The revival of alliterative poetry in the fourteenth century, which culminated in the major masterpieces of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Piers Plowman, poses many problems for the historians of literature. As a result, the poems have tended to be studied in isolation, and their poetic context and use of an established tradition have been largely ignored. This book assesses the alliterative revival as a poetic movement, and restores the poems to their literary context. In particular, it offers an evaluation of the obscure origins of the revival, and on the type of audience for whom the poems were intended.