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Gawain’s belief by the end of “Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight” is that he has failed—in honesty, fidelity, and faith. As a
representative of an ideal Christian whose priority is to remain godly
(and knightly), he sees the outcome of his quest quite differently than
the Green Knight. The Green Knight also prizes honesty, though not
always at the cost of life, a view not necessarily shared by Gawain.
Strangely enough, King Arthur’s court, ideally as devout as Gawain,
sees Gawain’s small human flaws not as a failure (as Gawain does)
but as an overall achievement—he returned to court alive and bravely
kept his word to the Green Knight. Considering these three points
of view, one may wonder if the author is suggesting that the pagan
Green Knight’s emphasis on life and humanness is more sensible than
Gawain’s pursuit of godliness. Arthur’s court (and the poet) seems to
think so. Furthermore, the poem suggests that in Arthur’s kingdom
(and throughout medieval Europe), there is a blend of both Christian
and pagan customs. The poem itself is, arguably, centered on a quest
more pagan than Christian. While to Gawain the Green Knight is a
supernatural and mysterious being associated with evil, the poet suggests
that all things green are life-giving and good. This essay explores the
Green Man’s travel through pagan myth into Christian art, legend and
Arthur’s court, and how his view of success differs from Gawain’s faithcentered
standards.
The essay begins with sections on “ Greenness” and “The Green Man in the Open”;
excerpted here are the final three sections. The full text will soon be made available online at this address.
Green Man Legend’s Influence in Christian Legend
Visual art and writing have served as powerful media
incorporating pagan myth into Christianity. This process seems to
have been set into motion by the abundant appearance of morality
instructing green men and vegetation figures. Also, the Green Man
myth appears to have had a powerful impact on early Christian writing.
The Celtic head cult, for example, seems to be linked with legends of
St. Denis and St. Winifred, both of which involve decapitation. The
theme of a head having life even after it has been severed is prominent
in the stories of St. Denis and St. Melor:
[St. Melor] was a young prince whose lands were usurped by
his uncle. His uncle persuaded his guardian with bribes to kill
St. Melor. His guardian cut off the boy’s head and sent off
to show it to St. Melor’s uncle. On the journey, the assassin
became ill and weak with thirst and near to death. He cried
out for help. The head spoke and told him to plant the staff
in the earth. The staff instantly took root and turned into
a beautiful tree. The tree put forth branches and fruit and a
healing fountain poured from its roots which cured the assassin
(Anderson 59).
When reading this story, a vision of the Green Knight might well come
to mind, for his severed head, like St. Melor’s, lives on after it has been
severed from the body. Once the Knight’s head has fallen to the floor
and terrified the court, his body calmly collects it and climbs back onto
his horse. He then taunts the court by opening his eyes and reminding
Gawain that he must uphold his end of the bargain within the year (417-
456).
William Anderson also suggests that the Green Man motif
may be linked with the death of Adam. Most versions of the story tell
of Adam wanting a branch from the Tree of Mercy shortly before his
death, though the angels refuse when his son Seth attempts to obtain
the branch. However, the Gospel of Nicodemus states that Seth placed
the branch in Adam’s mouth, and a tree then grew through Adam’s body
into the ground. Nicodemus’s version of the story also says that “Seth
placed three seeds of the Tree of Mercy in his father’s mouth and these
seeds grew into three trees standing on his grave. These trees provided
the wood for the cross” (Anderson 75). Anderson notes the obvious
message that vegetation is life-giving and represents regeneration even
in death. He suggests that “there is a redemptive feeling in this story
which counters the identification of the leaf with sin” (75).
This image of Adam’s body being rooted (returned) to the earth
after death parallels the Green Man as a symbol of regeneration. Like
Christ and the Green Man, Adam lives on after death in tree form, and
from him further trees and vegetation are given life. This cyclic pattern
calls to mind the passing of seasons and celebration of the death of an
old year and birth of a new one. Early (and modern) Christians clearly
related to life and death being a cycle, as they celebrated New Year
(in the poem, when the Green Knight appears and symbolically dies
with the old year) and recognized Spring and new vegetation as a birth
process that repeats itself yearly. Anderson quotes the Sufi saint Rumi,
in a poem that describes the process of birth and growth to ultimate
death:
First you were mineral, later you turned to plant,
Then you became an animal: how should this be a secret
to you?
Afterwards, you were made man, with knowledge, reason, faith;
Behold the body, which is a portion of the dust-pit,
how perfect it has grown!
When you have traveled on from man, you will
Doubtless become an angel (75).
Rumi’s words clearly recognize life as a continual process—as the Green
Man (nature) is born again after death, man will further evolve into an
angel after his own death. Though these lines have elements of both
scientific and Christian-based evolution (the idea of being created from
dust combined with the idea of becoming an angel), it seems clear that
Christian and pagan legend emphasized a theme of birth, death, and
resurrection—whether nature travels through the process or Christ does.
Why, then, is Gawain so insistent on separating pagan beliefs from his
own pure view of Christianity?
Gawain’s Argument
The Book of Knighthood and Chivalry, published in the thirteenth
century by Ramon Lull (translated by Brian R. Price) illustrates the many
spiritual and physical qualities that determine a true knight and how a
knight should be treated. Faith and trust in God are severely stressed—
one can see why Gawain takes his lapse of faith so seriously.
Among the spiritual qualities demanded of a knight are seven
virtues—two of which are Faith and Hope. Lull states, “a knight
without Faith may not have good habits and customs, for by faith a
man sees the spiritual God and his works, and believes in the invisibles”
(78). The second virtue, Hope, applies more directly to Gawain’s sin
of placing faith in a material object, the green sash. Hope, above all
other qualities, will give a knight victory in battle—“By hope is enforced
the courage of the knight, vanquishing negligence and cowardice. By
reason of the deeds that are greater in God than in his body or his arms,
he comes to surmount his enemies” (79). Once Gawain has received
his blow from the Green Knight’s axe, he learns that the knight had
tested his faith and had known of Gawain’s actions of both honesty
and dishonesty. Ashamed, Gawain removes the girdle from his waist,
cursing it for causing him to act against his nature as a knight and to lose
faith in God’s protection:
‘Cursed worth cowardise and covetyse both!
In yow is villany and vyse that vertue disstryes.’
Then he caght to the knot and the cast lauses,
Brayde brathly the belt to the burn selven:
‘Lo, there the falssyng, foule mot hit falle!
For care of thy knokke cowardise me taght
To accord me with covetyse, my kynde to forsake,
That is largesse and lewty that longes to knightes.
Now I am faulty, and falce, and ferde have bene ever
Of trecherye and untrouthe—both bityde sorve
And care! (2374-2384)
In this passage, Gawain struggles with punishing himself and punishing
the belt for testing his faith, though overall he acknowledges his
wrongdoing and openly expresses his shame before the Green Knight.
He failed to rely on Hope alone to protect him in battle or conflict, and
he notes that this is an action required of a good knight (as Merwin
translates, “cowardice taught me / To come to terms with coveting,
forsaking my own nature / And the openness and good faith that
belong to knighthood,” 2379-2381) Gawain accepts the gift of the
green belt from the Knight, not as a token of his quest or success,
but as a reminder of his sin. When pride begins to overcome him in
the future, having the belt as part of his regular attire will immediately
humble him: “And thus, when pryde schal me prik for prowes of armes,
/ The loke to this luf-lace schal lethe my hert’ (2337-8).
Arthur’s Court and the Poet’s
In Part Four of Sir Gawain, the poet reveals that the Green
Knight’s motives for challenging Gawain were not treacherous; rather,
the occasion should be used as a sort of quest to discover himself and
prove his worth as a young knight. He praises Gawain for keeping his
end of the bargain in the first place—for searching the full year and
appearing at the Green Chapel, though it likely will result in his death.
After the Green Knight has dealt Gawain a blow from his axe, leaving
only a small scar on Gawain’s neck, the two knights regard the quest as
having different outcomes. Gawain believes that the scar is a mark of
failure, and the Green Knight tries to convince him that the scar is a
mark of success.
The Green Knight points out that Gawain is not without fault;
however, these faults are not damaging enough to destroy Gawain’s
honor. Gerald Morgan, in his critical study of the poem, Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight and the Idea of Righteousness presents the idea of the
Green Knight as a forgiving, Christ-like confessor, “the judge who
understands the hidden causes of things.” (152) He forgives Gawain
for protecting himself, as he knows Gawain’s reason for keeping the
green girdle were not to sin or break a promise, but to save his life:
Now know I wel thy cosses and thy costes als,
And the wowyng of my wyf, I wroght hit myselven.
I sende hir to assay the, and sothly me thinkes
One the fautlest freke that ever on fote yede.
As perle by the whyte pese is of pris more,
So is Gawayn in good fayth by other gay knightes.
Bot here yow lakked a little, sir, and lewty yow wonted;
Bot that was for no wylede werk, ne wowyng nauther,
Bot for ye loved your lif—the lasse I yow blame
(2360-68).
The Green Knight outright compliments Gawain—as one of the most
faultless men on earth. He emphasizes Gawain’s honor by describing
the test that he and Morgan Le Fay put him through to try and challenge
his faith as a knight. Most importantly, the Green Knight points out the
cause of Gawain’s flaw—love of his life, and he states that he does not
blame him for wanting to survive the quest. Gawain remained a true
knight in his fidelity and honesty—that alone makes him an honorable
knight. His lapse of faith in God’s protection is not contemptible but,
rather, human and nothing to fault or punish a knight for. Gawain, of
course, feels differently. Ideally, he would have returned to Camelot
with no scar on his neck—the blade would not have touched him
because he had remained pure and loyal to his competitor.
He explains his dissatisfaction with himself to the court once
he has returned, likely expecting to be reprimanded for entrusting the
green belt to protect his life. King Arthur reacts in a way similar to the
Green Knight—he laughs good-naturedly and comforts Gawain as if he
is innocent, yet awaiting punishment. And the court decides to honor
Gawain by allowing each of his brother knights to wear a green belt:
“That lordes and leded that longed to the Table, / Uch burn of the
brotherhede, a bauderyk schulde have, / A bende abelef him aboute of
a bryght grene, / And that for sakeof that segge in sute to were” (2515-18).
Although the poet never gives us Gawain’s reaction to the
court’s immediate acceptance of him, flaw and all, we can notice a
link in the way both the Green Knight and the court define Gawain’s
success. To them, bravery, loyalty to his promise, and the sheer fact
that he returned home with nothing more than a small scratch on his
neck were reason enough to commend him and welcome him. Gawain
seems to represent the Christian afraid of the mysterious beliefs and
customs of the past. He must put his trust solely in God and not waver
if he wants to be a good Christian who deserves the honor he has been
given in knighthood. Although the court presents itself as having fear
of “greenness” in the first quarter of the poem, it seems more aware
and accepting of the old Celtic religion, for it prevails even in their
Christian-themed surroundings—in churches and even in the Bible. If
the divinity and sacredness of nature can survive in art and literature,
Arthurian society cannot help but accept it and welcome it into its life.
Works Cited
Anderson, William. Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness With the
Earth. London: Harper Collins, 1990.
Burrow, J.A., ed. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York:
Penguin, 1972.
Doel, Fran, Geoff Doel. The Green Man In Britain. Charleston:
Tempus, 2001.
Merwin, W.S., ed. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: Knopf,
2002
Morgan, Gerald. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Idea of
Righteousness. Dublin: Irish Academic, 1991.
Price, Brian R. Ramon Lull’s Book of Knighthood and Chivalry with the Ordene
de Chevalrie. The Chivalry Bookshelf, 2001. |