Theme Of Loyalty In Beowulf And Sir Gawain

heroic element present in Beowulf, Lanval, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath is loyalty whether it be to to their Lord/King or themselves. In Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Lanval the loyalty exists in the relationship with the Lord/King. In The Wife of Bath, the loyalty is to herself by sticking to what she believes in. The loyalty portrayed in Beowulf is because he had to pay back an overdue family debt so it makes it more important for Beowulf. In Lanval and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the loyalty portrayed by chivalry even though it is not mentioned. In this time period, chivalry was very important, because it serves as a background for these stories. Lanval and Gawain’s loyalty comes from the code

When Guinevere confesses her love to Lanval, he rejects her and states that he could never be with her and betray the king (269-274). This backfires on him, because Guinevere tells the king that ‘Lanval had dishonored her’ (316), even though he did no such thing. We find that Lanval truly is proven not guilty and is loyal to the king because his lover comes to his defense (615-624). She tells the court of how the queen lied and that Lanval should not suffer what he said, so he is set free and never heard of again. This in turn, shows that Lanval is the loyal to the king and Guinevere is not even though it makes it seem like Lanval is the guilty party. Guinevere is the one that tried to seduce Lanval and Lanval clearly states that he does not want her. This also brings out his loyalty to his lover, because he could have easily had a romantic rendezvous with Guinevere and be disloyal to both the king and his lover but he choose to be loyal to both even though he almost got punished for something he didn’t

The wife says that she had five husbands and that’s all thanks to God (1-8). She is trying to make it seem like having five husbands is justifiable in her case and that of her five husbands they were all submissive to her. They may not have obeyed her at first, but eventually they all became submissive at one point in the relationship. She strongly believes that husbands should obey their wives, sort of in a feminist view. She is loyal to this belief and to herself, because this view does not change. Her loyalty is different in that of Beowulf, Gawain, and Lanval in that the loyalty is to the king, but instead herself as well as similar to Gawain in that he was also loyal to