The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Author(s): Alan M. Markman

Source: PMLA , Sep., 1957, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Sep., 1957), pp. 574-586
Published by: Modern Language Association

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 THE MEANINQ OF SIR GAWAIN AND THE
GREEN KNIGHT*

By Alan M. Markman

Knights who are at the wars eat their bread in sorrow; their ease is w
and sweat; they have one good day after many bad; they are vowed to all
ner of labour; they are for ever swallowing their fear; they expose thems
every peril; they give up their bodies to the adventure of life in dea
Great is the honour which knights deserve, and great the favour whic
should shew them, for all the reasons which I have told. . . . Of what pr
good knight? I tell you that through good knights is the king and the k
honoured, protected, feared and defended. ... I tell you that without
knights, the king is like a man who has neither feet nor hands.?Gutie
de Gamez1

OF ALL THE
renown thanknights
Gawain. who attended
In the twelfthArthur none
century achieved
Chretien greater
de Troyes
shrewdly observed that "Devant toz les buens chevaliers / Doit estre
Gauvains li premiers";2 some two hundred years later there appeared
the excellent Middle English romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?
It was a forthright declaration of Chretien's pronouncement. As every
reader who has read the romance knows, the account of Gawain's ad?
ventures at the castle of Bercilak de Hautdesert4 and the Green Chapel
is a first-rate narrative. It is therefore somewhat surprising to discover
that the bulk of Arthurian criticism which has been directed to Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight has largely overlooked the real source of
its extraordinary appeal. Early and late scholars have sought to establish
Gawain's origin among the ranks of primitive Celtic gods and to suggest,
it would seem, that Gawain's success might perhaps be best accounted
for because he is not to be taken for the representation of an ordinary
human being, but because he is, on the contrary, either a superhuman
or supernatural being. Some critics have been concerned with the Green
Knight himself, finding him to be, according to one report, an "unmistak-
able relation to the Green Man?the Jack in the Green or the wild man of
the village festivals of England and Europe," or, in another accounting,

* A shorter version of this paper, titled "Romance Hero and Antagonist in 'Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight', " was read to the Comp. Lit. n discussion group (Arthurian) of the
MLA at its 1955 meeting in Chicago.
1 El Vitorial, trans. Joan Evans, The Unconquered Knight (London, 1928), p. 61.
1 Erec und Enide, ed. W. Foerster (Halle, 1890), vv. 1691-1692.
8 All citations of the text are from the Gordon and Tolkien edition (Oxford, 1925);
translations are my own.
4 The form Bercilak appears to be better supported than Bertilak; see R. L. Smith,
"Guinganbresil and the Green Knight," JEGP, xlv (1946), 15 ff.

574

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 Alan M. Markman 575

a figure modeled on a person who actu

tury.6 Other scholars have turned the
provenience of the varied subject matte
this criticism have been, first, to make of
something of a mythological poem, or els
that its hero and antagonist are godlik
reader's attention away from the hero. A
very strange to the minds of the unkn
mance and the intelligent audience to. wh
The fourteenth century, it is true, lies
surrounded with some doubts and unce
mote that we cannot come to an under
literature. As a matter of fact, it ought t
a serious obligation to put ourselves back
century eyes, if we can, what people
listening to in, say, 1375. We may safel
fourteenth-century audience was pleas
in action, and that, like our own autho
able to communicate experience in a m
tions, and form which we observe in t
may be different from what we have g
nevertheless will yield positive reward
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight deserve
give to it as a literary work.
To begin, then, Sir Gawain and the G
romance. It is the especial nature of th
which we must direct our attention if we
tive the real functions and meaning of it
Bercilak, and its fundamental mixture
occurrence. To come at it directly, I sugg
the poem is to show what a splendid m
of demonstration in the romance, the
more careful consideration: its intent see
a real man against a marvelous, unnatu
can do when he is forced to face the u
the so-called "Love Test," tries the kni
tion. Finally, I shall point out that it is m
which informs and directs the marvelous occurrences in the romance.
Fitting his central role in the story, Gawain himself furnishes the key
which unlocks the mystery. "What," he asks, "can a man do but try?"
* J. Speirs," 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'," Scruiiny, xvi, iv (1949), 277; H. Brad-
dy, "Sir Gawain and Ralph Holmes the Green Knight," MLN, lxviii, iv (1952), 240-242.

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576 "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

(v. 565). What is to be elucidated is the nature of the test, or what may be
called the "romance function," that is, the technique which brings the
known in contention with the unknown so that, in the half real, half un-
real world of romance, the hero can demonstrate the very best action
which a man can perform. Here, where he did not think to look for it, is
Arnold's Hebraic tone, the message of conduct and obedience. What a
man must do, or, in a word, human conduct, is the heart of the poem,
and our participation in the hero's test is its source of pleasure.
There is no reason to doubt that, in this romance, Gawain is the rep-
resentation of a real man. In the entire poem there is not a line which
ascribes to the hero any superhuman or supernatural quality. Sir
Gawain's strength does not, like the sun, wax in the forenoon and wane in
the afternoon. His sword does not gleam like the rays of the sun. His
horse, Gringolet, is not considered to be a part of a sun god's apparatus;
he is a perfectly normal battle horse, the large, strong destrier so neces?
sary in feudal warfare. What, then, is the hero? He is the ideal feudal
Christian knight who not only represents the very highest reaches of
human behavior but who also holds out for our evaluation those qualities
in a man which his age, and the feudal age at large, admired most. He is
not, to be sure, an average man, nor is he the counterpart of any single
knight who ever lived; on the contrary, he is the very best knight who
sums up in his character the very best traits of all knights who ever
lived. If we consider the most favorable report of the character of knight-
hood from, say, Guillaume le Marechal to Edward, the Black Prince,
we shall find that in the aspect of Gawain presented in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight there is reflected the ideal of chevalerie which the feudal
age tried to maintain.
In the very first place we should notice Gawain's physical fitness for
knighthood. Throughout the feudal age the armored cavalryman had to
possess strength and endurance, he had to be skilled in the use of his
weapons, and he had to be a good horseman. Anything short of profi-
ciency in these qualities would have rendered a knight unfit. In Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight Gawain represents physical perfection. He is strong
enough to wield the Green Knight's tremendous ax; with one blow he
decapitates his adversary, driving the steel bit into the floor of Arthur's
hall (vv. 421-426). He has both the strength and endurance to complete
his arduous journey to the Green Chapel: a lesser man might well have
died on such a trip, but Gawain persisted, and, in spite of the severe
season (vv. 726-732), managed to survive.6 His agility in placing him-
6 In one sense it might be said that Gawain received supernatural assistance. His prayer
to Mary, we know, appeared to be answered almost at once. Yet he had already managed
to exist on his own, passing the ordeal of nature's most severe torment.

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 Alan M. Markman 577

self in position to attack after the Gr

him on the neck (vv. 2315-2319), as w
(vv. 421-426), demonstrates the skill
manded of the knight. His many days
concern for his horse which Gawain
shown to Gringolet by his host's men
too well the horsemanship expected o
Gawain is shown to be a perfect knigh
The nonphysical qualities of the idea
are courage, humility, courtesy, and l
demonstrated, in the first place, by h
strous challenge of the Green Knight
the Green Chapel. (The fundamental m
tion is really his sense of duty, or de
help his lord extricate himself from
loyalty. But the act demanded great co
man. Gawain's chagrin, displayed afte
the purpose of their bargain (vv. 236
any glory when he returned to Arthu
Gawain was, when he ought to be, a h
no discovery here. His very first wor
thur's permission to accept the challe
with the Lady of the Castle are the perf
Gawain courtesy was a way of life. Th
however, is his sense of loyalty. He is lo
loyal to his host, Bercilak. He is a ma
his word. His own declaration to his h
tarry, constitutes the extreme of tru
states, "to move on. I have now at my
would just as soon fall dead as fail
Loyalty, or trustworthiness, actually u
of the hero; he is the particular man he
compelled him to do what was most n
great feudal hero, Roland, Gawain's ch
of his peers and lord, was his Ciceronian
duty. A favorite with the ladies, a go
with a strong right arm, a decoration
of Knighthood"?all this Gawain is, bu
step from the pages of romance, our
wTould welcome him primarily, I thin
could be counted on to do, in any sit
done. As we found him to be eminently

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578 "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

so too do we find that Gawain's character illustrates perfection of knight-

hood.

It is obvious that the feudal age admired these qualities. The best
knights in real life were brave, they tried to be courteous, and, on occa-
sion, they made some show of humility. Loyalty, of course, was the
keystone of the entire feudal structure: when lord and vassal were loyal
to each other, society flourished; when they were not, society collapsed.
Appropriately, it is Gawain's loyalty which motivates the action of Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight. Had he not been loyal to Arthur and
Bercilak, had he not been a man of his word, the structure of the romance
would have collapsed; indeed, there would have been no romance.
Gawain, to be sure, is something more than a glittering symbol of
perfection. He is a man. One of the marks of genius in the romance is
the deliberate care which the poet took to make his hero human. His
acceptance of the Lady's lace, of course, is the most notable incident in
the romance which illustrates his humanity. But his behavior throughout
is distinctly human. He even tries to excuse his weakness by declaring,
in our human way, that he had been deceived. In anger, not directed to
the Lady, but to himself, he teils Bercilak that it had been his fate to
share the lot of Adam, David, and Samson. "These men," he declares,
"... wer forne the freest, }?at folsed alle J?e sele
Excellently of alle J?yse ol?er, vnder heuenryche
J>at mused;
And alle J?ay were biwyled
With wymen J?at J?ay vsed.
pa3 I be now bigyled,
Me J>ink me burde be excused." (vv. 2422-2428)

("were the best of the ancients, the most fortunate,

and excellent above all others under Heaven. They
were beguiled by women they consorted with; if I am
now deceived, I think 1 might be excused.")

All the more human for this slight fault, Gawain is a likable man who has
won the esteem and affection of his fellows (vv. 672-686). He is given,
both in the long romance tradition and in this romance, the highest
position; he is Arthur's nephew. His trials and joys are made to seem real
enough. Who could doubt that the young knight* so relieved at finding
unexpected coinfort in Bercilak's castle, so sihcere in both his moments
of elation and concern, is a human being? His greatness, I think, is
defined most clearly when, amidst the long faces of the court retinue
who tried to comfort him as he prepared to set out on a search which, it
was felt, must lead to certain death, Gawain alone remained calm, and
replied to his fellows:

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 Alan M. Markman 579

"... quat schuld I wonde?

Of destines derf and dere
What may mon do bot fonde?" (w. 563-565)
("Why should I hesitate? Against a
hard and dire fate, what can a man do
but try?")
Such a man we can all admire. Take him where you will in the romance,
Gawain is, for his age, the representation of the very best man who ever
lived.
Much has been said about the Green Knight. Bercilak's true nature
will be understood, however, oiily when it is realized that his primary
function is to serve as Gawain's antagonist. The Green Knight is not a
superhuman or supernatural being. He is an ordinary human being who,
as he tells it to Gawain, has been transformed by Morgan le Fay.
The full circumstances of transformations such as this are well known to
readers of romance. As Kittredge pointed out fifty years ago, what we
have in The Turk and Gowin, say, represents the more nearly normal
romance situation. The Turk, victim df a magic spell, lived for a time as
a misshapen creature; his disenchantment could be accomplished only
when he was decapitated by the best of all knights.7 The Gawain poet
employed an alternative pattern. Ordinarily we should witness the dis?
enchantment when Gawain decapitated the Green Knight. Instead of
seeing Bercilak arise from the floor of Arthur's hall, however, we observe
an even more fantastic occurrence?the Green Knight picks up his own
head. But there can be little doubt that the Green Knight had been put
under spell. He is not, to be sure, the victim of magic, but the agent of
magic, the marvelous man whose single purpose in the romance is to
serve as the agent of Morgan le Fay's will. It is a brilliant plan. Since
Gawain is the very best man, his opponent, if he is to test the hero
severely, must be something more than another ordinary human being.
The choice of a man temporarily endowed with the power of magic was
the best possible solution. Not only is the hero given a formidable
opponent but the adventure itself is also given its indispensable atmos?
phere of romance.
Although the romance is filled with realistic details which refiect its
author's accurate observation of his own time, life, and scene?as a matter
of fact, a line-by-line analysis discloses that slightly less than ten per cent
of the romance is given over to the marvelous?we must not overlook
the nature and purpose of the marvelous occurrences in Sir Gawain and
7 Life, temporarily, as a misshapen creature may be a punishment, a form of "penanee,"
or a disguise. Disenchantment, usually prescribed by the enchanter, may take almost any
form; a kiss, a word, or a specific act are common in romance. Disenchantment by de-
capitation is the most astonishing.

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580 "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

the Green Knight. To begin with, everything in the romance which is

either strange or untoward, or which cannot be explained rationally, and
which I call "the marvelous," is accounted for by the direct manifesta-
tion of Morgan le Fay's magical power, the transformation of Bercilak.
It is the magical power of Morgan le Fay, power she learned from Merlin
(vv. 2446-2452), which gives rise to the romance atmosphere in the
poem. All the lines which describe the Green Knight and his horse, the
passages given over to the fantastic bargain, and the description of the
final meeting of Gawain and the Green Knight, find their ultimate source
in Morgan le Fay's power. The Green Lace which Gawain accepts from
the Lady is a magic talisman; in another romance it might well have been
a ring, or brooch, or a necklace.8 All marvelous occurrences in the ro?
mance, in short, derive from magic, and, as the agent of Morgan le Fay, it
is Bercilak's single function to carry out her will. There can be no doubt
about it; within the framework of the romance structure of Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight the nature of the marvelous is magic. And although
this particular detail is not given, undoubtedly Morgan le Fay cast a
spell upon Bercilak, allowing him to assume a different shape, as the
Green Knight, when it served her purpose. Yet even if not more than
ten per cent of the romance is given over to the marvelous, the marvelous
is, of course, indispensable. It informs and shapes the entire narrative.
From the moment the Green Knight enters Arthur's hall until Gawain
returns safely to the same hall the action of the romance is severely
conditioned by the infiuence of Morgan le Fay's magic. It is the cohesive
force which joins together the two primary motifs in the poem, the
"Beheading Test" and the "Love Test." It is the force which compels
Gawain to begin his journey, and it is the force which pulls him into
Bercilak's castle. It is the force, finally, which constitutes the marvelous
atmosphere, which supplies the necessary feeling that everything which
occurs is occurring "nowhere," which makes us accept the fundamental
precept of romance, namely, that we are, at the same time, both in this

8 We scarcely need to be reminded that it is not a "love token." Incidentally, I do not

think, as Roger S. Loomis suggested some time ago ("More Celtic Elements in Gawain and
the Green Knight," JEGP, xlii [April 1943], 149, 153), that Bercilak was wearing that
same lace about his waist when he appeared as the Green Knight at Arthur's court. The
lace, to be sure, belonged to Bercilak (vv. 2358-2359), but it appears more likely, if indeed
he took it to Arthur's hall, that it was wrapped around his ax helve, not about himself. (Cf.
the lace, vv. 1829-1833, with the description of the ax, vv. 217-220.) At any rate, he sur-
vived Gawain's blow because of Morgan le Fay's power; he would not have needed an
additional magical warranty. If, as I think, Bercilak did not rely on the lace, the lace then
becomes an object of curiosity indeed, for it is a magic talisman never put to the test. Since
Gawain, as it turns out, has no opportunity to rely on it either, we have no grounds for be?
lief in its efikacy. We may perhaps conclude that a man who relies on his own integrity and
honor has no need of a magic talisman.

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 Alan M. Markman 581

world and in another world.9

Thus far I have described what I think is the true nature of the hero,
the antagonist, and the romance atmosphere of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight. How and why the romance is constructed as it is becomes the
most important question one can ask about the poem. Not only is it a
question, by and large, which Arthurian criticism has neglected, but it
also is, I am convinced, the most fruitful inquiry criticism can undertake.
Sometimes a simple observation will bear useful results: it is so in the
case at hand. A striking difference may be observed between the be?
havior of the romance hero, the epic hero, and the hero of the modern
novel. It seems to be the function of the epic hero to show off, to display
his well-known qualities in actions which, for the most part, were al?
ready known and admired by the audience which listened to the recita-
tion. The exploits of Achilles, for example, were familiar to all, a part of
public knowledge, so to speak. So too was his personality known. There
was never a question of what Achilles would or would not do, or why he
acted as he did. One's pleasure in the recital of old deeds surely must have
come about as a result of perceiving, once again, the familiar champion
going through his paces. The epic hero had to earn his stature, no doubt
in lays or folksongs, before he could be given immortality in the epic
form. In its best form, such a recital must have been both inspiring and
pleasing, and so long as the heroic age persisted, every man must have
felt, each time he listened to the recitation, an intimate kinship with
the great hero. At the other extreme, the hero of the modern novel is, in
? The power of Morgan le Fay has apparently overwhehned at least one reader. D. E.
Baughan, in "The Role of Morgan Le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," ELH, xvn
(1950), 241-251, insists the poem is "an apotheosization of chastity." To make his case,
Baughan argues that the "Beheading Test" and the "Love Test" illustrate the same virtue,
the hero's chastity. There is no need, of course, to suppose that only one virtue in man
must be held out for our evaluation; the poem is not that restricted. Baughan, it seems,
works it out this way: the Lady of the Castle tests Gawain's chastity; the "Beheading
Test," ideally, ought also to test Gawain's chastity; therefore Bercilak's intent, imposed
upon him by Morgan le Fay, was to demonstrate that Arthur was unchaste, and so failed
to decapitate Bercilak, and that Gawain, because he was chaste, succeeded in striking off
Bercilak's head. Unfortunately, there is no authority in the text for such a reading. The pas?
sage Baughan refers to, "Now hat3 Arthure his axe, & J>e halme grype3,/& sturnely sture3
hit aboute, J>at stryke wyth/ hit Jx>3t" (vv. 330-331), states that Arthur, the Green
Knight's ax in his hands, "grips the helve and whirls it about sternly as if he intended to
strike with it." Baughan wants to read "... struck with it." (Baughan, p. 246: "the poet
gave the account something of Morgan's magic so that it seems almost as if Arthur did not
strike.") But it is not possible to read "j?at stryke wyth hit Jx>3t" struck with it; literally,
the phrase is rendered "that thing he seemed to strike with." (ME }>ynken<OE Jjyncan,
imp. vb., "seem, appear." The Gawain poet, had he meant "struck," would have written
stroke, as he did in v. 671.) The "many and seemingly insoluble questions that have been
raised regarding the plot" (Baughan, p. 251) are not to be answered by forcing the text
to say something it does not.

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582 uSir Gawain and the Green Knight"

the beginning, an unknown quantity, and the situations into which h

is to be placed are unpredictable. What is perhaps the most significan
of all literary innovations, character development, separates a Michae
Henchard, say, or a Santiago, from Achilles. Before our very eyes, fro
page to page as we follow him from one incident to the next, we see t
hero of the modern novel grow. The hero of modern fiction has to ea
his stature as he goes along. Our pleasure in reading the account of th
modern hero's actions surely comes about because we see in his develop
ment something of ourself, because, imaginatively and sympatheticall
we are the hero.
Midway between the epic hero and the modern hero lies the romance
hero. Where we find both the character and the actions of the epic hero
known in advance, where we find both the character and the actions of
the modern hero unknown in advance, we find that the character of the
romance hero is known in advance but his action and behavior are not.
My guess is that the romance hero exists to show us the way. We know
who the hero is and what he is like, but we do not know what he will do.
Gawain is the best man, we know?his carefully established reputation
attests no less?the one knight who ought to perform in any situation as
well as any man might be expected to. What reason could there be for
placing such a man in action other than to test him, to try out our best
representative? The romance hero brings his reputation along with him,
but he has to earn stature in the romance; he may, as a matter of fact,
gain or lose everything as he goes along; he has, indeed, a perilous course
to tread, the eyes of readers of all ages watching each step he takes. It is
the function of the romance hero, I think, to stand as the champion of the
human race, and, by submitting to strange and severe tests, to demon?
strate human capabilities for good or bad action. Seldom do we ask
ourselves why the romance hero does this or does that: always we ask,
"What will he do now?" or "How can he do that?" The romance condi?
tion seems to be very much like this: we construct the very best man to
represent ideal human behavior; we ask, then, what could such a man
do if he were to be placed in the most trying, the strangest positions; we
provide the unnatural incidents of romance to test the hero, because only
the unknown can constitute a valid test and, at the same time, generate
the universal appeal of the mysterious, the remote. There is no doubt
in my mind that the charm and appeal of Gawain is this: of all champions
who have set out in romances to show us the way, none has lived up to
his reputation so well as Gawain.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight displays the perfect knight contend-
ing against the unknown. No part of its structure can be elucidated if it is
considered apart from its proper relationship to the chief aim of the
romance, namely, to test Gawain and, in so doing, to project his behavior

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 Alan M. Markman 583

as a model for the very best human co

in the romance to bring Gawain, the k
known. The first, which initiates the a
seated confortably in Arthur's hall, find
has come to him. The confusion and sh
unexpected entrance could occur only i
hero and the mysterious man, the known
together, are placed in contention. Eve
narrative structure is formulated by t
under his arm, rides out of Arthur's hall
time, the hero will set out on his search
or not, either keep his part of the barga
life. Let us think of it as a straight line
B, the Green Chapel, and a direct retu
brilliance is revealed when we recall th
from A to B, but goes instead to C, Be
B. The second method, used to cause G
route, I call "deflection." The hero is d
which becomes, as we know, a second t
castle, the hero returns to his primary
B, the hero returns, of course, to A. Sure
cations of skill in the poem is the passage
tion to the second adventure. It is all don
Gawain does not know, nor could he p
for him inside the castle so fortuitous
this skill we shall have to consider, for
romance. There are two geographies in Si
what can be called "real" geography an
geography. From the time Gawain rid
wits' end and near physical exhausti
thick wood that was "strangely wild" (
set by "many marvels in the mountai
has been in the real world: our normal
hend the land he traverses, even if it cou
his path. But at the instant Gringolet e
his rider into a different world. He ha
which separates the real world from th

10 In the romance an imaginary boundary is es

the "romance" world, the principal action usuall
It may be an obvious feature of terrain, such as t
and the Turk disappear {The Turk and Gowin, e
vv. 66-68), or an inconspicuous line of brush w
snare Arthur (The Weddynge of Syr Gawen and

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 584 uSir Gawain and the Green Knight"

heartland of romance, anything can happen; here, the hero will find more
than he bargained for. The deflection, of course, is, like all the action
of the romance, conditioned by Morgan le Fay's power. For although
the poet writes that Gawain prayed for assistance, we know that the
prayer was not necessary; the hero would have been drawn to the caitle
in any event. Had a wide net been spread to snare him, Gawain could not
have been more efficiently pulled into the castle. What is more likely
than the Christian knight praying? What is more unlikely than immedi?
ate manifestation of the eificacy of prayer? Always, in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight, the real and the unreal are brought together; always, in
romance, such things can happen. It is a delightful irony, as we see it
work out, that Gawain should be put to an unlooked-for test while he
takes comfort, anticipating the real test some few days later. But, once
more, that is the sort of thing we expect in the romance world. Such is
the scheme of the structure of the poem, a scheme brilliantly devised to
show how the very best knight might be expected to behave when he is
pitted against the unknown.
A word or two must be inserted here about the nature of the "Love
Test" or so-called "Chastity Test." As other scholars have pointed out,11
what keeps Gawain from inviting the Lady into his bed, to be blunt
about it, is not his chastity, but his strong sense of loyalty. As the guest
of Bercilak, Gawain is in the position, for the duration of his visit, of
vassal to his host; his host is, for the time, his lord. It would have been a
heinous breach of loyalty to his lord had Gawain made love to his
lord's wife. Any feudal audience would understand that; the lovely
chatelaine, at the hands of Gawain, was inviolable. It is, of course, a
severe, extreme test of Gawain's integrity. The hero is placed in a
terrifying dilemma. On the one hand he faces the normal sexual impulse
of any man; on the other, his sense of propriety and his loyalty to his
lord. Because he is courteous, he cannot treat the Lady summarily. To his
great credit, and the glory of British literature, Gawain retains both his
honor and his reputation. The poet, however, is not without a sense of
justice, and Gawain, because he made the slightest compromise, does
not leave Bercilak's domain completely unscarred. His chastity was never
in the balance, but his integrity was; for the small chink in his otherwise
unsullied armor Gawain will pay?he will carry to his grave a slight scar

Coll. Stud. in Mod. Lang. [Northampton, Mass.], v, iv, 1924, vv. 44-45). Whatever its na?
ture, this boundary exists, and the hero must cross it to reach his goal. Once across the line
inside the romance world, geography, on purpose, is obscure. We could, for example, follow
Gawain's route for a time, but we would have no more chance of finding Bercilak's castle
than Master Wace had of finding faeries in the forest of Broceliande.
11 Principally J. R. Hulbert, " 'Sir Gawayn and the Grene Kny3t'," MP, xm (Dec. 1915;
April 1916), 433, 691, et passim.

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 Alan M. Markman 585

on his neck. The "Love Test" and the

each other. Man's greatest virtue, Sir
us, is loyalty, and if we wish to act to
loyal to those who deserve our loyalty
to our station and social duty. For the m
which Holy Mother Church afforded to
be no better injunction.12
There are, to be sure, other matters
poet's sense of time and pseudohistory
reinforces the romance atmosphere. O
of Gawain versus the Green Knight
Knight's wife, say, or the similarity b
the Green Knight and by his normal sel
tion. I think, however, that they all f
outline I have described. Other elemen
ism, for example, as well as the deep
call "the sheer joy of living," are imp
look in another direction for a momen
mance which ought not to be passed
traces of the Celtic world of mythology

12 G. J. Englehardt, in "The Predicament of G

however, sees in the poem a lesson more suited t
Englehardt's judgment I have no quarrel. By rest
Gawain, he draws attention to the force and te
hero, in his test at the castle, has to face. Fur
"pentagonal" Gawain is masterly. But when I a
tially the consideration of Gawain's "predicament
piety, and courtesy) that would govern the thr
complete knight . . . might demonstrate his perf
total structure of the poem, I find that Sir Gaw
moral romance, but a theological dissertation, a C
tion of man. The poem thus turns out to be "a
signed to reveal how human and imperfect is eve
pentagonal Gawain" (p. 225, n. 14, ?2. Note t
Baughan's reading of vv. 330-338; ?1 of this not
read Englehardt, but I detect here a denigratio
certain of the Welsh lives of the saints, in whi
down a peg. It is, I think, unfair to Gawain. Whe
his superior quality as a man, Englehardt seem
the behavior of Christ. So far as we can determ
prefer to state that the poem is a "humane and
human conduct, of a model man. Gawain is a s
possible one. The poem seems to tell us that we
avoid action because we might be forced to place
seems to tell us that we are allowed an occasio
need not, I think, look to Sir Gawain and the Gr
only Christ could spurn Satan.

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 586 "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

"Northern, or Cold Hell," so-called. Certainly the romance has a posi?

tive and healthy Christian tone. I neither deny nor ignore these details
I simply believe they are of secondary importance.
What we need constantly to keep in mind, of course, is the real obliga-
tion to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a romance. The poem
is not just the exposition of a single virtue, say chastity; to take it so
is to underread the romance. Nor is it a Christian declaration of man's
imperfection; to take it so is to overread the romance, to take it as pri?
marily a Christian poem. Of course it is a Christian poem, but not
exclusively, not even primarily so, as, say, Robert Grosseteste's Chasteau
d'Amour, or Chaucer's Second Nun's Tale, or Richard Rolle's religious
lyrics are Christian. What we have at hand, I think, is the matter of the
poet's attitude. I believe the Gawain poet's attitude (not his intention,
which we do not know) is quite clearly that here is a man who goes as far
as man can, who shows human capacity for action, who drums into our
consciousness the most moral of earthly lessons?we must act as our
duty to others dictates. And so it is I see loyalty as the human trait which
underlies and informs all the virtues we see in Gawain. In short, of all the
components which inform and shape the romance?magic, Christianity,
realistic details, the overtones I have alluded to?what comes out of it is
not a symbolic knight in shining armor, but a man. Perhaps I have erected
a "live horse" to beat?I am really not sure I have not?but the poem,
like Gringolet, can carry this additional burden.
What I believe to be most important in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight, put as directly as I can, is that its true mark of genius is its force-
ful presentation of its human hero, Gawain. He is the point of interest;
he indeed comes first. The romance exists to show us what a splendid
man he is. We are drawn to him because, as he passes his tests, he shows
us our capabilities for human conduct, because, in the best sense of it,
he shows us what honest moral conduct is. We shall probably not equal
his behavior, but we admire him for pointing out the way. We approach
this excellent romance properly, I think, when we see that it is the urgent
concern of Gawain to show us something of ourselves, to show us our
human capability for right and good action, and, in fulfilling a funda?
mental requirement of fiction, to show us, in some measure, what it
means to be alive in the world.13

University of Pittsburgh

13 In the last 5 or 6 years, accompanying a wholesome revival of interest in medieval l

and literature, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has received its share of attention. Ap
from the Baughan and Englehardt articles which I had to take some account of,
following works deserve notice: John Speirs, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Scrut
xvi, iv (1949), 274-300; Dorothy Everett, Essays on Middle English Literature, ed
tricia Kean (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), pp. 75-77, et passim; H.L. Savage, T
Gawain-Poet (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press), 1956.

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