Luf-talkyng in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This article argues that interpretation of the phrase luf-talkyng in line 927 of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is important for an understanding of the debate about courteous behaviour that is central to the poem's third fitt. The words lufand luf-talkyng, and the related gesture of the kiss, encompass a range of possible meanings that are related either to courtesy or to love. To translate luf-talkyng as 'conversation about love', as many commentators do, offers only one of the meanings present, one that is used in the poem in a sense that is primarily ironi