The Green Knight by Sir Gawain

The reader enters the work without delay after a hard-fought war, which has brought a major triumph for Britain and Arthur and his men. They realize joined "in splendid celebration, seemly and carefree. . . . For xv days the feasting in that location was full" (22). However, the religious flavour of their lives is non forgotten:

With both delights on earth they housed there together, Saving Christ's self, the most celebrated knights,

The loveliest ladies to live in either time,

And the comeliest king ever to keep court (23).

The next badinage is the arrival of the special K gentle in the midst of these festivities to fracture a challenge to Gawain with respect to his worthiness as a man and as a warrior. The horror of the decapitated discolour gymnastic horse follows, putting a certain end to the festivities, and fashioning necessary a second meeting between Gawain and the Green Knight at the Green Chapel. Severity is intermingled with the joy of the celebration. The difference d ace and the battle to come are seen non only if as a possible source of further joy, exactly as a great severity as well, with the scuttle of grief: " this instant Gawain give a thought,/ Lest peril restrain you pause/ In seeking out the sport/ That you have claimed as yours" (39).

The passing of time itself is marked by Christian significance, both times of joy and times of severity:

Yes, this Yuletide passed and the social class following;

The journey is followed by his arrival at the castle of a lord who welcomes him and provides him with all the comfort of which he had been deprived on the long and fleshy journey. The castle, in turn, is near the Green Chapel where Gawain will do battle with, and perhaps meet his death at the men of, the Green Knight.

The poem is designed to reflect the expectations of story-telling of the fourteenth century, not of actual life as it was lived then or earlier. The adventurous quest of that era was seen as one which required powerful obstacles to be put in the path of super valet de chambre heroes. The ridicule is that Gawain's real test comes before the battle he believed to be his ultimate test.

What is finally discovered on the quest is not the satisfaction of unrealistic expectations about the impeccable character of the knight, only when instead disillusioning events which bring the questor closer to the reality of human life as it really is. After all, if the hero were indeed beyond the reach of any human temptation, he would not need to rely on God and Christ in the first place.

Gawain himself is a much sterner judge of his actions than are his fellows. In the midst of their loving celebration of him and his valor, Gawain feels great "shame, . . . cowardice and covetousness," and "inconstancy" (114). This humility is what finally makes him a great human hero. The vote counter of the poem announces lastly the irony of the Christian experience: "Now Christ with his crown of thorn [i.e., grief and suffering]/ Bring us his bliss evermore [i.e., joy and mercy]" (115).

The battle itself with the Green Knight is not what is expected, by either the reader or Gawain. The Knight does not deliver a mighty blow, but cardinal false strikes, followed by a nick, after which the Knight reveals himself as none other than the host of the castle. He explains to Gawain that the test has been one not of battle on the battlefield, but battle in the bedroom. There, Gawain has been shown to be fu
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