A 12th Century Epic Romance
Is
Honor Worth Dying for?
 This would have been an easy question for a
medieval knight to answer. Knights were
sworn to follow a code of behavior known as
chivalry. The code required knights to defend
their church, their king, and their country
courageously. Today, however many people
have doubts about whether an abstract
concept such as honor is worth dying for.
Knight’s Code of
Chivalry

A knight was expected to have
not only the strength and skills to
face combat in the violent Middle
Ages but was also expected to
temper this aggressive side of a
knight with a chivalrous side to his
nature.
The Knights Code of Chivalry and the
vows of Knighthood





To fear God and maintain His Church
To serve the lord in valor and faith
To protect the weak and defenseless
To give aid to widows and orphans
To refrain from the unjustified giving of
offence
 To live by honor and for glory
 To despise pecuniary reward
 To fight for the welfare of all






To obey those placed in authority
To guard the honor of fellow knights
To shun unfairness, meanness and deceit
To keep faith
At all times to speak the truth
To persevere to the end in any enterprise
begun
 To respect the honor of women
 Never to refuse a challenge from an equal
 Never to turn the back upon a foe
Fidelity
 Loyalty, devotion, faithfulness
Honor, truth
Medieval Romance
A medieval romance can be a dramatic verse or a
prose narrative. It typically includes the following
elements:
•Larger-than-life characters
•An adventurous hero who faces a severe challenge
•Idealized love involving a noble lady
•Exotic settings
•Supernatural elements
•Hidden or mistaken identity
Characters
 Arthur : The legendary king of Britain, at whose
court the story begins. Husband of Guinevere
and uncle of Gawain, he presides over the
famed Knights of the Round Table at Camelot.
 His wife Guinevere--own issues with “fidelity.”
 Morgan Le Faye: Arthur’s half sister who is
jealous of Arthur’s inheritance (Camelot
from his father Uther Pendragon)
 She hopes to embarrass the knights.
 Bertilak: manor lord of Hautdesert, where
Gawain spends time playing the hunting game
during the Christmas season
 Lady Bertilak, the temptress; her desire is to
seduce Gawain so that Arthur’s knights will be
embarrassed.
The Green Knight:
a green man who
comes to Arthur’s
court in “friendship” he
seeks someone in
Arthur’s court who can
play the “beheading
game”
Symbolism
 Symbolism: Green
In English folklore and literature, Green has
traditionally been used to symbolize nature
and its embodied attributes, namely those of
fertility and rebirth.
Plot A:The Beheading
game
 The Green Knight arrives in Camelot,
challenges Arthur to a game of
exchanging a “Blow for a Blow”
 Arthur accepts, but Gawain steps in to
defend King Arthur
 Following the event, Gawain has one
year and a day to go to receive his
beheading!
Applying the Cycle of
the hero
Where are we:
Departure
 The Call to Adventure
 Refusal of the Call
 #Address the refusal of the
call in an iNote.
.
Bob and Wheel
The Gawain poet is famous
for this device
The "bob" is a very short line, sometimes of only two syllables,
followed by the "wheel," longer lines with internal rhyme.
*Some internal rhyme is lost in translation.
Ex. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Strophe
"stanza-" signifies regular,
recurrent, and typically rhymed
sections of poems
"strophe-" to signifies irregular,
unrhymed subdivisions.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
was written in a series of
strophes followed by "bob-andwheel" stanzas.
Plot B: The Quest
 Almost one year later, Gawain leaves Arthur’s
court to find the Green knight
 In classic Romance fashion, Gawain is given
three chances to deny himself the misery of
his quest
Five points of perfection
 Gawain’s armorial symbol is the Pentangle
symbolizing the requirements of Arthur’s
knights Compassion
 Courtesy
 Loving kindness
 Openness
 Integrity
 Inside his shield is a painting of the Madonna
 Symbols of his outer nature
Visit to Hautdesert
Gawain searches for a place to celebrate
Christmas and discovers a heavenly
place called Hautdesert
He spends time at Hautdesert with Lord
and Lady Bercilak
Each day as the Lord goes out to hunt,
Gawain stays behind and “flirts” with Lady
Bercilak.
 There’s all kinds of symbolism with the
hunting and the flirting, but it amounts to
Gawain falling into the trap that Morgan le
Fay set for him.
 On the Third Day- The Lady gives Gawain a
sash, or girdle of green, which she promises
will magically prevent his death, remember
he’s looking for the jolly green giant, so he
thinks this can’t be such a bad idea.
 The evening of the third day Bercilak
returns and Gawain obviously refuses to
tell about the belt (sash, girdle)
 The next day, Gawain hopes to go to find
the Green Knight so that he can prove
himself in the Beheading Game
Arrival at the Green Chapel






Found in a pit
Seems to be overgrown…
an underground church of evil
a thing of the Devil
Gawain hears the sharpening of an AXE!
The Green Knight appears and praises
Gawain!
The Beheading Game
 It is one year and one day after the Green
Knight’s head was stricken off
 The first blow causes Gawain to flinch in fearGawain argues that his head will not grow
back!
 The second blow stops short – Green Knight
admires that Gawain did not flinch this time!

The Beheading Game
 The third blow just slices Gawain’s
neck, not injuring the man-The Green
Knight says it is for taking the green
sash!
 He knows of the seduction with his
wife…the kisses Gawain took from Lady
Bercilak
 The Green Knight is a shape
shifter- he was created by
Morgan le Faye to ridicule
Arthur!
Get your Interactive
Reader Workbooks
and turn to page 54.
We will read the story
of Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight. Which
character do you think
is the most honorable?
Make sure you can
answer why when we
finish!
 Can you identify some examples of the
elements of Medieval Romance found in
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?”






Larger than life characters:
Hero who faces a severe challenge
Idealized love involving a noble lady
Exotic setting
Supernatural elements
Hidden or mistaken Identity