Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Romance Conventions
In Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, Calogrenant relates his ‘adventure’ in Broceliande. He meets a monstrous herdsman in a forest, who asks who Calogrenant is:
“‘I am, as you see, a knight looking for something I’m unable to find: I’ve sought long and can find nothing.’ – ‘And what would you want to find? – ‘Some adventure, to put my prowess and courage to the proof.”
As John Stevens observes, these lines “could serve almost as a classic definition of chivalric romance.” The first part of Calogrenant’s answer could have come from the mouth of Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as he searches for the Green Chapel to fulfil his pact with the Green Knight. However, the latter part, whilst applicable to Gawain’s situation – Gawain’s “adventure” does serve the purpose of putting his virtue ‘to the proof’ - , demonstrates a divergence between Gawain’s “adventure” and that of the conventional romance hero. In the equivalent point of Gawain’s “adventure”, when he travels in search of the Green Chapel, he asks those he meets for directions:
And ay he frayned, as he ferde, at frekez þat he met,
If þay hade herde any karp of a knyȝt grene,
In any grounde þeraboute, of þe grene chapel;
And all nykked hym wyth nay,...
(ll. 703-6)
Rather than the situation of the stereotypical romance hero, who desires an “adventure” but must ask those around for the provision of one through localised events, Gawain is in the opposite situation of knowing his quest but of being unable to find where it is, and has no one who is able to tell him. This is shown further by how his encounters during this search, which are the events that would make up a conventional adventure, are onl...
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... and the Green Knight (1965)
ELISABETH BREWER, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Sources and Analogues (1992)
DEREK BREWER & JONATHAN GIBSON (ed.), A Companion to the Gawain-Poet (1997)
HELEN COOPER, The English Romance in Time (2004)
JOHN FINLAYSON, ‘Definitions of Middle English Romance’, The Chaucer Review vol. 15 no. 1 (1980), pp. 44-62
ROBERTA L. KREUGER (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance (2000)
JILL MANN, ‘Sir Gawain and the Romance Hero’, Heroes and Heroines in Medieval English Literature (1994), pp. 105-17
DEREK PEARSALL, Arthurian Romance: A Short Introduction (2003)
MICHAEL ROBERTSON, ‘Stanzaic Symmetry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, Speculum vol. 57 no. 4 (1982), pp. 779-85
JOHN STEVENS, Medieval Romance (1973)
JOAN TURVILLE-PETRE, ‘The Metre of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, English Studies vol. 57 no. 4 (1976), pp. 310-28
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight has prompted scholars to examine and diversely interpret the medieval narrative. One of the underlying questions that has been proposed embodies the analysis of the relationship between Christian and Pagan ideals and how knightly chivalry is influenced by religion during the Arthurian Romance period. It is no mistake that the two varied religious ideals are intertwined throughout the poem due to the nature of classical antiquity. Amidst the overlap between superstitious rituals and Orthodox- Christian beliefs it is clear that Sir Gawain has a sense of personal integrity guided by a moral compass.
The figure of Gawain throughout Arthurian literature is an interesting one; he appears in more texts as a secondary character than any other knight named, and often gains glory even at the expense of the main hero (Busby 1980, 5). The first characteristic which separates him from the other knights is his relationship to Arthur: it is usually stated that he is Arthur's sister's son, a kinship that is found from William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum (c. 1125) and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) onward (Busby 1980, 31). However, it is notable that Gawain often seems more like a type than an individual; in Old French literature he is never the subject of a biographical romance, as are most of the other knights, he never has one particular lady's name associated with him, and he is frequently used as a constant against which other knights are judged, the perfect embodiment of good qualities, more a symbol of perfection than an actual person (Busby 1980, 7).
Barron, W.R.J., trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.. New York: Manchester University Press, 1974.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – A Test of Chivalry Essay with Outline: Loyalty, courage, honor, purity, and courtesy are all attributes of a knight that displays chivalry. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is truly a story of the test of these attributes. In order to have a true test of these attributes, there must first be a knight worthy of being tested, meaning that the knight must possess chivalric attributes to begin with. Sir Gawain is admittedly not the best knight around. He says "I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; / and the loss of my life [will] be the least of any" (Sir Gawain, l. 354-355).
Sir Gawain is presented as a noble knight who is the epitome of chivalry; he is loyal, honest and above all, courteous. He is the perfect knight; he is so recognised by the various characters in the story and, for all his modesty, implicitly in his view of himself. To the others his greatest qualities are his knightly courtesy and his success in battle. To Gawain these are important, but he seems to set an even higher value on his courage and integrity, the two central pillars of his manhood.
In the final scenes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain’s encounter with Sir Bertilak allows Gawain to perceive his own flaws, manifested in his acceptance of the Green Girdle. The court’s reaction to his personal guilt highlights the disconnect between him and the other knights of the Round Table. Gawain’s behavior throughout the poem has been most noteworthy; his understanding of his sin, one that many of us would dismiss since it was propelled by his love of life, enhances his stature as a paragon of chivalry.
The Arthurian legends of Iwein and Gawain and the Green Knight are two examples of the medieval initiation story: a tale in which a character, usually in puberty or young adulthood, leaves home to seek adventures and, in the process, maturity. Through the course of their adventures, including a meeting with the man of the wilderness, temptations at the hands of women, and a permanent physical or mental wounding, the character grows from adolescent awkwardness and foolishness to the full potential knightly honor. While both Arthurian legends fit this format, the depth of character development, specifically in terms of relationships, is vastly different. Whereas Gawain and the Green Knight does little more with relationships than demonstrate the evils of female temptations, Iwein effectively explores the formation, destruction, and resurrection of numerous male and female relationships.
Web. 30 Sept. 2009. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume A. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt.
Tragic and hero may not be words that easily reveal a relationship, but throughout literature the two have been linked to create an enthralling read. The emergence of the tragic hero seemed to take shape in ancient Greece where such works as Oedipus and Antigone were popular among all classes of people. Aristotle defined a tragedy as "the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself. It incorporates incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish the catharsis of such emotions." Though Greece may be credited with the creation of tragic heroes, the theme is seen in literary works across many different cultures, including England. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one such English work where the development of the main character, Gawain, follows the pattern of the classical tragic hero. In this paper, we will explore the characteristics of the tragic hero and show how these traits are demonstrated in Gawain.
Markman, Alan M. "The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Modern Language Association 72.4 (1957): 574-86. JSTOR. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
The Character of Sir Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell
8[8] Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Marie Borroff. Norton Anthology of British Literature Vol. 1, New York: WW Norton, 1993.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1993.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem which tells the tale of a knight who undergoes trials-testing the attributes of knighthood-in order to prove the strength and courage of himself, while representing the Knights of the Round Table. One of King Arthurs most noblest and bravest of knights, Sir Gawain, is taken on an adventure when he steps up to behead a mysterious green visitor on Christmas Day-with the green mans’ permission of course. Many would state that this tale of valor would be within the romance genre. To the modern person this would be a strange category to place the poem in due to the question of ‘where is the actual romance, where is the love and woe?’ However, unlike most romances nowadays, within medieval literature there are many defining features and characteristics of a romance-them rarely ever really involving love itself. Within medieval literature the elements of a romance are usually enshrouded in magic, the fantastic and an adventure. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight follows Sir Gawain over the course of one year, from one New Years to the next, as was the deal he and Bertilak, the green knight, struck.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. Brian Stone. The Middle Ages, Volume 1A. Eds. Christopher Baswell and Anne Howland Schotter. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Fourth ed. Gen.eds David Damrosch, and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2010. 222-77. Print.