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Hello, my dear strangers!
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an Arthurian romance, dates back to the fourteenth century. Its author is unknown, but was clearly a highly educated man, possibly a cleric, judging by the other three works found in the same manuscript, which deal with religion. It was written in Middle English which, naturally, I understand no better than Old English, so I read a translation by the infinitely talented Brian Stone. The tale is separated into four different fits, an archaic term for sections of a poem or a ballad.
The first fit deals with Britain’s mythological beginnings and quickly takes us to Camelot, where king Arthur is celebrating Christmas. Soon, a tall, thick-set knight enters his hall on a mighty steed. His distinctive feature? He is completely green, from head to toe. He proposes a Christmas game: he will give any man a chance to strike him a blow and win his axe, so long as he can return the blow in a year and one day’s time, should he survive the attack. Frightened by the newcomer, all remain silent. The Knight begins mocking them, an insult Arthur cannot withstand, so he himself offers to participate in this odd game. However, Sir Gawain steps in and says he’ll fight the stranger himself. Right off, we see what makes Gawain such a noble individual. It is his modesty and disparaging comments about his own little self. He deems himself lesser than all the other knights, his only quality the fact that he happens to be Arthur’s nephew. He cannot allow the king to participate in such a foolish event and says he’ll do it, for his life is worthless and if he should perish, it would bring no great sadness to anyone.
As agreed, Gawain strikes the first blow and decapitates the Knight. The Knight doesn’t die, however. His upright body calmly stoops down to pick up his severed head and mounts his steed, blood gushing from the open wound. He tells Gawain to find him at Green Chapel and rides away.
Fit II opens with the celebration of All Saints’ Day, the day of Gawain’s departure. He is given the best attire, the most splendid armour. The cherry on the top proves to be his shield, which has the Madonna engraved on the inside and a depiction of a pentangle on the outside. In this context, a pentangle is a deeply religious symbol whose five points represent the five separate sections each knight should possess in abundance, with none outweighing the others. These are:
- Five wits, representing a knight’s control over the temptations of the senses
- Five fingers, representing physical strength
- Five wounds, representing Christ’s wounds and the knight’s devotion to Christianity
- Five pure joys of the Virgin Mary
- Five virtues: liberality, lovingkindness, continence, courtesy and piety
Gawain possesses them all, which makes him something of an ideal knight.
After a long and difficult journey, our protagonist spots a marvellous castle where he hopes he might lodge for the night. He receives a splendid welcome from the lord of the castle, with courtiers gawking at him in admiration and respect. However, his virtue soon gets put on a test when he notices the lady of the castle, his host’s wife, whose beauty he believes excels even that of Guinevere. He inquires about the whereabouts of Green Chapel and his lord tells him it’s only two miles away, begging him to linger a while longer and rest. He even proposes a game: at the end of each day, Gawain and his host must exchange everything that they’re earned or received on that particular day.
Fit III opens with the first morning of their game. While the lord is out hunting deer, his lady sneaks into Gawain’s chamber and tries to seduce him. He resists the temptation. They end up deep in conversation and even kiss before she leaves. The lord returns and throws a feast, thus giving to Gawain his quarry. Gawain, in turn, gives him a kiss.
The next morning, the lord is out hunting again and the lady sneaks into Gawain’s room once again, openly tempting him. Gawain manages to resist her allure and they share a kiss. The lord has caught a mighty boar while out hunting and they feast on its flesh that night. Gawain kisses him again.
On the third day, the lady offers Gawain a beautiful ring, so he’d have something to remember her by. He refuses such a costly gift. She then takes off her green girdle and offers it to him. He refuses yet again. However, once the lady reveals that no man wearing it can be slain, Gawain finally caves in and accepts it, fearing for his life in his imminent meeting with the mysterious Green Knight.
That night, the lord returns, having caught only a single fox, whose skin he gives to Gawain. Gawain kisses him, but makes no mention of the girdle.
In the fourth fit, Gawain departs for Green Chapel and what he believes will be his doom. He meets with the Green Knight who attacks him twice with his huge Danish axe, staying it each time before it even touches Gawain. The third attack, however, leaves Gawain with a slight neck wound.
This is the moment when the Green Knight reveals that he is fact the very lord Gawain had been staying with. He says he left Gawain unscathed in the first two blows since Gawain passed over his wife’s kisses to him. The third swing had left Gawain’s neck bleeding, since he failed to present him with the lady’s girdle.
Ashamed and deeply upset with himself, Gawain gives back the lord his girdle and asks for a punishment, lamenting his sin. The lord answers that Gawain had passed the test by confessing his faults and had proven himself a great knight indeed. He even lets him keep the girdle.
Gawain then asks the lord his true name. He replies that he is known as Bertilak of the High Desert. He also reveals that it was Morgan the Fey, Arthur’s half-sister who had sent him to test the valour of Arthur’s knights. He invites him over so they may celebrate New Year’s together, but Gawain refuses and they part ways.
Once Gawain gets back to Camelot, he tells his story and shamefully shows the girdle and the scar on his neck as symbols of the sins he’d committed. Arthur, however, deems him innocent and even goes so far as to order that from that point on every knight should wear a girdle as well.
One of the most prominent features of this work is courtly love, a frequent theme in the literature of this epoch. It usually depicts the forbidden love between a knight and his lord’s wife, the ultimate unattainable goal of every man’s fantasy. A knight’s code of honour requires him to act in a certain way, both towards his king (or even a temporary lord) and his lady. What we see here are echoes of the Anglo-Saxon heroic literature and the clash of loyalty some warriors had to face. Gawain cannot succumb to adultery and make a mockery of his host, yet he must also be courteous and polite when addressing the lady and not insult her. There is a fine line to be walked upon, one that Gawain manages to achieve somehow, the kiss being the ultimate, the only socially acceptable solution to keeping both sides satisfied.
Another frequent motif is the Quest. Nearly every knight, especially in Arthurian legends, has some kind of a quest he must accomplish laid out before him in the opening lines of a particular work. This quest offers him a goal and lots of hardships on the way to fulfilling it. It also tests his moral virtue and strength of mind and body alike. One could say that the true purpose of the quest is to take an otherwise good, yet modest knight and shape him into a great one. It’s difficult to say whether Gawain is an ideal knight or not, but he is certainly believable, his weakness and insecurity making him stand out from other seemingly perfect cardboard knights found in the literature of this period.
I’ve already mentioned that the pentangle represents virtue and security. It is always there, etched in the mind, a safe haven to which a knight might turn in moments of doubt and woe. The girdle, on the other hand, represents the complete opposite of this symbol. It is a synonym for sin and temptation, straight out of the Devil’s personal workshop. These religious insinuations may prove too hard to swallow for some, but we mustn’t forget the huge role faith and Church played in the lives of the people who lived in those past times.
I could probably go on, but I am tired and I am hungry, so let’s leave it at that.
Hope you have a wonderful day, my dear strangers 🙂