Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was found unburned after a fire ravaged the Cottonian Library in 1731. This text is now in the British Museum Library, which arose from the ashes of the Cottonian fire; the text didn’t move, but a library was reconstructed around it! (How’s that for resurrection symbolism!) The text was bound with the dream-vision allegorical poems Pearl, Purity, and Patience, all written in northwest midland dialect of Middle English. The date of composition is believed to be 1375-1400.

The story itself is mirrored in a Celtic folktales series known as the “Ulster Cycle,” which derives its stories from the old Celtic faith. In one particular story, the hero Cu Chulainn, also fights a personage of large proportion and of differing hue (a bachlach) who, too, has a culturally varying approach to sports. 

Notable Points about the romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This is one of the stories in the myth cycle of Arthur, and Gawain’s character is defined here as the intelligent, noble, loyal, but flawed knight. In fact, the character of Sir Gawain as presented in this romance is an example prevalent in medieval literature of the emerging fully-developed character —human in all his faults and inner deceptions, and the wide and varying use of irony in the text help round him out. The role of courtly love is evident in the romance, as are other elements of romance literature: the year and a day journey, a knightly quest in the name of virtue, mystical events, Christian-Celtic melding of symbols and motifs (especially the pentangle, the hunt, the girdle, mystery rituals, the woods, the seasons) episodic plot structure, use of allegory, and a didactic message, although here, later in the middle ages, it certainly is a playful one! Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is also noted for its stunning imagery, playful rhyme and verse structure, (particularly the “bob and wheel”) and tongue-in-cheek homage to the older epic style of alliterative verse, which we saw in Beowulf.

Gawain’s Role in the Arthur Stories, via Geoffrey of Monmouth

Gawain is nephew to Arthur by his sister, the witch, Morgana, and Lot, King of Orkney. He marries the loathly lady for Arthur, after a lady who reports that a knight has defiled her and other maidens, causing the land to go into ruin; he is turned into a dwarf (temporarily) for not greeting another lady, and meets up with Merlin, who is a mist. Merlin tells him to get the knights searching for the Holy Grail – Merlin says he’ll turn back to a wizard again. He doesn’t find the Grail, but is told that another knight will find it (sinful v. blissful). He is later wounded by Galahad, dressed as the white knight, and gives up his search. He sides with Arthur against Launcelot in his unfortunate affair with Guenevere. Launcelot kills Gawain’s brothers, but refuses to fight Gawain. Gawain is mortally wounded by Mordred, Arthur’s son by Morgana (!) and realizes too late that Arthur’s betrayal by Mordred is a setup.

Sir Gawain is one of the most famous of the knights, known to be sage and courteous, and full of reverence and eloquence – and handsome, too! He has a cameo appearance in Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale, and takes a leading role in the Wife of Bath’s Tale – although his character is altered a bit.

Links: http://www.contracosta.cc.ca.us/math/pentagrm.htm Discussion Questions: Prepare to answer two for an in-class written exam.

1. Choose a passage in the romance and comment on one or more of the “notable points” mentioned above. Also explain the meter, rhyme and structure.

2. How are Arthur and his court portrayed near the beginning of the poem? Can you detect any subtle criticism of the court and its behavior? This poem is sometimes said to suggest the decadence of Arthur's court, lacking the positive qualities that it once exemplified. How is this decline suggested in the poem?

3. The Green Knight is, well, odd. What do you make of this green man? What’s his mythic ancestor? What might he symbolize? How does his behavior contrast with the behavior of Arthur’s court? What is his attitude toward Arthur and his knights?

4. Gawain’s shield, with its pentangle on the outside and image on the inside, symbolizes the values and qualities that Gawain is expected to uphold. What does Gawain’s shield tell us in terms of Gawain as a hero? What else does the pentangle symbolize? (Note: the pentagle, among other things, contains a golden ratio!) What values and qualities of Gawain’s that are suggested by the shield are tested in the poem? How well does Gawain deal with the various challenges that he faces?

5. What roles do women play and how are women portrayed in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? Where do you see elements (or parody) of courtly love?

6. Explain Gawain's dilemma throughout the temptation scenes. How sincerely does he face the temptations presented by Bercilak's wife? Does he suspect that he’s being tested for fidelity? Does he know he’s being watched? (Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle?) Is he really this pure, or is he purely a coward? Is he showing off how clever he is? Ultimately, is his purity being tested—or his pride?

7. What is the relationship between Bercilak's three days of hunting and Gawain's activity in the bedroom during those three days? (Look carefully at what happens each day in the bedroom and see if you can find any connections to each day of the hunt.) Explain the hunt as a seduction allegory. (Very common in medieval work! Much punning on heart and hart.)

8. In what ways does Gawain fail when he accepts and conceals the green girdle? Using the symbolism of the shield as your guide, assess the qualities and virtues of Gawain's that are called into question by his acceptance and concealment of the girdle. What seems to be tested? What is really tested? When does this test take place? Is the silk scarf really magic? Does it matter?

9. At the end of the poem, why does Gawain decide to wear the green girdle? Why do the other knights decide to wear green girdles as well? What does the green girdle symbolize? What does Gawain think of himself? What is his “sin”? What is revealed about his true nature? 10. How are seasons and festivals symbolic? What does the forest symbolize? The Green Chapel? The journey? Think of when his challenge begins, and when it ends. 11. How does Sir Gawain compare to Beowulf as a hero? What makes him markedly different as a developed character? Find specific examples to support your answer.

12. How does the poet use humor in the poem? In which places in the poem can you identify humorous elements? Where is there use of verbal, situational and dramatic irony? Who is the narrator? Whose point of view? How does this add to the tone?

13. Explain the theme of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. How is the overall style and mood of the romance suited to this theme?

Essay Question: Explain how the anonymous author develops Gawain’s character through the use of subtle literary devices. You may consider use of symbolism, imagery, narrative form, metaphor, narrative voice, characterization, tone, irony, hyperbole, rhyme and meter, comedic or dramatic plot situations. Is he the knight he thinks he is? How does the author reveal this to us?

Graded Questions As you read, briefly answer the following:

Part 1  Define the tone of the text. Provide three examples from Part I to prove your assessment.  During what holiday does the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight begin?  What are the characters doing at the beginning of the romance?  What is the Green Knight's attitude toward the knights of King Arthur's court?  What is the Green Knight’s challenge? What does he threaten to do if no one takes the challenge? What must the knight then do in one year and a day?

Part 2  What does the gold pentangle (the five-pointed star) on Gawain's shield symbolize?  Can Gawain ethically get out of this? What challenges does Gawain face on his journey?  What deal does Bercilak, the lord of the castle, make with Gawain near the end of Part 2?

Part 3  What animal does Bercilak hunt and kill on the first day?  What happens to Gawain on the first day of Bercilak's hunt? How is it like the hunt?  What animal does Bercilak hunt and kill on the second day?  What happens to Gawain on the second day of Bercilak's hunt? How is it like the hunt?  What animal does Bercilak hunt and kill on the third day?  What happens to Gawain on the third day of Bercilak's hunt? How is it like the hunt?  What does Gawain receive on the third day of the hunt and keep secret from Bercilak?

Part 4  Explain the location of the Green Chapel, and what it looks like.  What happens each of the three times that the Green Knight brings the axe down?  How does the Green Knight explain these three swings of the axe?  Who is Green Knight? What was the purpose of Gawain’s test at the castle?  Whom does Gawain seem to blame for his “fall from grace”?  Does anyone seem to take his “sin” seriously? Why? What’s his real sin? The Quest for the Holy Grail (Sangraal)

NOTE: The origin of England at the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells the story from Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britainniae of England founded by Brutus, a descendent of Aeneas, following the ideal of “rising from ashes.” He’s right only in that the Romans did go to England, but that’s about it. The following account of the Grail Legend occurs some time after that first settlement. The grail story begins with Joseph of Arimathea, who gave his tomb for Jesus’ burial after crucifixion. He has possession of the Grail of the Last Supper and the spear (lance) that pierced Christ’s side, and wanders with his men – to Glastonbury, England – and his men fall into sin. He prays to the Grail. It says to tell his brother-in-law Brons to catch a fish, with which the Grail provides a mystic meal and the sinners can’t partake. Sinners are separated from the righteous. The table is set with the Grail, covered by a cloth, and the fish. Those seated feel douceur and contentment in their hearts, while those who do not sit, feel nothing. Brons is the Rich Fisher or Roi Pêcheur. (Not to be confused with the Sinner King, although the French words for Fisher and Sinner are similar enough to have been confused from the French writings of the Arthur romances. Sinner (Pécheur) is spelled with an accent aigue; Fisher, (Pêcheur) with a circonflexe.) The king’s descendants are supposed to guard the Sangraal (translating from French as “holy vessel”) on the sole condition of leading a life of purity in thought, word, and deed. For a long time, the Sangraal is visible to all pilgrims, and its presence conferred blessing upon the land in which it was preserved. But one of these guardians one day is distracted by a woman’s opened cloak, and is wounded grievously by the lance (in the, ahem, “thigh”…) for his sin: this is the SINNER king. The land goes into ruin. (It becomes the proverbial wasteland.) The guardian of the grail is thereafter called the “Sinner King.” The Sangraal disappears, and the “iron” age of Britain begins. The quest for the grail has stories from all through Western Europe. Perceval, the simpleton, sees it during the mystery rite, which includes a feast served as in the mystic meal of Brons, but neglects to ask what is under that cloth. Launcelot and Gawain both seek it, but don’t find it. Galahad is, in the end, the one who finally sees it and understands it, but he’s swept up to heaven, and the grail disappears forever. Galahad is a descendent of Joseph of Arimathea, on his mother, Elaine’s, side, and Launcelot. He therefore represents spiritual and mortal love. (Launcelot’s saves Elaine from a dragon before he marries her.) The knights are questing for a mysterious castle, and king, and are on a mission to find redemption for themselves, and the land. After his demise, Arthur, whose access to the sword Excalibur has marked him as the righteous king, is conveyed in a mist to Glastonbury Abby, to a spot known as Avalon. He’s not exactly dead. The Fairie Queen supposedly will heal his wound, and restore him and Briton to power. Edmund Spenser’s (1552-1599) epic, The Fairie Queen, is about this healing, aptly timed for Elizabeth I’s reign. The quest for the Holy Grail seems to be derived from pagan fertility rituals, including those of Tammuz (Babylonian) Mithras (Persian) Adonis (Greco-Roman) brought in with Roman soldiers from these areas. (You can visit a temple to Mithradites, discovered in the center of London.) These myths all include wounded humans or gods, whose demise causes general infertility and whose resurrection brings life back to the world. The stories are also obviously connected to the Christian story of the Last Supper, and the teaching of Jesus’ death securing an afterlife for all souls. There may also be reference to medieval Jewish mysticism (from the Kabbalah) where Messias catches the Leviathan (Whale) and divides its flesh as food among the faithful. And there is evidence in the grail stories, and in other Arthur legends, of Celtic rituals: The symbols of grail quests: the cup, the lance, the pentangle, the sword, is part of the treasures of the Tuatha de Danann (Children of the goddess Dana) ancient ancestral Irish kings. (The suits of cards, and tarot cards, also, are based on these symbols, respectively, hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades.) These treasures, however, were clearly denoted as fertility symbols, and in the effort to purify the Goddess rituals, the symbols are transferred to the Grail Legend, and to Madonna worship in the Middle Ages. The pentangle or “dish” becomes a symbol for the Virgin Mother, as does the vessel-shaped rose. 1

1 Weston, Jessie. From Ritual to Romance. London: Cambridge University Press, 1920. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

From “The Ulster Cycle” Irish Legends of Cuchullinn http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~dc920/bricriu.html

One day as the Ulstermen were in Emain Macha, fatigued after the gathering and the games, Conchobar and Fergus mac Roig, with the Ulster nobles as well, proceeded from the playing field outside and seated themselves in the Red Branch of Conchobar. Neither Cu Chulainn nor Conall the Victorious nor Loegaire the Triumphant were there that night. But the hosts of Ulster's heros were there. As they were seated , it being eventide, and the day drawing toward the close, they saw a big uncouth fellow of exceeding ugliness drawing nigh them into the hall. To them it seemed as if none of the Ulstermen would reach half his height. Horrible and ugly was the carle's disguise. Next his skin he wore an old hide with a dark dun mantle around him, and over him a great spreading club-tree branch the size of a winter-shed under which thirty bullocks could find shelter. Ravenous yellow eyes he had, protruding from his head, each of the twain the size of an ox-vat. Each finger was as thick as a person's wrist. In his left hand he carried a stock, a burden for twenty yoke of oxen. In his right hand was an axe weighing thrice fifty glowing molten masses of metal. Its handle would require a yoke of six to move it. Its sharpness such that it would lop off hairs, the wind blowing them against its edge.

In that guise he went and stood by the fork-beam beside the fire. "Is the hall lacking in room for you," said Dubtach Chafertongue to the uncouth clodhopper (bachlach), "that ye find no other place than by the fork- beam, unless ye wish to be an illumination to the house?- only sooner will a blaze be to the house than brightness to the household."

"Whatever property may be mine, you will agree that no matter how big I am the household will be lighted, while the hall will not be burned. That, however, is not my sole function; I have others as well. But neither in Erin nor in Alba nor in Europe nor in Africa nor in Asia, including Greece, Scythia, the Isles of Gades, the Pillars of Hercules, and Bregon's Tower have I accomplished the quest on which I have come, nor a man to do me fair play regarding it. Since ye Ulstermen have excelled all the peoples of those lands in strength, powness and valor; in rank, magnanimity, and dignity; in truth, generosity, and worth, get one among you to rant the boon I ask."

"In truth it is not just that the honor of a province be carried off," said Fergus mac Roig," because of one man who fails in keeping his word of honor. Death certainly is not a whit nearer to him than to you."

"It is not I that shun it."

"Make thy quest known to us, then," said Fergus.

"Only if fair play is offered me will I tell it."

"It is right to give fair play," said Sencha son of Ailill,"for it is not seemly for a great people to break a mutual covenant over an unknown individual. It seems to us, furthermore, that if you at last find a person such as you seek, you will find him here."

"Conchobar I put aside," said he, "for the sake of his sovereignty, and Fergus mac Roig also on account of his like privilege. These two excepted, come whosoever of you that may dare, that I may cut off his head tonight, he mine tomorrow night."

"Sure then there is no warrior here," said Dubtach, "after these two." "By my troth there will be at this moment," cried Munremur mac Gerrcind as he sprung on to the floor of the hall. The strength of Munremur was as the strength of a hundred warriors, each arm having the might of a hundred "centaurs." "Bend down, bachlach," said Munremur,"that I may cut off thy head tonight, thou to cut off mine tomorrow."

"Were that the object of my quest I could get it anywhere." Said the bachlach; "let us act according to our covenant-I to cut off your head tonight, you to avenge it tomorrow night."

"By my people's gods," said Dubtach Chafertongue, "death is thus for thee no pleasant prospect, should the man killed tonight attack thee on the morrow. It is given to thee alone if thou hast the power, being killed night after night, and to avenge it the next day."

"Truly I will carry out what you all as a body agree upon by way of counsel, strange as it may seem to you," said the bachlach. He then pledged the other to keep his troth in the contention as to fulfilling his tryst on the morrow.

With that Munremur took the axe from the ballach's hand. Seve feet apart were its two angles. Then the bachlach put his neck across the block. Munremur dealt a blow across it with the axe until it stood in the block beneath, cutting off the head so that it lay by the base of the fork-beam, the house being filled with blood. Straightway the bachlach rose, recovered himself, clasped his head, block, and axe to his breast, and mad his exit from the hall with the blood streaming from his neck. It filled the Red Branch on every side. Great was the people/s horror, wondering at the marvel that had appeared to them. "By my people's gods," said Dubtach c, "if the bachlach, having been killed tonight, come back tomorrow, he will not leave a man alive in Ulster. "

The following night he returned, and Munremur shirked him. Then the bachlach began to urge his pact with Munremur. "Truly it is not right for Munremur not to fulfill his covenant with me." That night, however Loegaire the Triumphant was present. "Who of the warriors that contest Ulster's Champion's Portion will carry out a covenant with me tonight? Where is Loegaire the Triumphant?" said he.

"Here," said Loegaire. He pledged him, too, yet Loegaire did not keep his agreement. The bachlach returned on the morrow and similarly pledged Conall Cernach, who came not as he had sworn.

The fourth night the bachlach returned, and fierce and furious was he. All the ladies of Ulster came that night to see the strange marvel that had come to the Red Branch. That night Cu Chulainn was there also. Then the bachlach began to upbraid them. "Ye men of Ulster, your valor and your prowess are gone. Your warriors greatly covet the Champion's portion, yet are unable to contest it. Where is the mad fellow called Cu Chulainn? I would like to know whether his word is better than the others."

"No covenant do I desire with you," said Cu Chulainn.

"Likely is that, thou wretched fly; greatly dost thou fear to die." Whreupon Cu Chulainn sprang towards him and dealt him a blow with the axe, hurling his head to the top rafter of the Red Branch until the whole hall shook. Cu Chulainn then again caught up the head and gave it a blow with the axe and smashed it. Thereafter the bachlach rose up.

On the morrow the Ulstermen were watching Cu Chulainn to see whether he would shirk the bachlach as the other heros had done. As Cu Chulainn was awaiting the bachlach, they saw that great dejection seized him. It would have been fitting had they sung his dirge. They felt sure that his life would last only until the bachlach came. Then said Cu Chulainn with shame to Conchobar, "Thou shalt not go until my pledge to the bachlach is fulfilled; for dealt awaits me, and I would rather have death with honor."

They were there as the day was closing and they saw the bachlach approaching. "Where is Cu Chulainn"" said he.

"Here I am," he replied.

"Thou art dull of speech tonight, unhappy one; greatly you fear to die. Yet, though great your fear, death you have not shirked."

Thereafter Cu Chulainn stretched his neck across the block which was of such size that his neck reached but half way. "Stretch out thy neck, thou wretch," cried the bachlach.

"Thou art keeping me in torment," said Cu Chulainn, "dispatch me quickly. Last night, by my troth, I tormented thee not. Verily I swear that if thou torment me I will make myself as long as a crane above you."

"I cannot slay thee," said the bachlach," what with the shortness of your neck and your side and the size of the block.."

Then Cu Chulainn stretched out his neck so that a warrior's foot would have fitted between any two of his ribs; his neck he stretched until his head reached the other side of the block. The bachlach raised his axe until it reached the roof-tree of he house. The creaking of the old hide that was about him and the crashing of the axe-both his arms being raised aloft with all his might- were as the loud noise of a wood tempest-tossed in a night of storm. Down it came then on his neck- its blunt side below, all the nobles of Ulster gazing upon them.

"O Cu Chulainn, arise! Of the warriors of Ulster and Erin, no matter their mettle, none is found to compare with thee in valor,bravery , and truthfulness. The sovereignty of the heros of Erin to thee from this hour forth and the Champion's Portion undisputed, and to thy wife the precedence always of the ladies of Ulster in the Mead-Hall. And whosoever shall lay wager against thee from now, as my tribe swears I swear, all his life he will be in danger." Then the bachlach vanished. It was Cu Roi mac Dairi who in that guise had come to fulfill the promise he had given to Cu Chulainn.