Both pagan and Christian concepts are evident in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but the Christian elements are integral and important to the plot of the story. Moreover, the Gawain poet reveals a fairly deep and extensive knowledge of Christian concepts. This is quite unlike what is evident in Beowulf, where the poet there did not display a vast knowledge of Christianity; and the Christian elements in that poem could be removed rather easily without such a change affecting the plot or themes of the epic.
The romance begins with a Christmastime (or Yuletide) setting. The knights gather together this one time out of every year (since Christmas is the most important and most celebrated of Christian holidays) and dance to carols (Christmas songs) and shout Noel to one another. Chanting is heard in the chapel, and clerics (or priests) come to the court. To put it simply, the Gawain poet uses an extensive vocabulary to create the feel and mood of Christmas and to promote the sense of Christianity that underlies the tale.
When the Green Knight interrupts the occasion and addresses King Arthur’s court, he announces that he wishes to play “a Christmas game” with the knights. The announcement is all the more shocking because of the contrast between pagan and Christian elements. The Green Knight is, in the view of Arthur and his knights, obviously a pagan being. That such a fellow wants anything to do with Christmas, the holiest of Christian holidays, is, at the very least, ironic and perhaps even sacrilegious. During the Middle Ages the representatives of the Catholic Church would often connect pagan worship and pagan beliefs to Satan, the chief of the devils. In other words, pagan worship and pagan beliefs are evil to the Christians of that time. Therefore, the audience of the 14th century hearing the tale about Sir Gawain would naturally associate the Green Knight with evil. In a sense, then, the Green Knight is mocking (making fun of) the Christmas festivities and the concepts of Christianity. Gawain’s response to the Green Knight, then, reflects not only the old
Anglo-Saxon code of bravery and respect to one’s lord. It also symbolically represents Gawain’s desire to uphold and protect Christianity against evil forces.
An even more important aspect of
Christianity in the romance concerns Gawain’s devotion to Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. Gawain’s courtly respect of ladies achieves its highest level in the respect that he gives to Mary.
This also connects the idea of being faithful to one’s lord (in this case, Gawain’s lord is King Arthur) to the idea of being faithful to God. Mary is a saint, a very special saint since she was chosen by God to give birth to His Son. Gawain’s respect to Mary is, then, also respect to God.
The symbolism of Gawain’s shield indicates Gawain’s belief and faith in Christianity. In the second part of the romance, when Gawain is putting on his armor, the poet takes special care in two stanzas (lines 619-69) to explain the significance of the pentangle, the five-sided star that decorates Gawain’s shield. The pentangle, as the poet explains, has five points and fives sides; and it is called “the endless knot” because each side is linked with the next (one can trace over the design by beginning at any point and following the lines until returning to the original point). The word “endless” also suggests faithfulness or fidelity. Fidelity suggests timelessness: there is no end in a relationship where both sides are truly faithful.
But the pentangle also represents “the five fives”: that is, each side of the pentangle symbolizes something else that also has five components or parts: 1 The Five Senses: the five senses are seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling. For Christians, the five senses are gifts from God that allow people to understand and enjoy life.
The Annunciation: the announcement by an angel that Mary would give birth to God’s Son. The Nativity: the birth of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection: the re-birth of Christ after he died on the cross.
The Ascension: the entrance of Christ into Heaven.
The Assumption: the entrance of Mary into Heaven.
Boundless Beneficence
(goodness without limits)
Brotherly Love
Pure Mind
Pure Manners
Compassion
All of these taken together symbolize the Christian teachings and the ideal Christian way of life that Gawain aspires to achieve. Gawain recognizes the suffering that Jesus Christ experienced for him as for all of mankind; and so Gawain devotes himself to Christ, to Mary, and to God. In the last of the five fives, the poet describes mind and manners with the word pure. Purity means having no blemish, no stain, no fault. And that is how Gawain tries to live.
Gawain sees himself as a pure knight, as one who is good and without fault. Seeing himself in this way is directly connected to the plot and theme of the romance. Because Gawain does not wish to lose his purity, he feels he has no choice but to keep his faith (his bargain) to the Green Knight and submit to the death-blow. The theme, to be discussed later, concerns the loss of faith and the loss of purity.
The reader should also notice that Gawain keeps the image (a small engraving or painting) of Mary with him as well:
On the inner part of his shield her image portrayed,
That when his look on it lighted, he never lost heart.
(II: 649-50)
This icon, this image of Mary, is symbolically located on the inner part of his shield. Just as the shield literally protects him against the blows of his enemies, the shield symbolically protects him from the blows of evil. One might even note that later Gawain’s courage and faith become weakened because he is without his shield when he is in bed in Lord
Bercilak’s castle.
Despite the inclusion and the necessity of the Christian elements in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the poet also maintains a large number of pagan elements within the poem as well. The reader must keep in mind that the tales about King Arthur and his Knights began as pagan Celtic stories that developed and grew first in England and later in France (in Brittany) before returning to England during the Middle English period. But the pagan elements are also crucial to the plot and meaning of Sir Gawain. Part of the poet’s art, his skill, is that he was able to weave and interlace both Christian and pagan elements together to form the tapestry (the wonderful poetic creation) that is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. For many years in medieval England, both pagan practices and Christian rituals existed side by side with one another; and the romance of Gawain seems to reflect that time. And even in the 14th century, when the romance was written, many Christian people still held on to the superstitions, to their beliefs in elves and demons and monsters. The use of magic, particularly, is part of what defines a romance; and such magic, such pagan magic, occurs or is suggested in at least four central parts of the romance:
“half a giant” (part I, line 140), “phantom” and “faerie” (part I, line 240), and “elfman” (part II, line 681). All of these expressions suggest that he is anything but human. But the fact that the poet does not use any one particular term for the Green Knight not only marks him out as a supernatural being but suggests that he is so wondrous and marvelous that there is no word to describe him. The Green Knight is a being or creature from the worst of nightmares.
Gawain encounters an old woman, a withered old hag, who is the companion of Lady Bercilak. In the fourth part, the Green knight explains that this old woman is Morgan le Faye, an enchantress who is also the half-sister to King Arthur. In the Arthurian tales, Morgan le Faye was usually depicted as an evil creature who was jealous of Arthur and constantly caused trouble for him. Through
Morgan’s magic Lord Bercilak was able to transform himself into the Green Knight, and it was Morgan le Faye’s idea in the first place to test (and to ridicule or humiliate) King Arthur and his knights. Morgan’s magic is sinister and often associated with evil. Even the word faye (or fay) is related to the word fairy and suggests a creature of the otherworld, a magical being who is not human.
Obviously, the inclusion of Morgan le Faye is central to the plot of the story – her magic is responsible for the Green Knight’s coming to Camelot – and explains the reason why the Green Knight comes in the first place.
All of the magical or pagan elements mentioned above are absolutely important and crucial to the plot and major themes of the romance. They could not be removed without harming the integrity and meaning of the tale.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the best of medieval romances for several reasons: (1) the characterization, (2) the humor, (3) the blending of Christian and pagan elements, (4) the poetic language, and (5) the structure. In regards to this last point, the structure, a reader should note that many medieval romances, like The Awyntyrs of Arthur at Tarn Wadling, are put together piecemeal and do not seem unified or carefully constructed. They are just not very good. All of the elements of Sir Gawain, on the other hand, are carefully selected and blended together to form an intricately unified tale of adventure with a definite theme that is maintained throughout the entire work.
The Gawain poet does not include any digressions although he very easily could have done so. For example, digressions could have been inserted at the beginning when the knights gathered at Camelot and spoke of their adventures or in the scenes at Lord Bercilak’s castle (in part III) when Gawain was being entertained as a guest. In the second part of the romance the Gawain poet himself even suggests a place where he could have inserted digressions:
So many were the wonders he wandered among
That to tell but the tenth part would tax my wits.
(II: 718-19)
The poet is saying that Gawain had many adventures and to tell even one-tenth (1/10) of them would take a great deal of time and effort. So, the poet then lists, but does not narrate or tell stories about, some of Gawain’s encounters with serpents, wolves, wild men, bulls, giants, and so on.
The poet purposely avoids using digressions because he wanted to make every element, every line, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, contribute to the action of the plot or to the central themes of the story.