Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Nahir I. Otaño Gracia; Averie Basch

4 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Nahir I. Otaño Gracia and Averie Basch

Middle English

14th Century England

The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the most popular surviving Arthurian texts. Written in the fourteenth century by an author known as the Pearl Poet, this Middle English work follows Sir Gawain, knight of the Round Table and nephew to King Arthur, as he faces the challenge posed by an Otherworldly Green Knight. The story survives only in one manuscript: Cotton Nero A.x., which also contains the dream poem Pearl for which the author is named. Despite only appearing in this one manuscript, the Pearl Poet’s works are well-known. The Green Knight in particular has been popular for centuries and has been translated into modern languages many times.

King Arthur’s court at Camelot is famous in literature for its noteworthy members: Queen Guinevere and Arthur sit at the Round Table with the knights Sirs Ywain, Erec, Lancelot, Boors, and Bedivere, amongst others. Though a fictional world, Camelot stands for a medieval ideal of chivalry with knights hailing from across the British Isles and the continent. While not all its knights are chivalrous, the Round Table carries a connotation of heroism and fairness. Tales of these knights feature heroes who venture into unknown lands, rescue beautiful ladies, and defeat worthy foes. Usually, Camelot acts as a Christian court but is no stranger to Otherworldly magic that comes in both benevolent, malevolent, and neutral forms.

Gawain, son of King Arthur’s sister, is the main character of a number of romances (see Thomas Hahn’s Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales). He is the king’s closest male relative and thus is often challenged to prove himself. Many times, Gawain enters into the Otherworld to tame and bring it under Arthur’s control. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a representative of the Otherworld interrupts a New Year’s feast at Camelot. The Greek Knight is clearly a supernatural entity, evidenced by his greenness: his clothes, skin, and horse are all the color of nature. Evocative of the Holly King, the Green Knight carries a spring of holly and an ax with which he challenges the Round Table’s knights to a celebratory exchange of blows. When Gawain chooses to behead the stranger, he sentences himself to the same fate, as the Green Knight is not killed by the otherwise deadly strike. As an honorable knight, Gawain is held to his word and sets out to meet his fate the next winter. As the narrative continues, Gawain rides through the forests of Britain, meets legendary figures, and befriends a castle lord near Christmastime, only to be tested in friendship by the lord’s wife. Gawain represents all of Camelot when he weighs his honor against his mortality as he rises to meet the Green Knight’s challenge in a land of the supernatural.

Considered one of the greatest Middle English poems, the text for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is available in multiple formats with a lot of information and misinformation available online.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight is available here, translated by Jessie L. Weston (1999):

https://www.yorku.ca/inpar/sggk_weston.pdf

GROUP EXERCISES

Close reading and note taking

Organize students into six groups. Each group will analyze a passage using the following prompt adapted from Classics Writes.

Close reading and note taking help us “notice, describe, and interpret details” of a text to delve deeply into a passage’s “language, content, structure, and patterns” and understand what the “passage means, what it suggests, and how it connects to the larger work.”

We would like to be able to answer the following questions:

“What does the passage say?”
“What does the passage imply?”
“How does the passage connect to its context?”

Passages:

Each group will do one of the following passages with three groups doing each passage.

Passage one: Book 1, section XIII (pg. 11)

Passage two: Book 2, section IX (pgs. 24 – 25)

Each group will do the same exercise again on one section of the three famous hunting scenes from SGGK—the deer, boar, and fox.

Passage one: Book 3, section II (pg. 40)

Passage two: Book 3, section XII (pgs. 48-49)

Passage three: Book 3, section XXIV (pg. 58)

Now that you have your passages, let’s look at the prompt:

To understand the passages more deeply, feel free to use this approach adapted from ClassicWrites and use the prompt from the close reading exercise on The Turke and Sir Gawain (Chapter #).

For now, let’s think about the literal meaning of the passages and answer the following questions:

What does the passage say (in your own words), especially if you treat it as a complete text in its own right. What are the formal mechanisms that give meaning to the passage?
“Narrative: How would you describe the narrative voice in your passage? Is the narrator first or third person, male or female, omniscient or restricted in knowledge? What are the limitations of the narrator, and how are these reflected in the text?”
“Structure: How is the passage structured? Does it move from point A to B? Does it move from point A to B and then back to A again (ring composition)? Does it linger on a single detail?”
“Patterns: Are there images, keywords, or other devices that reappear in the passage? Are these elements used the same way? Finding a pattern can help establish general characteristics of the text.”

What does the passage imply?
“The next step in close reading is to start examining the implications of a passage. One way to delve into the implications of a passage is to connect its formal elements to your literal reading. Do these formal mechanisms underscore or undermine what the passage says on a literal level?”
How does the passage connect to its context? How does the meaning contribute to the work as a whole (or not)?
“Does this passage share imagery with another passage in the work? Does it contradict it? Does the passage engage with larger themes (e.g., vision and voyeurism, popular politics, the nature of desire)? Are there important similarities and differences between this passage and others like it throughout the work?”

Answer the questions for the first assigned passage and go over your answers with your group. Do the exercise again with the hunting scenes.

Doing this exercise will give you a deeper understating of the text. This is the first step to creating an analysis. Now on your own, you must interpret the passages. Ask yourself, what do you do with your insights to make meaning of what is happening in the scenes? Think deeply about your answers because this is the kind of thinking that will help you come up with your own thesis statements and analyses.

ASSIGNMENTS

Found Poem, Illustrate-a-Tale, Graphic Story

Choose one of the following and apply it to Gilgamesh, Arabian Nights, or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Found poem. Take a page from one of the texts, read, and remove words to create your own poem derived from the original. The poem you create does not have to be about the subject matter of the text.

Illustrate-a-tale. Create illustrations either digitally or by hand using any medium (Do not use AI).

The Graphic Story. Turn a portion of the text into a comic/ graphic novel.

Requirements:

Be sure to reference the poem/work that you have chosen.
There is no length requirement for this assignment; simply answer the prompt to the best of your ability. Your project should have substantive content that demonstrates a familiarity with your selected poem.
Include a 300-500 word creative statement that helps to contextualize your own creation. The statement can show me your thought process, guide me in understanding your poem, illustration, or comic, and/or reflect on the creative process and any difficulties you encountered.