Preview: Section 3
Reading boundary
Start: Ful erly bifore þe day þe folk vp-rysen,
Stop after: I schal telle yow how þay wroȝt.
Gawain has accepted his host’s game of exchanging whatever each gains during the day. This fytte opens before dawn as the household stirs and the lord rides out to hunt, while Gawain remains at the castle. The poem will move between outdoor noise and indoor conversation, so watch how each scene tests the agreement in a different way.
The hunting vocabulary can be especially dense: blonkkeȝ are horses, houndeȝ are hounds, and busken means to make ready or set out. The letter ȝ (yogh) may sound like y, g, or a throat sound like the one in Scots loch, depending on the word.