outside UK: £2 per copy surface mail To order: Mail order from M Bechely, 120 Dunmow Road, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 5HN. Please make your cheque payable to Marilyn Bechely. Email: post@gmp.co.uk Delivery: Please allow 28 days for delivery in the UK and up to six weeks elsewhere