The Arthurian Legend Gawain

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The Arthurian Legend Gawain the Green Knight

• EH 2301

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The Romance

• The audience largely made up of women.
• The queen, duchess or countess and the other
  ladies of her court.
• These women naturally tended to be interested in
  stories in which women played more central roles
  than was true in Germanic epics such as Beowulf,
  which centered almost exclusively on the exploits
  of male warriors.
• Narratives written for these courts tended to
  focus on other plot developments than the
  fighting and male-bonding emphasized in epic
  poetry.
• The narratives still concern the deeds of brave
  warriors, but the Middle English knight is
  motivated by love for his lady.
• Women play an increasingly important and active
  role.

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Courtly Love

• Relationship is modeled on the feudal
  relationship between a knight and his lord or
  king.
• The knight serves his courtly lady with the same
  obedience and loyalty which he owes to his king.
• She is in complete control of the love
  relationship, while he owes her obedience and
  submission (a literary convention that did not
  correspond to actual practice!)
• The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do
  great deeds in order to be worthy of her love or
  to win her favor.
• Was a driving force for him whether or not it was
  consummated, whether or not the lady knew about
  the knight's love or even loved him in return.

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Courtly Love

• Relationship typically was not between husband
  and wife, not because the poets and the audience
  were inherently immoral, but because it was an
  idealized sort of relationship that could not
  exist within the context of "real life" medieval
  marriages. In the middle ages, marriages amongst
  the nobility were typically based on practical
  and dynastic concerns rather than on love.
• The idea that a marriage could be based on love
  was a radical notion.
• Audience for romance was perfectly aware that
  these romances were fictions, not models for
  actual behavior.
• The adulterous aspect is beside the main point,
  which was to explore the potential influence of
  love on human behavior.

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Courtly Love

• The behavior of the knight and lady in love was
  drawn partly from troubadour poetry and partly
  from a set of literary conventions derived from
  the Latin poet Ovid.
• Described the "symptoms" of love as if it were a
  sickness.
• The "lovesick" knight became a conventional
  figure in medieval romance.
• Typical symptoms sighing, turning pale, turning
  red, fever, inability to sleep, eat or drink.
• Romances often contained long interior monologues
  in which the lovers describe their feelings.

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The Arthurian Romance

• The stories of Arthur, his knights, and his court
  are considered romances.
• The Arthur stories, prevalent in France, Germany,
  Italy, and Britain, reflect European medieval
  culture as it was emerging from the chaotic Dark
  Ages in the centuries after the fall of Rome.
• Rome had given Europe order, laws, judges, roads,
  improved farming methods, and an educated
  bureaucracy.
• When the Germanic barbarians (Anglo-Saxons et
  al.) destroyed all this --starting in the fifth
  century A.D. -- people had to start all over
  again, that is reinvent civilization.

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Arthurian Romances

• In Arthur's court we have a miniature, speeded-up
  story of European society reinventing itself
• without Rome
• with a strong Christian sensibility

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Arthurian Romances

• Knights typically go out on adventures and face
  the forces of good and evil, uncertain how to
  balance bravery and Christianity.
• As a Christian knight, he must decide how best to
  act in ambiguous situations.
• Knight must return to the court and report his
  actions.
• Important for the development and instruction of
  society
• Only in this way can the court learn from the
  individuals' experiences.

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Le Morte d'Arthur

• Sir Thomas Malory

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Le Morte dArthur

• First true novel written in English.
• Written by Sir Thomas Malory
• Most well known in modern day from a version
  printed by William Caxton in 1485
• Caxton divided the text into twenty-one books,
• Manuscript version makes it clear that Malory
  originally broke his work into eight books or
  "tales"

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Eight Tales of Malory

• the birth and crowning of Arthur, from the French
  Prose Merlin.
• invasion of France and Rome, from the English
  Alliterative Morte Arthure
• mostly concerning Lancelot, from the French prose
  Lancelot
• Gawain's brother Gareth, based on a lost English
  poem
• Tristram and Isolde, based on the French Prose
  Tristan
• the coming of the Grail, based on the French
  Quest de Saint Graal
• the romance of Lancelot and Guenivere, based
  mostly on the French Mort Artu and the English
  Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur
• the discovery of Lancelot and Guenivere's
  adultery, and the battle between Mordred and
  Arthur, also from the French Mort Artu and the
  English Stanzaic Le Morte Arthur

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Arthurian Legend

• Whatever the factual origins of King Arthur are,
  he and the Knights of Camelot passed into popular
  legend from the early Middle Ages.
• As the field of European literature developed
  (British and French, especially) so did versions
  and variations on the Arthurian tale,
  proliferating both in books and in poetry.
• Today, Arthurian legend is understood for what it
  is - just legend - and King Arthur and his
  knights are enjoyed as imaginary figures rather
  than ones based on historical fact.

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Arthurian Legend

• The romantic concepts of chivalry and heroic
  quest, in an age of religious purity and secular
  glory were the perfect platform for early poets.
• By the beginning of the 13th century, the myths
  surrounding Arthur and his Knights were becoming
  considerably expanded by writers and poets who
  adopted the theme of Arthurian Legend to
  elaborate issues the the day. King Arthur and the
  Knights of the Round Table were also linked to
  actual locations such as Glastonbury and
  Tintagel, and a connection with the Holy Land and
  the Crusades interwove the concepts of a rescue
  of the Grail with that of purge of the "heathen
  occupation" of Jerusalem - a sort of divine
  justification for the barbarism of the Crusades.
• Thus, Arthurian Legend was adapted by the mood of
  the time into propaganda for the preservation of
  Christianity.
• Arthur was transformed from Celtic warlord into
  a true Christian hero.

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Gawain the Green Knight
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Gawain the Green Knight

• Greatest of the Arthurian romances produced in
  England.
• Embraces the highest aspirations of the late
  medieval aristocratic world, both courtly and
  religious.

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History of GGK

• Comes down from a single copy.
• Anonymous author known as the Pearl Poet
• Pearl
• Purity
• Patience

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History of GGK

• Written in narrative tradition
• Unrhymed alliterative long line (roots in
  Anglo-Saxon poetry), each ending with five
  shorter rhymed lines (bob-and-wheel stanza)

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G GK

• Romance attaches itself to society and history.
• Opens and closes by referring to Troy, the
  ancient, fallen empire whose survivors were
  legendary founders of Britain.
• They were foiled by adulterous desire and
  political infidelity.

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G GK

• By the time it was written (close of 14th
  century), Gawain was a famous Arthurian hero.
• Ambiguous reputation
• Arthurs faithful retainer and nephew
• Suave seducer
• Which would he be in this poem?
• Would he stand for civilization of Christian
  chivalry?
• Would he be a cynical sophisticate?

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Themes of G GK

• Courtly love
• Religion
• Importance of knights troth and word
• The breaking point of a person

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The poem is constructed on a series of contrasts

• Court life
• a haven of safety, refinement, order, culture,
  pleasure, entertainment.
• The Outside World
• harsh nature, battles to be fought, wild animals,
  bad weather, war, chaos
• The Green Knight
• represents nature and primitive instincts but is
  also very civilized.

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A Christian Poem

• This poem is truly Christian.
• The season for the story's setting is Christmas,
  the biggest Christian ritual in the world.
• The Solstices and the Equinoxes were important to
  European countries because people marked the
  seasons of the year this way so they would know
  when to plant and harvest.

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Gawain the Green Knight

• Gawain goes out into the wilderness to face the
  Green Knight as he has honorably promised.
• Prides himself on being the perfect Christian
  knight.
• His shield and its symbolism are to constantly
  remind him to act like Christ.
• But here is the problem facing the Christian
  knights
• How can one emulate Christ and be a soldier
  living in the real world?
• Is it possible to be like Christ?
• Have the knights set themselves a goal they will
  surely fail to achieve?

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The Beheading Game

• The Beheading Game occurs in earlier eighth and
  ninth century Irish (Celtic) romances.
• In this story, the Green Knight invites Gawain to
  exchange blows, not to chop off his head.
• Is this wrong on Gawain's part?
• Is this his first mistake to yield to temptation
  of anger?
• He is insulted because the Green Knight belittles
  the valor of Arthur's court.

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The Temptation Game

• In earlier tales Gawain is linked to the sun god,
  another fertility deity.
• Since the Green Knight represents fertility,
  Gawain represents chastity, a Christian virtue.
• We see how devoted he is to his chastity in the
  Temptation Game he plays with the Lady.

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The Green Knight as Fertility God

• Stories of ancient fertility gods that have
  survived in Greek and Middle Eastern myths
  demonstrate ancient people's belief that a god
  was in charge of all that grew and died.
• The fertility god was believed to follow the
  pattern observable in nature
• Winter and death of all vegetation followed by
  spring and the rebirth or regeneration of the
  land.
• This death followed by rebirth was believed to be
  caused by a fertility god who dies in winter but
  comes alive again in the spring in a never-ending
  cycle.

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The Green Knight as Fertility God

• The Green Knight is portrayed with the symbols of
  fertility.
• He is green, the color of the land in the spring
  and summer.
• His clothes are embroidered in gold, the color of
  the sun.
• He wears holly which is a plant that does not die
  in the winter, an ideal plant specimen for a
  creature that represents the eternality of life.
• His beard is like a bush - vibrantly green
  represents the life force in nature and in human
  beings.
• The life force is what makes human beings strive
  so hard to survive and what makes human beings
  reproduce fertility, at least in human kind, is
  sexual.
• The Green Knight's as a figure of the life force
  is key to the meaning of the poem.

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What the Pentangle Symbolizes

• Five senses faultless.
• Five fingers that never failed
• Five wounds of Christ
• Five joys of Mary
• Annunciation
• Nativity
• Resurrection
• Ascension
• Assumption
• Gawain's five virtues
• boundless beneficence
• brotherly love
• pure mind
• manners
• compassion

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Thought Questions

• What is really being tested? (This is not a
  simple question.)
• How does Gawain do?
• What are we supposed to think of the Green
  Knight?
• Bercilak's wife?
• Gawain himself?

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• http//www.luminarium.org/medlit/gawain.htm