Hearing this, the host proposes a bargain: Gawain will rest at the castle and be entertained by the host's wife while the host will go out hunting; at the end of each day, they will exchange whatever they have gained. Gawain happily agrees. The sudden and mysterious appearance of this grand castle in the middle of a desolate wilderness marks it as something out of the other world. Yet it also appears in response to a prayer, and it is difficult to think that Gawain's patron, the Blessed Virgin, would lead him astray on Christmas Eve.
One of the poet's metaphors may confuse modern readers: He says the castle looks cut out of paper. This is probably a reference to the elaborate decorations, including paper cutouts, used to adorn the showpiece dishes or "subtleties" presented at medieval feasts; such ornamental dishes were sometimes designed to look like castles or landscapes. Scholars have made many attempts to identify the castle as a real place, but it seems just as likely that the castle is the product of the poet's imagination, despite the typically realistic architectural details lavished on its description.
Seeing that his prayers are answered, Gawain thanks Christ and St. Julian, the protector of travelers. Saints make numerous appearances in the poem, and they are never chosen without purpose.
Even St. Julian's legend intersects with the action of the poem: Christ appeared to him in the form of a stag while Julian was out hunting. When Gawain approaches the castle, the gatekeeper swears by Peter.
Peter was always depicted holding two keys, and popular belief makes him, even today, the proverbial gatekeeper of heaven. But the white castle, although beautiful and peopled with noble inhabitants, is not heaven, nor is it even particularly otherworldly after Gawain enters it. He is received as an honored guest and shown every kindness by the lord of the castle. Gawain has, of course, found his opponent, the Green Knight. Although he is not aware of this fact, clues are left for the audience.
One is the host's appearance: Although he is not green, he is notably strong and tall, and he has a bushy beard, like the Green Knight, although the host's is "beaver," or reddish-brown, in color. Another clue is what one critic calls the behooding game, in which the host removes his hood and offers it as a prize to whoever can amuse the court most lines — It is not clear whether either the courtiers or the lord of castle recognize Gawain immediately; the reaction at lines — suggests they do not.
Although the court eventually learns Gawain's name, Gawain does not learn the name of his host or even the name of the castle — at least not yet. Comparisons with Arthur's court abound.
Just as Gawain was armed at Arthur's court, here he is disarmed, literally, as the servants remove his armor and dress him more comfortably, but also figuratively; Gawain's guard is down, just at the point when he is about to be tested most severely.
The Christmas feast parallels the feast at Camelot, although the courtiers correctly point out that the Christmas Eve feast, though lavish, is penance for better things to come, because Christmas Eve is technically still part of Advent, a penitential season when meat is forbidden.
The remark is also ironic: Gawain's stay at the castle will be a kind of penance, a spiritual trial that will eventually yield spiritual rewards. At the high table, it is not the host who has the highest place, corresponding to Arthur, but the strange old hag, and the host sits next to her. Gawain sits next to the host's lovely wife, the place he had near Guenevere, although in Gawain's judgment the lady is even more beautiful than Guenevere.
This makes her beautiful indeed, because Guenevere is always celebrated as the paragon of beauty in Arthurian romance. The host's young wife and the old hag form one of many paired opposites in the poem. They represent traditional medieval notions of youth and age, and the description of them is conventional. Christian moralists invoked the ugliness of old age as a warning against vanity and a reminder that the pleasures of youth would soon be swallowed up by human mortality.
The old hag's identity is not revealed at this point in the story, but like much else in the poem, she is not quite what she appears to be. One of the manuscripts that narrowly escaped the blaze is known to scholars as Cotton Nero A. Its survival was extremely fortuitous, as two of the four poems it contains are acknowledged jewels of late medieval literature and all four are known solely from this one source.
Referred to today as Pearl, Cleanness, Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , the poems are written in a northern Middle English dialect and are the work of an anonymous poet of the second half of the 14th century. Sir Gawain is a truly remarkable piece of literature by a highly sophisticated poet, deserving of its fame.
It is New Year and the court at Camelot is enjoying its Yuletide celebrations. King Arthur and his knights are about to tuck into a feast when Arthur declares that he will not eat until he has heard a fabulous tale or seen a strange marvel.
On cue a mysterious knight enters the hall. He has long green hair flowing into his great green beard and down to his belt. Clothed in green he sits astride a handsome green horse. The huge knight holds a holly branch in one hand and a mighty axe in the other and proceeds to challenge the knights. He will allow one of them to strike off his head and in exchange he will return a similar blow.
The knights are reluctant to take up the strange offer so Arthur himself prepares to perform the feat. Propelled by chivalry to spare his king the ordeal, one of his knights, Sir Gawain, gallantly steps forward in his place. The year passes and, as the time approaches, Gawain anxiously prepares for his journey in search of the Green Chapel.
He travels alone and, in the depths of winter, arrives in a rugged snow covered landscape. On Christmas Eve, just as he is wearying of his journey, he comes upon a beautiful castle. He is welcomed inside and joins the Christmas festivities. For four days the partying continues — then the guests leave. Gawain is also about to depart but the lord of the castle asks him to stay.
The lord replies that the Green Chapel is less than two miles away so Gawain can remain a while longer without fear of breaking his promise. Gawain agrees. The lord then suggests that they should make a bargain to exchange whatever spoils they might win each day but that while he plans to go off hunting Gawain should stay in the castle to recuperate from his exhausting travels. Gawain accepts this unusual arrangement and goes off to bed.
In the morning the lord rises and sets out to hunt deer on the icy terrain. Gawain resists all temptations but agrees to kiss her as she persuades him that it is just an act of chivalry.
In the evening when the lord returns he presents Gawain with the venison that he has caught and Gawain offers him the kiss in return.
The following day, the same bargain is struck. Gawain receives two kisses from the lady and the lord succeeds in killing a wild boar, which he gives to Gawain when he returns and receives two kisses. On the third day, while the lord is out fox hunting, the lady wants to exchange a love token with Gawain.
She offers him a ring but he declines because it is valuable. Then she offers him her green girdle. Gawain again refuses, but she tells him that it has magical powers.
Whoever wears it cannot come to any harm. Gawain realises that this may be useful in his forthcoming ordeal so he accepts the girdle and agrees not to mention it to the lord.
The lady also kisses Gawain three times. When the lord returns, Gawain gives him three kisses and in return the lord gives him the pelt of the fox that he has killed. The following morning Gawain wraps the green girdle around his waist and sets off.
Passing amid rugged cliffs, he eventually finds an overgrown cave in a gorge and realises that this must be the Green Chapel.
He hears an axe being sharpened in the undergrowth across the gorge. Then the Green Knight appears, hops over a racing stream and confronts Gawain. Gawain bares his neck to receive the blow and the Green Knight swings his axe. But Gawain shrinks back and the Green Knight halts his stroke. Gawain steadies himself and promises not to flinch again. The Green Knight aims for a second stroke but again stops before striking Gawain. He says that as Gawain is now ready he will finally deliver the blow.
The Green Knight now explains that he is the lord of the castle and because Gawain was honest on the first two days of their agreement he left him unscathed with his first two blows but because on the third day Gawain kept secret the present of the green girdle he cut him with his third blow. This was the first order of knighthood to be established in medieval Europe and was widely emulated by other European monarchs.
Alfonso and his knights launched aggressive campaigns to expand the borders of Castile and in the English knight, Henry of Grosmont c. The following year Henry returned to England and the court of Edward III with tales of the chivalrous exploits of the Castilian knights.
In Edward III r. The king held stall one. This stall is still reserved for the monarch today. This suggests quite strongly that the patron of the poet was a Knight of the Garter with connections in northern England who flourished during the second half of the 14th century. One man stands out. John of Gaunt was born on June 24th, He was the third surviving son of Edward III. His nickname is a reference to his birthplace — Ghent, but during his lifetime it would have been more usual to refer to him by one of his many titles, the first of which, bestowed on him at the age of two, was Earl of Richmond.
Gaunt was invested into the Order of the Garter in , in stall He later transferred to stall two in after the death of his brother Edward the Black Prince. The most famous portrait of Gaunt includes the knotted belt of the order with its motto surrounding his coat of arms. Illumination from 'Cotton Nero A. X', c. In , while in her early twenties, Blanche died and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Thirty years later John would be buried beside her. In , during these campaigns, he was given the title Lord Bergerac and Roche-sur-Yon and this will be significant later.
There are good reasons to suppose that he would. He and his second wife visited often from the s and John set up a guild for the northern minstrels and established an annual festival at Tutbury where musicians competed to be King of the Minstrels for a year.
This festival is well documented and continued until the 18th century. It seems reasonable to suppose that Gaunt would not have been averse to hearing a good tale well told in his court.
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