LA IV – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
10/26/2012
 The had the knight’s tales to distract people from reality; the plague was very prevalent
so the romantic stories were written
 The guy that walks in is gigantic and all green except for his eyes and hands
 Holly indicative of Christmas time
 The green knight is very condescending and second guesses King Arthur’s relevance
 The giant is asking for a Christmas game
 The game is that they get to take the first swing of the axe against the green knight and he
won’t move, but then it is the giants turn
 There is magic involved in this period of time, which makes the challenge more
disheartening
 He has 1 year and 1 day to prepare (common time period given during this time)
 The green knight is mocking the men of the round table because they are afraid. This is
an embarrassment to King Arthur the most
 This is a parallel to Beowulf; no loyalty of his men, so the leader has to step up
 Guinevere is King Arthur’s wife
 Sir Gawain steps up to take the challenge even though he is the smallest. He shows
courage, modesty, humbleness
 Sir Gawain cut of the giants head, but the giant grabbed his head, hopped on his horse
and rode off
 The Lady attempts to seduce Sir Gawain
 On the first 2 days he has acquired kisses from the Lady
 She tries to give him a ring but he doesn’t accept it because it is worth too much; then she
gives him a green sash (belongs to green knight)
 The sash is to keep you invincible; he decides to keep the sash and not tell the Lord that
he has it (deceitful)
 The first time the green knight goes to chop of Sir Gawain’s head he stops because he
flinches. He calls Gawain a coward
 Gawain promises not to move next time
 Green knight didn’t hit him the second time because Gawain didn’t move; he is taunting
him
 When he actually hits him it just cuts his neck but nothing really happens to Gawain
 The Lord of the castle didn’t hit him the first two times because he was honest about the
first two kisses; but hit him on the third time because he was deceitful.
 The Lord did this to test him to see if he was honorable
 Sir Gawain feels completely destroyed over his behavior
 The Lord says that he is welcome back at the castle but he is to stay away from his wife
 The Green Knight wanted to test Sir Gawain and teach him a lesson about being
honorable