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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

January 25, 2023

For the 1973 film adaptation, see Gawain and the Green Knight (film). For the 2021 film adaptation, see The Green Knight (film).

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel;[1] it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
First page of only surviving manuscript, c. 14th century
Author(s)Gawain Poet (anonymous)
LanguageMiddle English, North West Midlands dialect
Datelate 14th century
ProvenanceHenry Savile, Yorkshire
Seriestogether with Pearl, Cleanness and Patience
Manuscript(s)Cotton Nero A.x.
First printed edition1839 by Sir Frederic Madden
GenreNarrative poem, chivalric romance, Arthurian and alliterative verse
Verse formAlliterative Revival with bob and wheel
Length101 stanzas, 2530 lines
SubjectKing Arthur's Court, testing morality
SettingNorth Wales, West Midlands, Peak District
PersonagesSir Gawain, The Green Knight/Bertilak de Hautdesert, Lady Bertilak, Morgan le Fay, King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table
TextSir Gawain and the Green Knight at Wikisource

The story describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him, at which point, the Green Knight stands, picks up his head, and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain, Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving the lord and the lady of the castle at which he is a guest. The poem survives in one manuscript, Cotton Nero A.x., which also includes three religious narrative poems: Pearl, Cleanness, and Patience. All four are written in a North West Midlands dialect of Middle English, and are thought to have been written by the same author, dubbed the "Pearl Poet" or "Gawain Poet".

Synopsis

 
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (from original manuscript, artist unknown)

In Camelot on New Year's Eve, King Arthur's court is exchanging gifts and waiting for the feasting to start, when the king asks to see or hear of an exciting adventure. A gigantic figure, entirely green in appearance and riding a green horse, rides unexpectedly into the hall. He wears no armour but bears an axe in one hand and a holly bough in the other. Refusing to fight anyone there on the grounds that they are all too weak, he insists he has come for a friendly Christmas game: someone is to strike him once with his axe, on the condition that the Green Knight may return the blow in a year and a day.[a] The axe will belong to whoever accepts this deal. King Arthur 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, asks 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 mounts his horse. The Green Knight shows his bleeding head to Queen Guinevere, while it reminds Gawain that the two must meet again at the Green Chapel in a year and a day, before the knight 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 leaves to find the Green Chapel and keep his part of the bargain. Many adventures and battles are alluded to but not described, until Gawain comes across a splendid castle, where he meets 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 has only a few days remaining. The lord laughs, explaining that there is a path that will take him to the chapel less than two miles away, and proposes that Gawain rest at the castle until then. Relieved and grateful, Gawain agrees.

The lord proposes a bargain to Gawain: he goes hunting every day, and he will give Gawain whatever he catches, on the condition that Gawain give him whatever he may gain during the day; Gawain accepts. After he leaves, his wife visits Gawain's bedroom and behaves seductively, but despite her best efforts he allows her nothing but a single kiss. When the lord returns and gives Gawain the deer he has killed, Gawain gives a kiss to him without divulging its source. The next day the lady returns to Gawain, who 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, but once her advances are denied, she offers Gawain a gold ring as a keepsake. He gently but steadfastly refuses, but she pleads that he at least take her sash, a girdle of green and gold silk. The sash, 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. The lady has Gawain swear that he will keep the gift secret from her husband. That evening, the lord returns with a fox, which he exchanges with Gawain for the three kisses; Gawain does not mention the sash.

The next day, Gawain binds the sash around his waist. Outside the Green Chapel – only an earthen mound containing a cavern – he finds the Green Knight sharpening an axe. 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. Ashamed of himself, Gawain does not flinch with the second swing, but again, the Green Knight withholds the full force of his blow. 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, and ending the game. Gawain seizes his sword, helmet, and shield, but the Green Knight, laughing, reveals himself to be none other than the lord of the castle, Bertilak de Hautdesert, transformed by magic. He explains that the entire adventure was a trick of the unnamed "elderly lady" Gawain saw at the castle, who is the sorceress Morgan le Fay, Arthur's stepsister, who intended to test Arthur's knights and frighten Guinevere to death.[3] The nick Gawain suffered at the third stroke was because of his attempt to conceal the gift of the sash. Gawain is ashamed to have behaved deceitfully, but the Green Knight laughs and pronounces him the most blameless knight in all the land. The two part on cordial terms. Gawain returns to Camelot wearing the sash as a token of his failure to keep his promise. The Knights of the Round Table absolve him of the blame and decide that henceforth each will wear a green sash in recognition of Gawain's adventure and as a reminder to be honest.

"Gawain Poet"

Main article: Gawain Poet

Though the real name of the "Gawain Poet" (or poets) is unknown, some inferences about them can be drawn from an informed reading of their works. The manuscript of Gawain is known in academic circles as Cotton Nero A.x., following a naming system used by one of its owners, the 16th century Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, a collector of Medieval English texts.[4] Before the Gawain manuscript came into Cotton's possession, it was in the library of Henry Savile in Yorkshire.[5] Little is known about its previous ownership, and until 1824, when the manuscript was introduced to the academic community in a second edition of Thomas Warton's History, edited by Richard Price, it was almost entirely unknown. Even then, the Gawain poem was not published in its entirety until 1839, which is when it was given its present title.[6][7] Now held in the British Library, it has been dated to the late 14th century, meaning the poet was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales, though it is unlikely that they ever met, and the Gawain poet's English is considerably different from Chaucer's.[8] The three other works found in the same manuscript as Gawain (commonly known as Pearl, Patience, and Cleanness or Purity) are often considered to be written by the same author. However, the manuscript containing these poems was transcribed by a copyist and not by the original poet. 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.[9]

What is known today about the poet is general. As J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, after reviewing the text's allusions, style, and themes, concluded in 1925:

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.[10]

The most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire.[11] He is known to have lived in the dialect region of the Gawain Poet and is thought to have written the poem St. Erkenwald, which some scholars argue bears stylistic similarities to Gawain. St. 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.[9]

Verse form

The 2,530 lines and 101 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 follows the form of his day, the Gawain Poet was 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.[12]

lines 146–150[13]
Original Text Translation

(bob)
ful clene
(wheel)
for wonder of his hwe men hade
set in his semblaunt sene
he ferde as freke were fade
and oueral enker grene

       

(bob)
full clean.
(wheel)
Great wonder of the knight
Folk had in hall, I ween,
Full fierce he was to sight,
And over all bright green.

Similar stories

 
The legendary Irish figure Cúchulainn faced a trial similar to Gawain's (Cúchulain Slays the Hound of Culain by Stephen Reid, 1904).

The earliest known story to feature a beheading game is the 8th-century Middle Irish tale Bricriu's Feast. This story parallels Gawain in that, like the Green Knight, Cú Chulainn's antagonist feints three blows with the axe before letting his target depart without injury. A beheading exchange also appears in the late 12th-century Life of Caradoc, a Middle French narrative embedded in the anonymous First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail. 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.[14]

The stories The Girl with the Mule (alternately titled The Mule Without a Bridle) and Hunbaut [fr] feature Gawain in beheading game situations. 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 women sent by their lords as a test; these stories include Yder, the Lancelot-Grail, Hunbaut, and The Knight with 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.[14]

In the first branch of the medieval Welsh collection of tales known as 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.[15]

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.[16] In it, the plot is simplified, motives are more fully explained, and some names are changed. 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?"[17] At the end of this poem the Turk, rather than buffeting Gawain back, asks the knight to cut off his head, which Gawain does. 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.[18] Gawain obliges and strikes, but the Carle rises, laughing and unharmed. Unlike the Gawain poem, no return blow is demanded or given.[14][15]

Themes

Temptation and testing

 
Knights of Gawain's time were tested in their ability to balance the male-oriented chivalric code with the female-oriented rules of courtly love. (God Speed! – Edmund Blair Leighton 1900)

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.[19] Success in the proofs will often bring immunity or good fortune. 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 can pass his test.[20] Gawain does not realise, however, that these tests are all orchestrated by the lord, Bertilak de Hautdesert.[21] In addition to the laws of chivalry, Gawain must respect another set of laws concerning courtly love. 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.[22]

Hunting and seduction

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 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, modest in earlier scenes, is suddenly voluptuous and revealing.[23]

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.[23][24] The sequence describing the deer hunt is unspecific and nonviolent, with an air of relaxation and exhilaration. The first seduction scene follows in a similar vein, with no overt physical advances and no apparent danger; the entire exchange is humorously portrayed.[23]

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: both Gawain and Bertilak face struggles alone and emerge triumphant.[23] Masculinity has also been associated with hunting. 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.

Nature and chivalry

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. The green horse and rider that first invade Arthur's peaceful halls are iconic representations of nature's disturbance.[25] Nature is presented throughout the poem as rough and indifferent, constantly threatening the order of men and courtly life. Nature invades and disrupts order in the major events of the narrative, both symbolically and through the inner nature of humanity. This element appears first with the disruption caused by the Green Knight, later when Gawain must fight off his natural lust for Bertilak's wife, and again when Gawain breaks his vow to Bertilak by choosing to keep the green girdle, valuing survival over virtue. Represented by the sin-stained girdle, nature is an underlying force, forever within man and keeping him imperfect (in a chivalric sense).[26] In this view, Gawain is part of a wider conflict between nature and chivalry, an examination of the ability of man's order to overcome the chaos of nature.[27]

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, recognise and incorporate the pagan values represented by the Green Knight.[28]

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.[29]

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.[30]

Games

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".[31] The "game" of exchanging gifts was common in Germanic cultures. 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").[32] The poem revolves around two games: an exchange of beheading and an exchange of winnings. 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.[12][10]

Times and seasons

Times, dates, seasons, and cycles within Gawain are often noted by scholars because of their symbolic nature. The story starts on New Year's Eve with a beheading and culminates one year later on the next New Year's Day. Gawain leaves Camelot on All Saints Day and arrives at Bertilak's castle on Christmas Eve. Furthermore, the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in "a year and a day"—in other words, the next New Year's Day. Some scholars interpret the yearly cycles, each beginning and ending in winter, as the poet's attempt to convey the inevitable fall of all things good and noble in the world. 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 nearly identical descriptions of Troy's destruction. The poem's first line reads: "Since the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy" and the final stanzaic line (before the bob and wheel) is "After the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy".[33]

Symbolism

The Green Knight

Main article: Green Knight

Scholars have puzzled over the Green Knight's symbolism since the discovery of the poem. British medievalist C. S. Lewis said the character was "as vivid and concrete as any image in literature" and J. R. R. 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.[34] He appears in only two other poems: The Greene Knight and King Arthur and King Cornwall.[35][36] Scholars have attempted to connect him to other mythical characters, such as Jack in the green of English tradition and to Al-Khidr,[37] but no definitive connection has yet been established.[37][38]

He represents a mix of two traditional figures in romance and other medieval narratives: "the literary green man" and "the literary wild man."[39] The Green Knight challenges Gawain to rise to the ideals of honour and religious practices.[40] His name, the Green Knight, shows his opposition to nature: the colour green represents forces of nature, and the word "knight" connects him to society and civilisation.[41] While the Green Knight represents the primitive, and uncivilised side of man's nature, he also opposes nature as well.[41] The description of the Green Knight, which he shares with his green horse, shows the central idea of human nature's potential.[42]

The colour green

See also: Blue–green distinction in language § Celtic
 
In the 15th-century Saint Wolfgang and the Devil by Michael Pacher, the Devil is green. Poetic contemporaries such as Chaucer also drew connections between the colour green and the devil, leading scholars to draw similar connections in readings of the Green Knight.[43]

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: fertility and rebirth. Stories of the medieval period also used it to allude to love and the base desires of man.[44][45] Because of its connection with faeries and spirits in early English folklore, green also signified witchcraft, devilry and evil. It can also represent decay and toxicity.[46] When combined with gold, as with the Green Knight and the girdle, green was often seen as representing youth's passing.[47] In Celtic mythology, green was associated with misfortune and death, and therefore avoided in clothing.[34] The green girdle, originally worn for protection, became a symbol of shame and cowardice; it is finally adopted as a symbol of honour by the knights of Camelot, signifying a transformation from good to evil and back again; this displays both the spoiling and regenerative connotations of the colour green.[34]

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, or the identical word glas in Cornish. Glas has been used to denote a range of colours: light blues, greys, and greens of the sea and grass.

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" which corresponds to Welsh Brenin Llywd or Gwynn ap Nudd. 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.[48]

Girdle

For broader coverage of this topic, see Girdle § Girdle in literature.
 
Another famous Arthurian woman, The Lady of Shalott, with a medieval girdle around her waist (John William Waterhouse, 1888)

The girdle's symbolic meaning, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, has been construed in a variety of ways. Interpretations range from sexual to spiritual. Those who argue for the sexual inference view the girdle as a "trophy".[15] It is not entirely clear if the "winner" is Sir Gawain or the Lady, Bertilak's wife. The girdle is given to Gawain by the Lady to keep him safe when he confronts the Green Knight. When Bertilak comes home from his hunting trip, Gawain does not reveal the girdle to his host; instead, he hides it. This introduces a spiritual interpretation, that Gawain's acceptance of the girdle is a sign of his faltering faith in God, at least in the face of death.[49] To some, the Green Knight is Christ, who overcomes death, while Gawain is the Every Christian, who in his struggles to follow Christ faithfully, chooses the easier path. In Sir Gawain, the easier choice is the girdle, which promises what Gawain most desires. Faith in God, alternatively, requires one's acceptance that what one most desires does not always coincide with what God has planned. 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 many ways. While Gawain can resist Bertilak's wife's sexual advances, he is unable to resist the powers of the girdle. 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).[50]

Pentangle

The poem contains the first recorded use of the word pentangle in English.[51] 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 to describe the meaning of the pentangle; no other symbol in the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail.[52] The poem describes the pentangle as a symbol of faithfulness and an endeles knot (endless knot). From lines 640 to 654, the five points of the pentangle relate directly to Gawain in five ways: five senses, his five fingers, his faith found in the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary (whose face was on the inside of the shield) and finally friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness, and pity (traits that Gawain possessed around others). In line 625, it is described as a syngne þat salamon set (a sign set 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.[53]

Along these lines, some academics link the Gawain pentangle to magical traditions. In Germany, the symbol was called a Drudenfuß (nightmare spirit's foot) and was placed on household objects to keep out evil.[54] The symbol was also associated with magical charms that, if recited or written on a weapon, would call forth magical forces. However, concrete evidence tying the magical pentagram to Gawain's pentangle is scarce.[54][55]

Gawain's pentangle also symbolises the "phenomenon of physically endless objects signifying a temporally endless quality."[56] Many poets use the symbol of the circle to show infinity or endlessness, but Gawain's poet insisted on using something more complex. 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".[57] Furthermore, it replicates itself geometrically; that is, every pentangle has a smaller pentagon that allows a pentangle to be embedded in it and this "process may be repeated forever with decreasing pentangles".[57] Thus, by reproducing the number five, which in medieval number symbolism signified incorruptibility, Gawain's pentangle represents his eternal incorruptibility.[58]

The Lady's Ring

For broader coverage of this topic, see Magic ring § Medieval romance.

Gawain's refusal of the Lady'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 her, 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.[59] This is especially true of the Lady's ring, as scholars believe it to be a ruby or carbuncle, indicated when the Gawain-Poet describes it as a bryȝt sunne (fiery sun).[60][61][62] This red colour can be seen as symbolising royalty, divinity, and the Passion of the Christ, something that Gawain as a knight of the Round Table would strive for,[63] but this colour could also represent the negative qualities of temptation and covetousness.[64] Given the importance of magic rings in Arthurian romance, this remarkable ring would also have been believed to protect the wearer from harm just as the Lady claims the girdle will.[65]

Numbers

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.[66] The five points of the pentangle, the poet adds, represent Gawain's virtues, for he is for ay faythful in fyue and sere fyue syþez (faithful in five and many times five).[67] The poet goes on to list the ways in which Gawain is virtuous: all five of his senses are without fault; his five fingers never fail him, and he always remembers the five wounds of Christ, as well as the five joys of the Virgin Mary. The fifth five is Gawain himself, who embodies the five moral virtues of the code of chivalry: "friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety".[68] All of these virtues reside, as the poet says, in þe endeles knot (the endless knot) of the pentangle, which forever interlinks and is never broken.[69] This intimate relationship between symbol and faith allows for rigorous allegorical interpretation, especially in the physical role that the shield plays in Gawain's quest.[70] Thus, the poet makes Gawain the epitome of perfection in knighthood through number symbolism.[71]

The number five is also found in the structure of the poem itself. Sir Gawain is 101 stanzas long, traditionally organised into four 'fitts' of 21, 24, 34, and 22 stanzas. 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 first and last parts are 22 stanzas long. 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.[71]

Wounds

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 desire to use his will pridefully for personal gain, rather than submitting his will in humility to God. 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.[72][73]

Interpretations

Gawain as medieval romance

Further information: Chivalric romance
 
Gawain represented the perfect knight, as a fighter, a lover, and a religious devotee. (The Vigil by John Pettie, 1884)

Many critics argue that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be viewed 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.[74]

Gawain's function, as medieval scholar Alan Markman says, "is the function of the romance hero … to stand as the champion of the human race, and by submitting to strange and severe tests, to demonstrate human capabilities for good or bad action."[75] Through Gawain's adventure, it becomes clear that he is merely human. The reader becomes attached to this human view amidst the poem's romanticism, relating to Gawain's humanity while respecting his knightly qualities. Gawain "shows us what moral conduct is. We shall probably not equal his behaviour, but we admire him for pointing out the way."[75]

In viewing the poem as a medieval romance, many scholars see it as intertwining chivalric and courtly love laws under the English Order of the Garter. A slightly altered version of the Order's motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense", or "Shamed be he who finds evil here," has been added, in a different hand, at the end of the poem. Some critics describe Gawain's peers wearing girdles of their own as linked to the origin of the Order of the Garter. However, in the parallel poem The Greene Knight, the lace is white, not green, and is considered the origin of the collar worn by the Knights of the Bath, not the Order of the Garter.[76] Still, a possible connection to the Order is not beyond the realm of possibility.[77]

Christian interpretations

 
Scholars have pointed out parallels between the girdle Bertilak's wife offers Gawain, and the fruit Eve offered to Adam in the Biblical Garden of Eden. (Adam and Eve Lucas Cranach, ca. 1513)

The poem is in many ways deeply Christian, with frequent references to the fall of Adam and Eve and to Jesus Christ. Scholars have debated the depth of the Christian elements within the poem by looking at it in the context of the age in which it was written, coming up with varying views as to what represents a Christian element of the poem and what does not. For example, some critics compare Sir Gawain to the other three poems of the Gawain manuscript. Each has a heavily Christian theme, causing scholars to interpret Gawain similarly. Comparing it to the poem Cleanness (also known as Purity), for example, they see it as a story of the apocalyptic fall of a civilisation, in Gawain's case, Camelot. In this interpretation, Sir Gawain is like Noah, separated from his society and warned by the Green Knight (who is seen as God's representative) of the coming doom of Camelot. Gawain, judged worthy through his test, is spared the doom of the rest of Camelot. King Arthur and his knights, however, misunderstand Gawain's experience and wear garters themselves. In Cleanness the men who are saved are similarly helpless in warning their society of impending destruction.[33]

One of the key points stressed in this interpretation is that salvation is an individual experience difficult to communicate to outsiders. In his depiction of Camelot, the poet reveals a concern for his society, whose inevitable fall will bring about the ultimate destruction intended by God. Gawain was written around the time of the Black Death and Peasants' Revolt, events which convinced many people that their world was coming to an apocalyptic end and this belief was reflected in literature and culture.[33] However, other critics see weaknesses in this view, since the Green Knight is ultimately under the control of Morgan le Fay, often viewed as a figure of evil in Camelot tales. This makes the knight's presence as a representative of God problematic.[31]

While the character of the Green Knight is usually not viewed as a representation of Christ in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, critics do acknowledge a parallel. Lawrence Besserman, a specialist in medieval literature, explains that "the Green Knight is not a figurative representative of Christ. But the idea of Christ's divine/human nature provides a medieval conceptual framework that supports the poet's serious/comic account of the Green Knight's supernatural/human qualities and actions." This duality exemplifies the influence and importance of Christian teachings and views of Christ in the era of the Gawain Poet.[34]

Furthermore, critics note the Christian reference to Christ's crown of thorns at the conclusion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. After Gawain returns to Camelot and tells his story regarding the newly acquired green sash, the poem concludes with a brief prayer and a reference to "the thorn-crowned God".[78] Besserman theorises that "with these final words the poet redirects our attention from the circular girdle-turned-sash (a double image of Gawain's "vntrawþe/renoun":[79] untruth/renown) to the circular Crown of Thorns (a double image of Christ's humiliation turned triumph)."[34]

Throughout the poem, Gawain encounters numerous trials testing his devotion and faith in Christianity. When Gawain sets out on his journey to find the Green Chapel, he finds himself lost, and only after praying to the Virgin Mary does he find his way. As he continues his journey, Gawain once again faces anguish regarding his inevitable encounter with the Green Knight. Instead of praying to Mary, as before, Gawain places his faith in the girdle given to him by Bertilak's wife. From the Christian perspective, this leads to disastrous and embarrassing consequences for Gawain as he is forced to re-evaluate his faith when the Green Knight points out his betrayal.[80] Another interpretation sees the work in terms of the perfection of virtue, with the pentangle representing the moral perfection of the connected virtues, the Green Knight as Christ exhibiting perfect fortitude, and Gawain as slightly imperfect in fortitude by virtue of flinching when under the threat of death.[81]

An analogy is also made between Gawain's trial and the Biblical test that Adam encounters in the Garden of Eden. Adam succumbs to Eve just as Gawain surrenders to Bertilak's wife by accepting the girdle.[80] Although Gawain sins by putting his faith in the girdle and not confessing when he is caught, the Green Knight pardons him, thereby allowing him to become a better Christian by learning from his mistakes.[82] Through the various games played and hardships endured, Gawain finds his place within the Christian world.

Feminist interpretations

 
Lady Bertilak at Gawain's bed (from original manuscript, artist unknown)

Feminist literary critics see the poem as portraying women's ultimate power over men. Morgan le Fay and Bertilak's wife, for example, are the most powerful characters in the poem—Morgan especially, as she begins the game by enchanting the Green Knight. The girdle and Gawain's scar can be seen as symbols of feminine power, each of them diminishing Gawain's masculinity. Gawain's misogynist passage,[83] in which he blames all his troubles on women and lists the many men who have fallen prey to women's wiles, further supports the feminist view of ultimate female power in the poem.[84]

In contrast, others argue that the poem focuses mostly on the opinions, actions, and abilities of men. For example, on the surface, it appears that Bertilak's wife is a strong leading character.[85] By adopting the masculine role, she appears to be an empowered individual, particularly in the bedroom scene. This is not entirely the case, however. While the Lady is being forward and outgoing, Gawain's feelings and emotions are the focus of the story, and Gawain stands to gain or lose the most.[86] The Lady "makes the first move", so to speak, but Gawain decides what is to become of those actions. He, therefore, is in charge of the situation and even the relationship.[86]

In the bedroom scene, both the negative and positive actions of the Lady are motivated by her desire.[40] Her feelings cause her to step out of the typical female role and into that of the male, thus becoming more empowered.[40] At the same time, those same actions make the Lady appear adulterous; some scholars compare her with Eve in the Bible.[87] By convincing Gawain to take her girdle, i.e., the apple, the pact made with Bertilak—and therefore the Green Knight—is broken.[88] Based on this, Gawain portrays himself, in what is often called his "antifeminist diatribe" later on, as a "good man seduced".[88]

Postcolonial interpretations

From 1350 to 1400—the period in which the poem is thought to have been written—Wales experienced several raids at the hands of the English, who were attempting to colonise the area. The Gawain poet uses a North West Midlands dialect common on the Welsh–English border, potentially placing him in the midst of this conflict. Patricia Clare Ingham is credited with first viewing the poem through the lens of postcolonialism, and since then a great deal of dispute has emerged over the extent to which colonial differences play a role in the poem. Most critics agree that gender plays a role but differ about whether gender supports the colonial ideals or replaces them as English and Welsh cultures interact in the poem.[89]

A large amount of critical debate also surrounds the poem as it relates to the bi-cultural political landscape of the time. Some argue that Bertilak is an example of the hybrid Anglo-Welsh culture found on the Welsh–English border. They therefore view the poem as a reflection of a hybrid culture that plays strong cultures off one another to create a new set of cultural rules and traditions. Other scholars, however, argue that historically much Welsh blood was shed well into the 14th century, creating a situation far removed from the more friendly hybridisation suggested by Ingham. To support this argument further, it is suggested that the poem creates an "us versus them" scenario contrasting the knowledgeable civilised English with the uncivilised borderlands that are home to Bertilak and the other monsters that Gawain encounters.[89]

In contrast to this perception of the colonial lands, others argue that the land of Hautdesert, Bertilak's territory, has been misrepresented or ignored in modern criticism. They suggest that it is a land with its own moral agency, one that plays a central role in the story. Bonnie Lander, for example, argues that the denizens of Hautdesert are "intelligently immoral", choosing to follow certain codes and rejecting others, a position which creates a "distinction … of moral insight versus moral faith". Lander thinks that the border dwellers are more sophisticated because they do not unthinkingly embrace the chivalric codes but challenge them in a philosophical, and—in the case of Bertilak's appearance at Arthur's court—literal sense. Lander's argument about the superiority of the denizens of Hautdesert hinges on the lack of self-awareness present in Camelot, which leads to an unthinking populace that frowns on individualism. In this view, it is not Bertilak and his people, but Arthur and his court, who are the monsters.[90]

Gawain's journey

 
Lud's Church

Several scholars have attempted to find a real-world correspondence for Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel. The Anglesey islands, for example, are mentioned in the poem. They exist today as a single island off the coast of Wales.[91] In line 700, Gawain is said to pass the holy hede (Holy Head), believed by many scholars to be either Holywell or the Cistercian abbey of Poulton in Pulford. Holywell is associated with the beheading of Saint Winifred. As the story goes, Winifred was a virgin who was beheaded by a local leader after she refused his sexual advances. Her uncle, another saint, put her head back in place and healed the wound, leaving only a white scar. The parallels between this story and Gawain's make this area a likely candidate for the journey.[92]

Gawain's trek leads him directly into the centre of the Pearl Poet's dialect region, where the candidates for the locations of the Castle at Hautdesert and the Green Chapel stand. Hautdesert is thought to be in the area of Swythamley in northwest Midland, as it lies in the writer's dialect area and matches the topographical features described in the poem. The area is also known to have housed all of the animals hunted by Bertilak (deer, boar, fox) in the 14th century.[93] The Green Chapel is thought to be in either Lud's Church or Wetton Mill, as these areas closely match the descriptions given by the author.[94] Ralph Elliott located the chapel two myle henne[95] (two miles hence) from the old manor house at Swythamley Park at þe boþem of þe brem valay[96] (the bottom of a valley) on a hillside (loke a littel on þe launde on þi lyfte honde[97]) in an enormous fissure (an olde caue / or a creuisse of an olde cragge).[98][99] Several have tried to replicate this expedition and others such as Michael W. Twomey have created a virtual tour of Gawain's journey entitled 'Travels with Sir Gawain'[100] that include photographs of landscapes mentioned and particular views mentioned in the text.[101]

Homoerotic interpretations

According to Queer scholar Richard Zeikowitz, the Green Knight represents a threat to homosocial friendship in his medieval world. Zeikowitz argues that the narrator of the poem seems entranced by the Knight's beauty, homoeroticising him in poetic form. The Green Knight's attractiveness challenges the homosocial rules of King Arthur's court and poses a threat to their way of life. Zeikowitz also states that Gawain seems to find Bertilak as attractive as the narrator finds the Green Knight. Bertilak, however, follows the homosocial code and develops a friendship with Gawain. Gawain's embracing and kissing Bertilak in several scenes thus represents not a homosexual but a homosocial expression. Men of the time often embraced and kissed, and this was acceptable under the chivalric code. Nonetheless, Zeikowitz claims the Green Knight blurs the lines between homosociality and homosexuality, representing the difficulty medieval writers sometimes had in separating the two.[102]

Queer scholar Carolyn Dinshaw argues that the poem may have been a response to accusations that Richard II had a male lover—an attempt to re-establish the idea that heterosexuality was the Christian norm. Around the time the poem was written, the Catholic Church was beginning to express concerns about kissing between males. Many religious figures were trying to make the distinction between strong trust and friendship between males and homosexuality. She asserts that the Pearl Poet seems to have been simultaneously entranced and repulsed by homosexual desire. According to Dinshaw, in his other poem Cleanness, he points out several grievous sins, but spends lengthy passages describing them in minute detail, and she sees this alleged' obsession' as carrying over to Gawain in his descriptions of the Green Knight.[103]

Beyond this, Dinshaw proposes that Gawain can be read as a woman-like figure. In her view, he is the passive one in the advances of Bertilak's wife, as well as in his encounters with Bertilak himself, where he acts the part of a woman in kissing the man. However, while the poem does have homosexual elements, these elements are brought up by the poet to establish heterosexuality as the normal lifestyle of Gawain's world. The poem does this by making the kisses between the Lady and Gawain sexual in nature but rendering the kisses between Gawain and Bertilak "unintelligible" to the medieval reader. In other words, the poet portrays kisses between a man and a woman as having the possibility of leading to sex, while in a heterosexual world, kisses between a man and a man are portrayed as having no such possibility.[103]

Modern adaptations

Books

Though the surviving manuscript dates from the fourteenth century, the first published version of the poem did not appear until as late as 1839, when Sir Frederic Madden of the British Museum recognised the poem as worth reading.[104] Madden's scholarly, Middle English edition of the poem was followed in 1898 by the first Modern English translation – a prose version by literary scholar Jessie Weston.[104] In 1925, J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon published a scholarly edition of the Middle English text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a revised edition of this text was prepared by Norman Davis and published in 1967. The book, featuring a text in Middle English with extensive scholarly notes, is frequently confused with the translation into Modern English that Tolkien prepared, along with translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo, late in his life.[105] Many editions of the latter work, first published in 1975, shortly after his death, list Tolkien on the cover as author rather than translator.[106]

Many translations into Modern English are available. Notable translators include Jessie Weston, whose 1898 prose translation and 1907 poetic translation took many liberties with the original; Theodore Banks, whose 1929 translation was praised for its adaptation of the language to modern usage;[107] and Marie Borroff, whose imitative translation was first published in 1967 and "entered the academic canon" in 1968, in the second edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature. In 2010, her (slightly revised) translation was published as a Norton Critical Edition, with a foreword by Laura Howes.[108] In 2007, Simon Armitage, who grew up near the Gawain poet's purported residence, published a translation which attracted attention in the US and the United Kingdom,[109] and was published in the United States by Norton.[110]

Film and television

The poem has been adapted to film three times, twice by writer-director Stephen Weeks: first as Gawain and the Green Knight in 1973 and again in 1984 as Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, featuring Miles O'Keeffe as Gawain and Sean Connery as the Green Knight. Both films have been criticised for deviating from the poem's plot. Also, Bertilak and the Green Knight are never connected.[111] On 30 July 2021, The Green Knight was released, directed by American filmmaker David Lowery for A24 and starring Dev Patel as Gawain and Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight,[112] albeit with some significant deviations from the original story.[113]

There have been at least two television adaptations, Gawain and the Green Knight in 1991 and the animated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in 2002. The BBC broadcast a documentary presented by Simon Armitage in which the journey depicted in the poem is traced, using what are believed to be the actual locations.[114]

Theatre

The Tyneside Theatre company presented a stage version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at the University Theatre, Newcastle at Christmas 1971. It was directed by Michael Bogdanov and adapted for the stage from the translation by Brian Stone.[115] The music and lyrics were composed by Iwan Williams using medieval carols, such as the Boar's Head Carol, as inspiration and folk instruments such as the Northumbrian pipes, whistles and bhodran to create a "rough" feel. Stone had referred Bogdanov to Cuchulain and the Beheading Game, a sequence which is contained in the Grenoside Sword dance. Bogdanov found the pentangle theme to be contained in most sword dances, and so incorporated a long sword dance while Gawain lay tossing uneasily before getting up to go to the Green Chapel. The dancers made the knot of the pentangle around his drowsing head with their swords. The interlacing of the hunting and wooing scenes was achieved by frequent cutting of the action from hunt to bedchamber and back again, while the locale of both remained on-stage.

In 1992 Simon Corble created an adaptation with medieval songs and music for The Midsommer Actors' Company.[116] performed as walkabout productions in the summer 1992[117] at Thurstaston Common and Beeston Castle and in August 1995 at Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire.[118] Corble later wrote a substantially revised version which was produced indoors at the O'Reilly Theatre, Oxford in February 2014.[119][120]

Opera

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was first adapted as an opera in 1978 by the composer Richard Blackford on commission from the village of Blewbury, Oxfordshire. The libretto was written for the adaptation by the children's novelist John Emlyn Edwards. The "Opera in Six Scenes" was subsequently recorded by Decca between March and June 1979 and released on the Argo label[121] in November 1979.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was adapted into an opera called Gawain by Harrison Birtwistle, first performed in 1991. Birtwistle's opera was praised for maintaining the complexity of the poem while translating it into lyric, musical form.[122] Another operatic adaptation is Lynne Plowman's Gwyneth and the Green Knight, first performed in 2002. This opera uses Sir Gawain as the backdrop but refocuses the story on Gawain's female squire, Gwyneth, who is trying to become a knight. Plowman's version was praised for its approachability, as its target is the family audience and young children, but criticised for its use of modern language and occasional preachy nature.[123]

Notes

  1. ^ First found in English c. 1400, the phrasing of 'a year and a day' "specified in certain legal matters in order to ensure the completion of a full year": comparable terms date from slightly earlier in Middle Dutch, Middle Low German and Anglo-Norman.[2]

References

  1. ^ Simpson, James (2007). "A Note on Middle English Meter". Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A New Verse Translation. By Armitage, Simon. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06048-5.
  2. ^ From :"year, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2017. Web. 15 March 2017.
  3. ^ Masters of British Literature Volume A. Pearson Longman. 2008. pp. 200–201. ISBN 9780321333995.
  4. ^ "Web Resources for Pearl-poet Study: A Vetted Selection". Univ. of Calgary. Retrieved 1 April 2007.
  5. ^ Stanbury, Sarah (2001). "Introduction". In Stanbury, Sarah (ed.). Pearl. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications. ISBN 978-1580440332.
  6. ^ Turville-Petre, Thorlac (1977). The alliterative revival. Cambridge, Eng.: D.S. Brewer. pp. 126–129. ISBN 0-85991-019-9.
  7. ^ Burrow, J. A. (1971). Ricardian poetry : Chaucer, Gower, Langland, and the Gawain poet. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 0-7100-7031-4.
  8. ^ Black, Joseph, ed. (2006). The Broadview anthology of British literature: The Medieval Period. Vol. 1. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. p. 235. ISBN 1-55111-609-X.
  9. ^ a b Nelles, William (1958). "The Pearl Poet". In Magill, Frank Northern; Kohler, Dayton (eds.). Cyclopedia of World Authors (4 ed.). New York: Harper & Brothers.
  10. ^ a b Tolkien, J. R. R.; Gordon, E. V.; Davis, Norman, eds. (1967). "Introduction". Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2 ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. xv. ISBN 978-0-19-811486-4. OCLC 352281.
  11. ^ Peterson, Clifford J (1974). "The Pearl-Poet and John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire". The Review of English Studies. New Series. 25 (99): 257–266. doi:10.1093/res/xxv.99.257.
  12. ^ a b Greenblatt, Stephen, ed. (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. B: The Sixteenth Century/The Early Seventeenth Century (8 ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 19–e 21 and 160–161. ISBN 9780393927184.
  13. ^ "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto Libraries. 1 August 2002.
  14. ^ a b c Brewer, Elisabeth (1992). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : sources and analogues (1 ed.). Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: D.S. Brewer. ISBN 978-0859913591.
  15. ^ a b c Friedman, Albert B. (1 April 1960). "Morgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Speculum. 35 (2): 260–274. doi:10.2307/2851343. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2851343. S2CID 162199973.
  16. ^ Hahn, Thomas, ed. (1995). "The Greene Knight: Introduction". Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. ISBN 978-1-879288-59-1.
  17. ^ Hahn, Thomas, ed. (1995). "The Turke and Sir Gawain: Introduction". Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. ISBN 978-1-879288-59-1.
  18. ^ Hahn, Thomas, ed. (1995). "The Carle of Carlisle: Introduction". Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University. ISBN 978-1-879288-59-1.
  19. ^ Kittredge, George Lyman (1916). A study of Gawain and the Green Knight. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. p. 76. ISBN 9780674598973.
  20. ^ Kittredge 1916, p. 83.
  21. ^ "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo. Translated by Tolkien, J. R. R. London: Allen & Unwin. 1975. p. 92. ISBN 9780048210357.
  22. ^ Burrow, J. A. (1965). A reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 162. ISBN 0-7100-8695-4.
  23. ^ a b c d Burnley, J. D. (1973). "The Hunting Scenes in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' "". The Yearbook of English Studies. 3: 1–9. doi:10.2307/3506850. JSTOR 3506850.
  24. ^ Ong, Walter J. (December 1950). "The Green Knight's Harts and Bucks". Modern Language Notes. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 65 (8): 536–539. doi:10.2307/2909298. JSTOR 2909298. The harts (hertteʒ) and hinds (hindeʒ) first described in the poem are probably red deer, a species with large antlers like the American elk, while the subsequent bucks (bukkeʒ) and does (dos) likely refer to the smaller fallow deer. Roe deer are only referred to as "other deer" (oþer dere).
  25. ^ Cawley, A. C., ed. (1968). Pearl. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. London: Dent. OCLC 17520073. ...the Green Knight, alias Bertilak, is an immensely vital person who is closely associated with the life of nature: his greenness, the birds and flies of his decorative embroidery, his beard as great as a bush, the holly branch in his hand, the energy he displays as a huntsman-all give him kinship with the physical world outside the castle.
  26. ^ Woods, William F. (2002). "Nature and the Inner Man in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". The Chaucer Review. 36 (3): 209–227. doi:10.1353/cr.2002.0006. JSTOR 25096166.
  27. ^ Green, Richard Hamilton (1962). "Gawain's Shield and the Quest for Perfection". ELH. 29 (2): 121–139. doi:10.2307/2871851. ISSN 0013-8304. JSTOR 2871851.
  28. ^ This interpretation was first advanced by Speirs, John (1949). "Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight". Scrutiny. 16: 274–300. ISBN 9780521067928. (and later incorporated in Speirs, John (1957). "Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight". Medieval English Poetry: The Non-Chaucerian Tradition. London: Faber and Faber.). Similar interpretations were later offered:
    • Berry, Francis (1954). Ford, Boris (ed.). Volume I of the Pelican Guide to English Literature: The Age of Chaucer. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books. LCCN 60004556. OL 5793249M.
    • Goldhurst, William (November 1958). "The Green and the Gold: The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight". College English. 20 (2): 61–65. doi:10.2307/372161. JSTOR 372161.
    • Spearing, A. C. (1970). The Gwain-poet; a critical study. Cambridge [England] University Press. OCLC 125992.
    • Davenport, William Anthony (1978). The Art of the Gawain-poet. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 978-0-567-35802-8.
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External links

Online texts
  • High-resolution, full-sized scan of entire manuscript
  • "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto Libraries. 1 August 2002. Full original text and translation interspersed.
  • JRR Tolkien and EV Gordon's Edition
  •   Sir Gawain and the Green Knight public domain audiobook at LibriVox (various translations)
  • Сэр Гавэйн и Зеленый Рыцарь – Неизвестен [Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Unknown]. ЛитРес (in Russian). Russian translation
General information
  • The Gawain/Pearl Poet from the University of Calgary
  • The Camelot Project Info on Sir Gawain
  • Luminarium SGGK Website
  • Oxford Bibliographies: Bibliography on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • BBC documentary tour of locations thought to be found in the poem... Holywell, the River Mersey, the 'Wild Wirral', the Peak District, the Roaches, and Lud Chapel
  • BBC "In Our Time" podcast discussing the poem
  • Sir Gawain Introduction - Article introducing various translations and adaptations of Sir Gawain

January 25, 2023
gawain, green, knight, 1973, film, adaptation, gawain, green, knight, film, 2021, film, adaptation, green, knight, film, late, 14th, century, chivalric, romance, middle, english, author, unknown, title, given, centuries, later, best, known, arthurian, stories,. For the 1973 film adaptation see Gawain and the Green Knight film For the 2021 film adaptation see The Green Knight film Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th century chivalric romance in Middle English The author is unknown the title was given centuries later It is one of the best known Arthurian stories with its plot combining two types of folk motifs the beheading game and the exchange of winnings Written in stanzas of alliterative verse each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel 1 it draws on Welsh Irish and English stories as well as the French chivalric tradition It is an important example of a chivalric romance which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess It remains popular in modern English renderings from J R R Tolkien Simon Armitage and others as well as through film and stage adaptations Sir Gawain and the Green KnightFirst page of only surviving manuscript c 14th centuryAuthor s Gawain Poet anonymous LanguageMiddle English North West Midlands dialectDatelate 14th centuryProvenanceHenry Savile YorkshireSeriestogether with Pearl Cleanness and PatienceManuscript s Cotton Nero A x First printed edition1839 by Sir Frederic MaddenGenreNarrative poem chivalric romance Arthurian and alliterative verseVerse formAlliterative Revival with bob and wheelLength101 stanzas 2530 linesSubjectKing Arthur s Court testing moralitySettingNorth Wales West Midlands Peak DistrictPersonagesSir Gawain The Green Knight Bertilak de Hautdesert Lady Bertilak Morgan le Fay King Arthur Knights of the Round TableTextSir Gawain and the Green Knight at WikisourceThe story describes how Sir Gawain a knight of King Arthur s Round Table accepts a challenge from a mysterious Green Knight who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day Gawain accepts and beheads him at which point the Green Knight stands picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time In his struggles to keep his bargain Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving the lord and the lady of the castle at which he is a guest The poem survives in one manuscript Cotton Nero A x which also includes three religious narrative poems Pearl Cleanness and Patience All four are written in a North West Midlands dialect of Middle English and are thought to have been written by the same author dubbed the Pearl Poet or Gawain Poet Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Gawain Poet 3 Verse form 4 Similar stories 5 Themes 5 1 Temptation and testing 5 2 Hunting and seduction 5 3 Nature and chivalry 5 4 Games 5 5 Times and seasons 6 Symbolism 6 1 The Green Knight 6 2 The colour green 6 3 Girdle 6 4 Pentangle 6 5 The Lady s Ring 6 6 Numbers 6 7 Wounds 7 Interpretations 7 1 Gawain as medieval romance 7 2 Christian interpretations 7 3 Feminist interpretations 7 4 Postcolonial interpretations 7 5 Gawain s journey 7 6 Homoerotic interpretations 8 Modern adaptations 8 1 Books 8 2 Film and television 8 3 Theatre 8 4 Opera 9 Notes 10 References 11 External linksSynopsis Edit Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from original manuscript artist unknown In Camelot on New Year s Eve King Arthur s court is exchanging gifts and waiting for the feasting to start when the king asks to see or hear of an exciting adventure A gigantic figure entirely green in appearance and riding a green horse rides unexpectedly into the hall He wears no armour but bears an axe in one hand and a holly bough in the other Refusing to fight anyone there on the grounds that they are all too weak he insists he has come for a friendly Christmas game someone is to strike him once with his axe on the condition that the Green Knight may return the blow in a year and a day a The axe will belong to whoever accepts this deal King Arthur 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 asks 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 mounts his horse The Green Knight shows his bleeding head to Queen Guinevere while it reminds Gawain that the two must meet again at the Green Chapel in a year and a day before the knight 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 leaves to find the Green Chapel and keep his part of the bargain Many adventures and battles are alluded to but not described until Gawain comes across a splendid castle where he meets 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 has only a few days remaining The lord laughs explaining that there is a path that will take him to the chapel less than two miles away and proposes that Gawain rest at the castle until then Relieved and grateful Gawain agrees The lord proposes a bargain to Gawain he goes hunting every day and he will give Gawain whatever he catches on the condition that Gawain give him whatever he may gain during the day Gawain accepts After he leaves his wife visits Gawain s bedroom and behaves seductively but despite her best efforts he allows her nothing but a single kiss When the lord returns and gives Gawain the deer he has killed Gawain gives a kiss to him without divulging its source The next day the lady returns to Gawain who 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 but once her advances are denied she offers Gawain a gold ring as a keepsake He gently but steadfastly refuses but she pleads that he at least take her sash a girdle of green and gold silk The sash 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 The lady has Gawain swear that he will keep the gift secret from her husband That evening the lord returns with a fox which he exchanges with Gawain for the three kisses Gawain does not mention the sash The next day Gawain binds the sash around his waist Outside the Green Chapel only an earthen mound containing a cavern he finds the Green Knight sharpening an axe 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 Ashamed of himself Gawain does not flinch with the second swing but again the Green Knight withholds the full force of his blow 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 and ending the game Gawain seizes his sword helmet and shield but the Green Knight laughing reveals himself to be none other than the lord of the castle Bertilak de Hautdesert transformed by magic He explains that the entire adventure was a trick of the unnamed elderly lady Gawain saw at the castle who is the sorceress Morgan le Fay Arthur s stepsister who intended to test Arthur s knights and frighten Guinevere to death 3 The nick Gawain suffered at the third stroke was because of his attempt to conceal the gift of the sash Gawain is ashamed to have behaved deceitfully but the Green Knight laughs and pronounces him the most blameless knight in all the land The two part on cordial terms Gawain returns to Camelot wearing the sash as a token of his failure to keep his promise The Knights of the Round Table absolve him of the blame and decide that henceforth each will wear a green sash in recognition of Gawain s adventure and as a reminder to be honest Gawain Poet EditMain article Gawain Poet Though the real name of the Gawain Poet or poets is unknown some inferences about them can be drawn from an informed reading of their works The manuscript of Gawain is known in academic circles as Cotton Nero A x following a naming system used by one of its owners the 16th century Sir Robert Bruce Cotton a collector of Medieval English texts 4 Before the Gawain manuscript came into Cotton s possession it was in the library of Henry Savile in Yorkshire 5 Little is known about its previous ownership and until 1824 when the manuscript was introduced to the academic community in a second edition of Thomas Warton s History edited by Richard Price it was almost entirely unknown Even then the Gawain poem was not published in its entirety until 1839 which is when it was given its present title 6 7 Now held in the British Library it has been dated to the late 14th century meaning the poet was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer author of The Canterbury Tales though it is unlikely that they ever met and the Gawain poet s English is considerably different from Chaucer s 8 The three other works found in the same manuscript as Gawain commonly known as Pearl Patience and Cleanness or Purity are often considered to be written by the same author However the manuscript containing these poems was transcribed by a copyist and not by the original poet 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 9 What is known today about the poet is general As J R R Tolkien and E V Gordon after reviewing the text s allusions style and themes concluded in 1925 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 10 The most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton Cheshire 11 He is known to have lived in the dialect region of the Gawain Poet and is thought to have written the poem St Erkenwald which some scholars argue bears stylistic similarities to Gawain St 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 9 Verse form EditThe 2 530 lines and 101 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 follows the form of his day the Gawain Poet was 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 12 lines 146 150 13 Original Text Translation bob ful clene wheel for wonder of his hwe men hade set in his semblaunt sene he ferde as freke were fade and oueral enker grene bob full clean wheel Great wonder of the knight Folk had in hall I ween Full fierce he was to sight And over all bright green Similar stories Edit The legendary Irish figure Cuchulainn faced a trial similar to Gawain s Cuchulain Slays the Hound of Culain by Stephen Reid 1904 The earliest known story to feature a beheading game is the 8th century Middle Irish tale Bricriu s Feast This story parallels Gawain in that like the Green Knight Cu Chulainn s antagonist feints three blows with the axe before letting his target depart without injury A beheading exchange also appears in the late 12th century Life of Caradoc a Middle French narrative embedded in the anonymous First Continuation of Chretien de Troyes Perceval the Story of the Grail 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 14 The stories The Girl with the Mule alternately titled The Mule Without a Bridle and Hunbaut fr feature Gawain in beheading game situations 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 women sent by their lords as a test these stories include Yder the Lancelot Grail Hunbaut and The Knight with 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 14 In the first branch of the medieval Welsh collection of tales known as 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 15 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 16 In it the plot is simplified motives are more fully explained and some names are changed 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 17 At the end of this poem the Turk rather than buffeting Gawain back asks the knight to cut off his head which Gawain does 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 18 Gawain obliges and strikes but the Carle rises laughing and unharmed Unlike the Gawain poem no return blow is demanded or given 14 15 Themes EditTemptation and testing Edit Knights of Gawain s time were tested in their ability to balance the male oriented chivalric code with the female oriented rules of courtly love God Speed Edmund Blair Leighton 1900 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 19 Success in the proofs will often bring immunity or good fortune 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 can pass his test 20 Gawain does not realise however that these tests are all orchestrated by the lord Bertilak de Hautdesert 21 In addition to the laws of chivalry Gawain must respect another set of laws concerning courtly love 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 22 Hunting and seduction Edit 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 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 modest in earlier scenes is suddenly voluptuous and revealing 23 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 23 24 The sequence describing the deer hunt is unspecific and nonviolent with an air of relaxation and exhilaration The first seduction scene follows in a similar vein with no overt physical advances and no apparent danger the entire exchange is humorously portrayed 23 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 both Gawain and Bertilak face struggles alone and emerge triumphant 23 Masculinity has also been associated with hunting 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 Nature and chivalry Edit 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 The green horse and rider that first invade Arthur s peaceful halls are iconic representations of nature s disturbance 25 Nature is presented throughout the poem as rough and indifferent constantly threatening the order of men and courtly life Nature invades and disrupts order in the major events of the narrative both symbolically and through the inner nature of humanity This element appears first with the disruption caused by the Green Knight later when Gawain must fight off his natural lust for Bertilak s wife and again when Gawain breaks his vow to Bertilak by choosing to keep the green girdle valuing survival over virtue Represented by the sin stained girdle nature is an underlying force forever within man and keeping him imperfect in a chivalric sense 26 In this view Gawain is part of a wider conflict between nature and chivalry an examination of the ability of man s order to overcome the chaos of nature 27 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 recognise and incorporate the pagan values represented by the Green Knight 28 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 29 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 30 Games Edit 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 31 The game of exchanging gifts was common in Germanic cultures 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 32 The poem revolves around two games an exchange of beheading and an exchange of winnings 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 12 10 Times and seasons Edit Times dates seasons and cycles within Gawain are often noted by scholars because of their symbolic nature The story starts on New Year s Eve with a beheading and culminates one year later on the next New Year s Day Gawain leaves Camelot on All Saints Day and arrives at Bertilak s castle on Christmas Eve Furthermore the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in a year and a day in other words the next New Year s Day Some scholars interpret the yearly cycles each beginning and ending in winter as the poet s attempt to convey the inevitable fall of all things good and noble in the world 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 nearly identical descriptions of Troy s destruction The poem s first line reads Since the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy and the final stanzaic line before the bob and wheel is After the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy 33 Symbolism EditThe Green Knight Edit Main article Green Knight Scholars have puzzled over the Green Knight s symbolism since the discovery of the poem British medievalist C S Lewis said the character was as vivid and concrete as any image in literature and J R R 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 34 He appears in only two other poems The Greene Knight and King Arthur and King Cornwall 35 36 Scholars have attempted to connect him to other mythical characters such as Jack in the green of English tradition and to Al Khidr 37 but no definitive connection has yet been established 37 38 He represents a mix of two traditional figures in romance and other medieval narratives the literary green man and the literary wild man 39 The Green Knight challenges Gawain to rise to the ideals of honour and religious practices 40 His name the Green Knight shows his opposition to nature the colour green represents forces of nature and the word knight connects him to society and civilisation 41 While the Green Knight represents the primitive and uncivilised side of man s nature he also opposes nature as well 41 The description of the Green Knight which he shares with his green horse shows the central idea of human nature s potential 42 The colour green Edit See also Blue green distinction in language Celtic In the 15th century Saint Wolfgang and the Devil by Michael Pacher the Devil is green Poetic contemporaries such as Chaucer also drew connections between the colour green and the devil leading scholars to draw similar connections in readings of the Green Knight 43 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 fertility and rebirth Stories of the medieval period also used it to allude to love and the base desires of man 44 45 Because of its connection with faeries and spirits in early English folklore green also signified witchcraft devilry and evil It can also represent decay and toxicity 46 When combined with gold as with the Green Knight and the girdle green was often seen as representing youth s passing 47 In Celtic mythology green was associated with misfortune and death and therefore avoided in clothing 34 The green girdle originally worn for protection became a symbol of shame and cowardice it is finally adopted as a symbol of honour by the knights of Camelot signifying a transformation from good to evil and back again this displays both the spoiling and regenerative connotations of the colour green 34 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 or the identical word glas in Cornish Glas has been used to denote a range of colours light blues greys and greens of the sea and grass 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 which corresponds to Welsh Brenin Llywd or Gwynn ap Nudd 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 48 Girdle Edit For broader coverage of this topic see Girdle Girdle in literature Another famous Arthurian woman The Lady of Shalott with a medieval girdle around her waist John William Waterhouse 1888 The girdle s symbolic meaning in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has been construed in a variety of ways Interpretations range from sexual to spiritual Those who argue for the sexual inference view the girdle as a trophy 15 It is not entirely clear if the winner is Sir Gawain or the Lady Bertilak s wife The girdle is given to Gawain by the Lady to keep him safe when he confronts the Green Knight When Bertilak comes home from his hunting trip Gawain does not reveal the girdle to his host instead he hides it This introduces a spiritual interpretation that Gawain s acceptance of the girdle is a sign of his faltering faith in God at least in the face of death 49 To some the Green Knight is Christ who overcomes death while Gawain is the Every Christian who in his struggles to follow Christ faithfully chooses the easier path In Sir Gawain the easier choice is the girdle which promises what Gawain most desires Faith in God alternatively requires one s acceptance that what one most desires does not always coincide with what God has planned 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 many ways While Gawain can resist Bertilak s wife s sexual advances he is unable to resist the powers of the girdle 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 50 Pentangle Edit The poem contains the first recorded use of the word pentangle in English 51 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 to describe the meaning of the pentangle no other symbol in the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail 52 The poem describes the pentangle as a symbol of faithfulness and an endeles knot endless knot From lines 640 to 654 the five points of the pentangle relate directly to Gawain in five ways five senses his five fingers his faith found in the five wounds of Christ the five joys of Mary whose face was on the inside of the shield and finally friendship fraternity purity politeness and pity traits that Gawain possessed around others In line 625 it is described as a syngne that salamon set a sign set 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 53 Along these lines some academics link the Gawain pentangle to magical traditions In Germany the symbol was called a Drudenfuss nightmare spirit s foot and was placed on household objects to keep out evil 54 The symbol was also associated with magical charms that if recited or written on a weapon would call forth magical forces However concrete evidence tying the magical pentagram to Gawain s pentangle is scarce 54 55 Gawain s pentangle also symbolises the phenomenon of physically endless objects signifying a temporally endless quality 56 Many poets use the symbol of the circle to show infinity or endlessness but Gawain s poet insisted on using something more complex 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 57 Furthermore it replicates itself geometrically that is every pentangle has a smaller pentagon that allows a pentangle to be embedded in it and this process may be repeated forever with decreasing pentangles 57 Thus by reproducing the number five which in medieval number symbolism signified incorruptibility Gawain s pentangle represents his eternal incorruptibility 58 The Lady s Ring Edit For broader coverage of this topic see Magic ring Medieval romance Gawain s refusal of the Lady 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 her 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 59 This is especially true of the Lady s ring as scholars believe it to be a ruby or carbuncle indicated when the Gawain Poet describes it as a bryȝt sunne fiery sun 60 61 62 This red colour can be seen as symbolising royalty divinity and the Passion of the Christ something that Gawain as a knight of the Round Table would strive for 63 but this colour could also represent the negative qualities of temptation and covetousness 64 Given the importance of magic rings in Arthurian romance this remarkable ring would also have been believed to protect the wearer from harm just as the Lady claims the girdle will 65 Numbers Edit 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 66 The five points of the pentangle the poet adds represent Gawain s virtues for he is for ay faythful in fyue and sere fyue sythez faithful in five and many times five 67 The poet goes on to list the ways in which Gawain is virtuous all five of his senses are without fault his five fingers never fail him and he always remembers the five wounds of Christ as well as the five joys of the Virgin Mary The fifth five is Gawain himself who embodies the five moral virtues of the code of chivalry friendship generosity chastity courtesy and piety 68 All of these virtues reside as the poet says in the endeles knot the endless knot of the pentangle which forever interlinks and is never broken 69 This intimate relationship between symbol and faith allows for rigorous allegorical interpretation especially in the physical role that the shield plays in Gawain s quest 70 Thus the poet makes Gawain the epitome of perfection in knighthood through number symbolism 71 The number five is also found in the structure of the poem itself Sir Gawain is 101 stanzas long traditionally organised into four fitts of 21 24 34 and 22 stanzas 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 first and last parts are 22 stanzas long 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 71 Wounds Edit 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 desire to use his will pridefully for personal gain rather than submitting his will in humility to God 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 72 73 Interpretations EditGawain as medieval romance Edit Further information Chivalric romance Gawain represented the perfect knight as a fighter a lover and a religious devotee The Vigil by John Pettie 1884 Many critics argue that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be viewed 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 74 Gawain s function as medieval scholar Alan Markman says is the function of the romance hero to stand as the champion of the human race and by submitting to strange and severe tests to demonstrate human capabilities for good or bad action 75 Through Gawain s adventure it becomes clear that he is merely human The reader becomes attached to this human view amidst the poem s romanticism relating to Gawain s humanity while respecting his knightly qualities Gawain shows us what moral conduct is We shall probably not equal his behaviour but we admire him for pointing out the way 75 In viewing the poem as a medieval romance many scholars see it as intertwining chivalric and courtly love laws under the English Order of the Garter A slightly altered version of the Order s motto Honi soit qui mal y pense or Shamed be he who finds evil here has been added in a different hand at the end of the poem Some critics describe Gawain s peers wearing girdles of their own as linked to the origin of the Order of the Garter However in the parallel poem The Greene Knight the lace is white not green and is considered the origin of the collar worn by the Knights of the Bath not the Order of the Garter 76 Still a possible connection to the Order is not beyond the realm of possibility 77 Christian interpretations Edit Scholars have pointed out parallels between the girdle Bertilak s wife offers Gawain and the fruit Eve offered to Adam in the Biblical Garden of Eden Adam and Eve Lucas Cranach ca 1513 The poem is in many ways deeply Christian with frequent references to the fall of Adam and Eve and to Jesus Christ Scholars have debated the depth of the Christian elements within the poem by looking at it in the context of the age in which it was written coming up with varying views as to what represents a Christian element of the poem and what does not For example some critics compare Sir Gawain to the other three poems of the Gawain manuscript Each has a heavily Christian theme causing scholars to interpret Gawain similarly Comparing it to the poem Cleanness also known as Purity for example they see it as a story of the apocalyptic fall of a civilisation in Gawain s case Camelot In this interpretation Sir Gawain is like Noah separated from his society and warned by the Green Knight who is seen as God s representative of the coming doom of Camelot Gawain judged worthy through his test is spared the doom of the rest of Camelot King Arthur and his knights however misunderstand Gawain s experience and wear garters themselves In Cleanness the men who are saved are similarly helpless in warning their society of impending destruction 33 One of the key points stressed in this interpretation is that salvation is an individual experience difficult to communicate to outsiders In his depiction of Camelot the poet reveals a concern for his society whose inevitable fall will bring about the ultimate destruction intended by God Gawain was written around the time of the Black Death and Peasants Revolt events which convinced many people that their world was coming to an apocalyptic end and this belief was reflected in literature and culture 33 However other critics see weaknesses in this view since the Green Knight is ultimately under the control of Morgan le Fay often viewed as a figure of evil in Camelot tales This makes the knight s presence as a representative of God problematic 31 While the character of the Green Knight is usually not viewed as a representation of Christ in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight critics do acknowledge a parallel Lawrence Besserman a specialist in medieval literature explains that the Green Knight is not a figurative representative of Christ But the idea of Christ s divine human nature provides a medieval conceptual framework that supports the poet s serious comic account of the Green Knight s supernatural human qualities and actions This duality exemplifies the influence and importance of Christian teachings and views of Christ in the era of the Gawain Poet 34 Furthermore critics note the Christian reference to Christ s crown of thorns at the conclusion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight After Gawain returns to Camelot and tells his story regarding the newly acquired green sash the poem concludes with a brief prayer and a reference to the thorn crowned God 78 Besserman theorises that with these final words the poet redirects our attention from the circular girdle turned sash a double image of Gawain s vntrawthe renoun 79 untruth renown to the circular Crown of Thorns a double image of Christ s humiliation turned triumph 34 Throughout the poem Gawain encounters numerous trials testing his devotion and faith in Christianity When Gawain sets out on his journey to find the Green Chapel he finds himself lost and only after praying to the Virgin Mary does he find his way As he continues his journey Gawain once again faces anguish regarding his inevitable encounter with the Green Knight Instead of praying to Mary as before Gawain places his faith in the girdle given to him by Bertilak s wife From the Christian perspective this leads to disastrous and embarrassing consequences for Gawain as he is forced to re evaluate his faith when the Green Knight points out his betrayal 80 Another interpretation sees the work in terms of the perfection of virtue with the pentangle representing the moral perfection of the connected virtues the Green Knight as Christ exhibiting perfect fortitude and Gawain as slightly imperfect in fortitude by virtue of flinching when under the threat of death 81 An analogy is also made between Gawain s trial and the Biblical test that Adam encounters in the Garden of Eden Adam succumbs to Eve just as Gawain surrenders to Bertilak s wife by accepting the girdle 80 Although Gawain sins by putting his faith in the girdle and not confessing when he is caught the Green Knight pardons him thereby allowing him to become a better Christian by learning from his mistakes 82 Through the various games played and hardships endured Gawain finds his place within the Christian world Feminist interpretations Edit Lady Bertilak at Gawain s bed from original manuscript artist unknown Feminist literary critics see the poem as portraying women s ultimate power over men Morgan le Fay and Bertilak s wife for example are the most powerful characters in the poem Morgan especially as she begins the game by enchanting the Green Knight The girdle and Gawain s scar can be seen as symbols of feminine power each of them diminishing Gawain s masculinity Gawain s misogynist passage 83 in which he blames all his troubles on women and lists the many men who have fallen prey to women s wiles further supports the feminist view of ultimate female power in the poem 84 In contrast others argue that the poem focuses mostly on the opinions actions and abilities of men For example on the surface it appears that Bertilak s wife is a strong leading character 85 By adopting the masculine role she appears to be an empowered individual particularly in the bedroom scene This is not entirely the case however While the Lady is being forward and outgoing Gawain s feelings and emotions are the focus of the story and Gawain stands to gain or lose the most 86 The Lady makes the first move so to speak but Gawain decides what is to become of those actions He therefore is in charge of the situation and even the relationship 86 In the bedroom scene both the negative and positive actions of the Lady are motivated by her desire 40 Her feelings cause her to step out of the typical female role and into that of the male thus becoming more empowered 40 At the same time those same actions make the Lady appear adulterous some scholars compare her with Eve in the Bible 87 By convincing Gawain to take her girdle i e the apple the pact made with Bertilak and therefore the Green Knight is broken 88 Based on this Gawain portrays himself in what is often called his antifeminist diatribe later on as a good man seduced 88 Postcolonial interpretations Edit From 1350 to 1400 the period in which the poem is thought to have been written Wales experienced several raids at the hands of the English who were attempting to colonise the area The Gawain poet uses a North West Midlands dialect common on the Welsh English border potentially placing him in the midst of this conflict Patricia Clare Ingham is credited with first viewing the poem through the lens of postcolonialism and since then a great deal of dispute has emerged over the extent to which colonial differences play a role in the poem Most critics agree that gender plays a role but differ about whether gender supports the colonial ideals or replaces them as English and Welsh cultures interact in the poem 89 A large amount of critical debate also surrounds the poem as it relates to the bi cultural political landscape of the time Some argue that Bertilak is an example of the hybrid Anglo Welsh culture found on the Welsh English border They therefore view the poem as a reflection of a hybrid culture that plays strong cultures off one another to create a new set of cultural rules and traditions Other scholars however argue that historically much Welsh blood was shed well into the 14th century creating a situation far removed from the more friendly hybridisation suggested by Ingham To support this argument further it is suggested that the poem creates an us versus them scenario contrasting the knowledgeable civilised English with the uncivilised borderlands that are home to Bertilak and the other monsters that Gawain encounters 89 In contrast to this perception of the colonial lands others argue that the land of Hautdesert Bertilak s territory has been misrepresented or ignored in modern criticism They suggest that it is a land with its own moral agency one that plays a central role in the story Bonnie Lander for example argues that the denizens of Hautdesert are intelligently immoral choosing to follow certain codes and rejecting others a position which creates a distinction of moral insight versus moral faith Lander thinks that the border dwellers are more sophisticated because they do not unthinkingly embrace the chivalric codes but challenge them in a philosophical and in the case of Bertilak s appearance at Arthur s court literal sense Lander s argument about the superiority of the denizens of Hautdesert hinges on the lack of self awareness present in Camelot which leads to an unthinking populace that frowns on individualism In this view it is not Bertilak and his people but Arthur and his court who are the monsters 90 Gawain s journey Edit Lud s Church Several scholars have attempted to find a real world correspondence for Gawain s journey to the Green Chapel The Anglesey islands for example are mentioned in the poem They exist today as a single island off the coast of Wales 91 In line 700 Gawain is said to pass the holy hede Holy Head believed by many scholars to be either Holywell or the Cistercian abbey of Poulton in Pulford Holywell is associated with the beheading of Saint Winifred As the story goes Winifred was a virgin who was beheaded by a local leader after she refused his sexual advances Her uncle another saint put her head back in place and healed the wound leaving only a white scar The parallels between this story and Gawain s make this area a likely candidate for the journey 92 Gawain s trek leads him directly into the centre of the Pearl Poet s dialect region where the candidates for the locations of the Castle at Hautdesert and the Green Chapel stand Hautdesert is thought to be in the area of Swythamley in northwest Midland as it lies in the writer s dialect area and matches the topographical features described in the poem The area is also known to have housed all of the animals hunted by Bertilak deer boar fox in the 14th century 93 The Green Chapel is thought to be in either Lud s Church or Wetton Mill as these areas closely match the descriptions given by the author 94 Ralph Elliott located the chapel two myle henne 95 two miles hence from the old manor house at Swythamley Park at the bothem of the brem valay 96 the bottom of a valley on a hillside loke a littel on the launde on thi lyfte honde 97 in an enormous fissure an olde caue or a creuisse of an olde cragge 98 99 Several have tried to replicate this expedition and others such as Michael W Twomey have created a virtual tour of Gawain s journey entitled Travels with Sir Gawain 100 that include photographs of landscapes mentioned and particular views mentioned in the text 101 Homoerotic interpretations Edit According to Queer scholar Richard Zeikowitz the Green Knight represents a threat to homosocial friendship in his medieval world Zeikowitz argues that the narrator of the poem seems entranced by the Knight s beauty homoeroticising him in poetic form The Green Knight s attractiveness challenges the homosocial rules of King Arthur s court and poses a threat to their way of life Zeikowitz also states that Gawain seems to find Bertilak as attractive as the narrator finds the Green Knight Bertilak however follows the homosocial code and develops a friendship with Gawain Gawain s embracing and kissing Bertilak in several scenes thus represents not a homosexual but a homosocial expression Men of the time often embraced and kissed and this was acceptable under the chivalric code Nonetheless Zeikowitz claims the Green Knight blurs the lines between homosociality and homosexuality representing the difficulty medieval writers sometimes had in separating the two 102 Queer scholar Carolyn Dinshaw argues that the poem may have been a response to accusations that Richard II had a male lover an attempt to re establish the idea that heterosexuality was the Christian norm Around the time the poem was written the Catholic Church was beginning to express concerns about kissing between males Many religious figures were trying to make the distinction between strong trust and friendship between males and homosexuality She asserts that the Pearl Poet seems to have been simultaneously entranced and repulsed by homosexual desire According to Dinshaw in his other poem Cleanness he points out several grievous sins but spends lengthy passages describing them in minute detail and she sees this alleged obsession as carrying over to Gawain in his descriptions of the Green Knight 103 Beyond this Dinshaw proposes that Gawain can be read as a woman like figure In her view he is the passive one in the advances of Bertilak s wife as well as in his encounters with Bertilak himself where he acts the part of a woman in kissing the man However while the poem does have homosexual elements these elements are brought up by the poet to establish heterosexuality as the normal lifestyle of Gawain s world The poem does this by making the kisses between the Lady and Gawain sexual in nature but rendering the kisses between Gawain and Bertilak unintelligible to the medieval reader In other words the poet portrays kisses between a man and a woman as having the possibility of leading to sex while in a heterosexual world kisses between a man and a man are portrayed as having no such possibility 103 Modern adaptations EditBooks Edit Though the surviving manuscript dates from the fourteenth century the first published version of the poem did not appear until as late as 1839 when Sir Frederic Madden of the British Museum recognised the poem as worth reading 104 Madden s scholarly Middle English edition of the poem was followed in 1898 by the first Modern English translation a prose version by literary scholar Jessie Weston 104 In 1925 J R R Tolkien and E V Gordon published a scholarly edition of the Middle English text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight a revised edition of this text was prepared by Norman Davis and published in 1967 The book featuring a text in Middle English with extensive scholarly notes is frequently confused with the translation into Modern English that Tolkien prepared along with translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo late in his life 105 Many editions of the latter work first published in 1975 shortly after his death list Tolkien on the cover as author rather than translator 106 Many translations into Modern English are available Notable translators include Jessie Weston whose 1898 prose translation and 1907 poetic translation took many liberties with the original Theodore Banks whose 1929 translation was praised for its adaptation of the language to modern usage 107 and Marie Borroff whose imitative translation was first published in 1967 and entered the academic canon in 1968 in the second edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature In 2010 her slightly revised translation was published as a Norton Critical Edition with a foreword by Laura Howes 108 In 2007 Simon Armitage who grew up near the Gawain poet s purported residence published a translation which attracted attention in the US and the United Kingdom 109 and was published in the United States by Norton 110 Film and television Edit The poem has been adapted to film three times twice by writer director Stephen Weeks first as Gawain and the Green Knight in 1973 and again in 1984 as Sword of the Valiant The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight featuring Miles O Keeffe as Gawain and Sean Connery as the Green Knight Both films have been criticised for deviating from the poem s plot Also Bertilak and the Green Knight are never connected 111 On 30 July 2021 The Green Knight was released directed by American filmmaker David Lowery for A24 and starring Dev Patel as Gawain and Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight 112 albeit with some significant deviations from the original story 113 There have been at least two television adaptations Gawain and the Green Knight in 1991 and the animated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in 2002 The BBC broadcast a documentary presented by Simon Armitage in which the journey depicted in the poem is traced using what are believed to be the actual locations 114 Theatre Edit The Tyneside Theatre company presented a stage version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at the University Theatre Newcastle at Christmas 1971 It was directed by Michael Bogdanov and adapted for the stage from the translation by Brian Stone 115 The music and lyrics were composed by Iwan Williams using medieval carols such as the Boar s Head Carol as inspiration and folk instruments such as the Northumbrian pipes whistles and bhodran to create a rough feel Stone had referred Bogdanov to Cuchulain and the Beheading Game a sequence which is contained in the Grenoside Sword dance Bogdanov found the pentangle theme to be contained in most sword dances and so incorporated a long sword dance while Gawain lay tossing uneasily before getting up to go to the Green Chapel The dancers made the knot of the pentangle around his drowsing head with their swords The interlacing of the hunting and wooing scenes was achieved by frequent cutting of the action from hunt to bedchamber and back again while the locale of both remained on stage In 1992 Simon Corble created an adaptation with medieval songs and music for The Midsommer Actors Company 116 performed as walkabout productions in the summer 1992 117 at Thurstaston Common and Beeston Castle and in August 1995 at Brimham Rocks North Yorkshire 118 Corble later wrote a substantially revised version which was produced indoors at the O Reilly Theatre Oxford in February 2014 119 120 Opera Edit Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was first adapted as an opera in 1978 by the composer Richard Blackford on commission from the village of Blewbury Oxfordshire The libretto was written for the adaptation by the children s novelist John Emlyn Edwards The Opera in Six Scenes was subsequently recorded by Decca between March and June 1979 and released on the Argo label 121 in November 1979 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was adapted into an opera called Gawain by Harrison Birtwistle first performed in 1991 Birtwistle s opera was praised for maintaining the complexity of the poem while translating it into lyric musical form 122 Another operatic adaptation is Lynne Plowman s Gwyneth and the Green Knight first performed in 2002 This opera uses Sir Gawain as the backdrop but refocuses the story on Gawain s female squire Gwyneth who is trying to become a knight Plowman s version was praised for its approachability as its target is the family audience and young children but criticised for its use of modern language and occasional preachy nature 123 Notes Edit First found in English c 1400 the phrasing of a year and a day specified in certain legal matters in order to ensure the completion of a full year comparable terms date from slightly earlier in Middle Dutch Middle Low German and Anglo Norman 2 References Edit Simpson James 2007 A Note on Middle English Meter Sir Gawain and the Green Knight A New Verse Translation By Armitage Simon New York Norton ISBN 978 0 393 06048 5 From year n OED Online Oxford University Press March 2017 Web 15 March 2017 Masters of British Literature Volume A Pearson Longman 2008 pp 200 201 ISBN 9780321333995 Web Resources for Pearl poet Study A Vetted Selection Univ of Calgary Retrieved 1 April 2007 Stanbury Sarah 2001 Introduction In Stanbury Sarah ed Pearl Kalamazoo Mich Medieval Institute Publications ISBN 978 1580440332 Turville Petre Thorlac 1977 The alliterative revival Cambridge Eng D S Brewer pp 126 129 ISBN 0 85991 019 9 Burrow J A 1971 Ricardian poetry Chaucer Gower Langland and the Gawain poet New Haven Yale University Press pp 4 5 ISBN 0 7100 7031 4 Black Joseph ed 2006 The Broadview anthology of British literature The Medieval Period Vol 1 Peterborough Ont Broadview Press p 235 ISBN 1 55111 609 X a b Nelles William 1958 The Pearl Poet In Magill Frank Northern Kohler Dayton eds Cyclopedia of World Authors 4 ed New York Harper amp Brothers a b Tolkien J R R Gordon E V Davis Norman eds 1967 Introduction Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2 ed Oxford Clarendon Press p xv ISBN 978 0 19 811486 4 OCLC 352281 Peterson Clifford J 1974 The Pearl Poet and John Massey of Cotton Cheshire The Review of English Studies New Series 25 99 257 266 doi 10 1093 res xxv 99 257 a b Greenblatt Stephen ed 2006 The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol B The Sixteenth Century The Early Seventeenth Century 8 ed New York W W Norton amp Company pp 19 e 21 and 160 161 ISBN 9780393927184 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Representative Poetry Online University of Toronto Libraries 1 August 2002 a b c Brewer Elisabeth 1992 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight sources and analogues 1 ed Woodbridge Suffolk UK D S Brewer ISBN 978 0859913591 a b c Friedman Albert B 1 April 1960 Morgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Speculum 35 2 260 274 doi 10 2307 2851343 ISSN 0038 7134 JSTOR 2851343 S2CID 162199973 Hahn Thomas ed 1995 The Greene Knight Introduction Sir Gawain Eleven Romances and Tales Kalamazoo Mich Medieval Institute Publications Western Michigan University ISBN 978 1 879288 59 1 Hahn Thomas ed 1995 The Turke and Sir Gawain Introduction Sir Gawain Eleven Romances and Tales Kalamazoo Mich Medieval Institute Publications Western Michigan University ISBN 978 1 879288 59 1 Hahn Thomas ed 1995 The Carle of Carlisle Introduction Sir Gawain Eleven Romances and Tales Kalamazoo Mich Medieval Institute Publications Western Michigan University ISBN 978 1 879288 59 1 Kittredge George Lyman 1916 A study of Gawain and the Green Knight Cambridge Harvard University Press p 76 ISBN 9780674598973 Kittredge 1916 p 83 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl and Sir Orfeo Translated by Tolkien J R R London Allen amp Unwin 1975 p 92 ISBN 9780048210357 Burrow J A 1965 A reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight London Routledge amp Kegan Paul p 162 ISBN 0 7100 8695 4 a b c d Burnley J D 1973 The Hunting Scenes in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Yearbook of English Studies 3 1 9 doi 10 2307 3506850 JSTOR 3506850 Ong Walter J December 1950 The Green Knight s Harts and Bucks Modern Language Notes The Johns Hopkins University Press 65 8 536 539 doi 10 2307 2909298 JSTOR 2909298 The harts hertteʒ and hinds hindeʒ first described in the poem are probably red deer a species with large antlers like the American elk while the subsequent bucks bukkeʒ and does dos likely refer to the smaller fallow deer Roe deer are only referred to as other deer other dere Cawley A C ed 1968 Pearl Sir Gawain and the Green Knight London Dent OCLC 17520073 the Green Knight alias Bertilak is an immensely vital person who is closely associated with the life of nature his greenness the birds and flies of his decorative embroidery his beard as great as a bush the holly branch in his hand the energy he displays as a huntsman all give him kinship with the physical world outside the castle Woods William F 2002 Nature and the Inner Man in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Chaucer Review 36 3 209 227 doi 10 1353 cr 2002 0006 JSTOR 25096166 Green Richard Hamilton 1962 Gawain s Shield and the Quest for Perfection ELH 29 2 121 139 doi 10 2307 2871851 ISSN 0013 8304 JSTOR 2871851 This interpretation was first advanced by Speirs John 1949 Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight Scrutiny 16 274 300 ISBN 9780521067928 and later incorporated in Speirs John 1957 Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight Medieval English Poetry The Non Chaucerian Tradition London Faber and Faber Similar interpretations were later offered Berry Francis 1954 Ford Boris ed Volume I of the Pelican Guide to English Literature The Age of Chaucer Harmondsworth Middlesex Penguin Books LCCN 60004556 OL 5793249M Goldhurst William November 1958 The Green and the Gold The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight College English 20 2 61 65 doi 10 2307 372161 JSTOR 372161 Spearing A C 1970 The Gwain poet a critical study Cambridge England University Press OCLC 125992 Davenport William Anthony 1978 The Art of the Gawain poet London Athlone Press ISBN 978 0 567 35802 8 Tambling J 1981 A More Powerful Life Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Haltwhistle Quarterly An Irregular Review 9 Sagar Keith 2005 Sir Gawain and the Green Girdle Literature and the crime against nature from Homer to Hughes London Chaucer Press ISBN 9781904449478 Martin Carl Grey 2009 The Cipher of Chivalry Violence as Courtly Play in the World of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Chaucer Review 43 3 311 29 doi 10 2307 25642113 JSTOR 25642113 S2CID 161393222 Jucker Andreas H 2015 Courtesy and Politness in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 43 3 5 28 doi 10 1515 stap 2015 0007 a b Goodlad Lauren M 1 October 1987 The Gamnes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Comitatus A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 18 1 ISSN 0069 6412 Harwood Britton J 1991 Gawain and the Gift Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 106 3 483 99 doi 10 2307 462781 ISSN 0030 8129 JSTOR 462781 S2CID 163844716 a b c Clark S L Wasserman Julian N 1986 The Passing of the Seasons and the Apocalyptic in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight South Central Review 3 1 5 22 doi 10 2307 3189122 JSTOR 3189122 a b c d e Besserman Lawrence 1986 The Idea of the Green Knight ELH 53 2 219 239 doi 10 2307 2873255 ISSN 0013 8304 JSTOR 2873255 Hahn Thomas ed 1995 The Greene Knight Sir Gawain eleven romances and tales Kalamazoo Mich Medieval Institute Publications Western Michigan University p 314 ISBN 978 1 879288 59 1 Hahn Thomas ed 1995 King Arthur and King Cornwall Sir Gawain eleven romances and tales Kalamazoo Mich Medieval Institute Publications Western Michigan University p 427 ISBN 978 1 879288 59 1 a b Lasater Alice E 1974 Spain to England a comparative study of Arabic European and English literature of the Middle Ages Jackson University Press of Mississippi ISBN 0 87805 056 6 Rix Michael M 1 June 1953 A Re Examination of the Castleton Garlanding Folklore 64 2 342 344 doi 10 1080 0015587X 1953 9717360 ISSN 0015 587X Besserman Lawrence 1986 The Idea of the Green Knight ELH 53 2 219 239 doi 10 2307 2873255 ISSN 0013 8304 JSTOR 2873255 a b c Rowley Sharon M 2003 Textual Studies Feminism and Performance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Chaucer Review 38 2 158 177 doi 10 1353 cr 2003 0022 ISSN 1528 4204 a b Goldhurst William November 1958 The Green and the Gold The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight College English 20 2 61 65 doi 10 2307 372161 JSTOR 372161 Woods William F 2002 Nature and the Inner Man in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Chaucer Review 36 3 209 227 doi 10 1353 cr 2002 0006 ISSN 1528 4204 Robertson D W 1954 Why the Devil Wears Green Modern Language Notes 69 7 470 472 doi 10 2307 3039609 ISSN 0149 6611 JSTOR 3039609 Chamberlin Vernon A 1968 Symbolic Green A Time Honored Characterizing Device in Spanish Literature Hispania 51 1 29 37 doi 10 2307 338019 hdl 1808 24254 ISSN 0018 2133 JSTOR 338019 Goldhurst William 1958 The Green and the Gold The Major Theme of Gawain and the Green Knight College English 20 2 61 65 doi 10 2307 372161 JSTOR 372161 Pearl Poet Williams Margaret Anne 1967 The Pearl poet His Complete Works Random House Lewis John S 1959 Gawain and the Green Knight College English 21 1 50 51 doi 10 2307 372446 ISSN 0010 0994 JSTOR 372446 Buchanan Alice June 1932 The Irish Framework of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 47 2 315 338 doi 10 2307 457878 ISSN 0030 8129 JSTOR 457878 S2CID 163424643 Berger Sidney E 1985 Gawain s Departure from the Peregrinatio Essays in Medieval Studies Morgantown West Virginia University Press 2 86 105 Burrow J A 2020 A reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Abingdon Oxon ISBN 9780367182908 Oxford English Dictionary Online Arthur Ross Gilbert 1987 Medieval sign theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Toronto University of Toronto Press pp 22 26 ISBN 0802057179 LaBossiere Camille R Gladson Jerry A 1992 Solomon In Jeffrey David Lyle ed A Dictionary of biblical tradition in English literature Grand Rapids Mich W B Eerdmans p 722 ISBN 0802836348 a b Hulbert J R 1916 Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyȝt Concluded Modern Philology 13 12 689 730 doi 10 1086 387032 ISSN 0026 8232 JSTOR 432749 S2CID 162395954 Jackson I January 1920 Sir Gawain s Coat of Arms The Modern Language Review 15 1 77 79 doi 10 2307 3713814 JSTOR 3713814 Arthur 1987 p 33 34 a b Arthur 1987 p 34 Arthur 1987 p 35 Cooke Jessica 1998 The Lady s Blushing Ring in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Review of English Studies 49 193 1 8 doi 10 1093 res 49 193 1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 1819 Andrew Malcolm Ronald Waldron 1996 The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript Exeter University of Exeter Press p 273 ISBN 0 85989 514 9 Borroff Marie 2001 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Patience Pearl Verse Translations New York Norton p 58 ISBN 978 0 393 97658 8 Cooke 1998 p 3 Cooke 1998 p 4 Cooke 1998 p 2 5 7 Howard Donald R 1 July 1964 Structure and Symmetry in Sir Gawain Speculum 39 3 425 433 doi 10 2307 2852497 ISSN 0038 7134 JSTOR 2852497 S2CID 162837889 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 632 Kittredge 1916 p 93 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 630 Mills M 1970 Christian Significance and Roman Tradition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight In Howard Donald R Zacher Christian eds Critical Studies of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2 ed Notre Dame Indiana University of Notre Dame Press pp 85 105 ISBN 978 0681229716 a b Robertson Michael October 1982 Stanzaic Symmetry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Speculum 57 4 779 785 doi 10 2307 2848763 JSTOR 2848763 S2CID 162235787 Reichardt Paul F 1984 Gawain and the Image of the Wound Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 99 2 154 61 doi 10 2307 462158 ISSN 0030 8129 JSTOR 462158 S2CID 163648039 Arthur 1987 p 121 123 Frye Northrop 1957 Anatomy of criticism Princeton New Jersey p 186 ISBN 0 691 01298 9 OCLC 230039 a b Markman Alan M 1957 The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 72 4 Part 1 574 586 doi 10 2307 460169 ISSN 0030 8129 JSTOR 460169 S2CID 163657925 Tolkien J R R Gordon E V Davis Norman eds 1967 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2 ed Oxford Clarendon Press note to lines 2514 and following ISBN 978 0 19 811486 4 OCLC 352281 Greenblatt Stephen ed 2006 The Norton Anthology of English Literature Vol B The Sixteenth Century The Early Seventeenth Century 8 ed New York W W Norton amp Company p 213 footnote ISBN 9780393927184 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 2529 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight lines 2509 2519 a b Cox Catherine 2001 Genesis and Gender in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Chaucer Review 35 4 379 390 doi 10 1353 cr 2001 0001 Beauregard David 2013 Moral Theology in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Pentangle the Green Knight and the Perfection of Virtue Renascence XLV 3 146 62 doi 10 5840 renascence20136537 Pugh Tison 2002 Gawain and the Godgames Christianity and Literature 51 4 526 551 doi 10 1177 014833310205100402 Mills David 1970 The Rhetorical Function of Gawain s Antifeminism Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 71 4 635 4 JSTOR 43342544 Heng Geraldine 1991 Feminine Knots and the Other Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 106 3 500 514 doi 10 2307 462782 ISSN 0030 8129 JSTOR 462782 S2CID 164079661 Burns E Jane October 2001 Courtly Love Who Needs It Recent Feminist Work in the Medieval French Tradition Signs Journal of Women in Culture and Society 27 1 23 57 doi 10 1086 495669 S2CID 144087758 a b Burns 2001 p 24 Cox 2001 p 378 a b Cox 2001 p 379 a b Arner Lynn Summer 2006 The Ends of Enchantment Colonialism and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Texas Studies in Literature and Language 48 2 79 101 doi 10 1353 tsl 2006 0006 S2CID 162665486 Lander Bonnie 2007 The Convention of Innocence and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight s Literary Sophisticates Parergon 24 1 41 66 doi 10 1353 pgn 2007 0046 S2CID 143667691 Twomey Michael Anglesey and North Wales Travels With Sir Gawain Retrieved 10 May 2021 Twomey Michael The Holy Head and the Wirral Travels With Sir Gawain Retrieved 10 May 2021 Twomey Michael Hautdesert Travels With Sir Gawain Retrieved 10 May 2021 Twomey Michael The Green Chapel Travels With Sir Gawain Retrieved 10 May 2021 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 1078 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 2145 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight line 2147 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight lines 2182 3 Elliott Ralph Warren Victor 2010 Searching for the Green Chapel Chaucer s landscapes and other essays a selection of essays speeches and reviews written between 1951 and 2008 with a memoir North Melbourne Vic Australian Scholarly Pub p 300 ISBN 9781921509452 Twomey Michael Travels With Sir Gawain Retrieved 7 May 2021 Rudd Gillian 2013 The Wilderness of Wirral in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Arthuriana 23 1 52 65 doi 10 1353 art 2013 0005 ISSN 1934 1539 S2CID 162694555 Zeikowitz Richard E 2002 Befriending the Medieval Queer A Pedagogy for Literature Classes College English 65 1 67 80 doi 10 2307 3250731 ISSN 0010 0994 JSTOR 3250731 a b Dinshaw Carolyn 1994 A Kiss Is Just a Kiss Heterosexuality and Its Consolations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Diacritics 24 2 3 205 226 doi 10 2307 465173 ISSN 0300 7162 JSTOR 465173 a b Borroff Marie Howes Laura L eds 2010 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight an authoritative translation contexts criticism 1st ed New York W W Norton p vii ISBN 978 0393930252 Tolkien J R R 1980 Christopher Tolkien ed Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl and Sir Orfeo Random House ISBN 978 0 345 27760 2 White Michael 2003 Tolkien A Biography New American Library ISBN 0 451 21242 8 Farley Frank E 1930 Rev of Banks Sir Gawain and Andrew Sir Gawain PDF Speculum 5 2 222 24 doi 10 2307 2847870 JSTOR 2847870 Baragona Alan 2012 Rev of Howes Borroff Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Journal of English and Germanic Philology 111 4 535 38 doi 10 5406 jenglgermphil 111 4 0535 Hirsch Edward 16 December 2007 A Stranger in Camelot The New York Times p 7 1 Retrieved 16 March 2010 Armitage Simon 2007 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight A New Verse Translation New York Norton ISBN 978 0 393 06048 5 Mills Maldwyn 1991 Review The Yearbook of English Studies 21 336 337 doi 10 2307 3508519 JSTOR 3508519 Squires John 17 December 2020 A24 Finally Sets New Summer 2021 Release Date for The Green Knight Bloody Disgusting Retrieved 26 July 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Robinson Joanna 30 July 2021 The Green Knight s Ending Explained Vanity Fair Retrieved 14 November 2021 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight BBC Four 17 August 2010 Retrieved 5 August 2012 Stone Brian 1974 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Penguin p 138 ISBN 978 0 140 44092 8 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight A Seasonal Play in Verse with Medieval Christmas Songs and Music Simon Corble website Retrieved 6 May 2016 Turner Francesca 7 July 1992 Gawayne and the Green Knight The Guardian Actors Midsommer 1 August 1992 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight The Gawain Cast flickr Retrieved 9 May 2021 Nirula Srishti 16 February 2014 Sir Gawain pulls our strings The Oxford Student Retrieved 17 February 2014 Hopkins Andrea 15 February 2014 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Daily Info Oxford Retrieved 18 February 2014 Blackford Richard 1979 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight an opera in six scenes London The Decca Record Company Ltd Argo Division Argo ZK 85 Bye Anthony May 1991 Birtwistle s Gawain The Musical Times 132 1779 231 33 doi 10 2307 965691 JSTOR 965691 Kimberley Nick 11 May 2003 Classical The footstomping way to repay a sound investment The Independent on Sunday Retrieved 1 March 2016 External links EditSir Gawain and the Green Knight at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Online textsHigh resolution full sized scan of entire manuscript Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Representative Poetry Online University of Toronto Libraries 1 August 2002 Full original text and translation interspersed JRR Tolkien and EV Gordon s Edition Sir Gawain and the Green Knight public domain audiobook at LibriVox various translations Ser Gavejn i Zelenyj Rycar Neizvesten Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Unknown LitRes in Russian Russian translationGeneral informationThe Gawain Pearl Poet from the University of Calgary The Camelot Project Info on Sir Gawain Luminarium SGGK Website Oxford Bibliographies Bibliography on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight BBC documentary tour of locations thought to be found in the poem Holywell the River Mersey the Wild Wirral the Peak District the Roaches and Lud Chapel BBC In Our Time podcast discussing the poem Sir Gawain Introduction Article introducing various translations and adaptations of Sir Gawain Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sir Gawain and the Green Knight amp oldid 1128542829, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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