Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Introduction

The topic under study relates to a famous poem of the 14th- century; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Topic revolves around the meaning and representation of Green Knight in the poem and quotes to support points from the poem.

The poem, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is an English romantic adventure work of Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain accepts a challenge in the poem from a worrier who is completely green. The Green Knight is a character who allows anyone to strike him with a challenge to accept a return blow. In the poem, Sir Gawain accepts this challenge, they both agrees to meet at a settled time. Gawain explicitly shows the qualities of chivalry and faithfulness to uphold his oath. He struggled until his honor called for question by the lady of the castle who crafted a test. This is the central part of the poem. The poem, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is one of the best poems of its time.

In this poem, the character; “Green Knight” is an Arthurian character of the 14th century. Bercilak is the real name of Green Knight. In this poem, Sir Gawain names him as Hautdesert whereas green knight names sir Gawain as “Bredbeddle”.

Discussion

Meaning of Green Knight

The character in the poem "Sir Gawain and the green knight", is named as Green knight because of the green skin. A number of scholars got confused by the meaning of the greenness since the time this poem was written. Different scholars gave differing views. Some said that this is a version of Green Man; some said vegetation being in medieval art. Some scholars provided the meaning as a figure recollected from Celtic mythology, a symbol of Christianity and even some related him to a ...