One of the most impressive English alliterative poems of the fourteenth century is The Awntyrs of Arthure (‘The Adventures of Arthur’) at the Terne Wathelyne. The geographical setting of the poem is on the banks of the Wadling Tarn, a hill-loch in Cumberland. The poem may well have been written in the Scottish border-country, where there was a strong tradition of Arthurian folklore, and the anonymous author is likely to have borrowed from better-known alliterative poems such as Morte Arthure and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In the first part of the poem Arthur's queen Guinevere and her hunting companion Sir Gawain are separated from the rest of the royal party. The sky darkens, pelting rain and drifting snow scatter the hunting party, and in a lowering atmosphere in which nature itself seems to share their apprehension, Guinevere and Gawain are approached by the ghost of the queen's mother. In its exchanges with the queen, the ghost acts as a Memento Mori, a reminder of the transitoriness of life and beauty, and in its responses to Sir Gawain the ghost is cast in a soothsaying role, which links the first part of the poem to the second. The ghost's warnings about the pride and arrogance of Arthur's court, which it predicts will eventually end in internal strife and ruin, are a key narrative preparation for the appearance in the second half of the poem of the wronged knight Galeron with his demand for the restitution of land which the king had confiscated and given to Gawain.

The Ghost of Guinevere's Mother

Then there came from the loch a creature which seemed to have been fashioned in Hell, in Lucifer's likeness, and glided screaming towards Guinevere … Its body was almost naked, for it was only partly covered with a shroud, and its dark bones could be seen, for it had no skin or living colour. It stopped and stood immovable like a stone, glaring, groaning and raving, awaiting the approach of the fearless Sir Gawain. A toad clung to the cheek of this grim and grisly ghost. In the depths of the hollow eye-sockets there was a glow like the embers of a fire. Its scant clothing was covered with writhing serpents.