Sir Gawain Research Paper
An Analysis of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”
I. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. I
Ed. Stephen Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 2006. 162-213.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a romantic poem from the Middles Ages. It is the story of one of King Arthur’s knights, Sir Gawain, who enters a game with the mysterious Green Knight. The game is an exchange of strokes with an axe, but the Green Knight states that a “twelvemonth and a day shall pass” (line 297) between the first stroke and the second stroke. The Green Knight states that “I shall bide the first blow” (290), therefore allowing Sir Gawain the first stroke. Sir Gawain strikes the Green Knight’s neck, beheading him, but the Green Knight does not die. The Green Knight lives and only asks that Sir Gawain keep his word and in one year’s time accept the stroke that the Green Knight is owed. The Green Knight leaves King Arthur’s court and as promised Sir Gawain will go on his quest in search of the Green Chapel where the Green Knight will await for Sir Gawain to finish the game.
When Gawain embarks on his quest, he is greeted with the cruel winter weather. In the midst of this he stumbles across a castle. Gawain seeks and is given refuge from the weather in this castle. The castle’s host is Bertilak, but his name is not given until the end of the poem. Bertilak gives Gawain shelter for three days. When Gawain realizes that it is almost time to meet the Green Knight, he tells Bertilak that he must leave because he still needs to search out the Green Chapel to meet the Green Knight. Bertilak eases Gawain’s worries by telling him that the Green Chapel “Is not two miles from here” (1078). He then offers Gawain to stay three more days with him and on the fourth he will have a guide escort him to the Green Chapel.
Bertilak also offers to play a game with Gawain for...
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