Poetic Knight
Refusing to fight anyone there on the grounds that they are all too weak to take him on, he insists he has come for a friendly "Christmas game": Arthur himself is prepared to accept the challenge when it appears no other knight will dare, but Sir Gawain, youngest of Arthur's knights and his nephew, begs for the honour instead. The giant bends and bares his neck before him and Gawain neatly beheads him in one stroke. However, the Green Knight neither falls nor falters, but instead reaches out, picks up his severed head and remounts, holding up his bleeding head to Queen Guinevere while its writhing lips remind Gawain that the two must meet again at the Green Chapel.
My Queen I Am Your Knight - Poem by Poetic Judy Emery
He then rides away. Gawain and Arthur admire the axe, hang it up as a trophy and encourage Guinevere to treat the whole matter lightly. As the date approaches, Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Chapel and keep his side of the bargain. Many adventures and battles are alluded to but not described until Gawain comes across a splendid castle where he meets Bertilak de Hautdesert, the lord of the castle, and his beautiful wife, who are pleased to have such a renowned guest. Also present is an old and ugly lady, unnamed but treated with great honour by all.
Gawain tells them of his New Year's appointment at the Green Chapel and that he only has a few days remaining. Bertilak laughs, explains that the start of the path that will take him to the Green Chapel is less than two miles away and proposes that Gawain rest at the castle till then.
Relieved and grateful, Gawain agrees. Before going hunting the next day Bertilak proposes a bargain: After Bertilak leaves, Lady Bertilak visits Gawain's bedroom and behaves seductively, but despite her best efforts he yields nothing but a single kiss in his unwillingness to offend her. When Bertilak returns and gives Gawain the deer he has killed, his guest gives a kiss to Bertilak without divulging its source. The next day the lady comes again, Gawain again courteously foils her advances, and later that day there is a similar exchange of a hunted boar for two kisses.
She comes once more on the third morning, this time offering Gawain a gold ring as a keepsake. He gently but steadfastly refuses but she pleads that he at least take her belt, a girdle of green and gold silk which, the lady assures him, is charmed and will keep him from all physical harm. Tempted, as he may otherwise die the next day, Gawain accepts it, and they exchange three kisses. That evening, Bertilak returns with a fox, which he exchanges with Gawain for the three kisses — but Gawain says nothing of the girdle. The next day, Gawain binds the belt twice around his waist.
He finds the Green Knight sharpening an axe and, as promised, Gawain bends his bared neck to receive his blow. At the first swing Gawain flinches slightly and the Green Knight belittles him for it. The knight explains he was testing Gawain's nerve. Angrily Gawain tells him to deliver his blow and so the knight does, causing only a slight wound on Gawain's neck. The game is over. Gawain seizes his sword, helmet and shield, but the Green Knight, laughing, reveals himself to be the lord of the castle, Bertilak de Hautdesert, transformed by magic.
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He explains that the entire adventure was a trick of the 'elderly lady' Gawain saw at the castle, who is actually the sorceress Morgan le Fay , Arthur's sister, who intended to test Arthur's knights and frighten Guinevere to death. The two part on cordial terms.
Gawain returns to Camelot wearing the girdle as a token of his failure to keep his promise. The Knights of the Round Table absolve him of blame and decide that henceforth that they will wear a green sash in recognition of Gawain's adventure and as a reminder to be always honest. Though the real name of "The Gawain Poet" or poets is unknown, some inferences about him can be drawn from an informed reading of his works.
The manuscript of Gawain is known in academic circles as Cotton Nero A. Even then, the Gawain poem was not published in its entirety until However, the manuscript containing these poems was transcribed by a copyist and not by the original poet.
Etheridge Knight's Life and Career
Although nothing explicitly suggests that all four poems are by the same poet, comparative analysis of dialect, verse form, and diction have pointed towards single authorship. What is known today about the poet is largely general. Gordon , after reviewing the text's allusions, style, and themes, concluded in He was a man of serious and devout mind, though not without humour; he had an interest in theology, and some knowledge of it, though an amateur knowledge perhaps, rather than a professional; he had Latin and French and was well enough read in French books, both romantic and instructive; but his home was in the West Midlands of England; so much his language shows, and his metre, and his scenery.
The most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire. Erkenwald , which some scholars argue bears stylistic similarities to Gawain. Erkenwald , however, has been dated by some scholars to a time outside the Gawain Poet's era. Thus, ascribing authorship to John Massey is still controversial and most critics consider the Gawain Poet an unknown.
The 2, lines and stanzas that make up Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are written in what linguists call the " Alliterative Revival " style typical of the 14th century. Instead of focusing on a metrical syllabic count and rhyme , the alliterative form of this period usually relied on the agreement of a pair of stressed syllables at the beginning of the line and another pair at the end.
Each line always includes a pause, called a caesura , at some point after the first two stresses, dividing it into two half-lines. Although he largely follows the form of his day, the Gawain poet was somewhat freer with convention than his or her predecessors. The poet broke the alliterative lines into variable-length groups and ended these nominal stanzas with a rhyming section of five lines known as the bob and wheel , in which the "bob" is a very short line, sometimes of only two syllables, followed by the "wheel," longer lines with internal rhyme.
SGGK lines — [13]. The earliest known story to feature a beheading game is the 8th-century Middle Irish tale Bricriu's Feast. A notable difference in this story is that Caradoc's challenger is his father in disguise, come to test his honour. Lancelot is given a beheading challenge in the early 13th-century Perlesvaus , in which a knight begs him to chop off his head or else put his own in jeopardy. Lancelot reluctantly cuts it off, agreeing to come to the same place in a year to put his head in the same danger.
When Lancelot arrives, the people of the town celebrate and announce that they have finally found a true knight, because many others had failed this test of chivalry. In Hunbaut, Gawain cuts off a man's head and, before he can replace it, removes the magic cloak keeping the man alive, thus killing him.
Several stories tell of knights who struggle to stave off the advances of voluptuous women sent by their lords as a test; these stories include Yder , the Lancelot-Grail , Hunbaut , and The Knight of the Sword. The last two involve Gawain specifically. Usually the temptress is the daughter or wife of a lord to whom the knight owes respect, and the knight is tested to see whether or not he will remain chaste in trying circumstances. In the first branch of the medieval Welsh collection of tales known as the The Four Branches of the Mabinogi , Pwyll exchanges places for a year with Arawn , the lord of Annwn the Otherworld.
Despite having his appearance changed to resemble Arawn exactly, Pwyll does not have sexual relations with Arawn's wife during this time, thus establishing a lasting friendship between the two men. This story may, then, provide a background to Gawain's attempts to resist the wife of the Green Knight; thus, the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight may be seen as a tale which combines elements of the Celtic beheading game and seduction test stories.
Additionally, in both stories a year passes before the completion of the conclusion of the challenge or exchange. Some scholars disagree with this interpretation, however, as Arawn seems to have accepted the notion that Pwyll may reciprocate with his wife, making it less of a "seduction test" per se, as seduction tests typically involve a Lord and Lady conspiring to seduce a knight, seemingly against the wishes of the Lord.
After the writing of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , several similar stories followed. The Greene Knight 15th—17th century is a rhymed retelling of nearly the same tale. Another story, The Turke and Gowin 15th century , begins with a Turk entering Arthur's court and asking, "Is there any will, as a brother, To give a buffett and take another? The Turk then praises Gawain and showers him with gifts. The Carle of Carlisle 17th century also resembles Gawain in a scene in which the Carle Churl , a lord, takes Sir Gawain to a chamber where two swords are hanging and orders Gawain to cut off his head or suffer his own to be cut off.
Unlike the Gawain poem, no return blow is demanded or given. At the heart of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the test of Gawain's adherence to the code of chivalry. The typical temptation fable of medieval literature presents a series of tribulations assembled as tests or "proofs" of moral virtue. The stories often describe several individuals' failures after which the main character is tested. Gawain's ability to pass the tests of his host are of utmost importance to his survival, though he does not know it. It is only by fortuity or "instinctive-courtesy" that Sir Gawain is able to pass his test.
The knight 's code of honour requires him to do whatever a damsel asks. Gawain must accept the girdle from the Lady, but he must also keep the promise he has made to his host that he will give whatever he gains that day. Gawain chooses to keep the girdle out of fear of death, thus breaking his promise to the host but honouring the lady. Upon learning that the Green Knight is actually his host Bertilak , he realises that although he has completed his quest, he has failed to be virtuous. This test demonstrates the conflict between honour and knightly duties.
In breaking his promise, Gawain believes he has lost his honour and failed in his duties. Scholars have frequently noted the parallels between the three hunting scenes and the three seduction scenes in Gawain. They are generally agreed that the fox chase has significant parallels to the third seduction scene, in which Gawain accepts the girdle from Bertilak's wife. Gawain, like the fox, fears for his life and is looking for a way to avoid death from the Green Knight's axe. Like his counterpart, he resorts to trickery in order to save his skin. The fox uses tactics so unlike the first two animals, and so unexpectedly, that Bertilak has the hardest time hunting it.
Similarly, Gawain finds the Lady's advances in the third seduction scene more unpredictable and challenging to resist than her previous attempts. She changes her evasive language, typical of courtly love relationships, to a more assertive style. Her dress, relatively modest in earlier scenes, is suddenly voluptuous and revealing. The deer- and boar-hunting scenes are less clearly connected, although scholars have attempted to link each animal to Gawain's reactions in the parallel seduction scene. Attempts to connect the deer hunt with the first seduction scene have unearthed a few parallels.
Deer hunts of the time, like courtship, had to be done according to established rules. Women often favoured suitors who hunted well and skinned their animals, sometimes even watching while a deer was cleaned. The first seduction scene follows in a similar vein, with no overt physical advances and no apparent danger; the entire exchange is humorously portrayed.
The boar-hunting scene is, in contrast, laden with detail. Boars were and are much more difficult to hunt than deer; approaching one with only a sword was akin to challenging a knight to single combat. In the hunting sequence, the boar flees but is cornered before a ravine. He turns to face Bertilak with his back to the ravine, prepared to fight. Bertilak dismounts and in the ensuing fight kills the boar.
He removes its head and displays it on a pike. In the seduction scene, Bertilak's wife, like the boar, is more forward, insisting that Gawain has a romantic reputation and that he must not disappoint her. Gawain, however, is successful in parrying her attacks, saying that surely she knows more than he about love. Both the boar hunt and the seduction scene can be seen as depictions of a moral victory: The theme of masculinity is present throughout. In an article by Vern L.
Bullough, "Being a Male in the Middle Ages," he discusses Sir Gawain and how normally, masculinity is often viewed in terms of being sexually active. He notes that Sir Gawain is not part of this normalcy. Some argue that nature represents a chaotic, lawless order which is in direct confrontation with the civilisation of Camelot throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Nature invades and disrupts order in the major events of the narrative, both symbolically and through the inner nature of humanity.
Represented by the sin -stained girdle, nature is an underlying force, forever within man and keeping him imperfect in a chivalric sense. Several critics have made exactly the opposite interpretation, reading the poem as a comic critique of the Christianity of the time, particularly as embodied in the Christian chivalry of Arthur's court. In its zeal to extirpate all traces of paganism, Christianity had cut itself off from the sources of life in nature and the female. The green girdle represents all the pentangle lacks. The Arthurian enterprise is doomed unless it can acknowledge the unattainability of the ideals of the Round Table, and, for the sake of realism and wholeness, recognize and incorporate the pagan values represented by the Green Knight.
The chivalry that is represented within 'Gawain' is one which was constructed by court nobility. The violence that is part of this chivalry is steeply contrasted by the fact that King Arthur's court is Christian and the initial beheading event takes place while celebrating Christmas. The violence of an act of beheading seems to be counterintuitive to chivalric and Christian ideals, and yet it is seen as part of knighthood. The question of politeness and chivalry is a main theme during Gawain's interactions with Bertilak's wife. He cannot accept her advances or else lose his honour, and yet he cannot utterly refuse her advances or else risk upsetting his hostess.
Gawain plays a very fine line and the only part where he appears to fail is when he conceals the green girdle from Bertilak. The word gomen game is found 18 times in Gawain. Its similarity to the word gome man , which appears 21 times, has led some scholars to see men and games as centrally linked. Games at this time were seen as tests of worthiness, as when the Green Knight challenges the court's right to its good name in a "Christmas game". If a man received a gift, he was obliged to provide the giver with a better gift or risk losing his honour, almost like an exchange of blows in a fight or in a "beheading game".
These appear at first to be unconnected. However, a victory in the first game will lead to a victory in the second. Elements of both games appear in other stories; however, the linkage of outcomes is unique to Gawain. Times, dates, seasons, and cycles within Gawain are often noted by scholars because of their symbolic nature. Furthermore, the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in "a year and a day"—a period of time seen often in medieval literature. Such a theme is strengthened by the image of Troy , a powerful nation once thought to be invincible which, according to the Aeneid , fell to the Greeks due to pride and ignorance.
The Trojan connection shows itself in the presence of two virtually identical descriptions of Troy's destruction. The poem's first line reads: The entire 'Gawain' poem follows one individual experiencing highly emotional situations. He participates in the beheading contest, watches as a man he has beheaded walks away unscathed, prepares for a journey where he will then also receive a blow that will behead him, is tempted by the sexual advances of Sir Bertilak's wife, decides what to do with the moral conundrum that is the girdle, suffering humiliation, and returning to court to retell his entire adventure.
Humans experience an emotional contagion, which was defined by psychologists Elaine Hatfield, John Cacioppo, and Richard Rapson as 'the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person, and, consequently, to converge emotionally.
Given the varied and even contradictory interpretations of the colour green, its precise meaning in the poem remains ambiguous. In English folklore and literature, green was traditionally used to symbolise nature and its associated attributes: Stories of the medieval period also used it to allude to love and the base desires of man.
It can also represent decay and toxicity.
Scholars have puzzled over the Green Knight's symbolism since the discovery of the poem. Lewis said the character was "as vivid and concrete as any image in literature" and J. Tolkien said he was the "most difficult character" to interpret in Sir Gawain. His major role in Arthurian literature is that of a judge and tester of knights, thus he is at once terrifying, friendly, and mysterious. However, there is a possibility, as Alice Buchanan has argued, that the colour green is erroneously attributed to the Green Knight due to the poet's mistranslation or misunderstanding of the Irish word glas , which could either mean grey or green.
In the Death of Curoi one of the Irish stories from Bricriu's Feast , Curoi stands in for Bertilak, and is often called "the man of the grey mantle". Though the words usually used for grey in the Death of Curoi are lachtna or odar , roughly meaning milk-coloured and shadowy respectively, in later works featuring a green knight, the word glas is used and may have been the basis of misunderstanding. The girdle's symbolic meaning, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , has been construed in a variety of ways. Interpretations range from sexual in nature to spiritual. Those who argue for the sexual inference view the girdle as a "trophy".
Sir Gawain or Lady Bertilak. The girdle is given to Gawain by Lady Bertilak in order to keep him safe when he confronts the Green Knight. When Lord Bertilak returns home from his hunting trip, Gawain does not reveal the girdle to his host but, instead, hides it. In Sir Gawain , the easier choice is the girdle, which promises what Gawain most desires. It is arguably best to view the girdle not as an either—or situation, but as a complex, multi-faceted symbol that acts to test Gawain in more ways than one.
Poetic Judy Emery
Gawain is operating under the laws of chivalry which, evidently, have rules that can contradict each other. In the story of Sir Gawain , Gawain finds himself torn between doing what a damsel asks accepting the girdle and keeping his promise returning anything given to him while his host is away. The poem contains the first recorded use of the word pentangle in English [52] It contains the only representation of such a symbol on Gawain's shield in the Gawain literature. What is more, the poet uses a total of 46 lines in order to describe the meaning of the pentangle; no other symbol in the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail.
From lines to , the five points of the pentangle relate directly to Gawain in five ways: In line , it is described as "a sign by Solomon". Solomon , the third king of Israel , in the 10th century BC, was said to have the mark of the pentagram on his ring, which he received from the archangel Michael. The pentagram seal on this ring was said to give Solomon power over demons.
Along these lines, some academics link the Gawain pentangle to magical traditions. However, concrete evidence tying the magical pentagram to Gawain's pentangle is scarce. In medieval number theory, the number five is considered a "circular number", since it "reproduces itself in its last digit when raised to its powers". Gawain's refusal of the Lady Bertilak's ring has major implications for the remainder of the story.
While the modern student may tend to pay more attention to the girdle as the eminent object offered by the lady, readers in the time of Gawain would have noticed the significance of the offer of the ring as they believed that rings, and especially the embedded gems, had talismanic properties similarly done by the Gawain-poet in Pearl. The poet highlights number symbolism to add symmetry and meaning to the poem. For example, three kisses are exchanged between Gawain and Bertilak's wife; Gawain is tempted by her on three separate days; Bertilak goes hunting three times, and the Green Knight swings at Gawain three times with his axe.
The number two also appears repeatedly, as in the two beheading scenes, two confession scenes, and two castles. The fifth five is Gawain himself, who embodies the five moral virtues of the code of chivalry: The number five is also found in the structure of the poem itself. These divisions, however, have since been disputed; scholars have begun to believe that they are the work of the copyist and not of the poet. The surviving manuscript features a series of capital letters added after the fact by another scribe, and some scholars argue that these additions were an attempt to restore the original divisions.
These letters divide the manuscript into nine parts. The second and second-to-last parts are only one stanza long, and the middle five parts are eleven stanzas long. The number eleven is associated with transgression in other medieval literature being one more than ten, a number associated with the Ten Commandments. Thus, this set of five elevens 55 stanzas creates the perfect mix of transgression and incorruption, suggesting that Gawain is faultless in his faults.
At the story's climax, Gawain is wounded superficially in the neck by the Green Knight's axe. During the medieval period, the body and the soul were believed to be so intimately connected that wounds were considered an outward sign of inward sin. The neck, specifically, was believed to correlate with the part of the soul related to will , connecting the reasoning part the head and the courageous part the heart.
Gawain's sin resulted from using his will to separate reasoning from courage. By accepting the girdle from the lady, he employs reason to do something less than courageous—evade death in a dishonest way. Gawain's wound is thus an outward sign of an internal wound. The Green Knight's series of tests shows Gawain the weakness that has been in him all along: The Green Knight, by engaging with the greatest knight of Camelot, also reveals the moral weakness of pride in all of Camelot, and therefore all of humanity.
However, the wounds of Christ, believed to offer healing to wounded souls and bodies, are mentioned throughout the poem in the hope that this sin of prideful "stiffneckedness" will be healed among fallen mortals. Many critics argue that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be viewed, above all, as a romance. Medieval romances typically recount the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight , often of super-human ability, who abides by chivalry's strict codes of honour and demeanour, embarks upon a quest and defeats monsters, thereby winning the favour of a lady.
Thus, medieval romances focus not on love and sentiment as the term "romance" implies today , but on adventure. Alfred Lord Tennyson was my inspiration for this style: I know you're tired and sick. I feel sorry I'm not there to relieve you. I know you're strong and you can handle yourself like you always do. But baby you are like a princess to me.
And I am a knight willing to risk his life just for you to be alright. But right now I can do nothing. It feels bad that I'm too far when you need a hug. It feels bad when you need food but I can't provide. Oh how I wish I can be the knight Whose always there When you need him most. But how can I do that If you wont let me?