Sir gawain and the green knight pdf norton

English Essay Analytical

English 2332 – Essay Test Two
Read these instructions carefully. You don't get a second chance at completing this assignment.

Choose ONE of the questions below for your essay response. Develop a well-organized essay of at least 2-3 typed, double-spaced pages, using MLA formatting and documentation style. **You must supply direct quotes from the literature (course readings) to support your ideas.

NO USE OF I, ME, WE, YOU – in your writing. This is an analysis, not a personal essay.

Use the readings, the Dallas College Library Databases, (Literary Reference Center or Academic Search Complete) or Google Scholar for your research. You may use two additional research sources in addition to the reading assignments. List all sources used on a Works Cited page.

Option #1:
From the literature we read, identify each type of conflict, and give an example from both Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales. Compare and contrast the types of conflict. Which type of conflict do you think is the most effective? Why?

Option #2:
Compare and contrast the use of humor in the two works: Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales. How does the use of humor help to support the central theme of each? Does one author make better use of humor? Be sure to clearly state the central theme of each work and then discuss the role humor plays in supporting these themes.

Option #3:
Compare and contrast the use of violence in the two works: Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales. In what way does the use of violence further a central theme of each work. Does one author make better use of violence? Be sure to clearly state the central themes of each work and then discuss the role violence plays in supporting those themes.

Option #4:
Compare and contrast the morality being promoted in the two works: Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales. What are the two or three values being promoted in each work. Are the same values being promoted in both or are different values being promoted? How is the presentation of these values similar or different? Which author is more successful in promoting specific values?

Note: Although this is an exam, it’s still an essay, and as such, you may use the OWL or visit the Academic Skills Center for tutorial support. Be sure to follow directions for in-person tutorial support. Dr. Forbess

AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION

W. W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. also publishes

THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE edited by M. H. Abrams et al.

THE NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY edited by Arthur M. Eastman et al.

WORLD MASTERPIECES edited by Maynard Mack et al.

THE NORTON READER edited by Arthur M. Eastman et al.

THE NORTON FACSIMILE OF

THE FIRST FOLIO OF SHAKESPEARE prepared by Charlton Hinman

and the NORTON CRITICAL EDITIONS

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION

by MARIE BORROFF

YALE UNIVERSITY

W · W · NORTON & COMPANY · INC · New York

COPYRIGHT @ 1967 BY W. W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 67·16601

All Rights Reserved

Published simultaneously in Canada by

George J. McLeod Limited, Toronto

ISBN 0 393 04220 0 Cloth Edition ISBN 0 393 097 54 4 Paper Edition

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

Introduction

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Part I Part II Part III Part IV

The Metrical Form

Reading Suggestions

VII

Introduction

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in its original Middle English form, is recognized as a literary work of the highest quality. Yet it has been known to us for only a hundred years, and it remains largely inaccessible to the nonspecialist because of the difficulty of its language, a language far more remote from the English of the present than that of Geoffrey Chaucer's London.

Gawain first turns up in modern history in a manuscript belong­ ing to the library of the great an tiquarian of Elizabethan times, Sir Robert Cotton. Cotton, in turn, seems to have obtained the manu­ script from a library in Yorkshire; this is not surprising, for the Gawain poet must have lived somewhere in the Midlands of England, probably near present-day Stafford. He was a contemporary of Chaucer's, but there is little likelihood that Chaucer ever heard of him or knew his works.

The single manuscript in which Gawain is found contains three other poems generally considered to be the work of the Gawain poet. Two of these, called Patience and Purity, are written in the same alliterative verse-form as Gawain; the third, called Pearl, is in an elaborate rhymed stanza. Patience tells the story of Jonah and the whale, moralized as a lesson in submission to God's will; Purity is a loosely organized series of stories from the Bible and reflections on the virtue ( "cleanness" in the Middle English) which its title denotes. Pearl is a dream-vision in which the narrator, stricken by the loss of the daughter that had been his pearl of great price and willfully rebellious against the faith he intellectually accepts, is led by the Pearl-maiden to a state of comparative reconciliation.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an Arthurian romance; the plot of the poem, with its elements of the supernatural and of amorous in trigue, reflects both in its main outlines and in the handling of its descriptive details the treatment that the originally Celtic Arthurian legends had recei,·ed at the hands of such medieval French poets as Chretien de Troyes. As a late fourteenth­ century poem, Gawain is a product of the end of the Middle Ages. The ideal of knightly conduct-of courage, loyalty, and courtesy­ against which the poem's action is to be viewed was a long-estab­ lished, though still viable, ideal, which had become subject to super­ ficial acceptance and even satirical treatment. It may legitimately be compared to the Boy Scout ideal of conduct, similarly viable and

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viii Introduction

similarly subject to ridicule, in our century. The main story elements of which the plot of Gawain is com­

posed derive ultimately from folklore, but the poet himself prob­ ably encountered them in French or Latin literary versions, and he was surely the first to combine them. The opening action of the poem retells the story of the "Beheading Game" ( traditionally so called ) , in which an unknown challenger proposes that one of a group of warriors volunteer to cut off his head, the stroke to be repa id in kind at some future date; the hero accepts this challenge, and at the crucial moment of reprisal is spared and praised for his courage. Later action incorporates the "Temptation S tory," in which an attractive woman attempts to seduce a man under circumstances in which he is bound to resist her, and the "Exchange of Win­ nings," in which two men agree to exchange what each has ac­ quired during a set period of time. In the plot of Gawain these three stories are intricately linke d : the hero, having contracted to accept a presumably mortal return stroke from the Green Knight's ax, sets out to meet him, as instructed, at the Green Chapel on New Year's Day. lie is unable to find out where the Green Chapel is; instead, he comes upon a magnificent castle where he is sumptuously enter­ tained, and later induced by his host to enter on an agreemen t to exchange winnings at the end of each of three successive days. The host's beautiful wife visits his bedchamber on each of the three mornings and makes amorous overtures toward him; he finally ac­ cepts from her, and conceals, a green girdle said to have the power of making its wearer invulnerable. All these plots are resolved at once in the last part of the poem as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight meet once more. \Vhen the poem ends, the most honored knight in the world, famed alike as a courageous warrior and a courteous lover, is proved fallible. His faulty act includes cowardice, since it was brought about by fear of death; covetousness, since it involved the desire to possess a valuable object; and treachery, since it resulted in a breach of faith with the host whose liegeman Gawain had sworn himself to be. To these shortcomings the poet amusingly adds a breach of courtesy as he makes this world-famed lover of women lapse momentarily into the sort of antifeminist tirade that was familiar to the medieval audience.

The Gawain poet, a master of juxtapositions, has constructed from these separable story clements a whole far greater than the sum of its parts. The castle in which Sir Gawain is entertained is vividly real; its architecture is in the latest continental style, its court is elegant and gay; its comfortable accommodations and sumptuous fare arc as welcome as those of a modern luxury hotel. Yet it is also the mysterious castle that has appeared out of nowhere, shining and shimmering like a mirage, in direct response to Gawain's prayer to

Introduction ix

the Virgin on Christmas Eve, and it is a way-station on the road to certain death. This shadow hangs over the Christmas festivities, into whose blithe spirit the knight enters as fully as courtesy obliges him to do, and over the high comedy of the bedchamber scenes, in which he must not only refuse the lady's advances, but must manage to do so without insulting her. There is a profound psychological truth in the fact that he passes all these tests successfully and at the same time fails the most important one of all: the most dangerous temp­ tation is that which presents itself unexpectedly, as a side issue, while we are busy resisting another. Gawain accepts the belt because he recognizes in it a marvelously appropriate device for evading imminent danger, "a jewel for his jeopardy." At the same time, his act may well seem a way of granting the importunate lady a final fa,·or while evading her amorous invitation. Its full meaning as a cowardly, and hence covetous, grasping at life is revealed to him only later, and with stunning force.

To all this the poet has added three magnificently depicted hunt­ ing scenes in which the host, on the three successive days of Gawain's temptation, pursues the deer, the boar, and the fox. It is obvious that these episodes arc thematic parallels with the bed­ chamber scenes, where Gawain is on the defensive and the lady figures as an entrapping huntress, and the relation between the final hunt of the fox and Gawain's ill-fated ruse in concealing the belt is equally apparent. These values arc, as it were, inherent in the very presence of the three hunts in the poem, but the poet has also, by his handling of them, added to the dramatic effect of the successive episodes of the narrative. Each hunt is divided in two, enclosing the bedchamber scene of that day like the two halves of a pod. As each one opens, it presents a picture of vigorous, unhampered, and joy­ ous activity, with the host as the central figure dominating the ac­ tion. From each of these openings we move suddenly to the bed surrounded by curtains, where noise is hushed and space is confined. :\'othing could more enhance our sympathetic identification with the hero, whose scope of action is as hedged about morally and socially as it is physically. Each encounter between knight and lady is followed by the conclusion of the corresponding hunt, scenes of carnage and ceremonial butchery which come with all the logic of a violent dream after dutiful constraints.

The "meaning" of the hunting scenes, finally, must be judged in terms of our experience of them, an experience in which perhaps the most salient quality is that of sheer deligh t : the joy inherent in physical sport at its best, when a demanding physical activity is carried on with skill, in fine weather, among loyal companions. This joy, though innocent, is of the body, bringing into play that aspect of man in which he is one with all animals. The narrator's keen

x Introduction

sense of this joy is a part of his love of the physical world, a love manifest also in his knowledge of and delight in "all trades, their gear and tackle and trim," and in that sympathy with animals which leads him to adopt sympathetically the point of view of the hunted creatures and to imagine the suffering inflicted by wind and sleet upon the wild things of the forest. Insofar as we arc made to share this attitude we are placed on the side of mortality itself, and can thus, with the Green Knight, forgive Gawain for his single act of cowardice : what he did was done not out of sensual lust but for love of life-"the less, then, to blame." In the context of this affectionate sympathy, Gawain's own violent anger at the revelation of his fault must itself be viewed with amusement, as part of his human fallibility. Yet the underlying moral is serious; the pride implicit in accepting one's own reputation has been humbled; the lesson Gawain has been taught applies a fortiori to the court of which he is the most honored representative and, by further extension, to all men.

The style of the poem is as traditional as the story elements mak­ ing up its plot, to a degree that creates disconcerting problems for the translator. \Vhercas the contemporary reader looks to the con­ temporary poet for verbal originality and innovation, the medieval audience was accustomed to a poetry made up of traditional for­ mulas, a diction and phraseology whose effectiveness resided in time­ honored familiarity rather than the capacity to startle. And whereas +he contemporary poet tends to avoid the overt expression of emo­ tions and moral judgments, the stylistic tradition represented by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight calls for the frequent use of such explicitly qualitative adjectives as noble, worthy, lovely, courteous, and-perhaps most frequent of ali-good. These adjectives may be used frequently and freely because, within the traditional world por­ trayed in this poetic style, knights are inevitably noble and worthy, ladies lovely, servants courteous, and indeed everything, aside from monsters and villainous churls, ideally good.

The formulaic style of Gawain cannot be discussed apart from the alliterative verse-form in which it is composed, a form which has fallen into disuse since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, although the language today lends itself equally well to its require­ ments. The alliterative tradition in Middle English is descended, with gradual modification reflecting changes in the language i tself, from the alliterative tradition in Old English poetry, and this in turn is a Germanic heritage, going back to a very early body of heroic legends recited in verse while the people of the Germanic nation was still a single cultural entity in northwest Europe. The presence of a large stock of alliterating formulas in modern English, expressions like "good as gold," "the lay of the land," "the worse for wear," "to look to one's laurels," is surely connected 'in some way

with this lost poetic inheritance.

Introduction xi

As its name implies, the alliterating line is based on combinations of words (basically three in each line, but see the Appendix, pp. 55 ff. ) beginning with the same letter. Since the traditional style in which alliterative poetry was composed was originally developed for the recounting of heroic legends, its word-stock includes numerous synonyms expressing such meanings, important for this subject mat­ ter, as "hero," "steed," "sword," "chieftain," and "battle," as well as qualitative adjectives having such meanings as "bold," "strong," and "resolute." As the alliterative style came to be used to treat the subject matter of the Romances, new groups of words were added, nouns for reference to ladies and adjectives meaning "beautiful," "gracious," "courteous," "gay." There were also numerous verbs to denote such important actions as riding, looking, and speaking. Since each word in a given group began with a different letter, the stock vocabulary, as well as the traditional phrases, constituted an important technical resource in the hands ofihe accomplished poet. \Ve can view the Gawain poet, for example, as solving the problem of combining two nonallitcrating nouns by using an alliterating adjective, as when he speaks of "a shield and a sharp spear" ( 269), or "the girdle of green silk" ( 203 5).

The style of alliterative poetry is in its origins a style in which the narrator, as he tells a known story, distributes praise and blame to their appropriate recipien ts. In the oldest heroic poetry, the func­ tions of narrator and historian are combined, and both narrator and historian confirm the virtues and preserve in the memory of the people the valorous feats of "our mm." Ethical values are unques­ tioned and the tone is solemn . But Gawain is a poem composed late in the tradition of the chivalric romance, and it is a poem of the highest moral, as well as social, sophistication, in which both courage and courtesy arc subject to test. The narrator's traditional role has not altered outwardly; he applies in the time-honored way the time-honored words of praise. lie is thus literally the spokesman for the reputation of the knights of King Arthur's court, the repu­ tation which has drawn the Green Knight to Camelot. But arc their virtues literary or real? Though the narrator's manner :is dignified and reassuring, the story he has to tell is not, and behind his un­ failing poli teness we feel that he is richly conscious of the degree of humiliation inflicted upon the assembled court by its obstreperous visitor, of Gawain's exquisite physical and social unease as he chats with the lovely lady sitting on the side of his bed. Again, is Gawain a storybook lover or is he capable of dealing adequately with the real thing? The lady continually and disconcertingly suggests that he is the former. In the mouth of the narrator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the stock words and phrases become implements

xii Introduction

in the production of an effect that is difficult to describe, though easy to feel; they may take on a hollow sound or a ttract insidiously inappropriate meanings, as when the adjective stiff, which had in Middle English the poetic meaning "resolute" as well as its most usual modern meaning, is applied to the young King Arthur as he boyishly insists on waiting until he has seen a marvel before he joins the feast. (I have tried to produce something of the same effect by using the equally ambiguous word stout.)

It has seemed to me that a modern verse-translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight must fulfill certain requirements deriving from the na ture of the original style. First, it must so far as possible preserve the formulaic character of the language. This not infre­ quently involves repetition of wording within the poem itself; for example, the poet uses the same phrase in describing the original entrance and exit of the Green Knight, and the translator ought to do the same; the poem opens and closes with much the same word­ ing; there are verbal reminiscences of the original beheading scene in the episode at the Green Chapel, and so on. B ut beyond this, the style of the translation must, if possible, have something of the ex­ pectedness of the language of the fairy tale, with its "handsome princes" and "beautiful princesses," its opening "once upon a time" and its closing "they lived happily ever after"-though any sugges­ tion of whimsy or quaintness in so adult and sophisticated a literary work would be, to say the least, out of place. In trying to meet this condition I have incorporated into the translation as many as pos­ sible of the form ulas still current in the language. The reader will recognize such phrases as "tried and true," "winsome ways," "hot on his heels," and others; these have, I think, served my turn well, though many such phrases were too restricted in use to the realm of colloquial speech to be suitable in tone.

Second, the diction of the translation m ust, so far as possible, re­ flect that of the original poem. The traditional style as it appears in late Middle English embraces a wide range of kinds of words, from strictly poetic terms comparable in status to wherefore or in sooth today to words used primarily in the ordinary speech of the time, many of which have not descended into the modern language. But the style does not juxtapose discordant elements of diction for humorous effect, as the poetry of Ogden Nash, for example, does today. The level varies, but with subtle shifts of tone from solem­ nity to realistic vigor. I began the translation with the general notion that since the poet used words which were poetic in his time I could do the same, but I realized after a time that I was using such words where the original was colloquial, and that in any case the connotations of poetic diction for us have crucially altered. I finally used literary words only where it seemed to me that their effect was

Introduction xiii

unobtrusive, and I similarly made usc of distinctively colloquial words where I felt that the resultant effect was similar to that of the original. My translation thus includes both the archaic lo! and the colloquial swap (which is in the original ) , and I have tried to imitate the poet in modulating from one level to the other, avoiding, at one extreme, a pseudo-medieval quaintness, and, at the other, an all too homely familiarity.

Finally, a modern translation of Sir Gawain must, so far as pos­ sible, reproduce both the metrical variety of the original and its cumulative momen tum or "swing." This aspect of the poem is dis­ cussed in some detail in the Appendix on meter, pp. 55 ff.

Like all translators of poetry, I ha,·c been faced with the basic difficulty of reproducing the sense of the poem in lines which satisfy the requirements of metrical form and, beyond this, arc effective as rhythmic combinations of words. Like all translators of poetry, I have constantly had to compromise, sometimes forced away from literal rendition by the exigencies of the meter, sometimes foregoing an attractive phrase or cadence for the sake of a more faithful rendi­ tion, sometimes, I hope, finding myself able to have it both ways. I have tried to follow the poet as much in what he does not say as in what he does say, refraining from explicitness where he leads the reader, tantalizingly, to surmise. And I have done my best during the entire process of translation to attend carefully and respectfully to the exact sense of the poem at every turn, though I have inevi tably had at times to decide what was essential in a given line-what must be literally reproduced at all costs-and to content myself with sub­ stitutes, hopefully of equivalent value, for the rest. \Vhere I have been forced to deviate from the original, I have sometimes made the pleasurable discovery that in changing one line I have echoed an­ other elsewhere in the poem.

I believe that I have in the end produced a translation more like the original than the others I have seen, though the success of the translation as a modern poem is for its readers to judge. I t must inevitably fall short of the great achievement of the Gawain poet, but, like the page in the Christmas carol, I have continually found wa rmth and strength in treading in his footsteps.

New Haven, Connecticut December, 1966

MARIE BoRROFF

Acknowledgments

My first and abiding debt is to the late Professor Helge Kokeritz, and to Professors John C. Pope and E . Talbot Donaldson, who taught me Old and l\1iddle English and the history of the English language and thus made this undertaking possible. That all three were teaching in the Graduate School of Yale University when I studied there was my great good fortune.

Professors Pope and Donaldson have made valuable criticisms, suggestions, and corrections and have given me even m ore valuable moral support. I am indebted to Mrs. Susan S. Addiss for her expert typing of the manuscript, and to Mrs. Addiss and Miss Anne M . Case for help with proofreading.

M. B.

SIR GAWAIN

AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION

Part I

Since the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy,I The walls breached and burnt down to brands and ashes, The knight that had knotted the nets of deceit \Vas impeached for his perfidy, proven most true, It was high-born Aeneas and his haughty race That since prevailed over provinces, and proudly reigned Over well-nigh all the wealth of the West Isles. Great Romulus to Rome repairs in haste; With boast and with bravery builds he that city And names it with his own name, that it now bears. Ticius to Tuscany, and towers raises, Langobard in Lombardy lays out homes, And far over the French Sea, Felix Brutus On many broad hills and high Britain he sets,

most fair. Where war and wrack and wonder By shifts have sojourned there, And bliss bv turns with blunder In that land's lot had share.

And since this Britain was built by this baron great, Bold boys bred there, in broils delighting, That did in their day many a deed most dire. More marvels have happened in this merry land Than in any other I know, since that olden time, But of those that here built, of British kings, King Arthur was counted most courteous of all, \Vherefore an adventure I aim to unfold, That a marvel of might some men think it, And one unmatched among Arthur's wonders. If you will listen to my lay but a little while, As I heard it in hall, I shall hasten to tell

anew. As it was fashioned featly In tale of derring-do, And linked in measures meetly By letters tried and true.

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I. The poet begins his story, as he later ends it, by placing the reign of King Arthur in a broad historical perspective which includes the fall of Troy. In ac­ cordance with medieval notions of his­ tory (though not all of his details can be found in the early chronicles), he visualizes Aeneas, son of the king of Troy, and his descendants, as founding a series of western kingdoms to which each gives his name. This westward movement ends with the crossing of the

"French Sea" or British Channel, by Brutus, great-grandson of Aeneas, leg­ endary founder of the kingdom of Britain. This Brutus, whom the poet calls felix or fortunate, is not to be confused with the Marcus Brutus of Roman history. The deceitful knight of lines 3-4 is evidently Antenor, who in Virgil's Aeneid is a trusted counselor, but who appears as a traitor in later versions of the Troy story.

2 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This king lay at Camelot at Christmastide; Many good knights and gay his guests were there, Arrayed of the Round Table rightful brothers, \Vith feasting and fellowship and carefree mirth. There true men contended in tournaments many, Joined there in jousting these gentle knights, Then came to the court for carol-dancing, For the feast was in force full fifteen days, \Vith all the meat and the mirth that men could devise, Such gaiety and glee, glorious to hear, Brave din by day, dancing by night. High were their hearts in halls and chambers, These lords and these ladies, for life was sweet. In peerless pleasures passed they their days, The most noble knights known under Christ, And the loveliest ladies that lived on earth ever, And he the comeliest king, that that court holds, For all this fair folk in their first age

were still. Happiest of mortal kind, King noblest famed of will; You would now go far to find So hardy a host on hill.

\Vhile the New Year was new, but yesternight come, This fair folk at feast two-fold was served, \Vhen the king and his company were come in together, The chanting in chapel achieved and ended. Clerics and all the court acclaimed the glad season, Cried Noel anew, good news to men; Then gallants gather gaily, hand-gifts to make, Called them out clearly, claimed them by hand, Bickered long and busily about those gifts. Ladies laughed aloud, though losers they were, And he that won was not angered, as well you will know. All this mirth they made until meat was served; When they had washed them worthily, they went to their seats, The best seated above, as best it beseemed, Guenevcre the goodly queen gay in the midst On a dais well-decked and duly arrayed With costly silk curtains, a canopy over, Of Toulouse and Turkestan tapestries rich, All broidered and bordered with the best gems Ever brought into Britain, with bright pennies

to pay. Fair queen, without a flaw, She glanced with eyes of grey. A seemlier that once he saw, In truth, no man could say.

But Arthur would not eat till all were served;

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So light was his lordly heart, and a li ttle boyish; His life he liked lively-the less he cared To be lying for long, or long to sit, So busy his young blood, his brain so wild. And also a point of pride pricked him in heart, For he nobly had willed, he would never cat On so high

· a holiday, till he had heard first

Of some fair feat or fray some far-borne talc, Of some marvel of might, that he might trust, By champions of chivalry achieved in arms, Or some suppliant came seeking some single knight To join with him in jousting, in jeopardy each To lay life for life, and leave it to fortune To afford him on field fair hap or other. Such is the king's custom, when his court he holds At each far-famed feast amid his fair host

so dear. The stout king stands in state Till a wonder shall appear; He leads, with heart elate, High mirth in the New Year.

So he stands there in state, the stout young king, Talking before the high table of trifles fair. There Gawain the good knight by Gucnevcre sits, \Vith Agravain a Ia dure main on her other side, Both knights of renown, and nephews of the king. Bishop Baldwin above begins the table, And Yvain, son of Urien, ate with him there. These few with the fair queen were fittingly served; At the side-tables sat many stalwart knights.

Part I

Then the first course comes, with clamor of trumpets That were bravely bedecked with banncrcts bright, \Vith noise of new drums and the noble pipes. Wild were the warbles that wakened that day In strains that stirred many strong men's hearts. There dainties were dealt out, dishes rare, Choice fare to choose, on chargers so many That scarce was there space to set before the people The service of silver, with sundry meats,

on cloth. Each fair guest freely there Partakes, and nothing loth; Twelve dishes before each pair; Good beer and bright wine both .

Of the service itself I need sav no more, For well you will know no tittle was wanting. Another noise and a new was well-nigh at hand, That the lord might have leave his life to nourish; For scarce were th e sweet strains still in the hall,

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4 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

And the first course come to that company fair, There hurtles in at the hall-door an unknown rider, One the greatest on ground in growth of his frame : From broad neck t o buttocks so bulkv and thick, And his loins and his legs so long and so great, Half a giant on earth I hold him to be, But believe him no less than the largest of men, And that the seemliest in his stature to see, as he rides, For in back and in breast though his body was grim, His waist in its wid th was worthily small, And formed with everv feature in

· fair accord ·

was he. Great wonder grew in hall At his hue most strange to see, For man and gear and all Were green as green could be.

And in guise all of green, the gear and the man : A coat cut close, that clung to his sides, And a mantle to match, made with a lining Of furs cut and fitted-the fabric was noble, Embellished all \vith ermine, and his hood beside, That \vas loosed from his locks, and laid on his shoulders. \Vith trim hose and tight, the same tint of green, IIis great calves were girt, and gold spurs under He bore on silk bands that embellished his heels, And footgear well-fashioned, for riding most fit. And all his vesture verily was verdant green; Both the bosses on his belt and other bright gems That were richly ranged on his raiment noble About himself and his saddle, set upon silk, That to tell half the trifles would tax mv wits, The butterflies and birds embroidered thereon In green of the gayest, with many a gold threa d. The pendants of the breast-band, the princely crupper, And the bars of the bit were brightly enameled; The stout stirrups were green, that steadied his feet, And the bows of the saddle and the side-panels both, That gleamed all and glinted with green gems about. The steed he bestrides of that same green

so bright . A green horse great a n d thick; A headstrong steed of might; I n broidered bridle quick, Moun t matched man aright .

Gay was this goodly m a n in guise a l l o f green, And the hair of his head to his horse suited; Fair flowing tresses enfold his shoulders; A beard big as a bush on his breast hangs, That with h is heavy hair, that from his head falls,

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Part I

Was evened all about above both his elbows, That half his arms thereunder were hid in the fashion Of a king's cap-a-dos,2 that covers his throat. The mane of that mighty horse much to it like, Well curled and bccombed, and cunningly knotted With filaments of fine gold amid the fair green, Here a strand of the hair, here one of gold; His tail and his foretop hvin in their hue, And bound both with a band of a bright green That was decked adown the dock with dazzling stones And tied tight at the top with a triple knot Where many bells well burnished rang bright and clear. Such a mount in his might, nor man on him riding, None had seen, I dare swear, with sight in that hall

so grand. As lightning quick and light He looked to all at hand; It seemed that no man might His deadly dints withstand.

Yet had he no helm, nor hauberk neither, Nor plate, nor appurtenance appending to arms, Nor shaft pointed sharp, nor shield for defense, But in his one hand he had a holly bob That is goodliest in green when groves arc bare, And an ax in his other, a huge and immense, A wicked piece of work in words to expoun d : The head o n its haft was an ell long; The spike of green steel, resplendent with gold; The blade burnished bright, with a broad edge, As well shaped to shear as a sharp razor; Stout was the stave in the strong man's gripe, That was wound all with iron to the weapon's end, With engravings in green of goodliest work. A lace lightly about, that led to a knot, Was looped in by lengths along the fair haft, And tassels thereto attached in a row, With buttons of bright green, brave to behold. This horseman h urtles in, and the hall enters; Riding to the high dais, reeked he no danger; Not a greeting he gave as the guests he o'erlooked, Nor wasted his words, but "Where is," he said, "The captain of this crowd? Keenly I wish To see that sire with sight, and to himself say

my say." He swaggered all about To scan the host so gay;

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2. The word capados occurs in this form in Middle English only in Gawain, here and in line 5 72. I have interpreted it, as the poet apparently did also, as

cap-a-dos-i.e., a garment covering its wearer 'from head to back,' on the model of cap-a-pie, 'from head to foot,' referring to armor.

6 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

He halted, as if in doubt 230 Who in that hall held sway.

There were stares on all sides as the stranger spoke, For much did they marvel what it might mean That a horseman and a horse should have such a hue, Grow green as the grass, and greener, it seemed, 2 3 5 Than green fused on gold more glorious by far. All the onlookers eyed him, and edged nearer, And awaited in wonder what he would do, For many sights had they seen, but such a one never, So that phantom and faerie the folk there deemed it, 240 Therefore chary of answer was many a champion bold, And stunned at his strong words stone-still they sat In a swooning silence in the stately hall. As all were slipped into sleep, so slackened their speech

apace. 245 Not all, I think, for dread, But some of courteous grace Let him who was their head Be spokesman in that place.

Then Arthur before the high dais that entrance beholds, 2 5o And hailed him, as behooved, for he had no fear, And said "Fellow, in faith you have found fair welcome; The head of this hostelry Arthur am I; Leap lightly dmm, and linger, I pray, And the tale of your intent you shall tell us after." •55 "Nay, so help me," said the other, "He that on high sits, To tarry here any time, 'twas not mine errand; But as the praise of you, prince, is puffed up so high, And your court and your company are counted the best, Stoutest under steel-gear on steeds to ride, 26o \Vorthiest of their works the wide world over, And peerless to prove in passages of arms, And courtesy here is carried to its height, And so at this season I have sought you out. You may be certain by the branch that I bear in hand 2 65 That I pass here in peace, and would part friends, For had I come to this court on combat bent, I have a hauberk at home, and a helm beside, A shield and a sharp spear, shining bright, And other weapons to wield, I ween well, to boot, 270 But as I willed no war, I wore no metal . But if you be so bold as all men believe, You will graciously grant the game that I ask

by right." Arthur answer gave 27 5 And said, "Sir courteous knight, If contest here you crave, You shall not fail to fight."

Part I

"Nay, to fight, in good faith, is far from my thought; There are about on these benches but beardless children, Were I here in full arms on a haughty steed, For measured against mine, their might is puny. And so I call in this court for a Christmas game, For 'tis Yule and New Year, and many young bloods about; If any in this house such hardihood claims, Be so bold in his blood, his brain so wild, As stoutly to strike one stroke for another, I shall give him as my gift this gisarme noble, This ax, that is heavy enough, to handle as he likes, And I shall bide the first blow, as bare as I sit. If there be one so wilful my words to assay, Let him leap hither lightly, lay hold of this weapon; I quitclaim it forever, keep it as his own, And I shall stand him a stroke, steadv on this floor, So you grant me the guerdon to give

. him another,

sans blame. In a twelvemonth and a dav He shall have of me the same: Now be it seen straightway Who dares take up the game."

If he astonished them at first, stiller were then All that household in hall, the high and the low; The stranger on his green steed stirred in the saddle, And roisterously his red eyes he rolled all about, Bent his bristling brows, that were bright green, \Vagged his beard as he watched who would arise. \Vhen the court kept its counsel he coughed aloud, And cleared his throat coolly, the clearer to speak : "\Vhat, is this Arthur's house," said that horseman then, "\Vhose fame is so fair in far realms and wide? Where is now your arrogance and your awesome deeds, Your valor and your victories and your vaunting words? Now are the revel and renown of the Round Table Overwhelmed with a word of one man's speech, For all cower and quake, and no cut fel t ! " With this h e laughs s o loud that t h e lord grieved; The blood for sheer shame shot to his face,

and pride. With rage his face flushed red, And so did all beside. Then the king as bold man bred Toward the stranger took a stride.

And said "Sir, now we see you will say but folly, Which whoso has sought, it suits that he find. No guest here is aghast of your great words. Give to me your gisarme, in God's own name, And the boon you have begged shall straight be granted."

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8 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

He leaps to him lightly, lays hold of his weapon; The green fellow on foot fiercely alights. Now has Arthur his ax, and the haft grips, And sternly stirs it about, on striking bent. The stranger before him stood there erect, Higher than any in the house by a head and more; \Vith stem look as he stood, he stroked his beard, And with undaunted countenance drew down his coat, No more moved nor dismayed for his mighty dints Than any bold man on bench had brought him a drink

of wine. Gawain bv Guenevere Toward the king doth now inclin e : "I beseech, before a l l here, That this melee mav be mine."

"\Vould you grant me the grace," said Gawain to the king, "To be gone from this bench and stand by you there, If I without discourtesy migh t quit this board, And if my liege lady misliked it not. I would come to your counsel before your court noble. For I find it not fit, as in faith it is known, \Vh en such a boon is begged before all these knights, Though you be tempted thereto, to take it on yourself \Vhile so bold men about upon benches sit. That no host under hea\·en is hardier of will, Nor better brothers-in-arms where battle is joined; I am the \\·eakest, well I knO\\·, and of wit feeblest; And the loss of my life would be least of any; That I have you for uncle is my only praise; My body. but for your blood, is barren of \mrth; And for that this folly befits not a king, And 'tis I that have asked it, it ought to be mine, And if my claim be not comely let all this court judge,

in sight." The court assays the claim, And in counsel all unite To give Gawain the game And release the king outright.

Then the king called the knight to come to his side, And he rose up readily, and reached him with speed, Bows low to his lord, lays hold of the weapon, And he releases it lightly, and lifts up his hand, And gives him God's blessing, and graciously prays l11at his heart and his hand may be hardy both. "Keep, cousin," said the king, "what you cut with this day, And if you rule it aright, then readily, I know, You shall stand the stroke it will strike after." Gawain goes to the guest with gisarme in hand, And boldly he bides there, abashed not a whit.

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Then hails he Sir Gawain, the horseman in green : "Recount we our contract, ere you come further. First I ask and adjure you, ho\\: you arc called

Part I 9

That you tell me true, so that trust it I may." 3so "In good faith," said the good knight, "Gawain am I \Vhose buffet befalls vou, whatc'er betide after, And at this time twelvemonth take from vou another With what weapon you will, and with IlO man else

alive." 3 8 5 The other nods assent : "Sir Gawain, as I mav thrive, I am wondrous well content That vou this dint shall dri,·c."

''Sir Gawain," said the Green Knight, "By Gog, I rejoice 39o That vour fist shall fetch this fa,·or I seek, And �:ou have readily rehearsed. and in right terms, Each clause of my co,·enant with the king your lord, Save that you shall assure me. sir. upon oath, That vou shall seck me ,·ourself. \\·hcrcsoevcr vou deem .195 i\[y l�dgings may lie, and look for such wages As \'OU have offered me here before all this host." "\Vhat is the wav there?" said Gawain, "\Vhcre do vou dwell? I heard never of vour house, bv Him that made me,

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Nor I know you ;10t, knight, �:our name nor your court. 4 00 But tell me truly thereof, and teach me your name, And I shall fare forth to find ,·ou. so far as I mav, And this I say in good certain,· and swear upon o�th ." "That is enough in New Year, you need say no more," Said the knight in the green to Gawain the noble, 40 5 "If I tell you true, when I have taken your knock, And if you handily have hit, you shall hear straightway Of mv house and mv home and m\· own name; Then · follow in my footsteps by faithful accord. And if I spend no speech, you shall speed the better: 4 1 0 You can feast with vour friends, nor further trace ·

mv tracks. Now hold your grim tool steady And show us how it hacks." "Gladly, sir; all ready," 4 1 5 Says Gawain: h e strokes the ax.

The Green Knight upon ground girds him with care: Bows a bit with his head, and bares his flesh: His long lm·ely locks he laid over his crown, Let the naked nape for the need be shown. 42o Gawain grips to his ax and gathers it aloft- The left foot on the floor before him he set- Brought it down deftly upon the bare neck, That the shock of the sharp blow shivered the bones And cut the flesh cleanly and clove it in twain, 42 5

10 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

That the blade of bright steel bit into the ground. The head was hewn off and fell to the floor; Many found it at their feet, as forth it rolled; The blood gushed from the body, bright on the green, Yet fell not the fellow, nor faltered a whit, But stoutly he starts forth upon stiff shanks, And as all stood staring he stretched forth his hand, Laid hold of his head and heaved it aloft, Then goes to the green steed, grasps the bridle, Steps into the stirrup, bestrides his mount, And his head by the hair in his han d holds, And as steadv he sits in the statelv saddle As he had met with no mishap, nor missing were

his head. His bulk about he haled, That fearsome body that bled; There were many in the court that quailed Before all his say was said.

For the head in hi5 hand he holds right up; Toward the first on the dais directs he the face, And it lifted up its lids, and looked with wide eyes, And said as much with its mouth as now you may hear: "Sir Gawain, forget not to go as agreed, And cease not to seek till me, sir, \'OU find, As you promised in the presence of these proud knights. To the Green Chapel come, I charge you, to take Such a dint as you have dealt-you have well deserved That your neck should have a knock on New Year's morn . The Knigh t of the Green Chapel I am well-known to many, \Vherefore you cannot fail to find me at last; Therefore come, or be counted a recreant knight." \Vith a roisterous rush he flings round the reins, Hurtles out at the hall-door, his head in his hand, That the flint-fire flew from the flashing hooves. \Vhich way he went, not one of them knew Nor whence he was come in the wide world