Lady of
the Lake Guinevere Round Table Thomas Malory
King Arthur King Claudius Lancelot of the Lake Camelot
Grail Guardians
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late
14th-century Middle English alliterative romance
tale describing an adventure
of Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table.
In the tale, Sir
Gawain accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely
green, from his clothes and hair to his beard and skin.
The Green
Knight offers to allow anyone to strike him with his axe if the
challenger will take a return blow in a year and a day.
Sir Gawain accepts,
and beheads him in one blow, only to have the Green Knight stand up,
pick up his head, and remind Gawain to meet him at the appointed time.
The story of Gawain's struggle to meet the appointment and his
adventures along the way demonstrate the spirit of chivalry and loyalty.
The poem survives in a single manuscript,
the Cotton Nero A.x., that also includes three religious pieces,
Pearl,
Cleanness, and Patience. These works are thought to have been
written by the same unknown author, dubbed the "Pearl Poet" or "Gawain
poet." All four narrative poems are written in a North West Midland
dialect of Middle English. The story thus emerges from the Welsh and English
traditions of the dialect area, borrowing from earlier "beheading game"
stories and highlighting the importance of honour and chivalry in the
face of danger.
In addition to its complex plot and rich language, the poem's chief
interest for literary critics is its sophisticated use of medieval
symbolism. Everything from the Green Knight, to the beheading game, to
the girdle given to Gawain as protection from the axe, is richly
symbolic and steeped in Celtic, Germanic, and other folklore and
cultural traditions. The Green Knight, for example, is interpreted by
some as a representation of the Green Man of Celtic legend and by others
as an allusion to Christ.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an important poem in the
romance
genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest that tests
his ability. The ambiguity of the poem's ending, however, makes it more
complex than most. Christian readings of the poem argue for an
apocalyptic interpretation, drawing parallels between Gawain and Lady Bertilak and the story of Adam and Eve. Feminist interpretations
disagree at the most basic level, some arguing that women are in total
control from beginning to end, while others argue that their control is
only an illusion. Cultural critics have argued that the poem is best
read as an expression of tensions between the Welsh and English present
at the time in the poet's dialect region. The poem remains popular to
this day, through translations from renowned authors like J. R. R.
Tolkien and Simon Armitage, as well as through recent film and stage
adaptations.
The Story
The story begins in Camelot on New Year's
Day as King Arthur's court is feasting and exchanging gifts. A large
Green Knight armed with an axe enters the hall and proposes a
game. He asks for someone in the court to strike him once with his axe,
on condition that the Green Knight will return the blow one year and one
day later. Sir Gawain, the youngest of Arthur's knights and nephew to
the king, accepts the challenge. He severs the giant's head in one
stroke, expecting him to die. The Green Knight, however, picks up his
own head, reminds Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in a year and a
day (New Year's Day the next year) and rides away.
As the date approaches Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Chapel and
complete his bargain with the Green Knight. His long journey leads him
to a beautiful castle where he meets Bertilak de Hautdesert, the lord of
the castle, and his beautiful wife; both are pleased to have such a
renowned guest. Sir Gawain tells them of his New Year's appointment at the
Green Chapel and says that he must continue his search as he only has a
few days remaining. Bertilak laughs and explains that the Green Chapel
is less than two miles away and proposes that Sir Gawain stay at the castle.
Before going hunting the next day, Bertilak proposes a bargain to
Sir Gawain: he will give Sir Gawain whatever he catches, on condition that
Sir Gawain give him whatever he might gain during the day. Sir Gawain accepts.
After Bertilak leaves, the lady of the castle, Lady Bertilak, visits
Gawain's bedroom to seduce him. Despite her best efforts, however, he
yields nothing but a single kiss. When Bertilak returns and gives Gawain
the deer he has killed, his guest responds by returning the lady's kiss
to Bertilak, without divulging its source. The next day, the lady comes
again, Sir Gawain dodges her advances, and there is a similar exchange of a
hunted boar for two kisses. She comes once more on the third morning,
and Sir Gawain accepts from her a green silk girdle, which the lady promises
will keep him from all physical harm. They exchange three kisses. That
evening, Bertilak returns with a fox, which he exchanges with Gawain for
the three kisses. Sir Gawain keeps the girdle, however.
The next day, Gawain leaves for the Green Chapel with the girdle. He
finds the Green Knight at the chapel sharpening an axe, and, as
arranged, bends over to receive his blow. The Green Knight swings to
behead Gawain, but holds back twice, only striking softly on the third
swing, causing a small scar on his neck. The Green Knight then reveals
himself to be the lord of the castle, Bertilak de Hautdesert, and
explains that the entire game was arranged by Morgan le Fay, Arthur's
sometime enemy. Sir Gawain is at first ashamed and upset, but the two men part on
cordial terms and Gawain returns to Camelot, wearing the girdle in shame
as a token of his failure to keep his promise with Bertilak. Arthur
decrees that all his knights should henceforth wear a green sash in
recognition of Sir Gawain's adventure.
Temptation and Testing
Knights of Gawain's time were tested in their ability to balance the
male-oriented chivalric code with the female-oriented rules of courtly
love. The heart of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight is the test of Gawain's adherence to the code of
chivalry. The typical temptation fable of medieval literature presents a
series of tribulations assembled as tests or "proofs" of moral virtue.
The stories often describe several individuals' failures after which the
main character is tested.
Success in the proofs will often bring immunity
or good fortune. Sir Gawain's ability to pass the tests of his host are
of utmost importance to his survival, though he does not know it. It is
only by fortuity or “instinctive-courtesy” that Sir Gawain is able to
pass his test.
In addition to the laws of chivalry, Gawain must respect another set of
laws concerning courtly love. The knight’s code of honour requires him
to do whatever a damsel asks. Sir Gawain must accept the girdle from the
Lady, but he must also keep the promise he has made to his host that he
will give whatever he gains that day. Gawain chooses to keep the girdle
out of fear of death, thus breaking his promise to the host but
honouring the lady. Upon learning that the Green Knight is actually his
host, he realises that although he has completed his quest, he has
failed to be virtuous. This test demonstrates the conflict between
honour and knightly duties. In breaking his promise, Gawain believes he
has lost his honour and failed in his duties.
Hunting and Seduction
Scholars have frequently noted the parallels between the three hunting
scenes and the three seduction scenes in Gawain. They are generally
agreed that the fox chase has significant parallels to the third
seduction scene, in which Gawain accepts the girdle from Bertilak's
wife. Gawain, like the fox, fears for his life and is looking for a way
to avoid death from the Green Knight's axe. Like his counterpart, he
resorts to trickery in order to save his skin. The fox uses tactics so
unlike the first two animals, and so unexpectedly, that Bertilak has the
hardest time hunting it. Similarly, Gawain finds the Lady's advances in
the third seduction scene more unpredictable and challenging to resist
than her previous attempts. She changes her evasive language, typical of
courtly love relationships, to a more assertive style. Her dress,
relatively modest in earlier scenes, is suddenly voluptuous and
revealing.
The deer-hunting and boar-hunting scenes are less clearly connected, although
scholars have attempted to link each animal to Gawain's reactions in the
parallel seduction scene. Attempts to connect the deer hunt with the
first seduction scene have unearthed a few parallels. Deer hunts of the
time, like courtship, had to be done according to established rules.
Women often favoured suitors who hunted well and skinned their animals,
sometimes even watching while a deer was cleaned. The sequence
describing the deer hunt is relatively unspecific and nonviolent, with
an air of relaxation and exhilaration. The first seduction scene follows
in a similar vein, with no overt physical advances and no apparent
danger; the entire exchange is humorously portrayed.
The boar-hunting scene is, in contrast, laden with detail. Boars at the
time were much more difficult to hunt than deer; approaching one with
only a sword was akin to challenging a knight to single combat. In the
hunting sequence, the boar flees but is cornered before a ravine. He
turns to face Bertilak with his back to the ravine, prepared to fight.
Bertilak dismounts and in the ensuing fight kills the boar. He removes
its head and displays it on a pike. In the seduction scene, Bertilak's
wife, like the boar, is more forward, insisting that Gawain has a
romantic reputation and that he must not disappoint her. Gawain,
however, is successful in parrying her attacks, saying that surely she
knows more than he about love. Both the boar hunt and the seduction
scene can be seen as depictions of a moral victory: both Gawain and
Bertilak face struggles alone and emerge triumphant.
Nature and Chivalry
Some argue that nature represents a chaotic, lawless order which is in
direct confrontation with the civilisation of Camelot throughout Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight. The green horse and rider that first invade
Arthur’s peaceful halls are iconic representations of nature's
disturbance. Nature is presented throughout the poem as rough and
indifferent, constantly threatening the order of men and courtly life.
Nature invades and disrupts order in the major events of the narrative,
both symbolically and through the inner nature of humanity. This element
appears first with the disruption caused by the Green Knight, later when
Gawain must fight off his natural lust for Bertilak’s wife, and again
when Gawain breaks his vow to Bertilak by choosing to keep the green
girdle, valuing survival over virtue. Represented by the sin-stained
girdle, nature is an underlying force, forever within man and keeping
him imperfect (in a chivalric sense). In this view, Gawain is part of a
wider conflict between nature and chivalry, an examination of the
ability of man's order to overcome the chaos of nature.
Games
The word gomen (game) is found 18 times in Gawain. Its similarity to the
word gome (man), which appears 21 times, has led some scholars to see
men and games as centrally linked. Games at this time were seen as tests
of worthiness, as when the Green Knight challenges the court's right to
its good name in a "Christmas game". The "game" of exchanging gifts was
common in Germanic cultures. If a man received a gift, he was obliged to
provide the giver with a better gift or risk losing his honour, almost
like an exchange of blows in a fight (or in a "beheading game"). The
poem revolves around two games: an exchange of beheading and an exchange
of winnings. These appear at first to be unconnected. However, a victory
in the first game will lead to a victory in the second. Elements of both
games appear in other stories; however, the linkage of outcomes is
unique to Gawain.
Times and Seasons
Times, dates, seasons, and cycles within Gawain are often noted by
scholars because of their symbolic nature. The story starts on New
Year's Day with a beheading and culminates on the next New Year's Day.
Gawain leaves Camelot on All Saints Day and arrives at Bertilak's castle
on Christmas Eve. Furthermore, the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him
at the Green Chapel in "a year and a day"—a
period of time seen often in medieval literature. Some scholars interpret the yearly cycles, each
beginning and ending in winter, as the poet's attempt to convey the
inevitable fall of all things good and noble in the world. Such a theme
is strengthened by the image of Troy, a powerful nation once thought to
be invincible which, according to the Aeneid, fell to the Greeks due to
pride and ignorance. The Trojan connection shows itself in the presence
of two virtually identical descriptions of Troy's destruction. The
poem's first line reads: "Since Troy's assault and siege …" and the
final stanzaic line (before the bob and wheel) is
"After the siege and assault of Troy".
Symbolism Significance of the color green
In the 15th century Saint Augustine and the Devil by Michael Pacher, the
Devil is depicted as green. Poetic contemporaries such as Chaucer also drew
connections between the colour green and the devil, leading scholars to
draw similar connections in readings of the Green Knight. Given the
varied and even contradictory interpretations of the colour green, its
precise meaning in the poem remains ambiguous. In English folklore and
literature, green was traditionally used to symbolise nature and its
associated attributes: fertility and rebirth. Stories of the medieval
period also used it to allude to love and the base desires of
man. Because of its connection with faeries
and spirits in early English folklore, green also signified witchcraft,
devilry and evil. It can also represent decay and toxicity. When
combined with gold, as with the Green Knight and the girdle, green was
often seen as representing youth's passing. In Celtic mythology, green was
associated with misfortune and death, and therefore avoided in clothing.
The green girdle, originally worn for protection, became a symbol of
shame and cowardice; it is finally adopted as a symbol of honour by the
knights of Camelot, signifying a
transformation from good to evil and back again; this displays both the
spoiling and regenerative connotations of the colour green.
The Green Knight
Scholars have puzzled over the Green Knight's symbolism since the
discovery of the poem. He could be a version of the Green Man, a
mythological being connected with nature in medieval art, a Christian
symbol, or the Devil himself. British medieval scholar J. R. R. Tolkien
said the character was "as vivid and concrete as any image in
literature" and the "most difficult character" to interpret in Sir
Gawain. His major role in Arthurian literature
is that of a judge and tester of knights, thus he is at once terrifying,
friendly, and mysterious. He appears in only two other poems: The Greene
Knight and King Arthur and King Cornwall. Scholars have attempted to
connect him to other mythical characters, such as Jack in the Green
of British tradition but no definitive connection has yet been
established
Another famous Arthurian woman, The Lady of Shalott,
with a medieval girdle around her waist.
Critics often debate whether the girdle that Gawain receives from
Bertilak's wife has sexual meaning. Proponents compare the girdle to
elements of other stories in the culture, such as the Germanic epic poem
Nibelungenlied. In this tale, Brunhilde sees her stolen girdle produced
as evidence and becomes convinced that she has had intercourse with the
wrong man. Feminist interpretations view the girdle (called a "love
lace" at one point in the text) as a symbol of feminine power. They note
the definition of "lace" at the time, which along with the "article of
clothing", also meant "net", "noose", or "snare".
Critics who view
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. The
image of the girdle as a "sexual symbol", however, should not be
confused with modern notions of a girdle as "underwear". Its sexual
meaning was deeper and less overt. 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 or purse.
Pentangle or Pentagram
A pentangle or pentagram is on Gawain's shield is seen by many
critics as signifying Gawain's perfection and power over evil. The
poem contains the only representation of such a symbol on Gawain's
shield in the Gawain literature. What is more, the poet uses a total of
46 lines to describe the meaning of the pentangle. No other symbol in
the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail. The
poem describes the pentangle as a symbol of faithfulness and an "endless
knot". In line 625, it is described as "a sign by Solomon". Solomon, the
third king of Israel, in 10th century B.C. was said to have the mark of
the pentagram on his ring, which he received from the archangel Michael.
The pentagram seal on this ring was said to give Solomon power over
demons.
Gawain’s pentangle also symbolises the phenomenon of physically endless
objects signifying a temporally endless quality.
Many poets use the
symbol of the circle to show infinity or endlessness, but Gawain’s poet
insisted on using something more complex.
In medieval number theory, the number five
is considered a “circular number”, since it reproduces itself in its
last digit when raised to its powers.
Furthermore, it replicates itself
geometrically; that is, every pentangle has a smaller pentagon that
allows a pentangle to be embedded in it and this process may be repeated
forever with decreasing pentangles. Thus, by
reproducing the number five, which in medieval number symbolism
signified incorruptibility, Gawain's pentangle represents his eternal
incorruptibility.
Numbers
The poet highlights number symbolism to add symmetry and meaning to the
poem. For example, three kisses are exchanged between Gawain and
Bertilak's wife; Gawain is tempted by her on three separate days;
Bertilak goes hunting three times, and the Green Knight swings at Gawain
three times with his axe. The number two also appears repeatedly, as in
the two beheading scenes, two confession scenes, and two castles.
The five points of the pentangle, the poet adds, represent Gawain's
virtues, for he is "faithful five ways and five times each". The poet
goes on to list the ways in which Gawain is virtuous: all five of his
senses are without fault; his five fingers never fail him, and he always
remembers the five wounds of Christ, as well as the five joys of the
Virgin Mary. The fifth five is Gawain himself, who embodies the five
moral virtues of the code of chivalry: "friendship, generosity,
chastity, courtesy, and piety". All of these virtues reside, as the poet
says, in the "Endless Knot" of the pentangle, which forever interlinks
and is never broken. Thus, the poet makes Gawain the epitome of
perfection in knighthood through number symbolism.
The number five is also found in the structure of the poem itself. Sir
Gawain is 101 stanzas long, traditionally organised into four books of
21, 24, 34, and 22 stanzas. These divisions, however, have since been
disputed; scholars have begun to believe that they are the work of the
copyist and not of the poet. The original manuscript features a series
of capital letters added after the fact by another scribe, and some
scholars argue that these additions were an attempt to restore the
original divisions. These letters divide the manuscript into nine parts.
The first and last parts are 22 stanzas long. The second and
second-to-last parts are only one stanza long, and the middle five parts
are eleven stanzas long. The number eleven is associated with
transgression in other medieval literature (being one more than ten, a
number associated with the Ten Commandments). Thus, this set of five
elevens (55 stanzas) creates the perfect mix of transgression and
perfection, suggesting that Gawain is faultless in his faults.
Wounds
At the story's climax, Gawain is wounded superficially in the neck by
the Green Knight's axe. During the medieval period, the body and the
soul were believed to be so intimately connected that wounds were
considered an outward sign of inward sin. The neck, specifically, was
believed to correlate with the part of the soul related to will,
connecting the reasoning part (the head) and the courageous part (the
heart). Gawain's sin resulted from using his will to separate reasoning
from courage. By accepting the girdle from the lady, he employs reason
to do something less than courageous—evade death in a dishonest way.
Gawain's wound is thus an outward sign of an internal wound. The Green
Knight's series of tests shows Gawain the weakness that has been in him
all along: the desire to use his will for personal gain,
rather than submitting his will in humility to God. The Green Knight, by
engaging with the greatest knight of Camelot, also reveals the moral
weakness of pride in all of Camelot, and therefore all of humanity.
However, the wounds of Christ, believed to offer healing to wounded
souls and bodies, are mentioned throughout the poem in the hope that
this sin of prideful "stiffneckedness" will be healed among fallen
mortals.
Interpretations: Gawain as medieval Romance
Gawain represented the perfect knight, as a fighter, a lover, and a
religious devotee. Many argue
that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be viewed, above all, as a
romance. Medieval romances typically
recount the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight, often
of super-human ability, who abides by chivalry's strict codes of honour
and demeanour, embarks upon a quest and defeats monsters, thereby
winning the favour of a lady. Thus, medieval romances focus not on love
and sentiment (as the term "romance" implies today), but on adventure.
Gawain's function, as medieval scholar Alan Markman says, "is the
function of the romance hero … to stand as the champion of the human
race, and by submitting to strange and severe tests, to demonstrate
human capabilities for good or bad action." Through Gawain's
adventure, it becomes clear that he is merely human. The reader becomes
attached to this human view in the midst of the poem’s romanticism,
relating to Gawain’s humanity while respecting his knightly qualities.
Gawain "shows us what moral conduct is. We shall probably not equal his
behaviour, but we admire him for pointing out the way."
In viewing the poem as a chivalric romance, many scholars see it as
intertwining chivalric and courtly love laws under the English Order of
the Garter. The group's motto, 'honi soit qui mal y pense', or "Shamed
be he who finds evil here," is written at the end of the poem. Some
critics describe Gawain's peers wearing girdles of their own as evidence
of the origin of the Order of the Garter. However, in the parallel poem,
The Greene Knight, the lace is white, not green, and is considered the
origin of the collar worn by the knights of the Bath, not the Order of
the Garter. The motto on the poem was probably written by a copyist and
not by the original author. Still, the connection made by the copyist to
the Order is not extraordinary.
Christian Interpretations
Scholars have pointed out parallels between the girdle Bertilak's wife
offers Gawain, and the fruit Eve offered to Adam in the Biblical Garden
of Eden. The poem is in many ways
deeply Christian, with frequent references to the fall of Adam and Eve
and to Jesus Christ. Scholars have debated the depth of the Christian
elements within the poem by looking at it in the context of the age in
which it was written, coming up with varying views as to what represents
a Christian element of the poem and what does not. For example, some
critics compare Sir Gawain to the other three poems of the Gawain
manuscript. Each has a heavily Christian theme, causing scholars to
interpret Gawain similarly. Comparing it to the poem Cleanliness (also
known as Purity), for example, they see it as a story of the apocalyptic
fall of a civilisation, 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. Gawain, judged worthy through his test, is
spared the doom of the rest of Camelot. King Arthur and his knights,
however, misunderstand Gawain's experience and wear garters themselves.
In Cleanliness the men who are saved are similarly helpless in warning
their society of impending destruction.
One of the key points stressed in this interpretation is that salvation
is an individual experience difficult to communicate to outsiders. In
his depiction of Camelot, the poet reveals a concern for his society,
whose inevitable fall will bring about the ultimate destruction intended
by God. Gawain was written around the time of the Black Death and
Peasants' Revolt, events which convinced many people that their world
was coming to an apocalyptic end and this belief was reflected in
literature and culture. However, other critics see weaknesses in this
view, since the Green Knight is ultimately under the control of Morgan
le Fay, usually viewed as a figure of evil in
Camelot tales. This makes the knight's presence as a
representative of God problematic.
While the character of the Green Knight is usually not viewed as a
representation of Christ in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, critics do
acknowledge a parallel. Lawrence Besserman, a specialist in
medieval literature, explains that "the Green Knight is not a figurative
representative of Christ. But the idea of Christ's divine/human nature
provides a medieval conceptual framework that supports the poet's
serious/comic account of the Green Knight's supernatural/human qualities
and actions". This duality exemplifies the influence and importance of
Christian teachings and views of Christ in the era of the Gawain Poet.
Furthermore, critics note the Christian reference to Christ's crown of
thorns at the conclusion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. After
Gawain returns to Camelot and tells his story regarding the newly
acquired green sash, the poem concludes with a brief prayer and a
reference to "the thorn-crowned God". Besserman theorises that "with
these final words the poet redirects our attention from the circular
girdle-turned-sash (a double image of Gawain's "yntrawpe/renoun")
to the circular Crown of Thorns (a double image of Christ's humiliation
turned triumph)."
Throughout the poem, Gawain encounters numerous trials testing his
devotion and faith in Christianity. When Gawain sets out on his journey
to find the Green Chapel, he finds himself lost, and only after praying
to the Virgin Mary does he find his way. As he continues his journey,
Gawain once again faces anguish regarding his inevitable encounter with
the Green Knight. Instead of praying to Mary, as before, Gawain places
his faith in the girdle given to him by Bertilak’s wife. From the
Christian perspective, this leads to disastrous and embarrassing
consequences for Gawain as he is forced to re-evaluate his faith when
the Green Knight points out his betrayal.
An analogy is also made between Gawain’s trial and the Biblical test
that Adam encounters in the Garden of Eden. Adam succumbs to Eve just as
Gawain surrenders to Bertilak’s wife by accepting the girdle.
Although Sir Gawain sins by putting his faith in the girdle and not
confessing when he is caught, the Green Knight pardons him, thereby
allowing him to become a better Christian by learning from his
mistakes. Through the various games played and hardships endured,
Gawain finds his place within the Christian world.
