Gawain

Because these epics were told and passed on solely by word-of-mouth, the "correct" pronunciation of Gawain varies. In the original, the author uses two different pronunciations and three different spellings: "Gawan", "Gawayn", and "Gawen". Therefore, the pronunciation can be either.

As an American, I have generally heard the pronunciations Gow-an and Gwayne (like Dwayne). Rarely is the last syllable accented.

I've only ever heard it pronounced GAH-win, and I think this sounds much better than ga-WAYN.

I have always pronounced this GAH-win, as have my Literature professors.

In my English class, we are currently reading T.H. White's "The Once and Future King." I was assigned Gawain for my character analysis and essay. I found that in many cases, Gawain is pronounced Gah-win (I’m not quite sure of the correct notation for this, but you get the idea). This pronunciation is similar with another Welsh name on this site: Owain. Also, an alternative spelling for the name is Gawaine.