Summary: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Dur­ing a gath­er­ing on the night of the New Year at the regal court, a pecu­liar fig­ure referred to as the Green Knight inter­rupts the mer­ri­ment. He presents a dis­tinct chal­lenge, offer­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty for any coura­geous indi­vid­ual to strike him with his axe, with the con­di­tion that the same blow must be returned in a year at the knight’s loca­tion. Ini­tial­ly sur­prised, King Arthur steps up to meet the chal­lenge. Before Arthur can pro­ceed, Sir Gawain steps in, vol­un­teer­ing to take on the task. With a sin­gle force­ful stroke, Gawain decap­i­tates the Green Knight. In a sur­pris­ing twist, the behead­ed knight retrieves his head and, before depart­ing, reminds Gawain of their sched­uled ren­dezvous in a year and a day at the Green Chapel.

As autumn arrives, Gawain departs from Camelot to ful­fill his end of the pact. On his jour­ney toward North Wales, he faces per­ilous encoun­ters with hos­tile crea­tures, severe weath­er con­di­tions, and deplet­ing resources. On Christ­mas Day, seek­ing solace to attend Mass, he chances upon a cas­tle. The lord of the cas­tle lat­er revealed as Berti­lak, sug­gests a friend­ly game to Gawain: Berti­lak will hunt each day, and upon his return, they will exchange their respec­tive spoils. Dur­ing Berti­lak’s hunt­ing expe­di­tions, his wife endeav­ors to seduce Gawain mul­ti­ple times, shar­ing kiss­es with him, which Gawain duti­ful­ly offers to Berti­lak as his win­nings. On the third day, the lady bestows upon Gawain a mag­i­cal green sash, believed to safe­guard the wear­er from mor­tal­i­ty. Intrigued and des­per­ate, Gawain accepts the sash but con­ceals this from Berti­lak dur­ing their exchange of win­nings. The arrival of the New Year sees Gawain, now armed with the enchant­ed sash, set­ting out to con­front the Green Knight.

Upon reach­ing the des­ig­nat­ed site, a Green Knight, lat­er unveiled as Berti­lak emerges. He takes three swings at Gawain, only graz­ing him on the third attempt. It is then unveiled that the entire sce­nario was devised by Mor­gan le Faye, Gawain’s mater­nal aunt, and Arthur’s half-sis­ter, to eval­u­ate Gawain’s code of knight­hood. Although Gawain is relieved to have sur­vived, he grap­ples with remorse over his deceit con­cern­ing the green sash. He choos­es to bear the sash as a sym­bol of his lapse. Upon his return to Arthur’s court, all the knights adopt a green sash as a dis­play of uni­ty with Gawain.

Chapter 1

The nar­ra­tive com­mences with a recount­ing of the myth­ic begin­nings of Britain. Fol­low­ing the fall of Troy, sev­er­al heroes set off to estab­lish civ­i­liza­tions. Romu­lus, Ticius, and Bru­tus found­ed Rome, Tus­cany, and Britain respec­tive­ly. The author intro­duces Britain’s renowned King Arthur and pledges to relate an adven­ture from Arthuri­an lore. The tale unfolds dur­ing Christ­mas at the court of King Arthur in Camelot. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table par­take in the rev­el­ries, presided over by Queen Guin­e­vere. After a fort­night of feast­ing, the dawn of New Year’s Day arrives. One and all engage in New Year’s fes­tiv­i­ties, exchang­ing gifts and affec­tion. Arthur intro­duces a cap­ti­vat­ing tra­di­tion: he will not dine until a mar­velous tale is recount­ed. Amidst the ban­quet, Arthur, along with his nephew Gawain and Guin­e­vere, sits at the pres­ti­gious table, antic­i­pat­ing a mar­vel. Sud­den­ly, a colos­sal, enig­mat­ic knight barges in on horse­back. Clad entire­ly in green, his horse, hair, and beard matched the hue with shim­mer­ing gold­en high­lights. Bran­dish­ing a hol­ly bob and an impos­ing green and gold axe, the knight chal­lenges Arthur with­out divulging his iden­ti­ty, stu­pe­fy­ing every­one into silence. Despite Arthur’s invi­ta­tion to join the feast and nar­rate his tale, the knight refus­es, stat­ing his pur­pose is to test the val­or of the court’s esteemed knights. He prof­fers a game where­in he will be struck with his own axe, with the under­stand­ing that the blow will be rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed in a year and a day. The court is tak­en aback by the terms of the game. The Green Knight ques­tions the brav­ery of the knights, goad­ing Arthur to defend his court. Just as Arthur read­ies him­self to deliv­er the blow to the Green Knight, Gawain inter­cedes, vol­un­teer­ing to under­take the chal­lenge. By artic­u­lat­ing the stip­u­la­tions of the game with pre­ci­sion, and demon­strat­ing com­pre­hen­sion of the pact, Gawain beheads the Green Knight in a sin­gle auda­cious swing. Sub­se­quent­ly, the Green Knight seizes his detached head and departs the hall on his mount, leav­ing Arthur and Gawain to sus­pend the axe and resume their festivities.

Chapter 2

The sub­se­quent sec­tion of the nar­ra­tive revis­its the New Year’s feast where King Arthur was con­front­ed with the game of the Green Knight, ush­er­ing in Gawain’s extra­or­di­nary odyssey. The tale tra­vers­es the cycle of sea­sons from Christ­mas through Lent, spring, sum­mer, har­vest, and cul­mi­nat­ing in win­ter once more. On the feast day of All Saints, Gawain embarks from Camelot on his quest to locate the Green Chapel. Despite his appre­hen­sions, Gawain arms him­self in elab­o­rate armor, fea­tur­ing a shield embell­ished with a gold­en pen­tan­gle bear­ing an image of the Vir­gin Mary. This pen­tan­gle sym­bol­izes Gawain’s virtues: his fac­ul­ties, fin­gers, fideli­ty, for­ti­tude, and knight­ly code. Bid­ding farewell to his com­pan­ions, Gawain along­side his steed, Gringo­let, embarks on his expe­di­tion. Con­front­ed by adver­saries such as wolves, drag­ons, bulls, bears, boars, and giants, Gawain emerges tri­umphant. How­ev­er, he con­tends with the chill and phan­toms while slum­ber­ing in his armor. On the eve of Christ­mas, Gawain entreats for a locale to attend the mid­night Mass. Sub­se­quent­ly, he sights an impres­sive cas­tle amidst the foliage. Grant­ed entry, he is warm­ly received by the occu­pants, eager to glean insights from Gawain’s chival­rous con­duct. The lord of the cas­tle, a stout, yet genial mid­dle-aged man, despite his rugged exte­ri­or, hosts Gawain. With­in the castle’s walls, Gawain rel­ish­es in a grand ban­quet and is intro­duced to the host’s youth­ful, love­ly wife, along with an aged, garbed woman. The fes­tiv­i­ties span sev­er­al days. Yet, Gawain remains cog­nizant of his impend­ing encounter with the Green Knight. Declin­ing the host’s offer for an extend­ed stay, believ­ing he must locate the Green Chapel, Gawain receives assur­ance from the host regard­ing the chapel’s prox­im­i­ty. An agree­ment is struck between Gawain and the host, where they will exchange their dai­ly acqui­si­tions for the forth­com­ing three days, sealed with a kiss before retir­ing for the night.

Chapter 3

At the break of dawn, the denizens of the cas­tle pre­pare for a day of hunt­ing. Post mass and morn­ing repast, they ven­ture forth with their hounds as the sun ascends, pur­su­ing deer amid the woods. Employ­ing arrows, the hunters bring down mul­ti­ple deer, with the canines track­ing and the hunts­men dis­patch­ing the injured ones with knives. Mean­while, Gawain remains ensconced in bed until day­break. As he does, he catch­es sight of the host’s wife approach­ing his bed­side as the door creaks open. Pre­tend­ing to slum­ber, he wit­ness­es the lady advanc­ing towards him. Ban­ter­ing, she jests about his deep sleep and feign­ing cap­ture, prompt­ing Gawain to play along. She dis­clos­es her famil­iar­i­ty with Gawain and express­es a desire to spend time with him, even propos­ing her­self to him. Their exchange con­tin­ues, with the lady divulging she would have cho­sen Gawain as her part­ner if plau­si­ble. Gawain deflects her advances, uphold­ing his cau­tious yet cour­te­ous demeanor. Upon her depar­ture, she reproach­es him for his pur­port­ed guise, as he allows her to leave with­out a part­ing kiss. Gawain deliv­ers a farewell kiss, and the lady exits, leav­ing Gawain to reflect on the unfold­ing events. Show­ing affec­tion, dress­es, and joins the ladies upon com­plet­ing mass. Mean­while, the noble­man and his hunt­ing group con­clude their day by prepar­ing the deer they’ve tak­en down. The poet elo­quent­ly por­trays the process. The hunters then head back home with their achieve­ments. The host presents Gawain with the veni­son and rec­i­p­ro­cates the kiss received from the woman. Both indi­vid­u­als agree to con­tin­ue their exchange game the fol­low­ing day. The sub­se­quent two days repli­cate the ini­tial one. On the sec­ond day, the host hunts a wild swine, and Gawain is award­ed two kiss­es by the woman. In the evening, the host exchanges the swine’s head for the two kiss­es. On the third day, after expe­ri­enc­ing night­mares of the Green Knight, Gawain is awak­ened by the woman and gift­ed three kiss­es. She then bestows upon him a green belt with pur­port­ed mag­i­cal qual­i­ties believed to safe­guard the wear­er. Tempt­ed by the promise of pro­tec­tion, Gawain accepts the belt. Lat­er, Gawain con­fess­es his wrong­do­ings with­out men­tion­ing the belt. The host hosts a farewell cel­e­bra­tion for Gawain, who then retires to his cham­bers, pre­pared to set off for the Green Chapel the fol­low­ing day. The poet leaves it ambigu­ous whether Gawain was able to rest that night.

Chapter 4

On a New Year’s morn­ing, as day­light begins to emerge, Gawain equips him­self for his expe­di­tion. Ful­ly clad in armor, he fas­tens the lady’s green belt around his waist before com­menc­ing with Gringo­let. Depart­ing, Gawain inward­ly prays for the castle’s well-being and pros­per­i­ty for his hosts. Accom­pa­nied by a guide, they nav­i­gate through the snowy slopes until the guide pro­pos­es a life-sav­ing sug­ges­tion. Should Gawain choose to with­draw instead of con­fronting the Green Knight, the guide pledges silence. Despite the cau­tion, Gawain insists on fac­ing his des­tiny. After the guide departs, Gawain ven­tures into the wild, dis­cov­er­ing a pecu­liar mound that hap­pens to be the Green Chapel. As he approach­es the chapel, lance in hand, a fore­bod­ing sound sends shiv­ers down his spine—the dis­tinct noise of a weapon being honed. Although ter­ri­fied, Gawain pro­claims his arrival and his com­mit­ment to ful­fill­ing his pact. The Green Knight emerges, wield­ing an axe, and prais­es Gawain for his punc­tu­al­i­ty. Remind­ing Gawain of their agreement—a strike for a behead­ing. The ini­tial swing of the Green Knight’s axe halts abrupt­ly as Gawain flinch­es. Despite mock­ing from the Green Knight, Gawain assures him that it won’t recur. The sub­se­quent swing also comes to a halt, this time laud­ing Gawain’s courage. The third swing grazes Gawain’s neck, prompt­ing him to recoil, sword drawn, ready for com­bat. How­ev­er, the Green Knight refus­es to engage, elu­ci­dat­ing that the ini­tial two swings were feints, indica­tive of Gawain’s hon­esty over the ini­tial two days. The final cut serves as his penal­ty for con­ceal­ing the green belt. Reveal­ing him­self as Berti­lak, Gawain’s host, the Green Knight par­dons Gawain for his faults. Berti­lak, amused, invites Gawain back to the cas­tle for New Year’s fes­tiv­i­ties, prof­fer­ing the green belt as a memen­to. Gawain, how­ev­er, declines, express­ing his dis­il­lu­sion­ment with the treach­ery of women before ulti­mate­ly accept­ing the belt and embark­ing towards Camelot. Upon his return, Gawain nar­rates his saga, pledg­ing to wear the belt eter­nal­ly as a reminder of his trans­gres­sions. To demon­strate sol­i­dar­i­ty, the court opts to don green silk belts. The poet con­cludes the nar­ra­tive by extolling the verac­i­ty of this account from the era of King Arthur and exalt­ing Christ.