British Literature - Week 7 - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II

Last week I provided a summary of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Did you read the epic poem? Did you enjoy it?! This week we will look at some of the themes and points of discussion in Sir Gawain - cultural references, chivalry, tempter and tempted, and character tests.

One of the elements of teaching ancient literature I most enjoy involves finding references in contemporary culture to the ancient texts. With an observant eye and consumption of a broad array of books and articles, anyone can find frequent references to the canonical texts. Just yesterday I began The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, by Arundhati Roy.  On page 14, Roy describes a shrine to Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed, a Jewish Armenian merchant who loved a Hindu boy, renounced Judaism, embraced Islam, then also renounced Islam. Roy writes how Sarmad was "beheaded on the steps of the Jama Masjid... and his head continued to recite his poems of love even after it had been severed from his body... he picked up his speaking head, as casually as a modern-day motorcyclist might pick up his helmet..." (Roy 12). Sounds familiar, right?!

Let's look first at the concept of chivalry. Chivalry refers to the honor, deeds, and actions of a knight (chevalier, caballero), often in war and in tournaments on his cheval (horse, in French).  A chivalrous knight goes on adventures which test his strength, bravery, and also his character. Sir Gawain intervenes and prevents King Arthur from accepting the challenge offered by the Green Knight. Sir Gawain demonstrates bravery, he might get his head chopped off, and loyalty--he effectively saves his king from beheading.

Once Sir Gawain accepts the challenge/beheading game, he has one year to allow the Green Knight to reciprocate -- in other words, to get beheaded himself! He spends several days as a guest of Bertilak and his wife, and is tempted by Bertilak's wife every day. She tries her utmost to seduce him, but he remains strong in the face of temptation and does not allow the seduction, even when she questions his manliness! Sir Gawain must be proud of himself for avoiding the temptation, but he didn't pass the real test.

Bertilak and Sir Gawain agreed to exchange their winnings at the end of each day. Sir Gawain received a deer, a boar, and a fox. Sir Gawain received kisses, and kissed Bertilak at the end of each day... The scenes of hunting, camaraderie, physical sport, are juxtaposed with the bedroom scenes. In the first, the animals are hunted; in the second, Sir Gawain is hunted! Just when he believes he has passed the test, he fails. When Bertilak's wife offers him her green girdle to save his life, he accepts it. But he doesn't give it to Bertilak at the end of day, as the game requires. He loves his life too much to be completely honest and fails the test of bravery.

I'll conclude this post with another recent reference to Sir Gawain found in the blog, Better Living Through Beowulf, by Robin Bates. She argues that "Donald Trump’s public relations lawyer Rudy Giuliani put on a performance for the ages this past Sunday, reminding me of no one so much as the fox in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

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Works Cited

Bates, Robin. https://betterlivingthroughbeowulf.com/green-knight-the-great-trump-hunt/

Roy, Arundhati. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.

British Literature - Week 6 - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I

Beheading, chivalry, seduction, hunting, slaughter, shape-shifting... a 14th century poet intricately weaved all these elements to create the timeless poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The source of delight and revulsion, shock and amusement, Sir Gawain does not disappoint its readers.  If you'd like to read it again, check out this link:  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The poet opens by setting Sir Gawain in historical context, going all the way back to the fall of Troy. Aeneas, on the losing side of the Battle of Troy, is the founding father of Rome (check out The Aeneid), and Aeneas' great grandson, Brutus, is the founder of (you guessed it) Britain. Why would a poet feel the need to place his work in a broad historical context? Several possible reasons exist, including to lend legitimacy, to improve his ethos argument, and to show the poem's place in a long line of canonical literature.

So from the first alliterative line, "Since the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy," to the reference to "high-born Aeneas" and "Felix Brutus," the poem sets King Arthur up as the "most courteous of all" (Boroff 1).

A brief summary will help you understand the poem:

Part I

• King Arthur and his knights gather on New Year's Day for a feast;
• A Green Knight (he and his horse are bright green in color) enters the hall and proposes a game; whoever accepts the challenge will be given an ax to strike the Green Knight, and in one year the Green Knight will have a chance to return the strike;
• The knights hesitate, and King Arthur prepares to accept the challenge, but then Sir Gawain steps up, takes the proferred ax, and beheads the Green Knight - "the head was hewn off and fell to the floor;"
• The story ends there..... NOT!
• The headless Green Knight bends over and picks up his body-less head! The head tells Gawain to meet him in one year at the Green Chapel.

Part II

• Sir Gawain faithfully sets out in one year to find the Green Knight. After travelling "over country wild and strange" Sir Gawain prays to the Virgin Mary, and immediately stumbles upon a castle run by Lord Bertilak. 
• Bertilak proposes another game - 
• "whatever I win in the woods I will give you at eve, 
• and all you have earned you must offer to me" (Boroff).

Part III

• Bertilak goes hunting for three days, killing a deer, a boar, and a fox. The hunting scenes are juxtaposed with scenes of Bertilak's wife unsuccessfully attempting to seduce Sir Gawain. She tells him "we are here alone" and "my body is here at hand, your each wish to fulfill," among other amorous and tempting phrases (Boroff).
• Each night Bertilak gives Sir Gawain the spoils of his hunt, and Sir Gawain gives Bertilak what he "won" during the day, one kiss, then two kisses, then three kisses (given to him by Bertilak's wife).
• Bertilak's wife does not seduce Sir Gawain, but she does give him a green girdle which will make him invincible -- "for the man that possesses this piece of silk, if he bore it on his body, belted about, there is no hand under heaven that could hew him down, for he could not be killed by any craft on earth" (Boroff).

Part IV

• Sir Gawain finds the Green Chapel and meets the Green Knight. He carries with him the green girdle, which he should have relinquished to Bertilak.
• Sir Gawain believes the green girdle will prevent his beheading, and it does.
• But then Bertilak reveals himself - Bertilak IS the Green Knight! Surprised?? 
• Bertilak tells Sir Gawain that Morgan le Fey came up with the idea of the game and the bestowing of the green girdle to test King Arthur's knight(s). 
• Sir Gawain is ashamed that although he didn't succumb to the seduction, he did fail the test of bravery, and loved his own life more than loyalty and honesty.
• "Accursed be a cowardly and covetous heart," Sir Gawain exclaims. Lord Bertilak tells Sir Gawain now that his failings are made known, he holds him "polished as a pearl, as pure and as bright as you had lived free of fault since first you were born" (Boroff).
• When Sir Gawain returns to King Arthur's Court in humility, claiming "this is the blazon of the blemish that I bear on my neck," King Arthur comforts Sir Gawain, and insists all the knights wear a "belt of bright green" in solidarity.

The Order of the Garter -- to which the green girdle relates-- was established in 1348 and is still active today in England, comprised of the Sovereign (king or queen), the Prince of Wales, and 24 other royal and high-ranking members! The motto is "shame on him who thinks ill of it."

Next week we will plumb the depths of the poem and cull out the themes, lessons, and treasures therein!

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Works Cited

Borroff, Marie, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1967. e-book. 14 February 2019. 

"Imagined Book Promotion:  "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"" by Ken Whytock is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0