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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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"Green Knight" redirects here. For the Anglo-Irish hereditary knighthood, see Knight of Kerry.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th century alliterative romance recorded in a single manuscript, which also contains three pieces of a religious character, all written by the "Pearl poet" or "Gawain poet," an unknown author. The four poems are written in a Northwest Midland dialect of Middle English.[1] The manuscript, Cotton Nero A.x, is in the British Museum.[2]

In the story, Sir Gawain a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious Knight who is completely green. The "Green Knight" offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts the challenge, and takes off his head in one blow, only to have the Knight stand up, pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time. Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment, and the adventures involved in that, cause this work to be classified as a part of Arthurian legend involving themes of chivalry and loyalty.

The poem's chief interest in the critical and historical worlds is in its symbolism. Everything, from the Green Knight, to the beheading game, to the girdle given Gawain as a protection from the axe, to the symbols on his shield, is richly symbolic and steeped in Celtic, Germanic, and other cultures and folklores. As a result, critics often compare Gawain to similar, older works, in order to find possible meanings for the symbolism within the poem.

Characters

  • Sir Gawain: The main character.
  • The Green Knight: The character who issues the initial challenge.
  • Bercilak: The Lord of the castle Gawain visits on his way to his appointment to meet the Green Knight's challenge.
  • Bercilak's Wife: A woman who has heard a lot about Gawain and shows some romantic interest in him.
  • An Elderly Woman attends Bercilak's wife.
  • A Guide leads Gawain to his appointment with the Green Knight.
  • King Arthur is the lead figure in the opening scene when the Green Knight arrives.
  • Guinevere, Agravaine, Bishop Baldwin, and Ywain are specifically mentioned as also being in this scene.
  • Various Servants and Hunters accompany Bercilak in his castle.

Plot synopsis

The challenge

The story begins in King Arthur's court at Camelot on New Year's day. As the court is feasting and exchanging gifts, a gigantic Green Knight, mounted on horseback, armed with an axe, and carrying a spray of holly, enters the hall and proposes a game. He asks that someone in the court take the axe and strike a single blow at him, on the condition that the Green Knight will return the blow one year and one day later. Sir Gawain, the youngest of Arthur's knights, accepts the challenge and chops off the giant's head in one smashing blow, fully expecting him to die. But the Green Knight, still alive, picks up his own head, reminds Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in a year and a day, and rides off.

Sir Gawain's journey

Almost a year later, on the day after All Hallows Day, Sir Gawain sets off in his finest armour on his horse Gringolet to find the Green Chapel and complete his bargain with the Green Knight. His shield and surcoat[3] are marked with the pentangle, which is to remind him of his knightly obligations. The inside of the shield is adorned with an image of the Virgin Mary, also a knightly reminder. The journey takes him from Camelot to the isle of Anglesey in search of the Green Knight, finally arriving at a castle somewhere in the West Midlands on Christmas Eve. Gawain meets Bercilak, the lord of the castle, and his beautiful wife, who are pleased to have such a renowned guest. After the feast of Christmas Day, the lord asks why Gawain has journeyed so far from home during the holiday season. Gawain tells of his New Year's Day appointment at the Green Chapel and says that he must continue his search the next day. The lord laughs and insists Gawain must prolong his visit, for his search has ended: the Green Chapel is not two miles away![4]

The lord's bargain

That night, Bercilak announces that while he spends the next day hunting, the travel-weary Gawain shall stay at the castle, sleep as late as he wants (even through Mass), and eat whenever he chooses to arise; the lady will keep him company. But, to add a little interest to the day, the lord proposes a bargain: he will give Gawain whatever he catches, on condition that Gawain gives to the lord, without explanation, whatever he might gain during the day. Gawain accepts.

The next morning, after the lord has gone, the lady of the castle visits Gawain's room while he is in bed and tries to seduce him, claiming that she knows of the reputation of Arthur's knights as great lovers. Gawain, however, keeps to his promise to remain chaste until his mission to the Green Chapel is complete, and yields nothing but a single kiss. When the lord returns with the deer he has killed, he hands it straight to Sir Gawain, as agreed, and Gawain responds by returning the lady's kiss to the lord. According to the lord's bargain, Gawain refuses to explain where he won the kiss.

On the second morning, Gawain again receives a visit from the lady, and again politely refuses her advances. That evening, when the lord returns, there is a similar exchange of a hunted boar for two kisses. On the third morning, when the lady visits his chamber, Gawain maintains his chastity but accepts a green silk girdle, which she promises will keep him from physical harm, as a parting gift. The lady insists, he must not tell her husband about the gift, and they exchange three kisses. That evening, the lord returns with a fox, which he exchanges with Gawain for the three kisses. However, Gawain keeps the girdle from the lord so that he can use it in his forthcoming encounter with the Green Knight, thus violating their agreement.

The meeting with the Green Knight

The next day, Gawain leaves for the Green Chapel with the lady's silk girdle hidden under his armor, accompanied by a guide from the lord's castle. The guide is afraid to approach the Green Chapel, but Gawain continues on and finds the Green Knight busy whetting the blade of an axe in readiness. As arranged, Gawain bends over to receive his blow. The Green Knight swings to behead Gawain, but holds back twice, only striking him on the third swing, barely cutting his neck and only injuring him slightly.

The Green Knight then reveals himself to be an alter ego of the lord of the castle, Bercilak de Hautdesert, and explains that the three axe blows were for the three occasions when Gawain was visited by the lady. The third blow, which drew blood, was a punishment for Gawain's acceptance of the silk girdle. The Green Knight also explains that Gawain's trial was arranged by "Morgne the goddes" (Morgan le Fay) mistress of the wizard Merlin and now a guest at the lord's castle. Gawain, clearly upset at being so fooled, blames his troubles and faults on women in general. The two men, however, part on cordial terms and Gawain returns to Camelot.

There, Sir Gawain recounts his adventure to Arthur and explains his shame at having succumbed to the lady's attempts, if only in his mind. Arthur refuses to blame Gawain and decrees that all his knights should henceforth wear a green sash in recognition of Gawain's courage and honor, as well as to recognize the fallibility of men.

The poem concludes with this motto: "HONY SOYT QUI MAL PENCE" or "Shame be to the man who has evil in his mind."

The Poet

Main article: Pearl Poet

Though the name of "The Gawain Poet" (or poets) is unknown, some inferences about him can be drawn from an informed reading of his works. Before the Gawain manuscript came into the possession of Robert Cotton, it was in the library of Henry Savile of Bank in Yorkshire.[5][6] Little is known of it, or its author, before that. It has been dated to the late 14th century, so the poet was a contemporary of Chaucer, though remote from him in almost every other way.[7] Also, the three other pieces found with the Gawain manuscript, (commonly known as Pearl, Patience, and Cleanness (alternatively Purity)) are often considered to be written by the same author, however, the manuscript containing these poems was written by a copyist and not by the author.[8] There is thus nothing explicit that says all four poems in the manuscript are by the same poet. However, from a comparative analysis of dialect, verse form and diction, some scholars accept single-authorship.[8] Consensus on the issue, however, remains elusive. What is known today, is largely general knowledge, as Tolkien, in the introduction to his translation, writes:

He was a man of serious and devout mind, though not without humour; he had an interest in theology, and some knowledge of it, though an amateur knowledge perhaps, rather than a professional; he had Latin and French and was well enough read in French books, both romantic and instructive; but his home was in the West Midlands of England; so much his language shows, and his metre, and his scenery.[9].

The most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire.[10] One additional poem, St. Erkenwald, has sometimes been attributed to the same poet. However, St. Erkenwald does not occur in the same manuscript, and instead can be found in British Library, Harley 2250. Further, other than some similarities in language, and a general level of excellence, there is no reason to ascribe authorship of St. Erkenwald to The Pearl Poet.[8]

The verse form

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is written in a style typical of the what is called by linguists the "Alliterative Revival" of the fourteenth century. Instead of focusing on a metrical syllabic count and rhyme, the alliterative form of this period relied on the agreement of (usually a pair of) stressed syllables at the beginning of the line with (usually) a third and fourth at the end of the line. The line always finds a "breath-point" at some point after the first two stresses, dividing the line into two half-lines, separated by the pause called a caesura.

Although he largely follows the form of his day, the Gawain poet was somewhat more free with convention than his predecessors. The poet broke his alliterative lines into variable-length groups and ended these nominal stanzas with a rhyming section of five lines known as the bob and wheel: one one-stress line rhyming a (the bob) and four three-stress lines rhyming baba (the wheel). These lines also alliterated.[1] On the whole, the poem takes up 2530 lines, divided into four parts and taking up 101 stanzas.

Similar stories

The Greene Knight is a rhyming retelling of what is almost the same story. The plot is simplified, there is more extensive explanation of motive, and some of the names are changed.[11]

Sir Gawain and the Turke contains a parallel of the beheading game in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

In Le Morte d'Arthur Gawain's brother Gareth fights "two brethren whych were called the Grene Knyght and the Rede Knyght". It is unknown if Malory was aware of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or if he drew any influence from it.[12]

The stories of Saladin feature a certain "Green Knight." The knight in these stories is a Sicilian warrior in a shield vert and a helmet brandished with a stag's horns. Saladin had respect for this honourable fighter and tried to make him part of his personal guard.[13]

The Qur'an' contains a character who goes by the name of Al-Khidr (Arabic, الخضر, the "Green" Man). Al-Khidr, in his encounter with Moses, tests him three times with three seemingly evil acts. Eventually, the "sins" of Al-Khidr prove to be noble deeds to prevent greater evils or reveal great goods. Both the Green Knight and Al-Khidr serve as teachers to holy and upright men (Gawain, Moses), who thrice put their faith and obedience to the test. It has been suggested that the character of the Green Knight may be a literary descendant of Al-Khidr, brought to Europe with the Crusaders and blended with Celtic and Arthurian imagery.[14]

Themes

Games in Gawain

The word 'gomen' (game) is found eighteen times in Gawain. Its relation to the word 'gome' (man, in the poem 21 times) has led some to draw a connection in meaning, possibly as a representation of man's fallen nature in the Christian sense.[15] The poem revolves around two games – first an exchange of beheading, and secondly an exchange of winnings. The two appear at first to be unconnected, but it is later revealed that the hero's survival of the conclusion of the story of the first game depends on his honesty and his purity in the second. Both elements appear in other stories, the beheading game appearing first in the Middle Irish narrative Bricriu's Feast. However, the linkage of outcomes is unique to this story.[1][9] Games may also be seen as a test of worthiness, as, for example, the Green Knight challenges the court's worthiness of its good name in a "Christmas game."[15]

The "game" of exchanging gifts was actually very common in Germanic cultures. If a man was given a gift, he had to give the giver a better gift, or risk losing his honor, almost like an exchange of blows in a fight (or in a "beheading game").[16]

Symbolism

Significance of the colour green

In English folklore and literature, Green has traditionally been used to symbolize nature and its embodied attributes, namely those of fertility and rebirth, however, green is also known to have signified witchcraft, devilry and evil for its association with the faeries and spirits of early English folklore and for its association with decay and toxicity. In the Celtic tradition, green was avoided in clothing for its superstitious association with misfortune and death. Given these varied and even contradictory interpretations of the colour green, its precise meaning in the poem remains ambiguous.[17] The green girdle too, originally worn for protection, is later worn as a symbol of shame and cowardice and is finally adopted as a symbol of honour by the knights of Camelot, signifying a transformation from good to evil and back again displaying both the spoiling and regenerative connotations of the colour green.[18]

The Green Knight

The Green Knight is the only green character in literature of the time.[19]Many scholars believe him to be a manifestation of the Green Man vegetation deity of pre-Christian Europe, while others see him as being an incarnation of the Devil himself. Another possible interpretation of the Green Knight is to view him as a fusion of these two deities, at once representing both good and evil and life and death as self-proliferating cycles. This interpretation also embraces the positive and negative attributes of the colour green and ties in with the enigmatic motif of the poem.[18]

The pentangle

A pentangle or pentagram

The Pentangle said in the text to be on Gawain's shield is seen by many critics as having special significance in the poem. It is the first time the word 'pentangle' is recorded to have been used in English, and is the only time it is associated with Gawain's shield. Usually, Gawain is said to have an eagle symbol on his shield.[20] The poem describes the pentangle as sign descended from Solomon's time, a symbol of truth (or faithfulness), and an "endless knot." It also spends several stanzas carefully outlining the virtues of Gawain which the five points of the pentangle represent.[21][20] The emphasis the author places on the pentangle has even caused some to believe it to be an allegory or representation for the entire poem.[20]

Some compare the Pentangle to the traditional pentagram, which was said to have magical properties. In Germany, it was called a Drudenfuss and was placed on doorsteps and thresholds to keep evil out of the house. The symbol was also associated with magical charms which, if recited, would call forth the magical forces of that symbol, however, the concrete evidence tying the magical pentagram to Gawain's pentangle is scarce.[21]

Others point out the description of the pentangle in line 625 as "a sign by Solomon”. Solomon, the third king of Israel in 10th century B.C.E., is not here referred to as regarding his wisdom, but regarding his magic ring seal, having the mark of the pentagram, which he received from the archangel Michael. The ring seal bestowed upon Solomon gave him power over demons.[22]

The shield on which the pentangle is emblazoned is commonly seen as symbolizing Gawain's Christian faith in the protection of God and Christ.[15]

The girdle

Critics often wonder whether the girdle has sexual meaning. Proponents compare the girdle to other stories of the culture, such as Nibelungenlied, a story in which the woman character, Brunhilde, is convinced of her being fooled into having intercourse with the wrong man when her stolen girdle is produced as evidence.[23] Also, feminist interpretations see the girdle (called a "love lace" at one point in the text) as a symbol of feminine power. They point out the definition of "lace" at the time, which along with the "article of clothing," also meant "net," "noose," or "snare."[24] Critics who see the poem through a Christian lens see Gawain's trust in the girdle as a replacement for his trust in God to save him from the axe-wound.[25] Such notions of the image of the girdle as a "sexual symbol," however, should not be confused with modern notions of a girdle as "underwear" [26][23], but a girdle in the days of the Pearl-Poet was, “a belt worn around the waist, used for fastening clothes or for carrying a sword, purse, etc.” [27]. This is similar to the definition of girdle at the time of Nibelungenlied's writing. The girdle also reperesnts lack of courage

The specific girdle given to Gawain is “Of a gay green silk, with gold overwrought,” [28], which likely was intended to hearken to the Green Knight’s colour of choice. The correlating fox that is caught at the time as Gawain gains the girdle, is given the name “Sir Reynard the Red” [29], whose hide is stripped away. Two more important images are here visible in regards to our tempted Arthurian knight. Firstly, the colour imagery, and secondly the hide, or fur, of the fox can also be seen as symbolically stripped. Red is found at least upon Sir Gawain’s shield [30], if not in more places, and the image of the fur is early established as representing a certain humble-nature belonging to Sir Gawain[31].

See also The Girdle in Literature

Interpretations

Feminist interpretations

Feminist literary critics see the poem as representing womens' power over men. In their view, Morgan le Fay and Bertilak's wife are the most powerful characters in the poem, Morgan especially, as she is the one who enchanted the Green Knight and started the game. The girdle and Gawain's neck-scar are thus symbols of feminine power, each of them bringing the praised manhood of Gawain down. Gawain's passage of rhetorical anti-feminism, in which he blames all of his troubles on women, and outlines the many men who have fallen to women's wiles, further supports the feminist view of ultimate female power in the poem.[24]

Christian interpretations

Christian interpretations of the poem take many forms. Some critics compare it to the other three poems of the Gawain manuscript, which have heavily Christian themes, and judge Gawain to be a poem of a similar theme. Like the poem Cleanliness, they see it as a story of the apocalyptic fall of a civilization, in Gawain's case, Camelot. In this interpretation, Sir Gawain is like Noah, separated from his society and warned by the Green Knight (who is seen as God's representative) of the coming doom of Camelot. He, being judged worthy through his test, is spared the doom of the rest of Camelot, who misunderstand Gawain's experience and where garters themselves. An argument used to support this is that the period of the poem's writing is around the time of the Black Death and Peasant's Revolt, events which gave people the idea that their world truly was going to meet an apocalyptic end, influencing literature and culture.[32] Other critics see faults in this view because, ultimately, the Green Knight is under the control of Morgan le Fay, who is usually a strong figure of evil in Camelot tales. This makes it difficult to see him as a Christ or Christian figure.[15]

The Order of the Garter

Many scholars see this poem as the story of the English intertwining of chivalric and courtly love laws, under the guise of The Order of the Garter. The motto at the end of the poem is a form of 'honi soit qui mal y pense', which is the motto of the Order and means "Shame be to the man who has evil in his mind." From this, it has been theorised that Gawain's peers wearing the sash is meant to represent the origin of the Order of the Garter, although, in the parallel poem, The Greene Knight, the lace is white and is said to be the origin of the collar worn by the knights of the Bath.[33] The motto, though, was probably written by a copyist, and not by the author of the poem. Still, the connection this copyist made to the Order is not a difficult one to make.[34]

Modern adaptations

References

  1. ^ a b c The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York, London: W. W. Norton and Co., 2006. pgs. 19-21 & 160-161.
  2. ^ "Web Resources for Pearl-poet Study: A Vetted Selection". Univ. of Calgary. Retrieved April 1, 2007.
  3. ^ ll. 636-637, 2025-2029
  4. ^ ll. 1068-78
  5. ^ "Pearl: Introduction". Medieval Institute Publications, Inc. 2001. Retrieved April 2, 2007.
  6. ^ "SIR HENRY SAVILE (1549–1622)". Encyclopedia Britannica. 1911. Retrieved April 3, 2007.
  7. ^ "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Medieval Period. Vol. 1. ed. Joseph Black, et al. Toronto: Broadview Press. ISBN 1-55111-609-X Intro pg. 235
  8. ^ a b c http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/twomey/sggk/twomey.html
  9. ^ a b Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Edited JRR Tolkien/EV Gordon, revised Norman Davis, introduction, xv
  10. ^ Peterson, Clifford J. "The Pearl-Poet and John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire." The Review of English Studies, New Series 25.99 (1974) pp. 257-266
  11. ^ Hahn, Thomas (2000). The Greene Knight. In Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Western Michigan University Medieval Institute Publications. ISBN 1-879288-59-1.
  12. ^ Ch. 20
  13. ^ Richard, Jean. An Account of the Battle of Hattin Referring to the Frankish Mercenaries in Oriental Moslem States Speculum 27.2 (1952) pp. 168-177.
  14. ^ Lasater, Alcie E. Spain to England: A Comparative Study of Arabic, European, and English Literature of the Middle Ages. Jackson: University Press of Missippi, 1974
  15. ^ a b c d Lauren M. Goodlad (1987) "The Gamnesof Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Vol. 18, Article 4. http://repositories.cdlib.org/cmrs/comitatus/vol18/iss1/art4
  16. ^ Harwood, Britton J. "Gawain and the Gift." PMLA 106.3 (1991): 483-99.
  17. ^ Why The Devil Wears Green, D. W. Robertson Jr., Modern Language Notes, Vol. 69, No. 7. (Nov., 1954), pp. 470-472. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  18. ^ a b The Idea of the Green Knight, Lawrence Besserman, ELH, Vol. 53, No. 2. (Summer, 1986), pp. 219-239. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
  19. ^ http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/twomey/sggk/color.html
  20. ^ a b c Ann Derrickson (1980) "The Pentangle: Guiding Star for the Gawain-Poet", Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies: Vol. 11, Article 2. [1]
  21. ^ a b http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/twomey/sggk/pentangle.html
  22. ^ LaBossière, Camille R., & Gladson, Jerry A. (1992). Solomon. In A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature (Page 722). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, Michigan.
  23. ^ a b Friedman, Albert B., and Richard H. Osberg. "Gawain's Girdle as Traditional Symbol." The Journal of American Folklore 90.357 (1977): 301-15.
  24. ^ a b Heng, Geraldine. "Feminine Knots and the Other Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." PMLA 106.3 (1991): 500-14.
  25. ^ Berger, Sidney E. (1985). "Gawain's Departure from the Peregrinatio". West Virginia University Press. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
  26. ^ Bloomfield, Morton W. (1961). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Appraisal. PMLA, 76, 16.
  27. ^ Middle English Dictionary (as cited in Friedman, Albert B., & Osberg, Richard H. (1977). Gawain's Girdle as Traditional Symbol. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 90, No. 357, pp. 301-315.)
  28. ^ ll. 1832
  29. ^ ll. 1920
  30. ^ ll. 619
  31. ^ Woods, William F. (2002). Nature and the inner man in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Chaucer Review, 36.3, 209-227, pg. 217
  32. ^ Clark, S. L., and Julian N. Wasserman. "The Passing of the Seasons and the Apocalyptic in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"." South Central Review 3.1 (1986): 5-22.
  33. ^ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edited by JRR Tolkien and EV Gordon second edition, note to lines 2514ff
  34. ^ The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 8th ed. Vol. B. New York, London: W. W. Norton and Co., 2006. pg. 213 (footnote).
  35. ^ "Gawain and the Green Knight (1973)". Retrieved April 13, 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  36. ^ "Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984)". Retrieved April 13, 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  37. ^ "Gawain and the Green Knight (1991) (TV)". Retrieved April 13, 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  38. ^ "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2002) (TV)". Retrieved April 13, 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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