Sir+Gawain

Sir Gawain and the __Green__ __Knight__

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= **The Author:** = The author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is __unknown__ but scholars have pieced together clues to the poet's identity. = = = **Romantic literature** := = A __ //romance// __ is a narrative set in the world of knights, kings, and supernatural creatures. =
 * Composed in northwest England around 1370
 * Has knowledge of French and Latin - educated/ familiar with aristocracy
 * Cleric and Clergyman - (religious nature of the poem)
 * "Pearl Poet" - copy of the story lost and found in 1839 with a poem titled "The Pearl."

__Three stages__:
1. A dangerous quest 2. A test of honor or courage 3. A return to the point where the quest began

The term __romance__ can also be applied to any story that:
 * Involves noble heroes
 * Idealized love
 * Fantastic events that seem remote from every day life.

[|Medieval Romantic Literature]

**Symbolism of Color** [|Color Meanings:] [|Role of Color in Sir Gawain and The Green Knight]

**Symbolism of Shapes** **[|Shape Interpretation]**

[|Arthurian legend] [|Morgan le Ray]
 * King Arthur **

**Sir Gawain** [|Wikipedia] [|Role in Legends]

= Knights and Chivalry: = Sir Gawain is shown to possess the __ ideal traits __ of a knights of the Round Table:

=__ Physical Ideals: __=
 * Strength
 * Skill at arms
 * Horsemanship

= __Nonphysical ideals__: =
 * Courage
 * Humility
 * Courtesy
 * Loyalty

http://www.enotes.com/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/historical-background
 * Chivalry/Courtly Love and SIr Gawain: enotes: **

The ethic of the nobility in the Middle Ages is known as chivalry. This is a set of customs that attempted to reconcile the virtues of a warrior society with Christianity. The ethos of the pagan warriors had emphasized physical courage and loyalty to one’s tribe and lord. It placed great stress on fierceness in battle and usually regarded restraining influences including pity with disdain. Christianity, on the other hand, upheld an ideal universal love. Chivalry retained the martial virtues of the pagan warriors but in the service of other ideals. It continued to place great value upon loyalty and courage, but it scorned blood-lust, egotism and unrestrained sexuality. The Knight, the Christian warrior, was expected to be gentle and refined in his domestic life. Central to the culture of chivalry was the cult of “courtly love.” Prior to the Middle Ages, there were only a few literary accounts of idealized lovers in Western culture. Love between the sexes had been regarded as a highly questionable passion, far less worthy of a hero than love of his companions or his country. This changed abruptly around the start of the eleventh century, as the Provencal poets of Southern France began to celebrate erotic love. This new preoccupation quickly spread to Germany and then to the rest of Europe. It became not only the major theme of lyric poetry but also a foundation of the chivalric epics. Notions of love varied widely, just as they do today. Often a knight would elect to fight in jousting tournaments or on the battlefield in the name of a lady whose favor he wished to win. He was not supposed to expect either physical intimacy or expensive gifts in return, but he might be given a token of the lady such as a sash or a detachable sleeve from her dress. He would then take this with him into battle, sometimes using it as a banner to decorate his lance. Often a knight might choose to serve the wife of another man. Since marriages among the aristocracy were largely political, love was usually outside of marriage. As long as the love remained only spiritual, the husband was not very likely to object. In practice, however, this sort of service could easily slide into adultery. In Mallory’s //Mort D’Arthur//, the downfall of the celebrated Round Table comes when Lancelot, once the greatest of the knights, has a love affair with Queen Guinevere, the wife of King Arthur. The chivalric ideal of love depended on a very delicate emotional balance. Courtly love may have been an important civilizing force, but it could easily become an occasion for violence as well. It was surrounded by all sorts of elaborate conventions designed to keep erotic passions under reasonable control. When the Gawain poet wrote at the end of the fourteenth century, the age of chivalry was nearly at an end. An especially virulent outbreak of bubonic plague in 1347-50 had destroyed about a third of the population of Europe and shaken confidence in traditional ways. New weapons including longbows, cannons and muskets were rendering the traditional warfare, together with most of the knightly traditions, obsolete. As it receded into the past, the age of chivalry began to seem more attractive. The mythical court of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, especially, became surrounded with growing nostalgia. The chivalric knight evolved into the English gentleman.

[|Knights and Chivalry Glossary] [|Chivalry and Courtly Love]

**Bob-and-Wheel**
 * Literary Elements: **
 * Bob and wheel ** is the common name for a [|metrical] device most famously used by the [|Pearl Poet] in //[|Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]//. The feature is found mainly in [|Middle English] and [|Middle Scots] [|poetry], where the bob and wheel occur typically at the end of a stanza. The "bob" is a very short line, sometimes of only two syllables, followed by the "wheel," longer lines with [|internal rhyme].

**Alliteration** is a literary device in which successive words or stressed syllables begin with the same, usually consonant, sound in order to create a desired effect. Poets often use alliteration to emphasize certain words, to create a musical quality, or to help establish the prevailing mood of a poem.

**Images:**