Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Last evening our Liberal Studies seminar covered the book Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In a nutshell, the story is about Sir Gawain who takes up the challenge of the Green Knight, who has ridden his horse into Arthur's Great Hall in Camelot just after Christmas, and demanded that someone play a game. Gawain plays the game, and duly cuts off the Green Knight's head, and by the terms of the agreement, is required to find the Green Knight (at the Green Chapel) in a year's time to receive a blow from the Green Knight. Eventually, Gawain rides out, battles trolls and dragons, and finds a castle in the woods on Christmas Eve. He is invited in, treated well, and told that the 'Green Chapel' is very near. Gawain then stays at the castle until New Year's Day. During this time, the Lord of the Manor plays a game with Gawain. The terms are that each must deliver over to the other whatever one has been given on the day. On the first day, the Lord is out hunting, and the Lord's wife enters Gawain's bedroom. After much courtly talk, she gives Gawain a kiss. When the Lord has returned from the hunt, he gives Gawain a deer, and Gawain gives the lord a kiss. The pattern repeats on the second and third day. However, on the third day, Gawain accepts from the wife not only a kiss, but also a 'garter' that she says will protect its owner from all blows. Gawain does not present the garter to the lord that evening. On New Year's day, Gawain rides out and finds the Green Knight. The Knight delivers one blow of an ax, but Gawain shrinks away just in time. The Green Knight delivers the second that misses, and at the third blow, knicks the skin of Gawain's neck. The Green Knight then explains that he is in fact also the lord of the castle, and that he did not kill Gawain because Gawain duly played their 'giving' game well. However, Gawain was given a knick because he did not give the lord the garter won by the lord's wife. The Green Knight then explained that Morgan La Faye was behind it all, and had devised this game in order to test the honour of Arthur's court. Gawain then rode back to Camelot, told the story, and they all celebrated his honour and his dishonour, forever wearing a green garter (Knight's of the Garter) to remember the story.

Ths is a ripping yarn. It is at a time when England was thought to be heaving with dragons and trolls, and, while very Christian, was full of magic. In fact, the story is full of what otherwise might be called 'pagan' thinking including the concept of the 'green man', but replete also with praying to Mother Mary and Jesus and a Christian God at fairly regular intervals. There is a serious plot twist, and a really tense series of bedroom scenes in which Gawain must preserve his chastity and honour as a guest while not insulting a beautiful woman intent on having sex with him. These scenes are juxtaposed against the hunting scenes of the lord, in which he chases and captures and kills his prey on three successive days. The more one looks at this story, the more one can see the layers of plot and character development.

The manuscript of this story was found in an English mansion in the 19th Century, and has been translated from its 14th C northern English into modern English by such luminaries as JRR Tolkein. While reading through this tale, one can see glimpses of the Lord of the Rings: the Green Knight (Tom Bombadil), trolls (orcs or goblins), Camelot (Rivendell), Morgan La Faye (Sauron). There is nothing new under the sun.

Hollywood really needs to get hold of this story and run with it.