Essay on Games in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight -- Sir Gawain Green

Games in Sir Gawain and the Green sawhorse Many games are voluminous in the plot of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Green Knight, Bercilak de Hautdesert, plays a Christmas game with Arthurs appeal at Camelot (line 283) Gawains hosts wife plays games with Gawain throughout the third section of the poem Gawains sees his musical arrangement of mutual trade with his host as a game (line 1380) and all of the events of the story are revealed as a game of Arthurs sister, Morgan Le Fay (lines 2456-2466). passim the telling of the story, the author plays a mental game with the reader or listener, as well. The Christmas game that the Green Knight comes to play with Arthurs court at the instigation of Morgan Le Fay provides the structure with which the plot of the entire story is held together. At first, the court believes that the knight has come for contest bare (line 277) when he reveals his spirit to exchange one blow for another, it seems that it would be an easy contest for an opposite word to win, since no one expects the knight to survive having his head removed with his avouch axe. However, the knight picks up his severed head and leaves, revealing the seriousness of Gawains holler to accept a return blow, Arthur downplays the importance of this promise, saying, Now, sir, hang up your axe, and returning(a) to the feast. (line 477) Arthur also downplays the importance of the contest before Gawain deals his blow to the knight, prophesying Gawains eventual supremacy Keep, cousin, said the king, what you cut with this day And if you rule it aright, then readily, I know, You shall stay the stroke it will strike after. (lines 371-374) Although neither the reader nor Gawain is aware o... ...h degree Celsius or today, is human and subject to failings, as well. Gawain learned his lesson from the Green Knight and communicated it to Arthurs court. I believe that the author hopes that his audience will take the marrow to heart, as well. Works Cit ed Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, one-sixth Edition, Volume One. General Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York Norton, 1993. Works Consulted Bennett, Michael J. The Historical Background in A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, pp. 71-90. Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, editors. Cambridge D.S. Brewer, 1997. Putter, Ad. An Introduction to the Gawain-poet. New York Addison Wesley Longman, 1996. Riddy, Felicity. Jewels in gather in A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, pp. 142-55. Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, editors. Cambridge D.S. Brewer, 1997.