Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight
• Chivalric Romance is a type of narrative that developed in twelfth-
century France. The romance is distinguished from the epic in that it
does not represent a heroic age of tribal wars, but a courtly and
chivalric age, often of highly developed manners and civility. Its
standard plot is that of a quest undertaken by a single knight in
order to gain a lady’s favour; frequently its central interest is courtly
love, together with tournaments fought and dragons and monsters
slain for the damsel’s sake; it stresses the chivalric ideals of
courage, loyalty, honour, mercifulness to an opponent, and
elaborate manner; and it delights in wonders and marvels. The
romance makes much of the mysterious effect of magic, spells, and
enchantments. The cycle of tales which developed around the
pseudohistorical British Kind Arthur produced many of the finest
romances, some of them with a religious instead of a purely secular
content. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, composed in fourteenth-
century England, is a metrical romance (that is, a romance written in
verse) about an Arthurian knight. (adapted from M.H. Abrams)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (ca. 1375-1400) is generally
considered to be the best Middle English romance and Gawain as
the epitome of Arthurian chivalry (Gustafson).
• The plot is derived from folklore; the anonymous poet combines
three folk tales: “The Beheading Game,” “The Temptation Story,”
and “The Exchange of Winnings.”
• Fitt: name for the sections of Sir Gawain (of which there are 4)
• Bob: dissyllabic line that separates the main part of the stanza from
conclusion
• Wheel: rhymed concluding section of stanza
• Trawthe: loyalty, faith, and integrity; a combination of “truth” and
“troth”
• Pentangle, five virtues: generosity, fellowship, chastity, courtesy,
piety