Explorations in Arthurian Legends

A Literature Review

Part 5: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Gawain is best known for his adventure with the Green Knight. In this famous tale, Gawain is a devout but humanly imperfect Christian who wins a test of arms, resists temptation by a lord's wife, but succumbs to an offer of invulnerability. The poem has 2,500 alliterative lines that are broken up into irregular stanzas by short rhyming passages. The story is basically this: Gawain and other knights are in attendance at Arthur's court on New Year's Day. Arthur, as is his custom, refuses to eat until he has seen some marvel. A mysterious man appears and issues a challenge: One man may strike him one blow with an axe. If he survives, he will expect the knight who struck the blow to afford him the same chance in a year's time. Gawain takes up the challenge and beheads the man. The man grabs his head, laughs, and tells Gawain to fulfill his part of the bargain. The Green Knight leaves the axe as a memento and a sharp reminder of Gawain's promise: He must go to the Green Chapel in a year and a receive a blow just like the one he gave the Green Knight. Not to be thought cowardly or vulnerable, Gawain agrees.

Fast forward to the following December:

Gawain reaches a splendid castle (as if by chance) at Christmas; he is entertained for a few days by the castle lord, his ravishing wife, and a mysterious black-shrouded older woman. The host tells Gawain that the Green Chapel is just around the corner and further invites him to stay the last three days of the year in the castle. Ever gracious, Gawain accepts. The castle lord proposes a game: He and Gawain will each share with the other what they have gained at the end of a day. For the lord, this is game that he has hunted and killed; for Gawain, it is kisses that he has received from the lord's lady, who has tried to seduce him while her lord is away. She also gives him a talisman-laden green girdle, which he does not give up. The next day, the first of the new year, Gawain and a guide from the castle set out for the Green Chapel. The guide tries to dissuade Gawain from fulfilling his part of the bargain by boasting of the Green Knight's fearsome deeds, but Gawain will not be swayed. At the Green Chapel, the Green Knight appears and swings the axe three times: The first two are feints, and the third nicks Gawain slightly. The Green Knight then explains that he was Sir Bertilak, the lord of the castle where Gawain had stayed, and that he had deliberately set his wife to tempt Gawain and that the third knick was for the green girdle, which Gawain had not revealed. The Green Knight further reveals that the black-shrouded older woman at the castle was Morgan Le Fay, whose idea the whole challenge was. She, it seems, was trying to stir up trouble.

Gawain returns to Arthur's court, the knights rejoice to see him alive, and they all wear green girdles in his honor.

This poem is largely regarded as the finest of its kind. Preserved in the same manuscript with the Green Knight tale were three other poems: Patience, Purity, and Pearl. The author of these four tales is frequently referred to as the "Pearl Poet."

We have seen the restrained love and earthly deeds of knights in early English works, followed by the flowering of romance in French and German works; we have seen one of Arthur's greatest knights, Gawain, have one of Camelot's greatest adventures. The path is made clear for Sir Thomas Malory.

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