Arthurian legends 3

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• Questions 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'

Question 1

How does Gawain behave towards the lady of the castle?

Question 2

What is the most striking aspect of the lady’s behaviour?

Question 3

Why does Gawain resist her advances?

Knightly ideal

The five knightly ‘ways of living’:

'Free Giving, Good Fellowship, Chastity, Courtesy, and Pity ... These five points were more firmly fixed in him than in any other fellow’ 

(p. 427-428, ll. 652 vv, The Romance of Arthur)

Courtly love

a highly conventionalised medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman. The love of the knight for his lady was regarded as an ennobling passion and the relationship was typically unconsummated.

Oxford English Dictionary

Question 4

Do you think that the lady’s behaviour is in keeping with the context of the poem? Why (not)?

Question 5

As described in the introduction, each stanza of the poem is made up of twenty to thirty alliterative lines, followed by four short rhyming lines.

a. Identify the alliterative words in lines 1 to 15 (from the first passage).

Question 5

Þus laykez þis lorde by lynde-wodez euez,

And Gawayn þe god mon in gay bed lygez,

Lurkkez quyl þe daylyȝt lemed on þe wowes,

Vnder couertour ful clere, cortyned aboute;

And as in slomeryng he slode, sleȝly he herde

A littel dyn at his dor, and dernly vpon;

And he heuez vp his hed out of þe cloþes, [folio 107r]

Question 5

A corner of þe cortyn he caȝt vp a lyttel,

And waytez warly þiderwarde quat hit be myȝt.

Hit watz þe ladi, loflyest to beholde,

Þat droȝ þe dor after hir ful dernly and stylle,

And boȝed towarde þe bed; and þe burne schamed,

And layde hym doun lystyly, and let as he slepte;

And ho stepped stilly and stel to his bedde,

Kest vp þe cortyn and creped withinne,

Question 6

b. Which famous medieval poem is alliterative throughout?

Question b

Which famous medieval poem is alliterative throughout?

Question c

Explain: in this poem, the four short rhyming lines are used as a cliffhanger.

Bob and wheel structure

bob = short, connecting line, 2 syllables,

 line 1 = bob, rest (4 lines) is wheel.

 his plight (bob)

 there glowed on her lovely face

 a hue both red and white

 she seemed the image of grace

 her small lips laughing and bright.

Question 6

How does Gawain behave when he meets the green Knight?

Question 7

What parallels are there between Gawain’s encounter with the lady and his meeting with the Green Knight?

Question 8

How is it that the Green Knight is able to recognise the belt Gawain is wearing?

Homework

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