But in no other version is the incident coupled with that of a temptation and testing of the hero’s honour and chastity, such as meets us here. At first sight one is inclined to assign the episode of the lady of the castle to the class of stories of which the oldest version is preserved in Biblical record—the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife; a motif not unseldom employed by mediæval writers, and which notably occurs in what we may call the Launfal group of stories. But there are certain points which may make us hesitate as to whether in its first conception the tale was really one of this class.
It must be noted that here the lady is acting throughout with the knowledge and consent of the husband, an important point of difference. In the second place, it is very doubtful whether her entire attitude was not a ruse. From the Green Knight’s words to Gawain when he finally reveals himself, “I wot we shall soon make peace with my wife, who was thy bitter enemy,” her conduct hardly seems to have been prompted by real passion.
In my Studies on the Legend of Sir Gawain, already referred to, I have suggested that the character of the lady here is, perhaps, a reminiscence of that of the Queen of the Magic Castle or Isle, daughter or niece of an enchanter, who at an early stage of Gawain’s story was undoubtedly his love. I think it not impossible that she was an integral part of the tale as first told, and her rôle here was determined by that which she originally played. In most versions of the story she has dropped out altogether. It is, of course, possible that, there being but a confused reminiscence of the original tale, her share may have been modified by the influence of the Launfal group; but I should prefer to explain the episode on the whole as a somewhat distorted survival of an original feature.
But in any case we may be thankful for this, that the author of the most important English metrical romance dealing with Arthurian legend faithfully adheres to the original conception of Gawain’s character, as drawn before the monkish lovers of edification laid their ruthless hands on his legend, and turned the model of knightly virtues and courtesy into a mere vulgar libertine.
Brave, chivalrous, loyally faithful to his plighted word, scrupulously heedful of his own and others’ honour, Gawain stands before us in this poem. We take up Malory or Tennyson, and in spite of their charm of style, in spite of the halo of religious mysticism in which they have striven to enwrap their characters, we lay them down with a feeling of dissatisfaction. How did the Gawain of their imagination, this empty-headed, empty-hearted worldling, cruel murderer, and treacherous friend, ever come to be the typical English hero? For such Gawain certainly was, even more than Arthur himself. Then we turn back to these faded pages, and read the quaintly earnest words in which the old writer reveals the hidden meaning of that mystic symbol, the pentangle, and vindicates Gawain’s title to claim it as his badge—and we smile, perhaps; but we cease to wonder at the widespread popularity of King Arthur’s famous nephew, or at the immense body of romance that claims him as its hero.
Scholars know all this, of course; they can read the poem for themselves in its original rough and intricate phraseology; perhaps they will be shocked at an attempt to handle it in simpler form. But this little book is not for them, and if to those to whom the tale would otherwise be a sealed treasure these pages bring some new knowledge of the way in which our forefathers looked on the characters of the Arthurian legend, the tales they told of them (unconsciously betraying the while how they themselves lived and thought and spoke)—if by that means they gain a keener appreciation of our national heroes, a wider knowledge of our national literature,—then the spirit of the long-dead poet will doubtless not be the slowest to pardon my handling of what was his masterpiece, as it is, in M. Gaston Paris’ words, “The jewel of English mediæval literature.”
Bournemouth, June 1898.
CONTENTS
[I] 1 [Of the making of Britain] 1 [How Arthur held high feast at Camelot] 2 [New Year’s Day] 3 [Of the noble knights there present] 4 [The coming of the Green Knight] 5 [The fashion of the knight] 5 [Of the knight’s steed] 6 [The arming of the knight] 7 [Of the knight’s challenge] 9 [The silence of the knights] 11 [How Sir Gawain dared the venture] 12 [The making of the covenant] 13 [The giving of the blow] 15 [The marvel of the Green Knight] 16 [II] 19 [The waning of the year] 19 [Sir Gawain bethinks him of his covenant] 21 [The arming of Sir Gawain] 22 [Wherefore Sir Gawain bare the pentangle] 24 [How Sir Gawain went forth] 25 [Of Sir Gawain’s journey] 26 [How Sir Gawain came to a fair castle on Christmas Eve] 29 [How Sir Gawain was welcomed] 31 [Sir Gawain tells his name] 34 [The lady of the castle] 35 [Of the Christmas feast] 37 [How the feast came to an end but Gawain abode at the castle] 38 [Sir Gawain makes a covenant with his host] 41 [III] 43 [The first day’s hunting] 43 [How the lady of the castle came to Sir Gawain] 45 [How the lady kissed Sir Gawain] 49 [How the covenant was kept] 51 [Of the second day’s hunting] 52 [Of the lady and Sir Gawain] 54 [How the lady strove to beguile Sir Gawain with words of love] 55 [How the boar was slain] 57 [The keeping of the covenant] 59 [Of the third day’s hunting] 61 [How the lady came for the third time to Sir Gawain] 62 [The lady would fain have a parting gift from Gawain] 64 [She would give him her ring] 65 [Or her girdle] 65 [The virtue of the girdle] 66 [How Sir Gawain took the girdle] 67 [The death of the fox] 68 [How Sir Gawain kept not all the covenant] 69 [How Sir Gawain took leave of his host] 71 [IV] 72 [The robing of Sir Gawain] 73 [How Sir Gawain went forth from the castle] 74 [The squire’s warning] 75 [Of the knight of the Green Chapel] 76 [Sir Gawain is none dismayed] 77 [The finding of the chapel] 79 [The coming of the Green Knight] 80 [How Sir Gawain failed to stand the blow] 81 [Of the Green Knight’s reproaches] 82 [How the Green Knight dealt the blow] 83 [Of the three covenants] 84 [The shame of Sir Gawain] 85 [How Sir Gawain would keep the girdle] 87 [How the marvel was wrought] 88 [How Sir Gawain came again to Camelot] 89 [Sir Gawain makes confession of his fault] 90 [The knights wear the lace in honour of Gawain] 90 [The end of the tale] 91 [Notes] 93