The Lady, the Goddess, and the Text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This essay argues in favor of two emendations concerning women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: of MS “Þaʒ I [i.e., the lady] were burde bryʒtest, þe burde in mynde hade” (line 1283) to “Þaʒ [ho] were burde bryзtest, þe bur[n]e in mynde hade,” adopted by many editors but under increasing pressure in recent years; and of the convoluted MS passage in which Bertilak reveals the role of Morgan le Fay (lines 2445–55) to the clearer one resulting from Gollancz’s addition of a line whereby he says that through her might he was transmogrified.