Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Humility
Piety
Integrity
Loyalty
Honesty
Poetic Form and Structure:
 Alliterative Revival
 Bob and Wheel
 Bob: one line of two or three syllables
 Wheel: four three-stress lines
 Entire structure rhymes ababa
The bob-and-wheel is a structural device common in the Pearl Poet's poetry.
The example below comes from the first stanza of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The bob appears in red, and the wheel appears in blue. Alliterative components are in bold
print, and rhyming components are in italic print.

Sithen the sege and the assut was sesed at Troye,
The borgh brittened and brent to brondes and askes,
The tulk that the trammes of tresoun ther wroght
Was tried for his tricherie, the trewest on erthe-Hit was Ennias the athel and highe kynde,
That sithen depreced provinces and patrounes bicome
Welneghe of al the wele in the west iles.
Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swythe,
With gret bobbaunce that burghe he biges upon fyrst,
And nevenes hit his aune nome, as hit now hat.
Ticius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,
Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes up homes,
And fer over the French flod Felix Brutus
On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settes with wynne,

Where werre and wrake and wonder
Bi sythes has wont therinne,
And oft bothe blysse and blunder
Ful skete has skyfted synne.

The final five rhymes--wynne, wonder, therinne, blunder, synne--have an ABABA rhyme
pattern. The phrase with wynne is the bob; it bridges the alliterative section and moves the
poem into the final rhyming section in each stanza. The bob-and-wheel structure is not
common in the poetry of Chaucer, though even he uses it for parody in Sir Thopas.
The Green Knight – Hero of Ecology?
 Eastern origins
hO!Ho!Ho! Green
Giant!
 Green is the color of Islam
 Connection to the Pagan god, Odin
 Has regenerative qualities – like a plant
 Influenced Robin Hood
 The Green Man appears in gardens and other vegetation
Courtly Love
 Elevated women
 Object of love was to be
worshipped from afar as an ideal
 Only noble people were worthy of
love
Lady visits Gawain in his
bedroom
 Poem seems to condemn courtly
love
Kiss
me!
Elements of
Romance
 Set in a remote place and time
 Incorporates the marvelous and miracles
 Hero is superior to other men and his environment
 May involve “Testing Plot”
 Tester is unrealistic and remote
 Test is extreme
 Hero follows higher of conflicting virtues
 Tester relents and allows hero to fulfill lower virtue
(example: God and Abraham)
Departures from Romance
 Calendar/cyclic time and some real places
 Hero is one of us:
 not superior to us/environment
 Tester is split:
 malicious magic Morgan and likeable, realistic
Bercilak
 Gawain fails the test because he is
human/sinful
 Realism may result from 13th-14th century
“penance campaigns,” new “moral psychology.”
 Mixture of romance and realism leaves the
reader wondering what rules govern this world.
Kiss
me?
Ideals of Knighthood
Physical ideals:
Strength
Skill at arms
Horsemanship
Non-physical ideals:
Courage
Humility
Courtesy
Loyalty
Three Gawains:
1.
Courteous and brave brother of Round
Table
2.
Flawless exemplar of Christian chivalry
3.
Flawed everyman
Gawain tries to be loyal to Arthur, to Bertilak,
and to his own word.
His failure is in loyalty to his word
Sir Gawain: the
character
 Courageous and brave
 courtesy and chivalry
 Flawless example of Christian chivalry
 Flawed everyman
 Gawain is Arthur’s nephew
 Never portrayed as Christian –
 unlike the other knights of his time
 Alienated from the other knights
Characters
 King Arthur—legendary king of Britain
 Husband of Guinivere and uncle of Gawain
 Presides over the famed Knights of the Round Table
at Camelot
 Queen Guinevere—The wife of Arthur
 According to legend, she had an affair with Sir Lancelot which brought
about the fall of the Round Table.
 Adversary - the enchantress Morgan le Fay, who, we learn at the end of the
poem, conjured the Green Knight in order to terrify Guinevere
 Sir Gawain—The nephew of Arthur and a knight
 He accepts the challenge of the Green Knight, whom he must behead, then
seek out next year
More Characters
 Knights of the Round Table
 Sir Ywain, Sir Eric, Sir Dodinal le Sauvage,
Sir Bors, Sir Bedivere,Sir Lionel, Sir Lucan
the Good and Sir Mador de la Porte
 Sir Agravain á la dure main—A knight;
Gawain’s brother
 Sir Lancelot—A knight; has an affair with Queen
Guinevere
 The Green Knight—Mysterious man in Green whom
Gawain, in response to a challenge, beheads and must
later seek at the Green Chapel
Yes, More Characters
 Lord Bertilak—Lord of the castle of Hautdesert,
where Gawain stays on his way to find the Green
Knight
 At the end of the story, he is revealed to be the Green
Knight himself
 Lady Bertilak—Wife of Lord Bertilak,
 tries to seduce Gawain three times while her husband is away
 When Gawain refuses her advances, she gives him a sash- has the
magical property of preserving him from harm from weapons
 When Gawain first sees Lady Bertilak, she is accompanied
by and old crone, Morgan le Fay (different incarnations of a
single person?)
Wait, One More
 Old Crone / Morgan le Fay—The
woman first who accompanies Lady
Bertilak when Gawain first arrives at
castle Hauptdesert
 She appears ugly as her younger
companion is beautiful
 In Arthurian romances, Morgan is a
powerful and ambivalent sorceress, who
often lays temptations for the knights of
King Arthur
The Game
Code of
Chivalry
The five
Virtues
Recognition
1. Governed by rules
2. Tests important
knightly virtues
3. Involves seemingly
inevitable death
1.
1. Generosity
2. Companionablen
ess
3. Courtesy
4. Pure mind
5. Compassion
The Green
Knight
Posses faith
in God
2. Loyal to
people,
principles,
and promises
3. Without
deceit
4. Upright and
Virtuous
The exchange
game was the
real test
Confession
 Shame and mortification
 Statement of Sin: Gawain
admits cowardice,
covetousness, and untruth
 Request for penance
Sir Gawain’s “human
experience”
• Social living
• Alienation
• Self-discovery
• Desolation
• Recovery and
Restoration
Condemnation
• Gawain did sin
• Sin was from love of life, not
malice
• Problem of shifting blame to
women
Thematic Points
• Openness and ambiguity
• Combination of romance
and realism
• Gawain is human/sinful
Fitts
FITT ONE
• Beheading Game
• relates to pagan myths about
agriculture
• Arthur: poet’s quAlified
approval







Sir Gawain: representative, not elect

Green Knight: ambiguous nature

Green body: supernatural

Green and gold equipment: courtly youth

Holly bob: life, peace

 Axe: war
Gratuitous (thus romantic, not heroic)
Governed by rules (romantic, not heroic)
Seasonable (customary Christmas drama)
Quasi-legal (rules are reiterated)
Tests important knightly virtues
Involves seemingly inevitable death
Ernest/game ambiguity makes it possible for
Gawain to treat the obligation lightly, but does
not make it right for him to do so (Burrows 24).
FITTs two and three
 Midwinter: Indoors/outdoors
 Wine, feasting, celebration
 Cold, sleet, rain
 Arming of Gawain
 Exchange of Winnings
 Hero’s Temptation to test his loyalty, honesty, chastity
Fitt
“Truth”
Two: The Pentangle
“Loyal to people, principles, or promises”
possesses “faith in God”
“Without deceit,” “sincere”
“Upright and virtuous”
Fitt Two: The Journey

Eight weeks: 11/2-12/24

Departs on All Souls’ Day

Four phases
 Arthurian England
 N. Wales (Winifred’s Well)
 The Wirral
 “Strange country”

Realistic and fantastic
Fitt Three
 Fabliau: parallelism; sexual
favors are commodities
 Dalliance: compare lines
1010-1015 to 1218-1221
 Lady maneuvers based on
her misconception of Gawain
– courtesy is all
 Courtly ladies can pursue
 Kisses are not adulterous
Fitt Three: Hunt and Bed
 day three represents a departure from the noble conduct
of days one and two.
 Deer/boar are noble; fox is ignoble
 In both, the victim . . .
Flees an adversary (hounds/lady)
Retreats from prospect of another adversary
(Bercilak/Green Knight)
Succumbs to original adversary (hounds/lady)
Fitt Three: The Girdle
 Green and gold (should remind reader of Green Knight)
 Not accepted for monetary value or beauty
 Gawain acts differently after his fall:
Gawain goes to Confession, not Mass
Gawain awaits host, instead of host calling
Gawain goes first, not host
Gawain wears blue, color of faithfulness
Fitt Four: Arming/Journey
 Green girdle added to arming
 Neither unqualified condemnation nor uncritical
indulgence
 Variation from departure from Camelot –
Gawain does not hear Mass – odd for day of
death
 Qualities of Death ascribed to Green Knight
Indiscriminate/universal/inevitable
Must be faced alone (guide turns back)
Fitt Four: Recognition
 Green Knight is Bercilak de Hautdesert.
 Morgan la Faye, Gawain’s aunt,
orchestrated events to humiliate the Round
Table.
 The exchange game was the real test.
 Fitt Four: Morgan le Faye’s hatred of
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
 Considered translation imperii = transfer
of culture from one civilization to another
(Troy to England)
Fitt Four: Confession
 Replaces false confession at
Hautdesert
 Shame and mortification
 Reparation: Gawain returns girdle
(and it is given back to him)
 Statement of sin: Gawain admits
cowardice, covetousness, untruth
 Request for penance (Bercilak
refuses)
Fitt Four: Judgement
Condemnation – Gawain did sin
Mercy – Sin was from love of life, not from lower
passion or malice
Contrasting responses show decorum:
Bercilak shows comparatively more mercy, for
Gawain is more prone to despair than to
presumption
Gawain shows wounded pride, but is harsh on
himself
Problem of shifting blame to women – perhaps to
make Gawain’s behavior realistic?
Fitt Four: Return
 Symbols
 Gawain’s cut is healed.
 Gawain wears the girdle.
 Court adopts the girdle.
 Contrasting responses again show decorum
 Gawain is ashamed
 The court downplays his sin
 What does the court’s adoption of the girdle
really mean?
NOT EPIC
 Hero fighting for spiritual ideals
 Not fighting for people against a
monster or other threat
 Chivalric/Arthurian Hero NOT an
Epic Hero like Beowulf
Synopsis – 2500 lines on 2 slides
 Starts on Christmas Eve at the court of King Arthur
 Gawain accepts a challenge from The Green Knight
•
Chop off his head, then seek the GK out in one year, then the GK will behead him
•
Gawain does it
 The next year, Gawain sets off to find the GK. After surviving many
perils, he comes to stay with Bertilak and his wife – hospitable
 Lady Bertilak tries to seduce Gawain but he refuses
•
She offers him a sash that will make the wearer invulnerable to weapons
•
Gawain accepts hoping to protect himself from the GK
Synopsis
 The next day he sets off to find the GK and he appears
•
1st blow of the ax – Gawain flinches and the GK complains
•
2nd blow of the ax – The GK praises Gawain for not flinching – Gawain complains
and wants him to finish
•
3rd blow of the ax – Nicks Gawain’s neck, but does not decapitate
 The GK explains that he is Bertilak
•
The first two checked blows were for the honorable behavior shown by Gawain in
refusing to be seduced by Lady Bertilak
•
The nick was for dishonorably taking the sash
 Gawain wishes to return the sash, but Bertilak insists that he keep it.
 Gawain says that he will wear it as a token of his shame.
 When he returns home everyone is delighted by the story
•
They follow his example and wear green baldrics in honor of Gawain
X. Concluding Points
 Openness and ambiguity pervade the text.
 Text strives to combine romance and realism.
 Text does not prove that courtly and Christian values
inherently conflict, rather only that Gawain is human/sinful.
 Gawain’s experience represents the “fundamental cycle of
experience” – “social living, alienation, self-discovery,
desolation, recovery and restoration” (Burrows 186).
 Does Gawain take responsibility for his actions?
Source: Burrows, J.A. A Reading of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1966.