Lesson 4 – Is Sir Gawain a typical knight?

Can you make accurate comments on the hidden meaning of language?

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Activity 1

Use the correct key word in the sentences below. Each word can only be used once.

brutish savage formidable virtuous integrity paragon obligation

a) The Miller lacked ______as he would steal corn and over-charge for it. b) I know the Green Knight is a ______character because when he arrives on his large, armoured war horse everyone is speechless. c) The Green Knight’s challenge suggested he was a ______person who did not follow the normal rules of society. d) The policeman praised the ______person who had returned the wallet of cash. e) A knight has an ______to protect his king and kingdom. f) When Sir Gawain volunteers, he is a ______of virtue and honour. g) The ______lion could not be stopped from attacking the young gazelles.

Activity 2

Read the extract from page 56-63 about Gawain’s journey to the Green Chapel.

Always above and ahead of him flew a flock of geese, pointing the way north, a guiding arrowhead in the sky. It was the route Gawain knew he must follow, that would lead him, sooner or later, to the place he most dreaded on this earth... the Chapel of the Green Knight.

Despite the deep bitter winter, Gawain rode on through the wastelands alone, always keeping the flying geese ahead of him and the wild mountains of Wales to his left. At night he lay under the open skies, wrapped in his surcoat with no shelter at all, with only his Gringolet to protect him from the icy air.

Food and water in that frosty land were scarce. All Gawain had to live on were nuts he could scavenge - those the squirrels and dormouse had not already taken. Within a few days, Gawain found himself in the county of Wirral, where Figure 1 - frozen, wintry landscape at night the people were as savage and inhospitable as Gawain had ever known. If he asked for food or shelter, they drove him from their hovels with curses. And if ever he asked where he might find the Green Knight of the Green Chapel, they hurled insults and stones at him and would not answer.

Far from home now and far from friends, Gawain rode, with only his guiding geese and Gringolet for company. Weakened by cold and hunger, he often had to fight off wayside robbers who lay in wait for him, or wild animals that hunted him. In the dim of dusk one evening, as he rode through a forest, he was chased by a pack of ravenous wolves. With Gringolet too exhausted to gallop, Gawain dismounted, turned to face them and cut them down one by one as they came at him. One time a fire-belching dragon blocked his path. Gawain at once speared him through the heart and went on his way. Wild and savage men of the woods, boars and bulls and bears, this Knight saw them all off, even the three-eyed ogre of Orall who said he would not let him pass until Gawain had given him his horse to eat.

“My Gringolet is for riding, not eating," Gawain declared, and drawing his sword attacked the ogre, who was twice his size.

Figure 2 - fire-breathing dragon After a fierce battle that lasted all morning long Gawain at last dealt him a deathblow, and leaving the ogre lying there he mounted his horse again and rode on, following the geese ever northwards.

But it was not these dangers that troubled Gawain most. It was the cold. Sleeping or walking, the sleeting wind cut through the armour and chilled him to the very bone. The world had frozen white and hard around him, and as he journeyed on, the knight was losing much of his strength and hope. He began to despair of ever finding the chapel at all. There was no one to help him.

As he rode one day, over those inhospitable hills, icicles hanging from the branches Figure 3 - an ogre around him, Gawain looked up and saw that even his faithful geese had deserted him.

“I will never find the place,” he said to himself. “And by my reckoning it has been Christmas Eve already.”

In desperation and misery, he prayed aloud to the Blessed Virgin Mary that in her mercy, by some miracle, she would guide him to warmth and shelter that night, or he would surely die of the cold. Beneath him, Gringolet plodded on gamely despite the snow, though like his master he was weary now and stumbled more than once to his knees. He had had enough. So Gawain dismounted and they walked on together, their way taking them down into a ravine overhung on both

Figure 4 - frozen hills and landscape sides by wizened trees, oak and hawthorn and hazel, the whole place so dark and dank that even the birds would not sing there.

Worse was to come. Once through the ravine they came to a swamp, where they sank so deep with every step that Gawain thought both he and Gringolet must sink altogether and never be found. Now he prayed again, even harder this time, his eyes tight shut, and crossed himself again, beseeching the Virgin Mary to save them. Then, on opening his eyes, he saw before him through the trees the towers of a wondrous castle.

Now answer the questions below on this extract. Figure 5 - a ravine in a forest but not in winter

a) Why is Gawain following the geese? b) What does the verb ‘dreaded’ tell us about how Gawain is feeling? c) What does it mean when it says that food and water were ‘scarce’? d) What do the adjectives ‘savage and inhospitable’ suggest about the people in the Wirral? e) What obstacles did Gawain face whilst on his journey? f) Morprugo writes that Gawain meets an ogre and ‘at once speared him through the heart’. What does this mean? g) What troubled Gawain the most? h) How do you think he felt when he realized even the ‘faithful geese’ had left him? i) Why do you think Gawain keeps praying? j) What do you think Gawain would be thinking and feeling when he sees ‘the wondrous castle’?

Activity 3

Part of our learning in English has been about finding the hidden meaning of language and working out what language makes us think, feel and imagine about characters and settings – like detectives use clues to solve crimes. This skill is called inference.

The questions below will help you to practice your inference skills. k) What is an ogre? l) How might you feel if you met an ogre? m) What is Gawain’s reaction when he meets an ogre? n) When Morpurgo writes that Gawain met an ogre and ‘at once speared him through the heart’, what typical quality of a knight does this suggest Gawain has? o) Despite all the obstacles, Gawain ‘mounted his horse and rode on’. What knightly quality does this reveal about him? p) In your own words, explain what the weather was like during Gawain’s journey. q) Gawain came across some wolves but ‘turned to face them and cut them down one by one as they came at him.’ What do you imagine Gawain doing at this point? r) What does this action make you think about Gawain? s) Which qualities of a typical knight does it make you think he has?