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!

______________________________________________________________________________

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