Ms. Kristy White
English Literature I
Gawain and the Games of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In the medieval classic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain of King Arthur’s Court must answer the challenge of the ‘beheading game,’ in which the Green Knight will give a challenger one chance to hit him with his axe, provided the Knight is allowed to search for him to return the blow at any time in the next year. This starts the journey of Sir Gawain and the games he plays – he must endure many trials over the course of the work, one of which eventually becomes Gawain’s downfall. Despite his prowess on the battlefield, and his skills as a man, it is actually woman who leads to his eventual defeat at the hands of the Green Knight (though he is spared due to his aforementioned virtue). Although he does slip up in this respect, the games challenge Gawain in a test of virtue, which he eventually passes despite this one moment of weakness.
Games make a natural fit for tales of chivalry; games themselves are organized, structured tests of mettle and strength. As Gawain is a Knight of the Round Table, it makes sense for an evaluation of Gawain’s character (and thus, the character of the Christian in the medieval era) to take the form of a game or quest of some kind. There are many different games in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, from the overarching quest by Gawain to track down the Green Knight to fulfill their bargain to the three-day round of hunting he must do with the lord Bertilak; all of these test some element of Gawain’s character – including, it could be argued, his faith.
The first game, the one involving the Green Knight, tests his bravery and his courage by accepting a challenge to open combat. The Green Knight is established early on as a mythic, almost perfect figure – “what did it mean that human and horse could develop this hue, should grow to be grass-green or greener still, like green enamel emboldened by bright gold?they’d seen some sights, but this was something special, a miracle or magic, or so they imagined” (Armitage). To that end, his challenge to knights is a call to fight the most perfect figure; Gawain’s acceptance of the challenge demonstrates his immense bravery, above all the others. The terms of the game involve Gawain taking one swing at the Green Knight, with the caveat that the Green Knight gets to take a swing at Gawain in a year’s time. The most important element of this initial stage of the game, in which the Green Knight survives his decapitation by simply picking up his head and riding away, is the fact that Gawain still vows to follow through with the game. By all accounts, the Green Knight cheated by having the magical ability to survive having his head cut off; nonetheless, Gawain feels the knightly obligation to follow through with the terms he agreed to, and so he starts on his journey.
When he finds the castle of Bertilak, the next game he must engage in is a comparative scavenger hunt where he must search for things at the castle to trade for the things that Bertilak hunts while out for the day. It is perhaps this game that eventually leads to Gawain’s downfall, as he finally finds his weakness in the arms of the lady of Bertilak’s castle. This is a test of his chivalry, first and foremost, as every night he is seduced by Lady Bertilak; every time, he refuses her advances, but for a kiss in order to spare her feelings. At the same time, he returns that kiss right to Lord Bertilak in exchange for the food he hunts; to that end, he is chivalrous and honors loyalties between man and wife. It is only on the third night that he finally succumbs to temptation; though he does not sleep with the lady, he accepts the gift of the magical girdle, as he is enticed by its potential to guard his life against the Green Knight.
This is the act that shows his implicitly corruptible nature; he is not enticed necessarily by the advances of the lady, but by the promise of protection the girdle provides. To that end, however, he does betray Lord Bertilak by not returning it to him according to the rules of their game. The poet behind Gawain wishes here to test the limits of chivalry and the amount to which people take it seriously: “To what extent is proper chivalric behavior real, moral behavior as opposed to public posturing?” (Weiss 410). The poem itself examines the humanity of virtuous people, and puts arguably the most virtuous man imaginable through a test challenging his fear of death and respect of commitments, both marital and knightly.
When Gawain finally faces the Green Knight once more, the weakness he displayed by holding onto the lady’s girdle leads to consequences; he is slashed by the Green Knight, cutting his neck and shedding blood. However, he is spared because of the virtue he had displayed previously, as the Green Knight reveals himself to be Bertilak. “The harm which you caused me is wholly healed. By confessing your failings you are free from fault and have openly paid penance at the point of my axe. I declare you purged” (Armitage). Because Gawain took the challenge so seriously, his life is spared and he is eventually rewarded: “Agreeing to the terms of play or game in public is a moral imperative to Gawain, even when those terms involve the taking of a life and abiding by fixed rules in spite of the opponent’s magical advantage” (Weiss 410). Gawain proves himself to be above his peers at the Round Table, who laughed off the Green Knight and his obligation to them, by honoring his debts despite a moment of weakness with the girdle.
The whole of the Green Knight/Bertilak’s game can be defined as a ‘godgame,’ an overly labyrinthine game that teaches a greater moral lesson through its structure. “The purpose of the godgame is to force the player to confront the mystery of existence and thus to realize deep questions about life and living” (Pugh 526). This is done through this overall deception the Green Knight places on Gawain; the Bertilak games were all part of the Green Knight’s bigger game to figure out what kind of person Gawain is. The Green Knight establishes the stakes in the initial strike by Gawain, Gawain is intrigued and sets out to fulfill his bargain, and falls into the Bertilak castle games where his real game begins.
Gawain’s mistake led to his downfall and defeat, but the positive outcome to this story is that he is given the space and chance to learn from his mistake. The outcome of that game is what establishes the Green Knight’s eventual value judgment of Gawain; while Bertilak still punishes him for attempting to cheat through the use of the magical girdle by shedding blood, he does not kill him because of his overall virtue. Through the hunting games at Bertilak’s castle(and the fact that he was knightly enough to actually follow through with the conditions of the game), Gawain was able to prove himself to be innovative, loving, virtuous and chivalrous – all traits that are typically celebrated in the knight. To that end, Gawain is shaped and defined by his experience, donning a green sash wearing these new experiences literally on his sleeve (by wearing the girdle on his arm).
In conclusion, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is all about games, to an extent – games as ways to measure the character of a person. In the case of Gawain, the initial wager tests his courage and willingness to prove his worth as a warrior, while the game at Bertilak’s castle tests his cunning and his sense of chivalry. Despite his ingenuity, he eventually leans too hard on the promise of protection from the consequences of the first game, leading to his moral downfall (but not his physical one). Gawain is given the chance to learn from his mistake, permitting Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to serve as a blueprint for courtly behavior; the work gives its audience a flawed protagonist who nonetheless becomes better and turns into a greater knight and Christian as a result.
Works Cited
Armitage, Simon (trans.) “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” In The Norton Anthology of
English Literature: The Major Authors. 8th edition, Volume A.
Pugh, Tison. “Gawain and the Godgames.” Christianity and Literature 51.4 (Summer 2002):
525.
Weiss, Victoria L. “The Play World and the Real World: Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight.” Philological Quarterly 72.4 (Fall 1993): 403.
