Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Knights of Gawain's time were tested in their ability to maintain the chivalric code as well as the rules of courtly love. (God Speed! – Edmund Blair Leighton 1900)

At the heart of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the test of Gawain's adherence to the code of chivalry. The typical temptation fable of medieval literature presents a series of tribulations assembled as tests or "proofs" of moral virtue. The stories often describe several individuals' failures after which the main character is tested.[19] Success in the proofs will often bring immunity or good fortune. Gawain's ability to pass the tests of his host are of utmost importance to his survival, though he does not know it. It is only by fortuity or "instinctive-courtesy" that Sir Gawain can pass his test.[20] Gawain does not realise, however, that these tests are all orchestrated by the lord, Bertilak de Hautdesert.[21] In addition to the laws of chivalry, Gawain must respect another set of laws concerning courtly love. The knight's code of honour requires him to do whatever a damsel asks. Gawain must accept the girdle from the Lady, but he must also keep the promise he has made to his host that he will give whatever he gains that day. Gawain chooses to keep the girdle out of fear of death, thus breaking his promise to the host but honouring the lady. Upon learning that the Green Knight is actually his host (Bertilak), he realises that although he has completed his quest, he has failed to be virtuous. This test demonstrates the conflict between honour and knightly duties. In breaking his promise, Gawain believes he has lost his honour and failed in his duties.[22]

Scholars have frequently noted the parallels between the three hunting scenes and the three seduction scenes in Gawain. They are generally agreed that the fox chase has significant parallels to the third seduction scene, in which Gawain accepts the girdle from Bertilak's wife. Gawain, like the fox, fears for his life and is looking for a way to avoid death from the Green Knight's axe. Like his counterpart, he resorts to trickery to save his skin. The fox uses tactics so unlike the first two animals, and so unexpectedly, that Bertilak has the hardest time hunting it. Similarly, Gawain finds the Lady's advances in the third seduction scene more unpredictable and challenging to resist than her previous attempts. She changes her evasive language, typical of courtly love relationships, to a more assertive style. Her dress, modest in earlier scenes, is suddenly voluptuous and revealing.[23]

The deer- and boar-hunting scenes are less clearly connected, although scholars have attempted to link each animal to Gawain's reactions in the parallel seduction scene. Attempts to connect the deer hunt with the first seduction scene have unearthed a few parallels. Deer hunts of the time, like courtship, had to be done according to established rules. Women often favoured suitors who hunted well and skinned their animals, sometimes even watching while a deer was cleaned.[23][24] The sequence describing the deer hunt is unspecific and nonviolent, with an air of relaxation and exhilaration. The first seduction scene follows in a similar vein, with no overt physical advances and no apparent danger; the entire exchange is humorously portrayed.[23]

The boar-hunting scene is, in contrast, laden with detail. Boars were (and are) much more difficult to hunt than deer; approaching one with only a sword was akin to challenging a knight to single combat. In the hunting sequence, the boar flees but is cornered before a ravine. He turns to face Bertilak with his back to the ravine, prepared to fight. Bertilak dismounts and in the ensuing fight kills the boar. He removes its head and displays it on a pike. In the seduction scene, Bertilak's wife, like the boar, is more forward, insisting that Gawain has a romantic reputation and that he must not disappoint her. Gawain, however, is successful in parrying her attacks, saying that surely, she knows more than he about love. Both the boar hunt and the seduction scene can be seen as depictions of a moral victory: both Gawain and Bertilak face struggles alone and emerge triumphant.[23] Masculinity has also been associated with hunting. The theme of masculinity is present throughout. In an article by Vern L. Bullough, "Being a Male in the Middle Ages," he discusses Sir Gawain and how normally, masculinity is often viewed in terms of being sexually active. He notes that Sir Gawain is not part of this normalcy.

Some argue that nature represents a chaotic, lawless order which is in direct confrontation with the civilisation of Camelot throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The green horse and rider that first invade Arthur's peaceful halls are iconic representations of nature's disturbance.[25] Nature is presented throughout the poem as rough and indifferent, constantly threatening the order of men and courtly life. Nature invades and disrupts order in the major events of the narrative, both symbolically and through the inner nature of humanity. This element appears first with the disruption caused by the Green Knight, later when Gawain must fight off his natural lust for Bertilak's wife, and again when Gawain breaks his vow to Bertilak by choosing to keep the green girdle, valuing survival over virtue. Represented by the sin-stained girdle, nature is an underlying force, forever within man and keeping him imperfect (in a chivalric sense).[26] In this view, Gawain is part of a wider conflict between nature and chivalry, an examination of the ability of man's order to overcome the chaos of nature.[27]

Several critics have made exactly the opposite interpretation, reading the poem as a comic critique of the Christianity of the time, particularly as embodied in the Christian chivalry of Arthur's court. In its zeal to extirpate all traces of paganism, Christianity had cut itself off from the sources of life in nature and the female. The green girdle represents all the pentangle lacks. The Arthurian enterprise is doomed unless it can acknowledge the unattainability of the ideals of the Round Table, and, for the sake of realism and wholeness, recognise and incorporate the pagan values represented by the Green Knight.[28]

The chivalry that is represented within Gawain is one which was constructed by court nobility. The violence that is part of this chivalry is steeply contrasted by the fact that King Arthur's court is Christian, and the initial beheading event takes place while celebrating Christmas. The violence of an act of beheading seems to be counterintuitive to chivalric and Christian ideals, and yet it is seen as part of knighthood.[29]

The question of politeness and chivalry is a main theme during Gawain's interactions with Bertilak's wife. He cannot accept her advances or else lose his honour, and yet he cannot utterly refuse her advances or else risk upsetting his hostess. Gawain plays a very fine line and the only part where he appears to fail is when he conceals the green girdle from Bertilak.[30]

The word gomen (game) is found 18 times in Gawain. Its similarity to the word gome (man), which appears 21 times, has led some scholars to see men and games as centrally linked. Games at this time were seen as tests of worthiness, as when the Green Knight challenges the court's right to its good name in a "Christmas game".[31] The "game" of exchanging gifts was common in Germanic cultures. If a man received a gift, he was obliged to provide the giver with a better gift or risk losing his honour, almost like an exchange of blows in a fight (or in a "beheading game").[32] The poem revolves around two games: an exchange of beheading and an exchange of winnings. These appear at first to be unconnected. However, a victory in the first game will lead to a victory in the second. Elements of both games appear in other stories; however, the linkage of outcomes is unique to Gawain.[12][10]

Times, dates, seasons, and cycles within Gawain are often noted by scholars because of their symbolic nature. The story starts on New Year's Eve with a beheading and culminates one year later on the next New Year's Day. Gawain leaves Camelot on All Saints Day and arrives at Bertilak's castle on Christmas Eve. Furthermore, the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in "a year and a day"—in other words, the next New Year's Day. Some scholars interpret the yearly cycles, each beginning and ending in winter, as the poet's attempt to convey the inevitable fall of all things good and noble in the world. Such a theme is strengthened by the image of Troy, a powerful nation once thought to be invincible which, according to the Aeneid, fell to the Greeks due to pride and ignorance. The Trojan connection shows itself in the presence of two nearly identical descriptions of Troy's destruction. The poem's first line reads: "Since the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy" and the final stanzaic line (before the bob and wheel) is "After the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy".[33]

Scholars have puzzled over the Green Knight's symbolism since the discovery of the poem. British medievalist C. S. Lewis said the character was "as vivid and concrete as any image in literature" and J. R. R. Tolkien said he was the "most difficult character" to interpret in Sir Gawain. His major role in Arthurian literature is that of a judge and tester of knights, thus he is at once terrifying, friendly, and mysterious.[34] He appears in only two other poems: The Greene Knight and King Arthur and King Cornwall.[35][36] Scholars have attempted to connect him to other mythical characters, such as Jack in the green of English tradition and to Al-Khidr,[37] but no definitive connection has yet been established.[37][38]

He represents a mix of two traditional figures in romance and other medieval narratives: "the literary green man" and "the literary wild man."[39] The Green Knight challenges Gawain to rise to the ideals of honour and religious practices.[40] His name, the Green Knight, shows his opposition to nature: the colour green represents forces of nature, and the word "knight" connects him to society and civilisation.[41] While the Green Knight represents the primitive, and uncivilised side of man's nature, he also opposes nature as well.[41] The description of the Green Knight, which he shares with his green horse, shows the central idea of human nature's potential.[42]

In the 15th-century Saint Wolfgang and the Devil by Michael Pacher, the Devil is green. Poetic contemporaries such as Chaucer also drew connections between the colour green and the devil, leading scholars to draw similar connections in readings of the Green Knight.[43]

Given the varied and even contradictory interpretations of the colour green, its precise meaning in the poem remains ambiguous. In English folklore and literature, green was traditionally used to symbolise nature and its associated attributes: fertility and rebirth. Stories of the medieval period also used it to allude to love and the base desires of man.[44][45] Because of its connection with faeries and spirits in early English folklore, green also signified witchcraft, devilry and evil. It can also represent decay and toxicity.[46] When combined with gold, as with the Green Knight and the girdle, green was often seen as representing youth's passing.[47] In Celtic mythology, green was associated with misfortune and death, and therefore avoided in clothing.[34] The green girdle, originally worn for protection, became a symbol of shame and cowardice; it is finally adopted as a symbol of honour by the knights of Camelot, signifying a transformation from good to evil and back again; this displays both the spoiling and regenerative connotations of the colour green.[34]

There is a possibility, as Alice Buchanan has argued, that the colour green is erroneously attributed to the Green Knight due to the poet's mistranslation or misunderstanding of the Irish word glas, which could either mean grey or green, or the identical word glas in Cornish. Glas has been used to denote a range of colours: light blues, greys, and greens of the sea and grass.

In the Death of Curoi (one of the Irish stories from Bricriu's Feast), Curoi stands in for Bertilak, and is often called "the man of the grey mantle" which corresponds to Welsh Brenin Llwyd or Gwynn ap Nudd. Though the words usually used for grey in the Death of Curoi are lachtna or odar, roughly meaning milk-coloured and shadowy respectively, in later works featuring a green knight, the word glas is used and may have been the basis of misunderstanding.[48]

Another famous Arthurian woman, The Lady of Shalott, with a medieval girdle around her waist (John William Waterhouse, 1888)

The girdle's symbolic meaning, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, has been construed in a variety of ways. Interpretations range from sexual to spiritual. Those who argue for the sexual inference view the girdle as a "trophy".[15] It is not entirely clear if the "winner" is Sir Gawain or the Lady, Bertilak's wife. The girdle is given to Gawain by the Lady to keep him safe when he confronts the Green Knight. When Bertilak comes home from his hunting trip, Gawain does not reveal the girdle to his host; instead, he hides it. This introduces a spiritual interpretation, that Gawain's acceptance of the girdle is a sign of his faltering faith in God, at least in the face of death.[49] To some, the Green Knight is Christ, who overcomes death, while Gawain is the Every Christian, who in his struggles to follow Christ faithfully, chooses the easier path. In Sir Gawain, the easier choice is the girdle, which promises what Gawain most desires. Faith in God, alternatively, requires one's acceptance that what one most desires does not always coincide with what God has planned. It is arguably best to view the girdle not as an either–or situation, but as a complex, multi-faceted symbol that acts to test Gawain in many ways. While Gawain can resist Bertilak's wife's sexual advances, he is unable to resist the powers of the girdle. Gawain is operating under the laws of chivalry which, evidently, have rules that can contradict each other. In the story of Sir Gawain, Gawain finds himself torn between doing what a damsel asks (accepting the girdle) and keeping his promise (returning anything given to him while his host is away).[50]

The poem contains the first recorded use of the word pentangle in English.[51] It contains the only representation of such a symbol on Gawain's shield in the Gawain literature. What is more, the poet uses a total of 46 lines to describe the meaning of the pentangle; no other symbol in the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail.[52] The poem describes the pentangle as a symbol of faithfulness and an endeles knot (endless knot). From lines 640 to 654, the five points of the pentangle relate directly to Gawain in five ways: five senses, his five fingers, his faith found in the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary (whose face was on the inside of the shield) and finally friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness, and pity (traits that Gawain possessed around others). In line 625, it is described as a syngne þat salamon set (a sign set by Solomon). Solomon, the third king of Israel, in the 10th century BC, was said to have the mark of the pentagram on his ring, which he received from the archangel Michael. The pentagram seal on this ring was said to give Solomon power over demons.[53]

Along these lines, some academics link the Gawain pentangle to magical traditions. In Germany, the symbol was called a Drudenfuß (nightmare spirit's foot) and was placed on household objects to keep out evil.[54] The symbol was also associated with magical charms that, if recited or written on a weapon, would call forth magical forces. However, concrete evidence tying the magical pentagram to Gawain's pentangle is scarce.[54][55]

Gawain's pentangle also symbolises the "phenomenon of physically endless objects signifying a temporally endless quality."[56] Many poets use the symbol of the circle to show infinity or endlessness, but Gawain's poet insisted on using something more complex. In medieval number theory, the number five is considered a "circular number", since it "reproduces itself in its last digit when raised to its powers".[57] Furthermore, it replicates itself geometrically; that is, every pentangle has a smaller pentagon that allows a pentangle to be embedded in it and this "process may be repeated forever with decreasing pentangles".[57] Thus, by reproducing the number five, which in medieval number symbolism signified incorruptibility, Gawain's pentangle represents his eternal incorruptibility.[58]

Gawain's refusal of the Lady's ring has major implications for the remainder of the story. While the modern student may tend to pay more attention to the girdle as the eminent object offered by her, readers in the time of Gawain would have noticed the significance of the offer of the ring as they believed that rings, and especially the embedded gems, had talismanic properties similarly done by the Gawain-poet in Pearl.[59] This is especially true of the Lady's ring, as scholars believe it to be a ruby or carbuncle, indicated when the Gawain-Poet describes it as a bryȝt sunne (fiery sun).[60][61][62] This red colour can be seen as symbolising royalty, divinity, and the Passion of the Christ, something that Gawain as a knight of the Round Table would strive for,[63] but this colour could also represent the negative qualities of temptation and covetousness.[64] Given the importance of magic rings in Arthurian romance, this remarkable ring would also have been believed to protect the wearer from harm just as the Lady claims the girdle will.[65]

The poet highlights number symbolism to add symmetry and meaning to the poem. For example, three kisses are exchanged between Gawain and Bertilak's wife; Gawain is tempted by her on three separate days; Bertilak goes hunting three times, and the Green Knight swings at Gawain three times with his axe. The number two also appears repeatedly, as in the two beheading scenes, two confession scenes, and two castles.[66] The five points of the pentangle, the poet adds, represent Gawain's virtues, for he is for ay faythful in fyue and sere fyue syþez (faithful in five and many times five).[67] The poet goes on to list the ways in which Gawain is virtuous: all five of his senses are without fault; his five fingers never fail him, and he always remembers the five wounds of Christ, as well as the five joys of the Virgin Mary. The fifth five is Gawain himself, who embodies the five moral virtues of the code of chivalry: "friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety".[68] All of these virtues reside, as the poet says, in þe endeles knot (the endless knot) of the pentangle, which forever interlinks and is never broken.[69] This intimate relationship between symbol and faith allows for rigorous allegorical interpretation, especially in the physical role that the shield plays in Gawain's quest.[70] Thus, the poet makes Gawain the epitome of perfection in knighthood through number symbolism.[71]

The number five is also found in the structure of the poem itself. Sir Gawain is 101 stanzas long, traditionally organised into four 'fitts' of 21, 24, 34, and 22 stanzas. These divisions, however, have since been disputed; scholars have begun to believe that they are the work of the copyist and not of the poet. The surviving manuscript features a series of capital letters added after the fact by another scribe, and some scholars argue that these additions were an attempt to restore the original divisions. These letters divide the manuscript into nine parts. The first and last parts are 22 stanzas long. The second and second-to-last parts are only one stanza long, and the middle five parts are eleven stanzas long. The number eleven is associated with transgression in other medieval literature (being one more than ten, a number associated with the Ten Commandments). Thus, this set of five elevens (55 stanzas) creates the perfect mix of transgression and incorruption, suggesting that Gawain is faultless in his faults.[71]

At the story's climax, Gawain is wounded superficially in the neck by the Green Knight's axe. During the medieval period, the body and the soul were believed to be so intimately connected that wounds were considered an outward sign of inward sin. The neck, specifically, was believed to correlate with the part of the soul related to will, connecting the reasoning part (the head) and the courageous part (the heart). Gawain's sin resulted from using his will to separate reasoning from courage. By accepting the girdle from the lady, he employs reason to do something less than courageous—evade death in a dishonest way. Gawain's wound is thus an outward sign of an internal wound. The Green Knight's series of tests shows Gawain the weakness that has been in him all along: the desire to use his will pridefully for personal gain, rather than submitting his will in humility to God. The Green Knight, by engaging with the greatest knight of Camelot, also reveals the moral weakness of pride in all of Camelot, and therefore all of humanity. However, the wounds of Christ, believed to offer healing to wounded souls and bodies, are mentioned throughout the poem in the hope that this sin of prideful "stiffneckedness" will be healed among fallen mortals.[72][73]

Gawain represented the perfect knight, as a fighter, a lover, and a religious devotee. (The Vigil by John Pettie, 1884)

Many critics argue that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be viewed as a romance. Medieval romances typically recount the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight, often of super-human ability, who abides by chivalry's strict codes of honour and demeanour, embarks upon a quest and defeats monsters, thereby winning the favour of a lady. Thus, medieval romances focus not on love and sentiment (as the term "romance" implies today), but on adventure.[74]

Gawain's function, as medieval scholar Alan Markman says, "is the function of the romance hero … to stand as the champion of the human race, and by submitting to strange and severe tests, to demonstrate human capabilities for good or bad action."[75] Through Gawain's adventure, it becomes clear that he is merely human. The reader becomes attached to this human view amidst the poem's romanticism, relating to Gawain's humanity while respecting his knightly qualities. Gawain "shows us what moral conduct is. We shall probably not equal his behaviour, but we admire him for pointing out the way."[75]

In viewing the poem as a medieval romance, many scholars see it as intertwining chivalric and courtly love laws under the English Order of the Garter. A slightly altered version of the Order's motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense", or "Shamed be he who finds evil here," has been added, in a different hand, at the end of the poem. Some critics describe Gawain's peers wearing girdles of their own as linked to the origin of the Order of the Garter. However, in the parallel poem The Greene Knight, the lace is white, not green, and is considered the origin of the collar worn by the Knights of the Bath, not the Order of the Garter.[76] Still, a possible connection to the Order is not beyond the realm of possibility.[77]

Scholars have pointed out parallels between the girdle Bertilak's wife offers Gawain, and the fruit Eve offered to Adam in the Biblical Garden of Eden. (Adam and Eve Lucas Cranach, c. 1513)

The poem is in many ways deeply Christian, with frequent references to the fall of Adam and Eve and to Jesus Christ. Scholars have debated the depth of the Christian elements within the poem by looking at it in the context of the age in which it was written, coming up with varying views as to what represents a Christian element of the poem and what does not. For example, some critics compare Sir Gawain to the other three poems of the Gawain manuscript. Each has a heavily Christian theme, causing scholars to interpret Gawain similarly. Comparing it to the poem Cleanness (also known as Purity), for example, they see it as a story of the apocalyptic fall of a civilisation, in Gawain's case, Camelot. In this interpretation, Sir Gawain is like Noah, separated from his society and warned by the Green Knight (who is seen as God's representative) of the coming doom of Camelot. Gawain, judged worthy through his test, is spared the doom of the rest of Camelot. King Arthur and his knights, however, misunderstand Gawain's experience and wear garters themselves. In Cleanness the men who are saved are similarly helpless in warning their society of impending destruction.[33]

One of the key points stressed in this interpretation is that salvation is an individual experience difficult to communicate to outsiders. In his depiction of Camelot, the poet reveals a concern for his society, whose inevitable fall will bring about the ultimate destruction intended by God. Gawain was written around the time of the Black Death and Peasants' Revolt, events which convinced many people that their world was coming to an apocalyptic end and this belief was reflected in literature and culture.[33] However, other critics see weaknesses in this view, since the Green Knight is ultimately under the control of Morgan le Fay, often viewed as a figure of evil in Camelot tales. This makes the knight's presence as a representative of God problematic.[31]

While the character of the Green Knight is usually not viewed as a representation of Christ in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, critics do acknowledge a parallel. Lawrence Besserman, a specialist in medieval literature, explains that "the Green Knight is not a figurative representative of Christ. But the idea of Christ's divine/human nature provides a medieval conceptual framework that supports the poet's serious/comic account of the Green Knight's supernatural/human qualities and actions." This duality exemplifies the influence and importance of Christian teachings and views of Christ in the era of the Gawain Poet.[34]

Furthermore, critics note the Christian reference to Christ's crown of thorns at the conclusion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. After Gawain returns to Camelot and tells his story regarding the newly acquired green sash, the poem concludes with a brief prayer and a reference to "the thorn-crowned God".[78] Besserman theorises that "with these final words the poet redirects our attention from the circular girdle-turned-sash (a double image of Gawain's "vntrawþe/renoun":[79] untruth/renown) to the circular Crown of Thorns (a double image of Christ's humiliation turned triumph)."[34]

Throughout the poem, Gawain encounters numerous trials testing his devotion and faith in Christianity. When Gawain sets out on his journey to find the Green Chapel, he finds himself lost, and only after praying to the Virgin Mary does he find his way. As he continues his journey, Gawain once again faces anguish regarding his inevitable encounter with the Green Knight. Instead of praying to Mary, as before, Gawain places his faith in the girdle given to him by Bertilak's wife. From the Christian perspective, this leads to disastrous and embarrassing consequences for Gawain as he is forced to re-evaluate his faith when the Green Knight points out his betrayal.[80] Another interpretation sees the work in terms of the perfection of virtue, with the pentangle representing the moral perfection of the connected virtues, the Green Knight as Christ exhibiting perfect fortitude, and Gawain as slightly imperfect in fortitude by virtue of flinching when under the threat of death.[81]

An analogy is also made between Gawain's trial and the Biblical test that Adam encounters in the Garden of Eden. Adam succumbs to Eve just as Gawain surrenders to Bertilak's wife by accepting the girdle.[80] Although Gawain sins by putting his faith in the girdle and not confessing when he is caught, the Green Knight pardons him, thereby allowing him to become a better Christian by learning from his mistakes.[82] Through the various games played and hardships endured, Gawain finds his place within the Christian world.

Lady Bertilak at Gawain's bed (from original manuscript, artist unknown)

Feminist literary critics see the poem as portraying women's ultimate power over men. Morgan le Fay and Bertilak's wife, for example, are the most powerful characters in the poem—Morgan especially, as she begins the game by enchanting the Green Knight. The girdle and Gawain's scar can be seen as symbols of feminine power, each of them diminishing Gawain's masculinity. Gawain's misogynist passage,[83] in which he blames all his troubles on women and lists the many men who have fallen prey to women's wiles, further supports the feminist view of ultimate female power in the poem.[84]

In contrast, others argue that the poem focuses mostly on the opinions, actions, and abilities of men. For example, on the surface, it appears that Bertilak's wife is a strong leading character.[85] By adopting the masculine role, she appears to be an empowered individual, particularly in the bedroom scene. This is not entirely the case, however. While the Lady is being forward and outgoing, Gawain's feelings and emotions are the focus of the story, and Gawain stands to gain or lose the most.[86] The Lady "makes the first move", so to speak, but Gawain decides what is to become of those actions. He, therefore, is in charge of the situation and even the relationship.[86]

In the bedroom scene, both the negative and positive actions of the Lady are motivated by her desire.[40] Her feelings cause her to step out of the typical female role and into that of the male, thus becoming more empowered.[40] At the same time, those same actions make the Lady appear adulterous; some scholars compare her with Eve in the Bible.[87] By convincing Gawain to take her girdle, i.e., the apple, the pact made with Bertilak—and therefore the Green Knight—is broken.[88] Based on this, Gawain portrays himself, in what is often called his "antifeminist diatribe" later on, as a "good man seduced".[88]

From 1350 to 1400—the period in which the poem is thought to have been written—Wales experienced several raids at the hands of the English, who were attempting to colonise the area. The Gawain poet uses a North West Midlands dialect common on the Welsh–English border, potentially placing him in the midst of this conflict. Patricia Clare Ingham is credited with first viewing the poem through the lens of postcolonialism, and since then a great deal of dispute has emerged over the extent to which colonial differences play a role in the poem. Most critics agree that gender plays a role but differ about whether gender supports the colonial ideals or replaces them as English and Welsh cultures interact in the poem.[89]

A large amount of critical debate also surrounds the poem as it relates to the bi-cultural political landscape of the time. Some argue that Bertilak is an example of the hybrid Anglo-Welsh culture found on the Welsh–English border. They therefore view the poem as a reflection of a hybrid culture that plays strong cultures off one another to create a new set of cultural rules and traditions. Other scholars, however, argue that historically much Welsh blood was shed well into the 14th century, creating a situation far removed from the more friendly hybridisation suggested by Ingham. To support this argument further, it is suggested that the poem creates an "us versus them" scenario contrasting the knowledgeable civilised English with the uncivilised borderlands that are home to Bertilak and the other monsters that Gawain encounters.[89]

In contrast to this perception of the colonial lands, others argue that the land of Hautdesert, Bertilak's territory, has been misrepresented or ignored in modern criticism. They suggest that it is a land with its own moral agency, one that plays a central role in the story. Bonnie Lander, for example, argues that the denizens of Hautdesert are "intelligently immoral", choosing to follow certain codes and rejecting others, a position which creates a "distinction … of moral insight versus moral faith". Lander thinks that the border dwellers are more sophisticated because they do not unthinkingly embrace the chivalric codes but challenge them in a philosophical, and—in the case of Bertilak's appearance at Arthur's court—literal sense. Lander's argument about the superiority of the denizens of Hautdesert hinges on the lack of self-awareness present in Camelot, which leads to an unthinking populace that frowns on individualism. In this view, it is not Bertilak and his people, but Arthur and his court, who are the monsters.[90]

Lud's Church

Several scholars have attempted to find a real-world correspondence for Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel. The Anglesey islands, for example, are mentioned in the poem. They exist today as a single island off the coast of Wales.[91] In line 700, Gawain is said to pass the holy hede (Holy Head), believed by many scholars to be either Holywell or the Cistercian abbey of Poulton in Pulford. Holywell is associated with the beheading of Saint Winifred. As the story goes, Winifred was a virgin who was beheaded by a local leader after she refused his sexual advances. Her uncle, another saint, put her head back in place and healed the wound, leaving only a white scar. The parallels between this story and Gawain's make this area a likely candidate for the journey.[92]

Gawain's trek leads him directly into the centre of the Pearl Poet's dialect region, where the candidates for the locations of the Castle at Hautdesert and the Green Chapel stand. Hautdesert is thought to be in the area of Swythamley in northwest Midland, as it lies in the writer's dialect area and matches the topographical features described in the poem. The area is also known to have housed all of the animals hunted by Bertilak (deer, boar, fox) in the 14th century.[93] The Green Chapel is thought to be in either Lud's Church or Wetton Mill, as these areas closely match the descriptions given by the author.[94] Ralph Elliott located the chapel two myle henne[95] (two miles hence) from the old manor house at Swythamley Park at þe boþem of þe brem valay[96] (the bottom of a valley) on a hillside (loke a littel on þe launde on þi lyfte honde[97]) in an enormous fissure (an olde caue / or a creuisse of an olde cragge).[98][99] Several have tried to replicate this expedition and others such as Michael W. Twomey have created a virtual tour of Gawain's journey entitled 'Travels with Sir Gawain'[100] that include photographs of landscapes mentioned and particular views mentioned in the text.[101]

According to Queer scholar Richard Zeikowitz, the Green Knight represents a threat to homosocial friendship in his medieval world. Zeikowitz argues that the narrator of the poem seems entranced by the Knight's beauty, homoeroticising him in poetic form. The Green Knight's attractiveness challenges the homosocial rules of King Arthur's court and poses a threat to their way of life. Zeikowitz also states that Gawain seems to find Bertilak as attractive as the narrator finds the Green Knight. Bertilak, however, follows the homosocial code and develops a friendship with Gawain. Gawain's embracing and kissing Bertilak in several scenes thus represents not a homosexual but a homosocial expression. Men of the time often embraced and kissed, and this was acceptable under the chivalric code. Nonetheless, Zeikowitz claims the Green Knight blurs the lines between homosociality and homosexuality, representing the difficulty medieval writers sometimes had in separating the two.[102]

Queer scholar Carolyn Dinshaw argues that the poem may have been a response to accusations that Richard II had a male lover—an attempt to re-establish the idea that heterosexuality was the Christian norm. Around the time the poem was written, the Catholic Church was beginning to express concerns about kissing between males. Many religious figures were trying to make the distinction between strong trust and friendship between males and homosexuality. She asserts that the Pearl Poet seems to have been simultaneously entranced and repulsed by homosexual desire. According to Dinshaw, in his other poem Cleanness, he points out several grievous sins, but spends lengthy passages describing them in minute detail, and she sees this alleged' obsession' as carrying over to Gawain in his descriptions of the Green Knight.[103]

Beyond this, Dinshaw proposes that Gawain can be read as a woman-like figure. In her view, he is the passive one in the advances of Bertilak's wife, as well as in his encounters with Bertilak himself, where he acts the part of a woman in kissing the man. However, while the poem does have homosexual elements, these elements are brought up by the poet to establish heterosexuality as the normal lifestyle of Gawain's world. The poem does this by making the kisses between the Lady and Gawain sexual in nature but rendering the kisses between Gawain and Bertilak "unintelligible" to the medieval reader. In other words, the poet portrays kisses between a man and a woman as having the possibility of leading to sex, while in a heterosexual world, kisses between a man and a man are portrayed as having no such possibility.[103]

Though the surviving manuscript dates from the fourteenth century, the first published version of the poem did not appear until as late as 1839, when Sir Frederic Madden of the British Museum recognised the poem as worth reading.[104] Madden's scholarly, Middle English edition of the poem was followed in 1898 by the first Modern English translation – a prose version by literary scholar Jessie Weston.[104] In 1925, J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon published a scholarly edition of the Middle English text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; a revised edition of this text was prepared by Norman Davis and published in 1967. The book, featuring a text in Middle English with extensive scholarly notes, is frequently confused with the translation into Modern English that Tolkien prepared, along with translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo, late in his life.[105] Many editions of the latter work, first published in 1975, shortly after his death, list Tolkien on the cover as author rather than translator.[106]

Many translations into Modern English are available. Notable translators include Jessie Weston, whose 1898 prose translation and 1907 poetic translation took many liberties with the original; Theodore Banks, whose 1929 translation was praised for its adaptation of the language to modern usage;[107] and Marie Borroff, whose imitative translation was first published in 1967 and "entered the academic canon" in 1968, in the second edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature. In 2010, her (slightly revised) translation was published as a Norton Critical Edition, with a foreword by Laura Howes.[108] In 2007, Simon Armitage, who grew up near the Gawain poet's purported residence, published a translation which attracted attention in the US and the United Kingdom,[109] and was published in the United States by Norton.[110] In 2021, author John Reppion and artist M. D. Penman released a graphic novel adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in collaboration with Leeds Arts University.[111] An expanded deluxe Hardback edition of the book, with an introduction by Alan Moore, was released the following year.[112]

The poem has been adapted to film three times, twice by writer-director Stephen Weeks: first as Gawain and the Green Knight in 1973 and again in 1984 as Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, featuring Miles O'Keeffe as Gawain and Sean Connery as the Green Knight. Both films have been criticised for deviating from the poem's plot. Also, Bertilak and the Green Knight are never connected.[113] On 30 July 2021, The Green Knight was released, directed by American filmmaker David Lowery for A24 and starring Dev Patel as Gawain and Ralph Ineson as the Green Knight,[114] albeit with some significant deviations from the original story.[115]

There have been at least two television adaptations, Gawain and the Green Knight in 1991 and the animated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in 2002. The BBC broadcast a documentary presented by Simon Armitage in which the journey depicted in the poem is traced, using what are believed to be the actual locations.[116]

The Tyneside Theatre company presented a stage version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at the University Theatre, Newcastle at Christmas 1971. It was directed by Michael Bogdanov and adapted for the stage from the translation by Brian Stone.[117] The music and lyrics were composed by Iwan Williams using medieval carols, such as the Boar's Head Carol, as inspiration and folk instruments such as the Northumbrian pipes, whistles and bhodran to create a "rough" feel. Stone had referred Bogdanov to Cuchulain and the Beheading Game, a sequence which is contained in the Grenoside Sword dance. Bogdanov found the pentangle theme to be contained in most sword dances, and so incorporated a long sword dance while Gawain lay tossing uneasily before getting up to go to the Green Chapel. The dancers made the knot of the pentangle around his drowsing head with their swords. The interlacing of the hunting and wooing scenes was achieved by frequent cutting of the action from hunt to bedchamber and back again, while the locale of both remained on-stage.

In 1992 Simon Corble created an adaptation with medieval songs and music for The Midsommer Actors' Company.[118] performed as walkabout productions in the summer 1992[119] at Thurstaston Common and Beeston Castle and in August 1995 at Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire.[120] Corble later wrote a substantially revised version which was produced indoors at the O'Reilly Theatre, Oxford in February 2014.[121][122]

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was first adapted as an opera in 1978 by the composer Richard Blackford on commission from the village of Blewbury, Oxfordshire. The libretto was written for the adaptation by the children's novelist John Emlyn Edwards. The "Opera in Six Scenes" was subsequently recorded by Decca between March and June 1979 and released on the Argo label[123] in November 1979.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was adapted into an opera called Gawain by Harrison Birtwistle, first performed in 1991. Birtwistle's opera was praised for maintaining the complexity of the poem while translating it into lyric, musical form.[124] Another operatic adaptation is Lynne Plowman's Gwyneth and the Green Knight, first performed in 2002. This opera uses Sir Gawain as the backdrop but refocuses the story on Gawain's female squire, Gwyneth, who is trying to become a knight. Plowman's version was praised for its approachability, as its target is the family audience and young children, but criticised for its use of modern language and occasional preachy nature.[125]