Sir Gawain: The Great Romance Hero or Something Different?
Kelly Hopkins
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late-fourteenth-century poem written in alliterative verse with a regional dialect characteristic of northwestern England. The unknown author’s imaginative power frames a marvelous tale sur - rounding protagonist Sir Gawain, the humble and courageous nephew of King Arthur and knight of his illustrious Round Table. A grisly and gigantic green mystical knight mounted on a massive green horse bursts into King Arthur’s Christmas celebration and threatens to damage the Knights of the Round Table’s reputation for unwavering bravery and proposes an axe challenge to the court— the Green Knight asks for someone to - take his mighty green axe and strike
him down. The condition of the challenge is one year later the knight must reunite with the Green Knight to receive a counter blow from his vast green axe. Sir Gawain respectfully steps forward and bravely accepts the Green Knight’s “exchange of blows” challenge and chops off his head in one swift and power- ful swing. The Green Knight shockingly picks up his severed head, hops on his green horse, and gallops away. True to his word, Gawain sets off to locate the Green Knight in a year’s time, facing the likelihood of certain death. Medieval culture has a value system embodying three chivalric codes of conduct: knight - ly conduct, courtesy, and Christian virtue; consequently, when Gawain faces Lord Bertilak’s “tests” of character, it throws Gawain’s three behavioral codes into conflict with one another. Does Gawain reconcile his codes of conduct and emerge as a champion for the great romance hero? Or does he emerge as something different—a champion for humankind? As Gawain’s quest brings him closer to the Green Chapel (the Green Knight’s
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