37

/V)o

THE CELTIC ELEMENTS IN SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of the

North Texas State University in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

By

Elizabeth Alewine, B. A.

Denton, Texas

August, 1980
 Alewine, Elizabeth, The Celtic Elements in Sir Gawain

and the Green Knight. Master of Arts (English), August,

1980, 99 pp., bibliography, 25 titles.

The medieval English poem Sir Gawain and the Green

Knight evidences much of its Celtic heritage in the plot

and subplot, as well as in the characters themselves.

The Ulster Cycle, an ancient Irish story group, and the

Mabinogion, a medieval collection of traditional Welsh

tales, both contain parallels to the English romance. In

addition to these numerous analogues, other Celtic features

appear in the poem. Knowingly or not, the Gawain-poet

used the conventions of the Irish and Welsh traditions in

the Other World journey, the battle-belt/lace, the pen-

tangle/sun symbol, and the color green. A study of these

elements as Celtic features of the poem ensures a proper

reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION..... ................... r.1...

.
II. THE ULSTER CYCLE AND SIR GAWAIN AND THE
GREEN KNIGHT . . .~.. . . . . . . . . 10

III. THE IRISH TRADITION, THE MEDIEVAL WELSH

TALES, AND THE ENGLISH ROMANCE ..... .. .35

IV. THE OTHER WORLD AND MISCELLANEOUS CELTIC

ELEMENTS............. .... ....... 61

V. CONCLUSION...... ................... ."...

85

BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................."..... 98

iii
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Charles Moorman believes "the myths involved in [Sir

Gawain and the Green Knight] do to a large extent determine

its ultimate meaning," and he further suggests that "the

attempts to isolate and trace Celtic elements [have]

touched upon the meaning of those same myths in [the

poem]."' Despite the belief of many that source studies

are not as valuable as criticism, they are important be-

cause they enable the scholar and the critic to come to

a better understanding of the work.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (hereafter referred

to as GGK) is a complex and sophisticated poem, a work not

only outstanding for its own time, but for all time. The

GGK poet's expert use of alliterative verse and the bob-

and-wheel is proof of that unknown man's artistry; how-

ever, while such a complexly structured work required a

poet of no small talent, the poem merits attention on

another level: it is a good story. Although by the middle

of the fourteenth century romances had largely degenerated

into loosely organized tales whose only unifying device

was the protagonist, GGK has little in common with these;

1
 2

it is clearly unified, and all of Sir Gawain's adventures

have direction and singleness of purpose.

Since in the Middle Ages it was common for authors

to retell familiar stories, many scholars have looked

to the older sources from which medieval authors drew.

The GGK poet, like other writers of his time, does not

devise original plots; instead he refines his style and

manner of relating

. an outtrage awenture of Arthure3 wondered.

If je wyl lysten his laye bot on littel quile,
I schal telle hit astit, as I in toun herde,
with tonge,
As hit is stad and stoken
In stori stif and stronge,
With lel letteres loken,
In londe so hats ben longe. 2
(11. 29-36)

[ an extraordinary adventure of Arthur's wonders.

. . .
If you will listen to this lay but a little while,
I shall tell it at once, as I heard it .told in town,
with tongue,
As it is placed and written
In story brave and strong,
With true letters locked,
In the land as it has been long.]

Thus, the GGK poet, just as his contemporaries do,

acknowledges that he has borrowed rather than created his

stories. Exactly what his direct source or sources were

has been the subject of much speculation. Scholars have

attempted to identify a direct source, assuming that tales

and manuscripts existed from which the poet drew, but the

belief in those possible sources is not based on fact but

on the oblique reference that the poet himself makes in

 3

lines 32-35. Roger S. Loomis in Celtic Myth and Arthurian

Romance and George L. Kittredge in Gawain and the Green

Knight advance the theory that the poet based his poem on

a now lost French tale in which "The Champions' Bargain"

and the Temptation stories were first joined. 3 In their

edition of GGK, Tolkien and Gordon provide in the introduc-

tory notes this table illustrating the theory of the French

original:

Celtic story of Celtic story of the challenge

the temptation (as in The Champions' Bargain)

0
E Lost French [first time story
[Le Chevalier version in French]
a l'Epee]
M H [Gawain et Hunbaut]
[La Mule Sanz
Frain] P

[Perlesuaus]

Carl [of R
Carlisle] [re-telling
of a]

[Le Livre de Caradoc]

G [lost sources

Sir Gawain

K [The Green Knight] 4

Loomis goes a step further than Kittredge by tracing a

probable route by which Celtic tales traveled from Wales

to France and then back to England. Unlike Kittredge,

Loomis believes that not only GGK, but all of the Arthurian
 4

romances have their roots in Irish and Welsh myth. Loomis

holds that a Breton bard took the Temptation and "The

Champions' Bargain" from myths he knew, created the plot

of GGK, and told his tale to French audiences. It was this

story, Loomis says, that was eventually written down in

French. It is thought that a manuscript traveled from

France to England where a copy found its way to the GGK

poet.5 However, only adherents to this theory allude to

the Breton/French source; they base their belief on the

poet's admission that he has borrowed his material from

another source where it was "stad and stoken / In stori

stif and stronge, / With lel letteres loken, / In londe

so hat) ben longe" (11. 32-35). Although the theory of a

French original sounds plausible enough, it is unverifiable.

In fact, those same introductory lines from GGK and a

closer look at the inherent Celtic elements of the poem

may be used to argue strongly that no single French source

for the poem existed.

Regardless of the French intermediary sources, the

ultimate source for the two stories in GGK seems clearly

to be Celtic myth. Charles Moorman notes that "all of the

stories of King Arthur [are] lost in the mists of the

Celtic oral tradition" and that GGK "is a courtly poem

whose narrative and descriptive elements reach far back

into Celtic myth." 6 The two plots, the Temptation and "The

_ . - -
-
 5

Champions' Bargain," do come from the Ulster Cycle or the

Red Branch, the early Irish heroic sagas. The Ulster

group is preserved in several medieval Irish manuscripts,

the best known being the Lebor na hUidre, the Book of the

Dun Cow, which was "compiled in the monastery of Clon-

macnoise in the twelfth century."' Two other Irish

manuscripts also contain parts of the Red Branch, the

fourteenth-century Yellow Book of Lecan and the twelfth-

century Book of Leinster.8 The tales in these manuscripts

are primarily about the life of the hero Cuchulainn and

his exploits, the principal one being the Tin B6 Cuailnge

or the Cattle Raid of Cuailnge. Celticists generally agree

that the Tdin, along with the rest of the Ulster Cycle

tales, "are far more ancient than [the] manuscripts." 9

The earliest form of the Tdin has been dated by its

language at least to the eighth century, and evidence

suggests that some passages "may be two centuries older."

In any case, the tales surely "must have had a long oral

existence before [they] received a literary shape, and a

few traces of Christian colour, at the hands of monastic

scribes."lC The characters who appear in the tales are

most likely the gods and goddesses of the ancient Celts,

and the period of composition is probably around the time

of Christ." 1

--
-
 6

Although the Irish tales are the earliest sources

for the Temptation and "The Champions' Bargain," the Welsh

Mabinogion also provides material for source study. Like

the Irish cycle, the Welsh tales survive "in more or less

complete versions in the White Book of Rhydderch (Llyh

Gwyn Rhydderch, A.D. 1300-25) and the Red Book of Hergest

(1375-1425) .12 Celtic scholars consider the tales much

older than the manuscripts in which they appear, and, like

the Irish tradition, they probably were transmitted orally

long before they were committed in writing. 13 The Mabino-

gion itself consists of four parts, called "Branches":

Pwyll, Lord of Dyved; Branwen, Daughter of Llyr; Manawydan,

Son of Llyr; and Math, Son of Mathonwy. Several other tales

not part of the Mabinogion proper are in the manuscripts as

well, one of which, Culhwch and Olwen, is important as an

analogue to GGK, as well as being the first tale concerning

a Welsh chieftain named Arthur.

Gawain, the Green Knight, Bercilak's lady, and even

Arthur and Guinevere are based on characters in the Celtic

legends who can be traced from the earliest Irish myths

concerning Cuchulainn and Curoi mac Daire through the

Welsh stories about Pwyll and Culhwch down to GGK. Not

only are the characters the same in these stories, but

the plots are similar also. Both the Temptation and "The

Champion's Bargain" are in the Cuchulainn and Pwyll legends.

_, m[' t ,+:..; a ii . .... ; !pirrrw .- ;+.i.. .r iF,:.._,,.. E -. *J.dtiwF "--, ,t 4. a -

-
 7

The similarities among these three stories are not coinci-

dence; the ancient religious myths of the Celts are pre-

served in the evolution from Cuchulainn to Gawain. The

Cuchulainn legends are probably very close to those known

by the ancient Celts. The Welsh version is a more recent

development in which, although original details were con-

fused, the most important traditions were retained. Even

though GGK is the most recent of the three versions, it

still retains much of the ancient Celtic religious myth.

Studying the sources and analogues of literary works

is not always considered the most scholarly approach to

literary criticism. Larry D. Benson has said that "the

idea that aesthetic pleasure can arise from knowing the

antecedents of a work is so foreign to modern criticism"

that "the 'source study' is consequently in . . . ill

repute."14 Benson reminds scholars that "traditional

literatures . . . are distinguished most sharply from

modern by their preference for the repetition of old

tales rather than 'originality.'""5 The writers of ro-

mances, along with those of other forms of "traditional

literatures," would never have considered fabricating

a new tale, for art was not based on how novel the story

was, but on how well it was told. Since the action of

the poem was probably familiar to the GGK poet's audience,

it stands to reason that in order to appreciate the poem

 8

at least as fully as medieval audiences did, a modern

reader should be as familar with the sources as they.

Even when a reader is ignorant of its antedecents, GGK

is a good story, well told; armed with a knowledge of its

sources and elements, particularly the Celtic elements,

one can more fully understand and appreciate the work.

sCr./ . ,. .. ,-.ci1+: .u.,e .M.; a. +.w, ; i . s. :s ix «W .. , 1,: +^..a 'nu.-n ,.2' ,.. i tV;o1 v.,._,t;.use: ._ _ _.- .a+: r6rn- rL ..
 ENDNOTES

'Charles Moorman, The Pearl-Poet (New York: Twayne

Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 105.

2J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, eds., Sir Gawain

and the Green Knight (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930) p. 2.
All subsequent quotations from the poem will be taken from
this text and cited by line numbers only.
3 Roger
S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1927), pp. 24-35;
George L. Kittredge, A Study of Gawain and the Green Knight
(London: Oxford University Press, 1916), p. 137.
4
Tolkien and Gordon, p. xv.
5
Loomis, pp. 24-29.
6 Moorman, p. 96.

Kinsella, trans, The Tain7 Thomas (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1970), p. ix.

'Kinsella, p. ix.
9 Kinsella, p. ix.

' Kinsella, p. ix.

"Kinsella, p. ix.

1 2 Patrick K.
Ford, The Mabinogi and Other Medieval
Welsh Tales (Los Angeles: The University of California
Press, 1977) , p. 2.

1 3 Ford, p. 2.
14Larry D. Benson, Art and Tradition in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University
Press, 1965), pp. 4-5.
15 Benson, p. 5.

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_.
 CHAPTER II

THE ULSTER CYCLE AND SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

An abundance of parallels exists between GGK and the

Irish tales about Cuchulainn mac Sualdam, which come from

the Ulster Cycle. The most commonly noted parallel is "The

Champions' Bargain," but there are many others. The

characters in GGK and the Cuchulainn stories are also

similar; it has been suggested, and rightly so, that the

characters in the Red Branch are the bases for the charac-

ters in Arthurian romance. 1 Surely the parallels are easy

to see: King Conchobar of Ulster, one of the five Irish

states, has a magnificent court toward which all of the

best warriors of Erin gravitate; the foremost among them

is Cuchulainn mac Sualdam, Conchobar's nephew. After many

years, Conchobar's court falls into utter ruin because of

a curse laid upon it by the druid Cathbad. The earliest

likenesses of Gawain, Arthur, and Merlin are evident in

Cuchulainn, Conchobar, and Cathbad.

There is a wealth of plots and characters in the old

Irish tradition, and often what surfaces in Arthurian ro-

mance are parts of several stories fused into one "new"

tale. The same thing is true of the characters. For

instance, the Arthurian character Merlin the magician has

10
 11

the characteristics of Cathbad the druid, who is a seer,

and also of Curoi mac Daire, the magician, shapeshifter,

and judgment giver.

Differences between the Irish myths concerning Cuchu-

lainn and the most graceful Arthurian romance, GGK, are

easily attributed to separation in time and space of the

authors and the audiences. However, the similarities are

interesting to scholars of the Arthurian romance.

At the New Year's feast in GGK a most unusual event

takes place: a huge, beautiful green man arrives at Arthur's

court desiring a game. He offers to let one of Arthur's

knights give him a stroke with the ax he has brought

along. However, in a year the knight must search out the

green man and suffer a return blow. Arthur's men are

hesitant to take up the visitor's challenge, and in order,

to preserve the honor of his court, Arthur is forced to

take the green man's ax. Gawain, Arthur's nephew, is

the only one of Arthur's knights unwilling to let Arthur

accept the challenge:

Gawan, at sate bi Pe quene,

To ie kyng he can enclyne,
"I beseche now with sa3e, sene
#is melly mot be myne."
"Wolde je, wor ilych lorde," quop Wawan to kyng, te
"Bid me bose fro is benche, and stonde by yow Pere,
Pat I wythoute vylanye myjt voyde is table,
And. at my legge lady lyked not ille,
I wolde com to your counseyl bifore your cort ryche."
(11. 339-47)

r " ,.
-

ira i: d sm9n ... ,r.,a wxrd-,

 12

[Gawain, that sat by the queen,

To the king he inclined,
"I beseech you with clear words
That this melee be mine."
"If you would, worthy lord, " quoted Gawain to the king,
"Bid me go from this bench and stand by you there,
That I without villainy might quit this table,
And that my liege lady liked not ill,
I would come to your counsel, before your rich court.

Arthur lets Gawain accept the challenge in his place.

After the Green Knight receives the blow, he picks up his

head, mounts his horse, reminds Gawain of their meeting the

next year, and departs.

When the time comes, Gawain sets out to look for the

Green Chapel. He takes refuge at Bercilak's castle where,

unknown to him, he is tested by Bercilak's wife. On the

appointed day, Gawain appears at the Chapel and receives

three strokes from the Green Knight, two of which are harm-

less; the third blow draws blood, but is not mortal. The

Green Knight proclaims the young man to be a worthy knight,

and Gawain is then free to return to Arthur's court.

"The Champions' Bargain," which is one of the tales

of the Tain B6 Cuailnge, is in many ways similar to the be-

heading episode in GGK. As in the English work, a feast

has been prepared by Bricriu the Poison Tongue, who hopes

to set the Ulstermen fighting among themselves. Bricriu

succeeds in creating dissension among Cuchulainn, Laegaire,

and Conall as to which of the three is the champion of

Ulster and therefore deserving of the champion's portion

M _
of the feast. Conchobar sends the warriors to Medb and

Ailill, queen and king of Connaught, so that the burden

of decision rests there instead of with him. Medb and

Ailill choose Cuchulainn, but Laegaire and Conall refuse

to abide by their decision. The warriors are then sent

to Curoi mac Daire, the magician, where Blanad, Curoi's

wife, points out that Cuchulainn, after three battle tests,

is the best of the three warriors. Laegaire and Conall

still refuse to admit defeat.

When they return to Conchobar's court, there appears

an ugly grey-cloaked giant who has a branch over his head

and carries a gigantic ax. Any man at court, the giant

says, except Conchobar and Fergus mac Rogh (who are both

kings and thereby excused from this sort of battle play),

may cut off his head with his ax, and on the next day the

giant will return the blow. Cuchulainn is the only one

who both strikes off the giant's head and returns to take

his blow. The giant, who tells the court his name is Uath

(Terror), raises the ax above Cuchulainn's head and brings

it crashing down to the ground beside the warrior. When

the men of Ulster look back at Uath, they see not him but

the magician Curoi mac Daire, who then proclaims Cuchu-

lainn the finest warrior in Ulster.

The Green Knight is much like the giant churl who

enters Conchobar's hall. Both are huge and peculiarly

 14

dressed, although one is extraordinarily handsome and the

other is extremely ugly. Uath has with him a great branch

of a tree, whereas the Green Knight carries a holly branch.

The Green Knight, like Uath, proposes a beheading game,

with the only difference between the two being the inter-

val between the champion's blow and the return blow. Both

men turn out to be disguised by magic, Curoi by his own,

Bercilak by that of Morgain le Fay.

The various parts of the temptation episode in GGK--

those sections in which Bercilak's wife attempts to seduce

Gawain on three successive mornings--are not as easily

traced as "The Champions' Bargain." Certain elements oc-

cur independently in three of the Irish tales: "The Cham-

pions' Bargain" (or "The Championship of Ulster"), "The

Tragic Death of Curoi," and "The Wooing of Emer."

When Cuchulainn, Conall, and Laegaire arrive at

Curoi's castle in "The Champion's Bargain," Curoi is

absent. He has not gone by accident since he knew through

his magic that the three warriors would come and what they

would want to know. Leaving instructions with Blanad as

to what the warriors should be told to do, Curoi goes

away specifically so that the men can be tested. Conall

and Laegaire fail their single tests, but Cuchulainn passes

the three tests he is given. He fights twenty-seven

shadowy figures, a great sea worm, and a large grey giant,

.OW.Alp q
 15

vanquishing all of them. Cuchulainn's three tests are

echoed in the three tests which Bercilak and his lady

give Gawain.

Alice Buchanan has suggested that part of "The Cham-

pions' Bargain" was deleted by a scribe. Possibly there

had earlier been a passage between Blanad and Cuchulainn

which was not included in the final manuscript. 2 This

idea is not entirely without merit, for although Cuchulainn

is happily married to Emer, he often sleeps with other women;

once he has a relationship with a fairy but has to give it

up when Emer and the fairy's husband discover them together.

Because of his incredible beauty, Cuchulainn is usually ap-

proached by the women to whom he succumbs. In "The Tragic

Death of Curoi," Cuchulainn returns to Curoi's castle to

rescue Blanad, who has apparently requested Cuchulainn's

aid. With Blanad's help, Cuchulainn kills Curoi, takes

the lady, and appropriates Curoi's cauldron and cattle.

It is entirely possible that in the deleted passage of

"The Champions' Bargain" Blanad requested that Cuchulainn

free her from Curoi, promising among other things her

sexual favors in return. Such promises are frequent in

the Irish tales; Queen Medb often threw in the offer of

her favors as an added inducement whenever she desired

some feat accomplished by a warrior.

AAW
 16

In "The Champions' Bargain" there is an echo of

Blanad's treatment of the Ulstermen; just as Bercilak's

wife does, Blanad acts in collusion with Curoi. She

knows, as does Curoi, why the warriors have come to the

castle, and she is aware that they must be tested. When

Cuchulainn leaps over the castle wall after battling the

grey giant, Blanad knows he has passed the tests, just

as Bercilak's wife knows Gawain has passed his tests when

he refuses for the third time to do more than offer a

courteous kiss.

In the tale "The Wooing of Emer," Cuchulainn exhibits

the same prowess which Gawain possesses in his courtly

banter with Bercilak's lady. The Ulstermen encourage

Cuchulainn to marry so that they may protect their daugh-

ters' chastity and their wives' fidelity. In all of Erin

only one woman possesses the six womanly gifts that Cuchu-

lainn says are necessary in the woman he marries. That

woman is Emer, daughter of Forgall the Wily. Cuchulainn

journeys to Forgall's land where he finds Emer embroidering

in a field with other young noblewomen. Partly to conceal

their meaning and partly to exhibit their talents, Cuchu-

lainn and Emer exchange courtly, stilted riddles not unlike

the verbal fencing which passes between Gawain and

Bercilak's lady.
 17

The Temptation episode parallels, then, between GGK

and the Irish analogues are clearly evident. In both cases

there is an absent host, and the hero is left in the hands

of the host's wife. Each man is subjected to tests, and,

interestingly enough, only Cuchulainn of the Irish war-

riors must face three tests in "The Champions' Bargain."

Indeed, the number three is often important in Cuchulainn's

battles or tests. Also, the courtly banter between Gawain

and Bercilak's lady is curiously similar to the riddles

of Emer and Cuchulainn. There is even the possibility

that in some lost episode Blanad tempted Cuchulainn to

wrong her husband. The parallels between the Irish tales

and the English poem are many indeed.

Another similarity between GGK and the Tin BoCuailnge

is the disguised guest, although this guest is not horrible

in the sense that Uath or the Green Knight is horrible,

for the latter two are frightening creatures of the super-

natural. A disguised guest also appears in "The Wooing of

Emer." Emer's father Forgall discovers that his daughter

and Cuchulainn have made secret plans to marry. He de-

cides to thwart the lovers, either because he had an

older, imperfect daughter to marry off first or because

Cuchulainn did not approach him about the girl. Forgall

disguises himself as a Gaul and travels to Emain Macha,

the capital of Ulster, with gifts for Conchobar. When the

-. . ; ,..<: ._" .v.4_,, .. a.-:, . , _« ,;i,. ,... ;. -, - ,,,,.:e.>. i r:,py .,: , tau.:,.:r .u . .-. ., s:,. qua'. .;'a"= ' ... , ,,
 18

heroes of Ulster are presented to him, he praises Cuchu-

lainn most of all, but suggests that he study war feats

with the woman-warrior Scathach to improve himself. For-

gall's hope is that Cuchulainn will meet his death on the

perilous journey to Scathach.

Forgall's stay at Emain Macha is very much like the

disguised Bercilak's visit to Arthur's court. Forgall

pricks Cuchulainn's pride, causing him to leave Emain

Macha on a dangerous journey so uncertain that his safe

return is a matter of speculation. The trip is a diffi-

cult one, just as Gawain's journey is filled with hardship

and warfare.

On his winter journey in search of the Green Chapel,

Gawain endures the bitter cold of winter, the battles with

many ferocious beasts, and the loneliness of being a

solitary traveller. Cuchulainn also endures winter hard-

ships alone, though not on his journey. His winter trial

comes when the men of Ulster are in their pangs (pains

like childbirth afflict all Ulstermen during the winter

as a punishment for Conchobar's unkindness to a woman in

labor). It has been prophesied that in their greatest

need, the men of Ulster will be destined to be as helpless

as if they were women during childbirth. Cuchulainn, the

women, and the children are immune to the pangs. Thus,

one winter when Medb and Ailill, along with the other three

kingships of Ireland, march against Ulster, only Cuchulainn

.- .. ,. _ r '.;-..w.-i«u::-.e ... ,..x~ ... .,;.....:A-:.:-Ate..- .=. .:W.... .ri. : 41y. +hes..: -1::. .: w.us -__ _ __- .r_11.. , ..............
.

i +.. L. ,n.. ,,. .- ,. t.._.S -

-
 19

can protect Conchobar's lands. Cuchulainn and Gawain suf-

fer much during their winter trials: Gawain on his way to

fulfill a promise and Cuchulainn to save his home. This,

along with the other parallels, convincingly argues that

the most important analogues to GGK and the other Arthurian

romances are those found in the Irish tales.

Although similarities of plot between GGK and the

tales of the Red Branch are of consequence in a study of

the sources and analogues of GGK, the similarities between

the characters are also important. Arthur, Gawain, Berci-

lak, and Morgain le Fay are the central figures in GGK, and

they have counterparts in the Red Branch.

As mentioned earlier, Cuchulainn's lord, King Concho-

bar of Ulster, established a court unlike previous or

existent ones in Ireland; it is much like Arthur's Camelot

with its brotherhood of the Round Table. To Conchobar's

court came the finest fighters in all Erin, the best war-

riors as well as the wisest men. Like Arthur, Conchobar

did not receive kingship by ordinary means, although in

Ireland kingship was elective, not hereditary.3 Nor was

Conchobar's birth ordinary. His father was Cathbad the

druid, who seduced Ness, the daughter of a king, by telling

her that a certain hour was apt for begetting a king and

then handliy being the only male available to her at that

hour. Arthur's birth was brought about by another

,-
-- = -
xa aEOt: is;+. .,,:.s- .. sx..3_<rw .vr .. ,
ok xWrsa u 'ati+
 20

druid-like seer, Merlin, who played upon the lust of Uther,

Arthur's father. The Ulsterman was assured the throne

when his mother Ness married the king of Ulster and for

her bride gift asked only that her son, who was then seven

years old, be allowed to rule for one year as king, so

that his children might be called sons of a king. By

the end of the year Ness has made certain that the throne

of Ulster would never return to her husband, but always be

held by Conchobar, who is referred to as Conchobar mac Ness,

that is, Conchobar son of Ness, and never as Conchobar mac

Cathbad.

While Conchobar's ascendancy to the throne lacks the

drama of Arthur's sword and the stone incident, it does

indicate a certain kinship. Both Conchobar and Arthur

are royal children, Arthur a king's son and Conchobar a

queen's; both take thrones by unusual means when they are

boys. In addition to these similarities, there is another

which links the two men as different manifestations of

the same character. Each supposedly seduced his sister,

and as a result a son was born. Arthur unwittingly seduced

his half-sister and fathered Mordred, whom he later killed

with full knowledge of his identity. Conchobar is strongly

suspected of having drunkenly forced his sister Deichtine.

When her pregnancy became evident, Conchobar quickly mar-

ried her to Sualdam, and the child she bore was Cuchulainn.
 21

Unlike Arthur, Conchobar did not kill his son, but Cuchu-

lainn later kills his son by the Amazon queen Aife, know-

ing that the boy is his.

Gawain is noble and proud; he will not let Arthur

suffer the indignity and danger of taking up the Green

Knight's challenge, nor will he let it be said that the

knights of Arthur's court are afraid to battle the green

man. Gawain is also accomplished in manners, both in the

courtly banter in which he engages with his host and in the

careful language of chaste courtly love which he employs

against the temptation of Bercilak's lovely wife. Honor is

not a matter to be taken lightly with Gawain; he is eager to

keep his word to the Green Knight, even though he expects

certain death at his hands, and he is eager to keep his pact

with Bercilak, even though he fails somewhat by accepting

the lace from Bercilak's lady and not turning it over to his host.

In her attempted seduction of Gawain, Bercilak's wife

recounts the many virtues of her intended victim. He is

comely, honorable, and courteous. He is, she says, desired

by all women:

"For I wene wel, iwysse, Sir Wowen je are,

Pat alle te worlde worchipee quere-so Je ride;
Your honour, your hendelayk is hendely praysed
With lorde), with ladyes, with alle bat lyf bere."
(11. 1226-29)

["For I know well, indeed, Sir Gawain you are,

That all the world honors, wherever you ride;
Your honor, your courtesy is handily praised
By lords and by ladies, and all that bear life."]

A 14,,,-" - .. ,:, , ;ttiyUc,;is.-. , w.,«t:7, .r."-<sasa,

y m
._. ,; iJii k -, - s.:k.,,:. {. ..
i W
v.
-
 22

"In god fayth, Sir Gawayn," quo Pe gay lady,

"Ie prys and prowes at plesej al oer, Pe
If I hit lakked ober set at ly t, hit were little daynt6;
:Bot hit are ladyes innoje at leuer wer nowpe
Haf be, hende, in hor holde, as I Pe habbe here."
(11. 1248-52)

["In good faith, Sir Gawain," said the gay lady,

"The excellence and the prowess that pleases all others
If Iit belittled or made light of, it would be little
courtesy,
But there are ladies enough who would now like
To have you in their hold, as I have you here."]

Gawain, in addition to all his other attributes, is

brave: he keeps his appointment with the Green Knight and

submits to three strokes of the ax. While it is true that

Gawain flinches at the first blow, he does not retreat.

Sir Gawain also recognizes and quickly acknowledges his

fault when the Green Knight tells him that he knows about

the lace. Gawain is a wise man to see his own folly and

to accept the responsibility for his failing.

Cuchulainn is described in terms like those used for

Gawain; he is possessed of only three faults, but of many

virtues:

When Cuchulainn was growing out of his boyhood

at Emain Macha, all of the women of Ulster loved
him for his skill in feats, for the lightness of
his leaps, for the weight of his wisdom, for the
sweetness of his speech, for the beauty of his
face, for the loveliness of his looks, for all his
gifts. He had the gift of caution in fighting
. . . , the gift of feats . . . , the gift of
divining, the gift of right judgment, the gift
of beauty.

Cuchulainn, like Gawain, is handsome, brave, wise, cour-

teous of speech, and conscious of honor. It is because

.1:H y .. ,<i;.. .a w ._. sxi.. '.;., ,1-. .. ".. :r.,- Fi'~. .. r:..'. ,_ -. : .- .. t a .. '.a4..3r'4t.:w3. i ' f1: ... , 1:t x u1.ulC 4x+z
 23

of his great beauty that the Ulstermen wish Cuchulainn

quickly married. His exchange of riddles with Emer

evidences his excellence in sweet speech. For the honor

of Ulster Cuchulainn kills his son by Aife. Because of

the boasts the boy has made, Cuchulainn as the champion

of Ulster has no choice but to kill him. The same thing

is true when Cuchulainn defends the marches of Ulster

against the four other kingships of Ireland; in single

combat the champion has to fight his foster-brother, with

whom he learned the art of warfare under the tutelage of

Scathach. Because of his sense of honor and his pride,

Cuchulainn must kill his friend. Likewise, as the bravest

of the Irish champions, he is the only one willing to

submit to Uath's blow. This and his single-handed pro-

tection of Ulster indicate that Cuchulainn, like Gawain,

is the best and bravest of his court.

As Roger S. Loomis, L. Winifred Faraday, and Alice

Buchanan suggest, Cuchulainn is the personification of

the ancient Celtic sun god. 5 The Celts were sun worship-

pers, and the Irish reverenced the sun as a deity long

after they had become Christianized. 6 All of the descrip-

tions of Cuchulainn indicate that he is the personification

of the Irish solar god. Cuchulainn's hair is tri-colored:

gold on the crown, shading into red as it grows away from

his scalp, and brown toward the very end, so that his head

looks like the setting sun. Irish men, as well as women,

K _.: ._-, >a-rll "e , .. rec... .i ,.a.".. ; .k.,x. ,..: .;.+.w.; .:m... . .. ;::, :; +i '+x ._ . ., .. _._ w.a - .. o. _ ,a. t....a .i. .. e<, i.,.....,.ti 4viw
 24

wore their hair quite long and in three braids with one or

more of the plaits wrapped around their heads. Cuchulainn

wears his hair in this same way. Because of his awesome ap-

pearance in battle, Cuchulainn is often spoken of as the

"warped" one. When the battle rage or warp comes upon him,

he turns himself completely around in his skin so that his

knees are in the rear of his body. In this rage he becomes

a great deal like the Germanic berserker warriors who lose

all control once they enter the fray. Cuchulainn's battle

warp raises his body temperature so that at one point the

heat melts the snow within a thirty-foot radius of him.

Another time, while still in his boy deeds, Cuchulainn re-

turns in his rage to Ulster. Fearing for their lives, the

Ulstermen have all of their women appear naked before the

warrior; it is a geasa (personal taboo) that he not gaze

upon women's breasts. When he stops and averts his face,

the people of Ulster are able to take hold of him and cool

him with three vats of cold water. His body heat is so

great that he brings the first two vats to the boil. The

third vat heats only to normal body temperature.

Since Gawain and Cuchulainn are counterparts, it

seems probable that there should be some evidence that

Gawain has solar attributes as well. In Arthurian romance

in general, and in GGK in particular, he does. In Malory's

Morte D'Arthur Gawain and Sir Ewain go adventuring. Before

they have gone very far, they discover Sir Marhaus, who

MAN
 25

proposes that they joust. Ewain, saying he is the weaker

of the two, offers to joust first. After Marhaus bests

Ewain, Gawain prepares to avenge the insult to his cousin.

The joust between Gawain and Marhaus begins around nine

in the morning, and Malory reports that, as the morning

advanced, Gawain

waxed ever stronger and stronger, for then it

came to the houre of noone, and thrice his
might was increased. . . . And when it was
past noon and drew toward evensong time,=sir
Gawaines strength waxed passing faint, that
unneth he might not endure any longer.'

In the poem there is also evidence of Gawain's solar-

ity; he always starts his journeys early in the morning.

When he arrives at Bercilak's castle, it is certainly

not coincidence that makes Gawain press his host for direc-

tions to the Green Chapel so that he may arrive there early

in the day. He knows that his bodily strength, as well

as his moral strength and courage, is greater while the

sun ascends:

"For sope, sir," quop Pe "je sayn bot Pe

segge,
trawpe,
A he e ernde and a hasty me hade fro wonej, Po
For I am sumned myselfe to sech to a place,
I ne wot in worlde whederwarde to wende hit to fynde.
I nolde bot if I hit negh myjt on Nw eres morne
For alle be londe inwyth Logres, so me oure lorde
help!"
(11. 1050-55)

["In truth, sir," said the man, "you say but the
truth,
A high errand and an urgent one has me from the
dwelling,
For I myself am summoned to seek a place,

_ _ __ _
-
 26

I don't know whither in the world to to go find it.

But I would not miss reaching it on New Year's morn
For all the land in England, so help me our Lord!"]

The Green Knight, however, says nothing about a morning

confrontation when he explains the rules of the game; he

only stipulates that it take place at the Green Chapel on

a year and a day from his visit. It is, however, early

when the green man enters Arthur's hall, and the food is

just being served to the lords and ladies. The poet re-

lates that before the feasting much "mir e bay maden"

(1. 71) [mirth they made], and that the New Year was still

quite young.

Gawain is probably able to accept the Green Knight's

challenge with less apprehension than he might have because

it is early in the day, the time most suited for him to do

battle. The green man is much larger than any of Arthur's

men, and his ax, the poet says, is much larger than any

normal ax. In the Green Knight's game, wielding the ax

might prove difficult for ordinary men. Because the sun

is waxing, Gawain is able to direct a deft blow to the

intruder's neck, severing the head cleanly. Just before

the contest when the visitor asked Gawain to repeat the

terms of the game to him, Arthur's knight says:

"In god fayth," quop be goode kny t, "Gawan I hatte,

hat bede De is buffet, quat-so bifallej after,
And at bis tyme twelmonyth take at be an ober
Wyth what weppen so bou wylt, and wyth no wy ellej
on lyue."
(11. 381-84)
 27

["In good faith," quoth the good knight, "Gawain I

am called,
That offer you this buffet, what so befalls after,
And at this time a twelvemonth take from you another,
With whatever weapon you wish, and with no man else
alive."]

Gawain certainly means by "his tyme" next New Year's, but

considering the solar nature of his strength, it is more

than safe to assume that he also means early in the day,

before noon, when he is strongest and most capable of per-

forming as one of Arthur's knights should.

It should not be surprising, then, when the third ex-

change of winnings with Bercilak takes place long after

sundown, that Gawain is unable to fulfill his promise.

Bercilak returns from the fox hunt, "nie nyjt" (1. 1922)

[near night]. The sun has disappeared, and with it,

Gawain's strength. If ever during that day he might have

resolved to surrender the lace with the three kisses, when

the sun disappeared, so too would his resolve have vanished.

The three kisses were easy to deliver, because he had ex-

changed kisses before for Bercilak's game, but the green

lace must remain hidden, along with Gawain's solar strength.

As Gawain's character mirrors Cuchulainn's, the

character in the Red Branch who most closely parallels

Bercilak. is the magician Curoi mac Daire. Bercilak is

allied with magical forces although, unlike Curoi, he is

not a magician. He is, according to Mother Angela Carson,

quite possibly one of Morgain le Fay's husbands, Urien, 1 0

- IIt- -- , -. - -- klt.-- $Nam, M-- I- - I "-..

 28

a fact which strengthens his connection with the super-

natural beyond his simply being an object used for Mor-

gain's ends.

Since Curoi is possessed of many storm attributes,

Loomis has noted he is probably the personification of

the Celtic storm god. "Primitive peoples," Loomis says,

"often conceived the thunder weapon as an ax." 1 1 Inthe

three tests which Curoi provides for Cuchulainn at his

dun (castle), there is no ax, but when he appears as Uath

at Conchobar's court, Curoi bears an ax, just as Bercilak

does when he comes disguised as the Green Knight to

Arthur's court.

Although the three tests are of entirely different

natures, both Curoi and Bercilak provide trials for Cuchu-

lainn and Gawain. When Curoi sends supernatural beings

to battle Cuchulainn, the Ulsterman is always equal to

the task. Bercilak, on the other hand, provides tests

of a more subtle, devious nature. Gawain is able to hold

his own, protecting his honor as well as that of his host

by deftly parrying the lady's advances, although he fails

by accepting and concealing the green lace.

When Uath (Curoi) appears at Conchobar's court, he

looks like an ugly giant dressed as a herdsman, a bachlach

(the Irish word for herdsman), which Uath is often called

in the manuscript. 12 Since bachlach is pronounced with

F
.

- _ r-> ..-.. 8 . . ... a:.:..yJ,,..,_ n4.,sV.dP::-w.: ;.., aY .... .:.,r«. k i # :.::.. .. aa _ ..

 29

three syllables, Loomis maintains that bachlach is the ul-

13
timate source for the name Bercilak.

Much is made of the Green Knight's color in GGK. He

is an arresting figure, an extraordinarily large man dressed

all in green with green skin and hair, as well as having a

green mount. He has red eyes, but outside of that, he is

an incredible green apparition. The court is completely

aghast at his sudden, ominous appearance. In some of the

tales in which Curoi plays a part, much is made of his ap-

pearance and his grey clothing.14 He is a huge, ugly

bachlach in "The Champions' Bargain," yellow-eyed and

grey-cloaked. It is easy to perceive the similarities

in the importance of color in these instances, but it

seems odd that one color is green while the other is grey.

This problem is, however, one of the most easily cleared

up: in Irish there are many words for grey, one of which

was often used in connection with Curoi. This word--glas--

could mean green as well as grey. 15 Thus, at some time

when the story of the grey mantled man was passing into

Arthurian romance, glas was taken to mean green. Another

fact which reinforces this point is that green is a color

associated with Irish fairies, a matter discussed further

in chapter three.

Bercilak openly discusses Morgain le Fay, another

important character, after Gawain has suffered the ax

44ANOMONWAIROM r@. ,-_... .. - - - ' --ru.. ":{s. .i.: .:!..t _... *d9RYblfi'Y ds. .66Fi1 .S, :,.::::. ... v4d ,: "-!- - 'MPubk .uer+r l.. e, _: , , -
.w -. :.r. w=.:-.... -- r. si i ... xsp weyraa r: . 1 .a, : ,t: - _ -. ^r.. a.. ,i .. r :y a::.,.,+ ec.. r= - r a~r... @ff _ ... .. , 4a _ i ..
 30

strokes. Morgain, the green man says, devised the whole

Beheading Game/Temptation scheme and she was the old woman

at Bercilak's castle. Morgain never speaks in the poem,

and from her actions, she does not seem to be particularly

malevolent, but Bercilak tells Gawain that she is respon-

sible for the entire action which she instigated in the

hope of hurting Guinivere.

An analogue to the character of Morgain le Fay can be

found in the Tain B6 Cuailnge. This character, the war

goddess the Morrigain or the Morrigu, falls in love with

Cuchulainn and approaches him while he defends the marches

of Ulster. Since this happens during the time of his

single combats, Cuchulainn spurns her because he is busy

with warfare. While Cuchulainn fights the following day,

the Morrigain changes her shape three times to hinder the

solar hero. She becomes in turn an eel (these contests

took place in the water), a she-wolf, and a red heifer.

He injures her each time, and she bears the marks of those

wounds until Cuchulainn will bless her, which he vows never

to do. The Morrigain appears to Cuchulainn a fourth time

in the shape of an old woman; unaware of her identity, he

blesses her three times, healing each of her injuries.

Loomis has noticed the similarity between the name

of the Irish war goddess the Morrigain and Morgain le Fay

of Arthurian romance. He points out that in GGK the Green

Orr
 31

Knight refers to "Morgne e goddes" (1. 2452).16 No other

proof is needed to connect Morgain le Fay with the Morri-

gain of the Ulster Cycle.

Morgain devises a test to challenge Gawain's mettle.

Bercilak says that the woman who tempted Gawain was his

own wife, and Mother Carsonnotes that Bercilak was probably

Morgain's husband Urien.17 If so, then Morgain is both the

old woman and Bercilak's lady, so the Green Knight is not

telling the complete truth. The Green Knight's trustwor-

thiness is suspect; after all, since he is in league with

Morgain, it should be expected that he might lie. Besides,

if Bercilak's wife is Morgain, there is yet another paral-

lel, for Morgain herself tempts Gawain with her favors,

just as the Morrigain offers her love to Cuchulainn and

then presents him with three trials when she changes her

shape.

A careful study of the similarities between the Red

Branch and GGK reveals that the poem, as well as all Ar-

thurian romance, owes more than simple narrative outline to

the Irish tales. The plot similarities between "The Cham-

pions' Bargain" and the Temptation episode are striking,

but close attention to the similarities of the characters

is important, too. A comparison of plots and characters

often explains why the characters in GGK behave as they do.

The Green Knight's actions take on a clearer meaning when

compared with Curoi's motivation and behavior. Morgain's

... ..

I
 32

curious game becomes more easily understandable when it

is accepted as the logical evolution of the Morrigain's

actions towards Cuchulainn from the Tain to GGK. A com-

parison of the Ulster Cycle and GGK provides deeper insight

into the poem.

i' 2 R ;, ?.S!},L3i . ti,- r =t': b.:-- 4. ... , '4F:v

w MC - sY.wM-a,+ w.:4...a....n
 ENDNOTES

1 Roger
S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Ro-
mance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927),
pp. 3-5.
2Alice
Buchanan, "The Irish Framework of Sir
Gawain and The Green Knight," PMLA, 47 (1932), 326.
3George
Brandon Saul, Traditional Irish Litera-
ture and Its Backgrounds: A Brief Introduction (Lewis-
burg: Bucknell University Press, 1970), p. 19.
4
Augusta Gregory, Cuchulain of Murthemne, 3rd ed.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 35.
5Loomis,
p. 51ff; L. Winifred Faraday, The Cattle
Raid of Cuailnge (London: David Nutt, 1904), pp. 62-63;
Buchanan, p. 319.
6 Saul, pp. 41-42.
7 Saul, p. 38.
8 Saul, p. 33.
9 Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D' Arthur, ed. Thomas
Wright (London: John Russell Smith, 1865), p. 147.
0Mother
Angela Carson, "Morgain la Fee as the
Principle of Unity in Gawain and the Green Knight,"
Modern Language Quarterly, 23(1962), 8.
11Loomis, p. 50.

' 2 Buchanan, p. 316.

1 3 Loomis, p. 16.
1 Loomis, pp. 55-56.

"
5 Buchanan, p. 327.

33
 34

1 6 Loomis, p. 192.
17
Carson, p. 8.
 CHAPTER III

THE IRISH TRADITION, THE MEDIEVAL WELSH TALES,

AND THE ENGLISH ROMANCE

Tracing the analogues of GGK from the Red Branch

necessarily includes a study of the Mabinogion and another

Welsh tale, roughly contemporary with these stories,

Culhwch and Olwen. Roger S. Loomis and J. R. R. Tolkien,

as I noted in the introduction, believe the story line

of GGK moved from Welsh to French and back across the

channel into English. Since no French source is extant,

that part of GGK's development is not easily studied except

by conjecture; however, much source study is available

in the Welsh tales. In order to discover the link that

the Welsh branch of the Celtic tradition offers Arthurian

romance, and thus GGK, these stories must be studied in

relation both to the Red Branch and to the medieval

English poem.

The Mabinogion is often considered the source of the

Temptation episode in GGK, although it does contain more

than just that parallel. Strong evidence exists that

there is material for the Temptation in the older Ulster

Cycle as well, but the sequences in the Mabinogion are no

less valuable than those of the ultimate source. The

35
 36

Temptation episodes which appear in the Welsh tales pro-

vide the link between the Irish tradition and GGK.

The first branch of the Mabinogion--Pwyll, Lord of

Dyfed--is the Temptation analogue closest to GGK. Pwyll,

in this tale, gets separated from his companions during

a hunt. As he follows his hounds through the woods, the

young chieftain meets and inadvertently insults a man

dressed in grey, mounted on a grey horse, who turns out

to be Arawn, king of the Other World, Annwfn. In order

to make reparation for the offense, Pwyll agrees to change

shapes with Arawn; the bargain includes that the disguised

Pwyll kill Arawn' s enemy Hafgan one year from the day of

the exchange. Part and parcel of the bargain is, of

course, that Pwyll and Arawn each rule the other's kingdom

for the year, and since Arawn is married, the fairy king

offers the young chieftan the use of his wife, who is

completely unaware of her husband's absence.

During the year, however, Pwyll refrains from taking

advantage of the lady's favors, even though she is the most

beautiful woman he has ever seen. In fact, he is more than

a little cold to her, for each night when they retire, Pwyll

turns his back on her, refusing to say as much as a word

once they are alone.

On the day of the confrontation, Pwyll follows Arawn's

orders explicitly, killing Hafgan. He then returns to the

 37

appointed place to change shapes with the fairy king. Once

back in Annwfn, Arawn discovers from his wife that the

disguised Pwyll never enjoyed the fairy woman, and he is

greatly pleased, thus cementing a friendship of much

value to Pwyll and later to his son Pryderi.

In this tale, Pwyll parallels not only Cuchulainn but

also Gawain. The Welsh chieftain travels to a strange

castle and stays there while the lord is away, just as the

Irish and English heroes do. In each case., the castle is a

great distance away (in Pwyll's case all the way to the

Other World), and these castles belong to benevolent hosts

who are unable to be present. In order for the tests to

be operational in these stories, the hosts must be else-

where. Curoi and Arawn are absent for the duration of

their guests' stays, while Bercilak's hunts keep him from

his castle until nightfall for three consecutive days.

Bercilak returns each evening to exchange his spoils

with Gawain, and he remains in the castle until the fol-

lowing morning.

Unlike Cuchulainn, both Pwyll and Gawain meet their

"testers" before their trials; Pwyll comes upon Arawn

prior to his journey to the Other World, and Gawain meets

Bercilak at the latter's castle before he undergoes the

temptation or beheading episodes. Pwyll is the only one

of the three who must actually go through shapeshifting,

. . <: ,..., .... ,,..r.,w,.. ..r=, __ . _., _. ,_. vim ... , , .. _....
 38

but all three have experiences withmagicians: Curoi con-

jures grey creatures, Arawn changes his and Pwyll's forms,

and Bercilak appears in two different states, the friendly

host and the green adversary. For all three magic is a

way of life:. Arawn is king of the fairy Other World; Curoi,

it has been suggested, is a god or demi-god, a form of the

Celtic deity Lug;2 and Bercilak, although not a magician

himself, is obviously a fee creature.

Cuchulainn and Gawain both strike off an opponent's

head in decapitation contests, while Pwyll faces Hafgan,

Arawn's enemy, giving him a single, mortal blow. Hafgan

begs Pwyll to finish him quickly, but the Other World king

has warned the young chieftain against that, for Hafgan can

always recover from multiple blows, while a single stroke

is fatal. This combat between Pwyll and Hafgan takes

place in the middle of a ford, thus echoing Cuchulainn's

single combat in or near a stream when he protected the

marches of Ulster. The contest in the first book of the

Mabinogion, then, parallels both the Irish saga and the

English poem.

Arawn openly offers his wife to Pwyll knowing that she

will not resist him. Gawain, too, is offered his host's

wife, except that he believes that his host does not know

that his lady is disposing herself quite so warmly to his

visitor. In both cases, however, the guests decline the

-= _ ..
-
 39

offers of the ladies' affections. Gawain, by doing so,

passes Bercilak's test:

"Now know I wel Ly cosses, and Jy costes als,

And e wowyng of my wyf: I wrojt hit myseluen.
I sende hir to asay Jae, and sothly me Pynkke)
On be fautlest freke at euer on fote jede;
As perle bi Je quite pese is of prys more,
So is Gawayn, in god fayth, bi oler gay knyjtej .

"
(11. 2360-65)

["Now I know well your kisses, and your manners also,

And the wooing of my wife: I wrought it myself.
I sent her to assay thee, and truly I think (you are)
One of the most faultless men that ever went on foot;
A pearl beside a white pea is more precious,
So is Gawain, in good faith, by other gay knights."]

Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed, like GGK, has in it a disguised

host, but in the Welsh tale the disguised man is Pwyll him-

self, the one to be tested. Pwyll is certainly not tested

in the sense that Gawain is, since Arawn fully expects his

guest to enjoy his wife. Bercilak hides his double iden-

tity as the lord of the manor and as the Green Knight in

order to test the young knight's bravery. Gawain's honesty,

his chastity, and his fidelity to one who has given him

shelter are all tested through the temptation of the chate-

laine and the exchange of winnings.

The exchange between Gawain and Bercilak is an inte-

gral part of the poem. Without it, Gawain's test lacks

depth. The bargain adds strength and depth to the poem

not only because it completes a neatly executed design in

offering a parallel to the exchange of blows between Gawain

and the Green Knight, but also because it develops the

-
___
 40

young knight as more than a one-dimensional character;

for it is through Gawain's finishing his part of the con-

test that the poet shows the young man to be brave, trust-

worthy, and honorable. The trade between the host and

the guest is also important in Pwyll, although more as

a superficial plot device than a symbol of the main char-

acter's personal development; however, without taking

each other's identity, Pwyll and Arawn would never have

been able to complete their bargain. Even though the ex-

changes in the two stories create such vastly different

effects, they are still part of one of the important

parallels between the first branch of the Mabinogion and

GGK.

The Green Knight challenges Gawain to find him a

year from the day of their first meeting in order that

the bargain may be fulfilled. So, too, in Pwyll the young

chieftain must meet with a supernatural being a year from

the day that he and Arawn change shapes, and in "The

Tragic Death of Curoi," Cuchulainn searches for a year

before he discovers Curoi's dun. Gawain and Pwyll lead

relatively blissful lives until their appointed days;

the Englishman feasts at Arthur's court and then at

Bercilak's castle until the day before the confrontation,

and Pwyll feasts and sports at Arawn's court until he must

face Hafgan. Both men are mortals who oppose supernatural

" . _ , .,. et , . w , _ ;,.mow . :. :: %k :.v:: . iaeG. E a'r ;.::- #tS ia ^........ .: ... ..... ... _ r..
 41

beings in contest: Hafgan is a fairy king and the Green

Knight is a man transformed by Morgain le Fay's magic.

When Gawain's trial is over, there is no apparent

hostility between him and the Green Knight:

"'erfore I epe Pe, ha el, to come to by aunt,

Make myry in my hous; my meny be louies,
And I wol Pe as wel, wyje, bi my faythe,
As any gome vnder God for dy grete traupe.

"
And he nikked hym naye, he nolde bi no wayes.
Pay acolen and kyssen and kennen ayer oper
To Pe prynce of paradise, and parten ryjt bere on
coolde.
(11. 2467-74)

["Therefore I ask thee, nobleman, to come to your

aunt,
Make merry in my house; my household loves you,
And I wish you as well, man, by my faith,
As any man under God for your great truth."
And he said no to him, he would not by no way.
They embraced and kissed and commended each other
To the Prince of Paradise, and parted right there on
the cold ground.]

Although Gawain is invited back to Bercilak's castle, he

is more anxious to return to Camelot. Likewise, no ani-

mosity exists between Arawn and Pwyll when they meet at

their bargain's close either. Arawn has ruled Dyfed wisely

in Pwyll's stead. Any reason for hostility between the

two vanishes when each discovers the other has held his

lands well, and Arawn ever after takes special care of

Pwyll for the courtesy shown him in the matter of his wife.

The fourth branch of the Mabinogion, Math, Son of

Mathonwy, also bears many similarities to GGK and the

Irish sagas. Lleu Llaw Gyffes is unable to marry a human

 42

woman because of a curse which his mother has laid upon

him; his uncle, Gwydion, creates for him a woman out of

flowers, Blodueudd. One day while Lleu is away, a young

chieftain rides near the castle during a hunt. In keeping

with the rules of Welsh hospitality, Blodueudd invites

him into the castle. The chieftain, Gronw Pebyr, and the

flower woman fall in love and spend three nights together.

Unable to bear permanent separation, the lovers decide

that Blodueudd will discover the secret of how Lleu may

be killed, and, once armed with that knowledge, Gronw

will dispense with his rival. The plan is carried out,

and Lleu, upon being struck the killing blow, changes into

a wounded eagle and flies away.

Like Gronw and Blodueudd, Cuchulainn and Blanad plot

against the flower maiden's husband Curoi. Both Curoi

and Lleu cannot be killed except under peculiar circum-

stances with specially made weapons. Although in GGK no

lovers plot against the husband, there are parallels be-

tween the English poem and the Welsh story. Just as in

GGK, a young man comes upon an unfamiliar castle while he

is on an errand, albeit Gronw's business is hardly as

pressing or as serious as Gawain's. Lleu is away visiting

Math and will not return for several days, similar to

Bercilak's absence when he is hunting. Instead of facing

three temptation tests from Lleu's wife, Gronw and Blodueudd

W.3
I
 43

spend three nights together, and each day as Gronw tries

to leave, Blodueudd persuades him to remain. Gronw, then,

fails his tests, because he betrays his host by sleeping

with Blodueudd, and he agrees to kill Lleu for her.

One year later, Gronw attacks Lleu, and it is an

unfair contest since Lleu does not know Gronw has been

preparing to kill him; hence, the lover emerges as the

victor, at least for a while, but ultimately his uncle's

magic saves Lleu, and the wronged husband returns to take

vengeance on the lovers. Also, Gronw, like Gawain, faces

a supernatural foe, for Lleu can only be killed when he

is poised over a river with one foot on a goat's back,

just as Curoi the shapeshifter could only be killed while

in a similar position.

The last passage in Math ties up the loose ends of

the two lovers' attempt to murder Lleu. It also contains

similar material to the exchange of blows in GGK. The

Welsh tale does not have decapitation, but there is an

exchange. After Lleu has flown away in the eagle's shape,

Gwydion (unaware of the lovers' plot) worries at his

nephew's disappearance. The magician finds Lleu, who is

very sick, and ministers to him; it takes nearly a year

for Lleu to regain his health. Gwydion then turns the

faithless Blodueudd into an owl. Gronw, realizing that

Lleu and his kinsman mean business, sends a message asking

sue' 1. _...,. ., wR_..a .,. ._+. e, : ".., ,.o-r- :x a..w. ..-. ... ..... =..rr a:cn C-:.. t,. r... .r__ _...._ ,. . ;: 4ri;e _ _ _ -. s . _ ., x.'a N..,,... _a .. _ _
 44

what retribution he can make for his offense: land, gold,

or silver. Lleu sends this answer:

"No, I confess to God," he said. "Here is the

least I will accept from him: let him go to the
place I was when I was hit by the spear and me
be where he was and let me cast a spear at him.
This is the least I will accept." 3

Gronw asks whether any of his retainers or comrades will

accept the blow in his place, but they decline, just as

Arthur's knights hesitate to take the Green Knight's chal-

lenge. Since Gronw is a dishonorable man, there is no

Gawain to take his place in the exchange of blows. Lleu

casts the spear at Gronw Pebyr and kills him.

Both GGK and Math involve a guest who must take a

blow from his "host" after having given one to the man a

year previously. Between Gawain's stroke and the return

blow, it is exactly a year, and it takes almost a year for

Gwydion to heal Lleu. The time spent in locating Lleu and

in setting up the return blow accounts for the remainder

of the year. Unlike in GGK and "The Champions' Bargain," the

receiver of the blow is killed. Gawain is more like Cuchu-

lainn than Gronw since he is worthy of living through the

ordeal, although Cuchulainn is still the one who comes

out of his trial the best, because Gawain does fail in

accepting the lady's kisses and her lace.

Although Gronw has behaved in an unseemly manner, his

punishment seems not so much for the crime as for failing

to execute it properly. A similar situation happens in

 45

Culhwch and Olwen when Culhwch's father, the widower Cilydd,

consults his advisors about choosing a second wife. They

suggest the wife of King Doged; however, since Doged is

still alive, there are complications. Nevertheless, Cilydd

and his men attack King Doged's fortress, kill him, and

steal his widow. Apparently such an action was not con-

sidered unseemly behavior if one managed to succeed, be-

cause Cilydd is never punished for the way in which he got

his second wife.

In addition to these two branches of the Mabinogion,

another tale which is similar to both the Ulster Cycle and

GGK is Culhwch and Olwen, a work that is generally accepted

as the earliest story concerning Arthur and his court.)

Basically, the tale relates how Culhwch won Olwen, a

giant's beautiful daughter, with the help of his kinsman

Arthur, the dominant character in this tale. Patrick K.

Ford maintains that the story is not about the two lovers

at all, but Arthur. The boy Culhwch and the giant's daugh-

ter are flat characters.5 The Arthur who appears in this

story is indeed the Arthur of the later romances, although

his men are not yet called knights, and his famous round

table is yet to come into existence. He is wise, brave,

generous, and fair, but not quite as refined as he later

becomes.

Culhwch's mother dies shortly after the boy is born,

and his father remarries seven years later. When the new

-46
"IM
 46

queen suggests the boy take one of her daughters as a wife,

he replies that he is as yet too young for marriage. The

stepmother curses the boy, saying he may have for his wife

only Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden the Chief-Giant. His

father :Learns of this and sends Culhwch to Arthur, in-

structing the boy to ask for Olwen as a gift from his

kinsman. After a year of searching, Arthur's men discover

Ysbaddaden's castle, and when Culhwch approaches the giant

about Olwen, Ysbaddaden stalls the boy. The Chief-Giant

tells Culhwch and his companions to leave and return the

next day for his answer. As they leave, Ysbaddaden hurls

a poison spear at them, but Bedwyr (later in Arthurian

romance, Sir Bedivere)6 catches the spear and casts it

back to the giant, injuring him. Culhwch and his com-

panions return and get the same treatment for two more

days, each time injuring Ysbaddaden with his own spears.

Finally the giant sets Culhwch a long list of seemingly

impossible tasks; if the boy completes them all, he may

have the girl. Ysbaddaden is unwilling to part with Olwen,

because he must die when she takes a husband.

Arthur and his men see that each task is completed,

and they acquire the necessary proofs. Culhwch returns

then to Ysbaddaden's castle to collect his rewards, Olwen

and her father's lands. Before he takes possession,

.. _.i:,-.9..d .. ._ ,. u..a;. .e. s. -,.. ... -,... .. u,...,n .:.. . , .. .i .a. .d't..:,..+,- ,

. ,J ..
 47

however, Culhwch decapitates the Chief-Giant and exhibits

the head on astake.

Culhwch and Olwen is remarkably similar to "The Cham-

pionship of Ulster" and to GGK. The three days during

which Culhwch and Arthur's men meet with Ysbaddaden echo

the three tests Cuchulainn must pass at Curoi's dn and

the three tests Bercilak and his lady give Gawain. Al-

though Culhwch does not catch and return all three of

the poison spears Ysbaddaden throws, his is the last and

most disfiguring thrust: the spear enters the giant's

eye and protrudes through his neck. Culhwch and Arthur's

men pass their tests because they are not killed; Cuchu-

lainn passes his three tests because he vanquishes the

creatures which Curoi creates to stand against him; and

Gawain steadfastly refuses the chatelaine's advances,

keeping his part of the bargain to the letter, except

when he does not give up the green kirtle. Gawain's tests

do not involve the violence evident in the Celtic tales,

although echoes of the battle contests surface in the

three descriptions of Bercilak's hunting trips, like

the last one in which Gawain's host hunts the fox:

Renaud come richchande burr a rose greue,

And alle Pe rabel in a res ry t at his helej.
e wyje wat) war of ke wylde, and warly abides,
And brayde) out te bryt bronde, and at best Pe
caster.
And he schunt for e scharp, and schulde haf arered;
A rach rapes hym to, ry t er he myit,

, , ;- , ,I , , 1, 1., F- . -- '. , ., - -, I I - . . I- - - .. . - , 14-

 48

And ryjt bifore Je hors fete pay fel on hym alle,

And worried me his wyly wyth a wroth noyse.
(11. 1898-1905)
[Reynard came running through a rough thicket,
And all the rabble in a rush at his heels,
The man was aware of the creature and warily awaits,
And pulls out the bright brand and at the beast
casts it.
And he shunted from the sharp edge, and would have
retreated;
A hound rushes to him, right before he could retreat,
And right before the horse they all fell on him,
And I worried the wily one with an angry noise.]

The long list of tasks which must be performed before

Culhwch can marry Olwen is also much like the three contests

Cuchulainn faces at the magician's castle, as well as the

tests Gawain endures from the disguised Bercilak at the

Green Chapel. Much of what the Welsh Arthur and his men

do to fulfill Ysbaddaden's stipulations involves the super-

natural just as Gawain's and Cuchulainn's adversaries are

magical creatures. Arthur includes Gwrhyr Gwated Ieithoedd

in his party because Gwrhyr is an "interpreter of tongues,"7

and as such, he can communicate with all manner of animals.

In this way Arthur's troop acquires from birds, deer, and

other creatures much knowledge which would have been un-

available to them. The last battle in which the Welshmen

engage is with a man whomGod has turned into a boar for

his sins, certainly as much a creature of the supernatural

as is the Green Knight or Curoi.

Each hero, Cuchulainn, Culhwch, and Gawain, must dis-

pense with a giant. Cuchulainn faces Curoi, who is

k -" " .i,

-

E'. ] :.ia .. r.v1i aed.,-. . t.:__. .. y ;-.., _t. r :.. .1:.' 4'ly .. i..:.V .h.- i.. }
 49

disguised as a bachlach, a giant herdsman. In accordance

with their bargain, Cuchulainn strikes off the bachlach's

head; then he must fulfill the rest of the pact, just as

does Gawain. Culhwch, too, makes an agreement with a

giant, but his bargain is completed by the time he kills

Ysbaddaden. Like Gawain and his Irish counterpart, Culh-

wch decapitates his adversary; however, since the Welsh-

man's foe is not a magician or a fairy creature, as are

Curoi and the Green Knight, Ysbaddaden does not come back

to life. Culhwch, then, is able to destroy his enemy.

Of all the characters in the Welsh tales who are

like those in GGK, the most noticeably similar is surely

Arthur in Culhwch and Olwen, since this is the earliest

known tale about the famous king. Unlike Arthur, Gawain

has counterparts in the first and fourth branches of the

Mabinogion, as well as in the Arthurian tale. In the

first branch, the similarities between Gawain and Pwyll

are primarily plot-related. There are few character

traits that Gawain and Pwyll share; however, the Welshman

is tested by the charms of a beautiful lady, and he does

resist temptation even better than Gawain does, for while

the young knight accepts six kisses from Bercilak's lady,

Pwyll never so much as touches Arawn's wife. Gawain

and Pwyll each readily face a fearsome enemy under strange

IVORNO, - 6 - , -, - - , .- .- , I - . I ."".Ak"
11 --
-
 50

circumstances, and both men are firm of resolve, exhibit-

ing great strength and courage.

In Math, Son of Mathonwy the character Lleu, who has

associations with both Curoi and Cuchulainn from Irish

legend, is Gawain's counterpart. Lleu is the Welsh paral-

lel of Curoi in "The Violent Death of Curoi," in that he,

too, loses his beautiful wife to her lover and apparently

loses his life. But Lleu also has characteristics of

Curoi's rival, the solar hero Cuchulainn. Although this

might seem highly unlikely, actually it is to be expected

that some characters should have attributes of both Curoi

and Cuchulainn. In his Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance,

Roger S. Loomis provides an excellent explanation of why

this sort of thing happens. Curoi and Cuchulainn, Loomis

says, are in reality the same god:

In the first place, both Curoi and Cuchulainn seem

identified with Lug. We have the explicit statement
that Cuchulainn was the rebirth of his father Lug.
Likewise, Curoi is generally called the son of Daire,
who in a certain ancient tradition was equated with
Lugaid, and in a certain story the sons of Daire are
all named Lugaid, a name which MacNeill declares to
be practically a varient of Lug. It would seem,
therefore, as if one had a right to call Curoi, Lug
son of Lug, just as Cuchulainn is also Lug son of
Lug.8
9 while Curoi
Loomis grants that Cuchulainn is a "boy hero,"

is always described as unusually large. This is simply

further proof that Cuchulainn and Curoi are the same per-

son, but in different stages of development. Loomis notes

 51

that in the Tain Cuchulainn is "referred to . . . frequently

by diminutives like Cucan or Cucucan, which would mean

'little Hound' or 'Little Cu."'10 This being the case,

Loomis asserts, these shortened versions of Cuchulainn's

name mean "Little Curoi." I Thus, if Cuchulainn and Curoi

are really two facets of the same character in Irish tradi-

tion, it is not at all unlikely, but in fact necessary,

that Lleu be connected with both. In his early life, Lleu

exhibits many of the same characteristics at Cuchulainn,

but when he is older, Lleu seems more like Curoi mac Daire.

Lleu bears little if any resemblance to Gawain in the

poem, but I think it is beneficial to show the parallels

between Lleu and the Gawain of the Arthurian tradition.

Lleu's unfaithful wife Blodueudd is a character who ap-

pears in the Ulster Cycle as well as in later Arthurian

romance. :Blodueudd means "flower face," 1 2 and Blanad,

13 These
Curoi's unfaithful wife, means "little flower."

two women play the same role in their respective tradi-

tions, and their names mean practically the same thing.

Gawain, in some of the medieval romances has a sweetheart

named Floree, 14 an apparent vestige of the Celtic flower

woman who links Arthur's nephew firmly to Lleu.

In Culhwch and Olwen it would seem necessary that

Culhwch be the same character as Gawain. He, like Gawain,

is Arthur's nephew; he battles a giant, and a woman is

 52

involved in the action. On these things a-lone, perhaps a

case could be made for Culhwch's being Gawain; certainly

their predicaments are related. However, when Culhwch

recites a catalogue of warriors to Arthur at his court,

several of the characters seem more closely related to

Gawain than Culhwch is. Loomis believes the character

Gwrfan GwaLlt Afwyn is based on Cuchulainn and that Gawain

is based on Gwrfan. According to Loomis, in Welsh tradi-

tion there are both a Gwrfan and a Gwrnach, whose names

mean "little Gwri" and "big Gwri," respectively, corre-

5 The name Gwrfan
sponding to a big and little Curoi.'

Gwallt Afwyn means "Little Gwri with hair like reins."16

It should be noted that Pwyll's son Pryderi is taken from

his mother Rhiannon the night he is born. Teyrnon, a

Welsh lord, finds the baby and raises him as his own son,

giving him the name Gwri. Patrick K. Ford suggests that

there is more than a passing similarity between events

around the births of Gwri (Pryderi) and Cuchulainn, in

that both are taken from their natural mothers soon after

their births and newborn twin foals are found near each

baby. 17

Two other names also appear in the catalogue which

seem to be related to Gawain and Cuchulainn. Gwarae

Gwallt Eurin, or Gwarae Golden Hair,1 8 possesses one of

Cuchulainn's attributes, red hair. The Irish, and probably

 53

the Welsh, treasured red gold. Since they were sun wor-

shippers, this color was very important to them.

The character Gwalchmai mab Gwyar was long thought to

be the counterpart of Cuchulainn and therefore Gawain,

19 In Culhwch
but Loomis totally discounts this theory..

and Olwen, however, it is related that Arthur

summoned Gwalchmai map Gwyar for he never returned

home without his mission accomplished; he was the
best on foot and the best on horse (he was Arthur's
0
nephew--his sister's son--and his cousin). 2

Thus, various attributes of Cuchulainn appear in several

Welsh warriors. Gwrfan, whose name is much like Gawain,

is little Gwri, or little Curoi; he has long hair like

Cuchulainn's; and Gwalchmai is the best Welsh horseman

and foot warrior, as Cuchulainn is the foremost fighter

in Ireland,. Both Gwalchmai and Gawain are Arthur's

nephews by sisters, just as Cuchulainn is Conchobar's

nephew by Deichtine.

Another character in the Welsh tradition who pre-

serves the Irish hero solarity is Cei, who later becomes

Sir Kay the Seneschal in Arthurian legend. Cei, the tale

explains, has many gifts, among them that of heat:

When it would be raining hardest, whatever he

held in his hand would be dry for a fist-length
all around because of the greatness of his pas-
sion; and when his companions were coldest he
would be fuel to kindle their fire. 2 1

Cei's passion is reminiscent of Cuchulainn's residual bat-

tle heat which melted snow and boiled water.

 54

The Morrigain of Irish literature, the female battle

divinity, who seems to have some connection with Morgain

le Fay, appears with some other interesting folk in

Culhwch's catalogue of Arthur's knights. According to

Irish tradition, the Morrigain turned into a raven on the

battlefield and feasted on the flesh of those slain. In

his catalogue, Culhwch mentions a warrior Morfran, whose

name means "great raven." Culhwch recites, "No one wounded

him at the battle of Camlann, because of his ugliness.

Everyone thought he was an attendant demon; he had hair

22
on him like a stag."

At the time of the composition of the Red Branch,

women were warriors: Queen Medb fights at Ailill's side,

and the woman Scathach is the best fighter from whom to

learn the art of warfare. Later, however, during the

seventh century, women were discouraged from participat-

ing in battle; 2 3 therefore, when Culhwch and Olwen was

being written down (c. 1000-1100), it made no sense to

the Welsh for Morfran to be a female; a warrior had to

be a man. Thus, the war goddess the Morrigain became

the male warrior Morfran. ,In Culhwch's catalogue,

though, the Welshman includes among a group of women

24 This
one named Morfudd, the daughter of Urien Rheged.

is a particularly interesting association because one of

the later Morgain's husbands was named Urien. Obviously,

:.
.
 55

in the Welsh tradition Morgain had a longstanding associa-

tion with Urien.

Also listed in Culhwch's catalogue are Cnchwr son of

Nes, Cubert son of Daere, Fergos son of Roch, Lluber

25 who are obviously Concho-
Beuthach, and Corfil Berfach,

bar mac Ness, Curoi mac Daire, Fergus mac Rogh, Laegaire

Buadach, and Conall Cernach.

The dear lady on whose account Gawain endures his

ordeal, Guinevere, is also mentioned in Culhwch and Olwen.

The Welsh Arthur swears "by my weapons and my wife Gwen-

hwyvar" that whatever his nephew asks of him shall be

given. Loomis notes that the Welsh Gwenhwyvar, which later

became Guinevere, came from the Irish name Finnabair,

Queen Medb's daughter. 2 6 In Irish the b was almost

always pronounced as a v, which makes the similarity

more convincing, along with the fact that as Irish and

Welsh developed into separate languages what became f in

Irish became g in Welsh, and both Finn and Gwynn meant

white. 27

Bercilak, like Arthur and Gawain, also has counter-

parts in Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed; Math, Son ofMathonwy; and

Culhwch and Olwen. J. R. Hulbert calls Bercilak a "shape-

shifter," 2 8 and in using this term for Gawain's host, he

has established Bercilak's connection not only with Curoi,

but also with Arawn, the notorious shapeshifter -from the

 56

first branch of the Mabinogion. Bercilak changes com-

pletely from a huge, brilliant green knight to a large

"beuer-hwed" [beaver-hued] lord with whom Gawain spends

the feast days. As a fairy king, Arawn is able to change

his form into anything he chooses. In Pwyll, Lord of

Dyfed, he has need of shapeshifting only once, into

Pwyll's form and back again. Nevertheless, both Arawn

and Bercilak are counterparts to the original shapeshifter,

Curoi mac Daire.

Like Arawn, Bercilak puts his wife at his guest's

disposal. Bercilak's lady remains chaste through

Gawain's virtue; Pwyll's honor and dignity keep Arawn's

wife safe while her husband is away.

Several shapeshifters appear in the fourth branch

of the Mabinogion. Math himself is able to alter the

forms of others, although he never changes his own shape.

Math's nephew Gwydion is able to change his own appearance

as well as Lleu's, who does no shapeshifting of his own,

but when Blodueudd and her lover try to kill him, Lleu

turns into an eagle and flies away. Lleu is very similar

to Bercilak in that his wife tempts a guest into becoming

her lover (and in this tale succeeds).

Ysbaddaden, the Chief-Giant in Culhwch and Olwen,

is like Bercilak in the form of the Green Knight. Ysbad-

daden's castle is so remote from the rest of Welsh

. _ -
-
 57

civilization that no one knows where it is. It takes

Arthur's men a little over a year to discover its loca-

tion, just as Gawain travels a considerable time before

he happens on Bercilak's castle. Culhwch and Arthur's

men stop near Ysbaddaden's fortress at the home of a herds-

man, Custenin, who directs them to their goal, just as

Bercilak's squire directs Gawain toward the Green Chapel.

Once the young Welshman and his companions reach the

giant's castle, Ysbaddaden throws three spears at the

group, paralleling the three strokes which Gawain re-

ceives from the Green Knight.

Ysbaddaden is very large and ferocious; the Green

Knight is also unusually large, according to the poet's

description. The Knight's awesomeness is attested by

the fact that none of Arthur's men, the flower of knight-

hood, accepts the challenge issued by the uninvited

guest. Gawain and Culhwch each come to the castles to

fulfill a pledge of some sort, Gawain to keep his part

of the bargain with the green man, and Culhwch in ac-

cordance with his stepmother's curse. Both young war-

riors achieve their ends, but Bercilak fares much better

through his affair than Ysbaddaden does, for the Chief-

Giant loses his life.

These Welsh tales, Pwyll, Lord of Dyfed; Math, Son of

Mathonwy; and Culhwch and Olwen, are all stories in which

the Celtic heritage is evident. The roots of these Welsh

 58

tales lie in Celtic mythology; either they developed from

the Irish, or more likely, both derived from a common

ancestor. Regardless, the Welsh tradition which so

broadly and faithfully echoes the Red Branch later became

Arthurian romance. GGK is closely allied with Celtic

literature; incidents and plots in the English poem are

abundantly available in Irish and Welsh traditions, as

are the models for the characters of Arthur, Gawain, Ber-

cilak, and Bercilak's lady. By the time of Culhwch and

Olwen, a work beyond question contemporary with the

Mabinogion, the names that were later to become familiar

to much of Europe and to inspire such literary figures

as Tennyson and Steinbeck, had become unmistakably con-

nected with the characters of Arthurian romance: Arthur,

Gewnhwyvar, Cei, Bedwyr, and Gwrfan.

m---
-
 ENDNOTES

'Charles Moorman, The Pearl-Poet (New York: Twayne

Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 99.
2 RogerS. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1927), p. 55.
3Patrick K. Ford, The Mabinogi and Other Medieval
Welsh Tales (Los Angeles: University of California Press,
1977) , pp. 98-99.
4 Ford, p. 119.
5 Ford, p. 108.
6Jeffrey Gantz, The Mabinogion (New York: Penguin
Books, Ltd., 1977), p. 134.
7 Ford, p. 147.
8 Loomis, p. 55.
9 Loomis, p. 56.
1 0 Loomis, p. 57.
1 1 Loomis, p. 57.
1 2 Ford, p. 108.

1 3 Loomis, p. 15.
1 4 Loomis, p. 228.

'5 Loomis, p. 62.

1 6 Loomis, p. 62.

17Ford, p. 8.

'8 Ford, p. 130.

1 9 Loomis, pp. 62-63.

20 132.
Ford, p.

59
 60

21
Ford, p. 132.
2 2
Ford, p. 127.

2 3Loormis , p. 41.
2 4Ford, p. 131.
2 5 Ford,
p. 140.
2 6 Loornis,
p. 36.
2 7 Loomis,
p. 36.
2 1J.
R. Hulbert, "Syr Gawayn and the Grene Knyjt ,"
Modern Philology, 8 (1915) , 457.

:.,ter-.: , -_ . Ta.-
 CHAPTER IV

THE OTHER WORLD AND MISCELLANEOUS CELTIC ELEMENTS

The Other World, the land of the fairy or sidhe, has

a long history among the Celtic peoples; Ireland is well-

known for her leprechauns, kelpies, and other fairy folk.

The belief in the sidhe prevailed not only in Ireland,

but also in Wales, Scotland, and parts of England. GGK

is permeated with things Celtic.

The Other World and its trappings are very important

to the poem. The magic practiced by Curoi in the Red

Branch and by almost all of the characters in the Mabino-

gion indicates just how familiar supernatural beings and

forces were to the Celtic audiences. As these literatures

developed into Arthurian romance, it was imperative and

wholly natural that the Other World would be included

in those stories.

The sidhe originate in ancient Celtic mythology, as

John Spiers notes:

The goddesses--spring, flower, earth, or moon

goddesses, or fountain,tree, lake, or sea spirits--
have become courtly ladies, queens, or kings' daugh-
ters in the romances; but they also have often re-
1
tained their Other World character as fairy beings.

If this is true of goddesses, it is safe to assume it is

also true of the gods. Loomis believes Curoi to be the

61
 62

Celtic storm god. Logically, Arawn in the Mabinogion and

Bercilak in GGK are the fairy counterparts of this older

storm deity. Gawain, who evolved from the sun divinity

that Cuchulainn represents, is not a sidhe, but a knight

possessed of phenomenal nobility, honor, and strength as

the sun ascends.

The land of the sidhe is not a heaven; human beings

can travel to the Other World and back again, not always

the worse for the experience. It is a country of this earth,

but remote from the normally accessible civilized areas,

peopled by beautiful, magical, human-like creatures who take

a passing interest in the affairs of men. 2 Often, for rea-

sons known only to the sidhe, a fairy desires that a spe-

cific human being come to him in the Other World. A command

to appear in Fairyland is issued, and the mortal obeys

either of his own free will or because he is tricked into

it. This sort of occurrence, an Other World journey, is a

common motif in fairy literature 3 and has a characteristic

pattern. First, of course, comes the summons. Then the

4
journey begins, almost always quite long, during which the
5
traveller has various encounters with dangerous creatures.

Once the mortal arrives in the Other World, he is struck by

the incredible beauty and the lavishness of its decoration

and offerings. 6 As Mother Angela Carson points out, one

can hardly fail to notice the similarities between

 63

Gawain's excursion to the Green Chapel and the Other World

journey common to fairy literature. 7

Morgain summons Gawain to the Other World, the Green

Chapel, for her purposes: to test the mettle of Arthur's

best knight and to frighten Guinevere. After the young

knight has endured the prescribed ax strokes, Bercilak

tells Gawain exactly why the whole episode has come about:

"iur) myjt of Morgne la Faye, at in my house lenges,

And koyntyse of clergye, bi craftes wel lerned--
-'emaystres of Merlyn mony ho hatj taken;
(11. 2246-48)

["Through the might of Morgain le Fay, that in my

house lingers,
And cunning of magic, by skills well learned--
The arts of Merlin many she has taken;]

Ho wayned me vpon is wyse to your wynne halle

For to assay e surquidr6, Jif hit soth were
at rennes of Je
grete renoun of Pe Rounde Table;
Ho wayned me his wonder your wyttej to reue,
For to haf greued Gaynour and gart hir to dye
With glopnyng of bat ilke gome bat gostlych speked
With his hede in his honde before Pe hy e table."
(11. 2456-62)

[She sent me in this manner to your pleasant hall

For to test your pride, if it is true
What is current of great renown of the Round Table;
She sent me as this wonder to take away your wits,
For to have grieved Guinevere and made her to die
With horror of that same man that ghostly spoke
With his head in his hand at the high table."]

The Green Chapel is the Other World, and Morgain is

a fairy. Her name indicates that she is a sidhe; she is

almost always called Morgain le Fay, fee or fay meaning

fairy. 8 In GGK Bercilak calls her "Morgne De goddes,"

.:
--- --
 64

this unquestionably linking her with Celtic tradition. In

the same manner that the goddesses often become the fairies

of romance, so then has Morgain become a sidhe. To Camelot

she sends her messenger, the Green Knight, with his awesome

challenge. After the messenger is beheaded, Gawain must

answer Morgain's summons, even though he is unaware that

the incident is a ploy to bring him to the fairy woman.

Even had he discovered the ruse after beheading the Green

Knight, Gawain would have been honor-bound to fulfill his

part of the bargain.

If Morgain is a fairy creature, then the Green Chapel

and Bercilak's castle must be part of the Other World.

Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel is, indeed, perilous.

The young knight sets out for his destination with no no-

tion of how to get there. Every person he asks has never

heard of the chapel or its inhabitant. It is winter, and

the difficult trek is made even more demanding by the

bitter cold that affects the creatures nearby as much as

it does Gawain:

With roje raged mosse rayled aywhere

With mony bryddej vnbly e vpon bare twyges,
Tat pitosly Per piped for pyne of Je colde.
(11. 745-47)

[With rough ragged moss arrayed everywhere

With many birds unhappy upon bare twigs,
That piteously piped for pain of the cold.]

In addition to braving the elements during the long trek,

the hardy knight must sleep on the bare ground from the
 65

day after All Saints' Day, November 2, "tyl Krystmasse

euen," nearly two months' time. The journey is not simply

spent in fighting the cold and searching for the Green

Knight, for the poet says;

At vche ware ober water ber be wyje passed

He fonde a foo hym before, bot ferly hit were,
And at so foule and so felle bat fet hym byhode.
So mony meruayl bi mount der pe mon fynde),
Hit were to tore for to telle of ke tenpe dole.
(11. 715-19)

[At each shore or water where the man passed

He found a foe before him, but a marvel it was
And that so foul and fierce that it behooved him to
fight.
So many marvels there in the mountains the man finds,
It is too difficult to tell of the tenth part.]

Gawain must battle all manner of enemies from "worme"

[dragons] to "wodwos" [wildmen] to "etaynej" [giants].

Thus, his passage from Camelot to the Green Chapel is a

difficult journey to the Other World.

Gawain suddenly comes upon Bercilak's castle; it

appears from nowhere as if by magic. On a hill with

trees all around, the castle stands, "he comlokest bat

euer knyjt afte" (1. 767) [the comeliest that ever a

knight owned].. It is surrounded by a moat in the middle

of a large, beautiful "park," and, the poet reports,

"hit schemered and schon purj be schyre okej" (1. 772)

[it shimmered and shone through the white oaks]. Gawain

decides to ask for lodging at this castle, the only one

he has come across since beginning his journey.

, - M ''
 66

The suddennness of the castle's appearance is one

of the points which indicates it is part of the Other

World. 9 Its "shimmering" beauty also links it to the land

of the side, as well as its moat, for traditionally the

mortal traveller must cross a water barrier in order to

reach the Other World. 1 0

Once inside Bercilak's dwelling, Gawain finds the

castle's furnishings and food to be as exquisite as its

exterior suggests. The room where Gawain is taken to

remove his armor is sumptuous:

bat brojt hym to a brygt boure, Per beddyng watt

noble,
Of cortynes of clene sylk wyth cler golde hemme,
And couertore) ful curious with comlych panes,
Of bryyt blaunmer aboue enbrawded bisyde
,
Rudele rennande on ropes, red golde rynge3,
Tapite ty4t to Pe woje of tuly and tars,
And vnder fete, on be flet, of folande sute.
(11. 853-59)

[They brought him to a bright bower, where the

bedding was noble,
With curtains of pure silk with clear gold hems
And coverlets very curiously done with comely panels,
Of bright white fur above embroidered at the sides,
Curtains running on ropes, red gold rings,
Tapestries hanging on the walls, from Toulouse and
Tharsia,
And under foot, on the floor, of a matching sort.]

In the rest of the castle everything is just as beautifully

appointed. When Bercilak provides his guest with something

to eat, the table is magnificently arrayed "wyth a clene

clobe bat cler quyt schewed, / Sanap, and salure, and

syluerin spone$" (11. 885-86) [with a clean cloth that

 67

showed clear white, / Napkin and salt cellar and silver

spoons]. The fairy host's apparent wealth (for like all

fairy fabrications, the trappings are not real) is a

standard part of the Other World journey, and Bercilak's

wealth is displayed in the table with its lovely cloth,

the silver, and the much treasured salt cellar. The dishes

offered to Gawain also indicate that his host is no ordin-

ary man, for the servants present several stews and many

kinds of fish, "Summe sopen, summe in sewe sauered with

spyces" (1. 892) [Some boiled, some in stew savored with

spices]. The number of different dishes certainly sug-

gests to Gawain that Bercilak is unusual, as do the pre-

cious metals and costly materials, but perhaps one of the

most telling details to the errant knight is the appearance

of the salt cellar and spices on the table, for only the

wealthiest people with the right connections could afford

those luxuries in a time when spices traveled the long

11
trade routes from their distant, exotic sources.

Another point which shows that Gawain has reached

the Other World lies in the loveliness of the people he

meets at Bercilak's castle; the fairies are always the

most beautiful people that a visitor has ever seen.12 In-

deed, Bercilak is tall and handsome, "and of hygh eldee"

[in the prime of life]. He is strong with a face "felle

. . .as te fyre" [fierce as a fire], and his manner is

 68

extremely pleasing. The lady of the castle is a perfect

match for her husband:

Ho watt ,e fayrest in felle, of flesche and of lyre,

And of compas and colour and costes, of alle obler,
And wener len Wenore, as e wyje Po3t;
(ll. 943-45)

[She was the fairest in skin, of flesh and or face,

And of proportion and coloring and manners, of all
others,
And fairer than Guinevere, so the man thought;]

Lovelier even than Arthur's queen, the fairy wife behaves

as one schooled in the courtly arts.

That a castle should be part of the Other World is

not unusual, for in both the Irish and Welsh tales there

are castles in the land of the sidhe. Blanad is often

viewed as a fairy wife who summoned Cuchulainn to Curoi's

13 and Carson
castle, which was located in the Other World,

notes that Arawn's castle is a typical representation of

Fairyland. '* There too everything is incredibly beautiful

and lavishly provided. Just as Bercilak' s lady is all but

perfect, so Pwyll finds Arawn's wife an unutterably lovely

woman.

However, the sojourn at Bercilak's castle is only

part of Gawain's stay in the Other World. On New Year's

the young knight must forsake his host's pleasant castle

and company to find the Green Chapel and its formidable

occupant. Once Gawain's guide departs and the knight

reconnoiters his surroundings, he discovers the area to

 69

be most inhospitable. But he sees no chapel, only "on a

launde, a lawe" [in a field, a mound], and of this place

5 one
J. R. Hulbert says, "it is in fact a fairy mound,"'

of the most likely places fairies are to inhabit. Since

there is no structure, it might seem strange that the

area is called the Green Chapel, but "the use of the word

'chapel' of a place not consecreated at all but enchanted

and the scene of strange happenings, is current in the

French romances." 1 6 The Green Chapel is not necessarily

a place holy to God. It is, according to the tradition

of romance, often sacred to the sidhe. The terms "holy"

and "sacred" are proper here; fairies are vestigial Celtic

deities.

Even Bercilak's name illuminates the function and

meaning of the Green Chapel and the Other-Worldly castle.

Gawain asks his opponent his true identity after the ordeal,

and he is answered that Bercilak de Hautdesert is his real

name. Peter Barry writes that "'desert' [is] a Celtic

7 thus ren-
word for 'the dwelling place of a hermit,'"'

dering the Green Knight's real name "Bercilak of the High

Hermitage." 1 Carrying through the religions image ini-

tiated by the use of "chapel" in reference to the fairy

mound, Bercilak is a hermit of the sidhe, most especially,

if not exclusively, of Morgain le Fay, just as a hermit

was a religious man serving the Christian God apart from

the mainstream of civilization.

x
 70

In addition to the Other World journey there are other

features in the poem directly related to the sidhe, among

them the use of the color green as it appears in the green-

ness of the knight and his horse, the green lace given to

Gawain, and the Green Chapel "with erbe5 ouergrowen" [with

herbs overgrown], in the dead of winter. In the Irish and

Welsh tales grey and not green is used in connection with

the two shapeshifters Curoi and Arawn. As a fairy color,

grey still prevails in some areas; among Shetlanders who

have retained belief in the sidhe one of the euphemisms

19
given to certain types of fairies is "the Grey Neighbors,"

and a report from Glen Aldyn, Scotland, indicates that

fairies seen there are "greyish all over." 2 0 The con-

fusion between the grey creatures of the Celtic tales

and GGK has been logically and sufficiently explained.

Green took the place of grey in the poem, and, indeed, in

most fairy tradition also. There has been a tendency to

misread the meaning of the color of the knight in the

poem, largely due to ignorance about the importance of

Celtic tradition in GGK, as Charles Moorman notes that

"the greenness of the Green Knight has been explained in

terms of both its possible connections with early vegeta-

tion myth and with its Celtic origins. "21 Because of

Bercilak's close affiliations with the sidhe, his green-

ness is as much an indication of his Other-Worldly nature

as of his connection with vegetation myth.

 71

In An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Katharine Briggs says

of the fairies and their appearance:

Green is generally acknowledged to be the fairy

colour, particularly in Celtic countries, and
for this reason is so unlucky that many Scots-
women refuse to wear green. Red runs very close,
and in Ireland the small trooping fairies, the
Daoine sidhe and the Shefro, wear green coats and
red caps. . . 22

Hulbert also notes that green and red are the colors most

often connected with the Other World inhabitants and that

often in fairy literature there "are instances of green as

color of clothing, complexion, and horses. . .. "23

As the Green Knight, Bercilak is described as being

green from head to toe; the poet notes that he is "oueral

enker grene" [overall very green]. There is a detailed

discussion of the disguised Bercilak's appearance from

his green hair to his fur-lined "mantile" down to his

feet, including his horse's gear: the "sadel," "steropes,"

"arsoun), " and "apel sturtes, " all of which are of "bat

ilke." The horse is "grene" as well as "gret and pikke,"

just as the Green Knight is heralded by the poet as being

"Half etayn" [Half giant]. Both the man and his beast

are immaculately and richly displayed with "golde," "silk,"

"metail anamayld," and bells of "breb.de golde."

When the unusual intruder asks whose hall he has

entered, the poet notes that the people present at the

feast are certain he is a creature of "fantoum and fayry e"

- - - -
-
 72

[illusion and magic], a supernatural being sent by the

fairies for some evil intent. His greenness indicates

to the revellers that he is indeed a sidhe. After the

challenge is issued to the court, the Green Knight views

Arthur's men with his "rede yjen," apparently the only

part of the formidable visitor that is not green. Red,

it has been noted, is also a fairy color, often being

worn by many fairies along with green. Thus, not only do

the Green Knight's red eyes provide an arresting contrast

to his brilliant hue, as the bachlach's yellow eyes do in

"The Champions' Bargain," but they further emphasize his

affiliation with the sidhe.

As the Green Knight rides into Arthur's hall, he

holds in one hand a green ax whose head is "an elnjarde"

[an all-yard, forty-five inches] long and in the other

honde he hade a holyn bobbe,

Pat is grattest in greene when greue) ar bare,
(11. 206-07)

[hand he had a holly branch,

That which is greatest in green when groves are bare.]

The ax carries associations with Curoi because the shape-

shifter brings such a weapon to Conchobar's court when

he tests Cuchulainn, and Loomis notes that the ax has long

had connections with storm gods as the thunder weapon,

thus cementing the Green Knight's relationship to the

storm divinity Curoi..2 4 The holly branch that the dis-

guised ]3ercilak carries is no less ominous than the ax.

 73

Although some scholars, like William Goldhurst, prefer to

see the greenery as connected with fertility and vegeta-

tion myths, 2 5 it seems more appropriate to discuss the

branch in the light of what it indicates as holly as well

as its function as another green item. Carson points out

that the place of holly "might have lent a note of irony

to the Green Knight's protestations that he had no wish to

harm the court, for it is a superstition in Wales that if

26
one brings holly into a friend's house he brings death."

In addition, green, partly because of its associations

2 7
with the sidhe, is "the Celtic colour of death." Thus,

the holly in GGK must be a death symbol, as it would be

in Celtic tradition.

Arthur's subjects, then, recognize the Green Knight

as a death threat to them, for he is immense, green, and

carries a holly branch. No matter how soothing his speech

or how apparently veracious his protestations of not being

motivated by malice, his intent is obvious to anyone who

beholds him; his aspect carries the message that his

tongue belies. Among the fair courtiers of Arthur's court,

the Green Knight is as unusual as the green holly in win-

tertime when the other plants are withered and dead.

The use of holly in connection with death and war

appears twice in the Ulster Cycle, both times with Cuchu-

lainn. While the solar hero is holding off Medb and

MAP
Ma m
 74

Aillill's army during. the Ulstermen's pangs, he comes

upon a charioteer cutting wood for a chariot shaft.

Cuchulainn offers to do the trimming, "Then, under the

other's [the charioteer's] eyes, he stripped the holly-

shafts through his clutched fists, paring them clean,

knot and bark."28 Later in the conflict with the army,

Cuchulainn agrees to meet Nadcranntial in single combat.

Against the boy hero,Medb's champion brings "nine spears

9 Thus, two of Cuchulainn's enemies use holly
of holly." 2

as part of their battle gear; in the same manner, the Green

Knight carries a holly branch as part of his "armor." As

previously shown, the Welsh associate the plant with death;

it must have had a similar meaning for the Irish since it

appears in the Tain in that connection.

Another feature of GGK found in Celtic and fairy

traditions is the green lace. Once the final rebuff is

made to Bercilak's lady, she urges Gawain to accept a love

token from her. He firmly but gallantly refuses until

she gives him her own girdle made of green silk, decorated

with embroidery and gold. At first the knight is reluctant

to take even this as a token, but he accepts it when she

tells him:

"For quat gome so is gorde with is grene lace,

While he hit hade hemely halched aboute,
Per is no habel vnder heuen tohewe hym pat myjt,
For he my t not be slayn for slykt vpon ere."
(11. 1851-54)
 75

["For whosoever man is girt with this green lace,

While he has it neatly looped about him,
There is no man under heaven who might cut him down,
For he might not be slain by any means on earth."]

This girdle has been seen by some scholars as connected

30 and a "splendid
with the "primal forces of nature,"

adornment of courtly life," 3 1 but more appropriately it

indicates the realm of the fairy and an earlier Irish

feature.

In almost all other stories of Other World journeys

the summoned mortal is given a gift with remarkable

properties, one providing the new owner with wealth and

protection. 32 George J. Englehardt says that Gawain

33
chooses a talisman, the green lace, to protect his life,

and the green girdle, because of its color, is a fairy

gift. Like all such gifts, the lace holds the promise

of immunity to death. Bercilak's lady chooses her words

carefully when she persuades Gawain to keep her gift; no

one, she says, could "tohewe" the wearer, and it is pre-

cisely hewing which worries the young knight.. Certainly

her well-selected words along with the magical properties

credited to the lace persuade Gawain to accept her love

token.

When the Green Knight appears at Camelot, among his

many green garments, the poet lists a "belt." This belt,

Loomis says, is the same green lace which Bercilak's lady

. .. . T
*I'm"- - - '- I --, -I.--- - I - an - --
-
 76

gives to Gawain, "for some magic influence enabled him [the

34
Green Knight] to come through the beheading alive."

Not only is the girdle an integral part of the poem as

fairy literature, but it is also essential in that in the

Irish tradition there are magical belts with preservative

properties. Curoi has such a girdle in an early Irish

tale, and Loomis rightly maintains "that the precious

girdle which Curoi possesses in the Irish saga must be the

original of the magic girdle" in GGK.35 When Curoi fights

wearing the belt, he is not killed, Loomis notes, but when

he does not have it, he cannot withstand Cuchulainn's

blows. The solar hero himself possess a battle belt:

"Arrows and spears would bound back from [his] belt as if

from stone or horn." 3 6 The battle belt, then, seems to

have been a convention of Irish saga which ultimately

influenced GGK.

Because the fairy gift is a feature of sidhe lore,

especially in the Other World journey, it is appropriate

that Gawain receive a gift from his fairy "mistress."

Considering the Celtic sagas, it is not surprising, then,

that Gawain' s gift is a belt, a valuable token imbued with

Other-Worldly power.

The battle belt is an item of great supernatural

strength which protects its wearer from the onslaughts of

druids, shapeshifters, and warriors. The green lace

" .. , .. -. _.::I. . ., .:n+:, . -:x .- e:... .+v+...i. . x.1 .-... :.:mss, s._l,'...A.'. ..... ... .'_.:: nW..".:v~_{Jr. .F1c-..+c ._.i+i'. . -, __.i.:.la r,_ ,__
_ _ <e6fi: Ndt3tW &ii' _ _ _
 77

functions as both a gift and a life preserver. Gawain

keeps the token ever after, and it cannot be positively

proved that the girdle is not responsible for his safety;

Gawain, wearing the belt during the Green Knight's three

strokes, survives with only a nick.

Just as the green lace is the product of both Irish

saga and fairy lore, so too is Gawain's shield indebted

to those sources. Among the descriptions of the errant

knight's equipment, the poet pays particular attention to

this piece and to the designs with which it is embellished:

Then bay shewed hym e schelde, bat

was of schyr
goule5
With Pe pentangel depaynt of pure golde hwe

.
(11. 619-20)

[Then they showed him the shield, that was of bright

gules
With the pentangle depicted in pure gold hues.]

erefore on his schene schelde schapen wat be knot

Ryally wyth red golde vpon rede gowlej,
]5at is e pure pentaungel wyth te peple called with
lore.
(11. 662-65)

[Therefore on his bright shield shaped was the knot

Royally with red gold upon red gules,
That is the pure five-pointed star people with
learning called it.]

Charles Moorman says the pentangle originates in the Celtic

tradition,37 while J. R. Hulbert argues that "the device

is not . . . used by the Celts, and it certainly does not

figure in extant Celtic stories. " 38 To a degree, both of

'
 78

these scholars are correct. There is no pentangle per se

in the Irish tales, but Cuchulainn does possess a shield

that is similar to Gawain's. The solar hero's shield has

9
on it five gold wheels on a red background. 3 "The wheel,"

Loomis points out, "was a familiar solar symbol and Cuchu-

lainn has long been recognized as possessing solar

4
traits. " 4 0 Since GGK is "saturated with Irish tradition,"

'
the five golden wheels are the probable origin of Gawain's

pentangle. 4 2 As a symbol, the five-pointed star is as

ancient as the wheel, but when a device was being devised

for Gawain's shield, it made more sense to the poet, per-

haps, to use a symbol reminiscent of the original but more

familiar. Cuchulainn's emblem reflects his solarity, in

much the same the way the cross has symbolized Christ to

generations of Christians. Golden wheels do appear on

shields in medieval romance, and Loomis has connected those

43
wheels with the Ulster Cycle and Cuchulainn's device.

Besides the similarities between the emblems, the

colors of the shields are identical: the golden design on

a red background. Both red and gold are constantly asso-

ciated with the solar hero in his clothing and his hair.

The evidence seems very strong that Gawain's five-pointed

golden star on the gules field must have originated with

Cuchulainn's golden wheels against the crimson background.

Englehardt maintains that "the symbol of the pentangle

44
is . . . indispensible to the understanding of the poem."
 79

if this is true, it is absolutely necessary to understand

the pentangle's function and its origins. Its background

is obviously Celtic in the framework of GGK, but its func-

45 or
tion is not, I think, to symbolize "the complete man"

to hold any primary "Christian significance. "46 The de-

vice is often associated with magic,4 7 and it is supposed

8
to give one protection from the Other World.4 "It is not,"

Spiers says, "accidental that Sir Gawain's emblem is the

pentangle, an ancient life symbol." 4 9 The design on Ga-

wain's shield is there to protect him from the powers of

the sidhe, 5 0 but the young knight himself must be unaware

of the pentangle's properties or else reluctant to trust

himself entirely to the device, for he still eagerly accepts

the green lace when he discovers its powers. However, the

design is an ancient protective emblem, regardless of

whether Gawain is conscious of that fact. "Heraldry is

said to have originated," Hulbert notes, "from the use of

a device on a shield to protect the warrior from the evil

eye. "5 The employment of Gawain' s pentangle follows

logically from such a belief.

Another item which protects a person from the sidhe

is a cross, perhaps stemming from a pre-Christian notion

that crossroads were safety zones in which fairies had

no power, as well as from the sacredness of the cross later

among Christianized Celts.5 2 Although Gawain's shield has

go' INOWN-15 NOR I I'l 0111110

 80

no cross on it, it does have another symbol painted on it

which would prove an equal deterrent to the sidhe; on the

reverse side is Mary's image. Thus the pentangle and the

picture of Mary offer the young knight double protection

against fairies.

The shield and its embellishments have their ties

with Celtic tradition from which both the stories of the

Red Branch and the later fairy lore developed. Like the

lace, this piece of Gawain's war gear owes much to the

two separate but related sources which have given it mean-

ing and form. Understanding the origins of the shield

and the pentangle is most important in order to understand

their functions. The many lines spent on Gawain's shield

and the appropriateness of its star to his character do

not indicate the poet's desire to designate "a particular

53
person whose device actually was the 'endless knot."'"

It simply ties the work closer to its Celtic origins and

a traditional belief in protective symbols against fairies.

The use of the Other World, the journey there, the

color green, the holly, the lace, and the shield all spring

from GGK's Celtic heritage. The poem is permeated with

Celtic tradition. In a sense the work can be seen as an

Other World journey with all the conventions of such a

trip, and the greenness of the Green Knight and several

other items in the poem substantiate the importance of the

- -f
 81

sidhe in the poem. A closer inspection of the Green

Knight's holly branch eludicates the real meaning

behind his words when he enters Arthur's court, while

the green lace and Gawain's shield with its device pos-

sess dual affiliations with the Ulster Cycle and the

sidhe. Through the study of these features in GGK, it

is easy to perceive that the poem owes more to the Celtic

story cycles than just plots and characters. From the

poem's most obvious element, the green man, to the smallest

particulars of the holly branch and the intruder's eyes,

the poem contains numerous Celtic details. An understand-

ing of the origins of these elements helps the scholar make

more careful and correct judgments about the poem and its

possible meaning.

a* 0RMAK"W"M
-am-as
 ENDNOTES

'John Spiers, Medieval English Poetry; The Non-

Chaucerian Tradition (New York: Macmillan Co., 957),
p. 104.

The Other World (Cambridge,

2Howard Rollin Patch,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1950), p. 27.
3Mother
Angela Carson, "Morgain la Fee as the Prin-
ciple of Unity in Gawain and the Green Knight," Modern
Language Quarterly, 23 (1962), 16.
4 Patch, p. 27.
5Carson, p. 16.
6 Carson, p. 16.
7 Carson, p. 11.
8
Thomas Keightley, The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies,
Elves, and Other Little People (1880; rpt. New York: Avenel
Books, 1978), p. 4.
9 10.
Carson, p.

"Carson, p. 13.

'Madelaine Cosman, Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery

and Ceremony (New York: George Braziller, 1976), p. 45.

12 Carson, p. 13.
1 3 J.
R. Hulbert, "Syr Gawayn and the Grene Kny t,"
Modern Philology, 13 (1915), 438.

1 4 Carson, p. 12.

'5 Hulbert, p. 457.

1 6 Hulbert, p. 706.

17 Peter Barry, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Ex-

plicator, 37 (1978) , 30.
18 30.
Barry, p.

82

--------------------- -- m-a - -okillm

 83

1 9 Katharine
Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies (New
York: Pantheon Books, 1976), p. 205.
2 0Briggs, p. 110.
2 1 CharlesMoorman, The Pearl-Poet (New York: Twayne
Publishers, Inc., 1968), p. 101.
22
Briggs, pp. 108-09.
2 3 Hulbert, pp. 456-57.

24R. S. Loomis., Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance

(New York: Columbia University PressT1927 p. 50.

2 5 William
Goldhurst, "The Green and the Gold: The Ma-
jor Theme in Gawain and the Green Knight," College English,
20 (1958), 61.
2 6 Carson, p. 15.
2 7 Briggs, p. 109.
28 Thomas Kinsella, trans., The Tdin (Dublin: Dolmen
Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 95.
29
Kinsella, p. 122.

3 0 Goldhurst, p. 64.
3 1 Goldhurst, p. 64.
3 2 Hulbert, p. 707.
3 3George J. Englehardt, "The Predicament of Gawain,"
Modern .Language Quarterly, 16 (1955), 222.

34R. S. Loomis," More Celtic Elements in Gawain and

the Green Knight," Journal of English and Germanic Phil-
ology, 42 (1943), 149. Hereafter referred to as "More
Celtic Elements."
35 Loomis, "More Celtic Elements," p. 152.
3 6 Loomis, "More Celtic Elements," p. 152.

3 7 Moorman, p. 101.
3 8 Hulbert, p. 730.
3 9 :Loomis, "More Celtic Elements," p. 169.
 84

4 0 Loomis , "More Celtic Elements," pp. 168-69.

4' Loomis, "More Celtic Elements," p. 169.

4 2Loomis, "More Celtic Elements," p. 169.

43
Loomis , "More Celtic Elements, " p. 169.

4 4Englehardt, p. 218.

4
5 Englehardt, p. 218.

4 6 Spiers, p. 230.
4 7 Hulbert, p. 723.
'4 piers, p. 230.

49Spiers, p. 230.
5 0
Hulbert, p. 729.
51 Hulbert, p. 729.
52 Briggs, p. 82.
53Henry Littleton Savage, The Gawain-Poet: Studies in
His Personality and Background (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1956), p. 158.
 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The influence of the Celtic elements in GGK is par-

ticularly strong because of the sheer volume of those com-

ponents in the poem; their force dominates the work.

Understanding the extent to which these elements affect

GGK is essential; without it, almost all interpretation

becomes useless. A knowledge of the poem's Celtic back-

grounds is necessary to any study of the work since

Irish and Welsh traditions have left their marks on the

poem's color, style, and appeal; and story lines from

the Ulster Cycle, the Mabinogion, and Culhwch and Olwen

have given GGK its engaging plot and its characters. The

Irish and Welsh tales contain earlier if ruder forms of

Gawain's and Bercilak's courtly figures, along with most

of the other characters in the poem.

GGK has many similarities to the stories of the Red

Branch. Previously scholars assumed that only the plot

for the beheading game in GGK developed from the Irish

tales. Now it is clear that not only "The Champions' Bar-

gain" but also the Temptation motif and the ruse of the

disguised guest came from the same source, the Ulster

Cycle.

85

- 1 ".: P :.rk=, -c-.>....-,.<: ..-. ,: .. :i .il y.;,t_ .a h : :.-.YV.e : tr_ .fi:.

.
,
:'
...-
.+..-i.- 7t~Y. :,+x .:.. ti -. f,->fi.JAc.-s.-.
,sy' i/'
' . '. i- -;x,+ ;-.. .wm..N; ,E;L GhM!;u-. . .T._ cc - - - a._r:w .rr r.. ,.c~az:u -. vesi ....- ,;.4 rc ice.. , c,.,r .. ,....,.,._,_ __..-., ,: ,: .e..s .e_=..i ,.. _,_.. ...
-
 86

The similarities between the characters in GGK and

those in the Irish tales are remarkable. Arthur, Gawain,

Bercilak, and Morgain are easily discernible in the people

in the Red Branch. Often the Irish counterparts are

similar in appearance, and at other times they parallel

the English roles in their relationships, social positions,

and attributes. Roger S. Loomis notes that almost all the

characters in the Irish stories appear somewhere in Ar-

thurian romance. 1 Hence, Conchobar is Arthur, just as

Cuchulainn is Gawain, Curoi is Bercilak, and the Morrigain

is Morgain le Fay.

Most important is the similarity between Cuchulainn

and Gawain. Their positions at court are basically the

same; foremost warriors and kings' nephews, they share many

of the same characteristics, particularly the attributes

of sun gods. It is necessary to interpret Gawain and his

actions through Cuchulainn, for the knight's traits and

personality are the legacy of the Irish deity.

Also from the Irish tales the role of Curoi as a

shapeshifter is important in understanding. Bercilak as

hospitable host and awesome Green Knight. Curoi is both

the friendly magician who most often helps the Ulstermen

and the yellow-eyed bachlach who appears at Conchobar's

court to determine which Irish warrior is the bravest

and most skillful. Without the benefit of Celtic tradition,

 87

the Green Knight and his test appear to be simply Morgain

le Fay's whim. Viewed in the context of the Irish saga,

her collusion with Bercilak is but a continuance of the

struggle between the Irish gods; 2 the tradition of "The

Champions' Bargain" explains more satisfactorily the green

man's behavior.

Morgain as a malevolent force also reflects a charac-

ter from the Ulster Cycle, the Morrigain, the war goddess

who not only gives Morgain her name but sets the pattern

for her behavior. It is within Morgain's tradition to

initiate conflict and evil.

Conchobar himself seems in many ways to be the original

upon whom Arthur is patterned. The Ulsterman rules so

well that his followers always surround him in battle to

protect him; unfailingly and ungrudgingly a new bride's

first night is his so that his noble lineage might

strengthen all his kingdom. Conchobar treats all his

warriors fairly, and, like Arthur, he inspires great loyalty

and courage among them. Thus, the two kings are but oppo-

site sides of the same coin.

The temptation and beheading episodes which appear

in the Irish and Welsh stories also appear in GGK and con-

cretely affirm the poem's primarily Celtic nature. In

Pwyll the young chieftain of the same name is tested just

as Gawain is by Bercilak's lady. Although the woman is

 88

the most beautiful and charming lady he has ever seen, the

Welshman, like Gawain, is unwilling to break the trust

given him by his host. Both young men resist the tempta-

tion, unlike Gronw in Math, Son of Mathonwy. The flower

woman tempts her guest, just as Blanad, another flower

woman from Irish tradition, tempts Cuchulainn. In these

last two cases the guests give in, and in Gronw's instance,

it proves a fatal mistake. Gawain and Pwyll benefit from

exercising virtue, while Gronw must forfeit his life for

his duplicity.

Although "The Champions' Bargain" as it appears in

GGK and the Red Branch does not show up in the Welsh tales,

each of them contains elements of that story. The young

man is faced with a supernatural foe, just as Gawain is in

the English poem. and as Cuchulainn is in "The Championship

of Ulster." In the second branch of the Mabinogion there

is an exchange of blows between the husband of the flower

woman and her lover, as in GGK when the young knight must

face the Green Knight and in "The Championship of Ulster"

when Cuchulainn faces the disguised Curoi. Culhwch in

Culhwch and Olwen decapitates a giant; Gawain and the

solar hero both behead giants in their respective stories.

All these episodes occur in the Welsh stories, the Irish

tales, and the English romance.

The character parallels between GGK and Culhwch

and Olwen are often easy to spot, because this Welsh

 89

tale is, after all, the first known tale about Arthur.

Young King Arthur heads his court and is surrounded by the

best warriors in Wales, many of whom will later appear in

Arthurian romances. The lovely lady Guinevere also ap-

pears in this tale, although she first emerges in the

Tain as Queen Medb's daughter Finnabair.

In Culhwch and Olwen, Gawain parallels Culhwch, who

is a rather flat character. He is most like Gawain in

his relationship to Arthur but most like Cuchulainn in

that the adventure starts when he is yet a child. The

greatest kinship between Cuhwch and Gawain is that both

are counterparts to Cuchulainn. Pwyll, on the other hand,

from the first branch of the Mabinogion, parallels Gawain

more closely, being a brave and prudent man who-shirks

no duty during his adventures. Gawain's connection with

Lleu, the character from the fourth branch of the Mabino-

gion, is similar to his relationship to Culhwch in that

it is indebted to surface details rather than to charac-

ter. Nevertheless, the connection still exists, and the

English knight is inescapably linked with the Celtic

characters. Gawain and Cuchulainn, overall, have much

in common with these three characters from the Welsh tra-

dition, but they still share the attributes of the solar

deity from the earlier Irish myth.

 90

Bercilak, too, has counterparts in the Welsh tales.

In Pwyll his shapeshifting connection with Arawn is easy

to see. Both of them, through their shapeshifting,

correspond to the great Irish magician Curoi. Also,

Gwydion from Math shares features with Curoi and Bercilak.

Although he is not specifically called a fairy, as Arawn

is, he is certainly a powerful magician who can change

not only his own shape but also those of other people. It

is with his help that the flower maiden is created for

Lleu.

In Culhwch and Olwen the giant Ysbaddaden mirrors

both Curoi disguised as the bachlach and Bercilak as the

Green Knight. In their disguised forms both the Irish

and English supernatural beings test warriors. The trials

which Ysbaddaden provides for Culhwch are much the same.

Another feature which the Welsh tales provide is

Gawain's name and those of nearly all the other Arthurian

characters who come from the Welsh stories. Arthur's name

undergoes no change, but many of the other names do, such

as Guinevere. Roger S. Loomis carefully outlines the de-

velopment of Gawain' s name from Cuchulainn through Gwrfan

to its present English form.

The Welsh analogues to GGK are important in deter-

mining the extent of the poem's indebtedness to Celtic

tradition. Clearly it derives much from the Irish tales,

but what did not come from the Ulster Cycle the Welsh

JAM
1,1119,
I'l 1,1 11
 91

stories provide. In the Mabinogion and Culhwch and Olwen

the characters and the episodes of "The Champions' Bar-

gain" and the Temptation are the link between the earlier

Irish stories and one of the last Middle English romances.

The Welsh tales are further removed from Celtic mythology

than are those of Ulster, and GGK, although yet further

removed, still preserves the elements of characters who

were once gods.

The fairy literature of Ireland and Wales develops

from cultural myth, the gods and goddesses later becoming

fairy folk. GGK, a work with much Celtic background,

necessarily contains a great deal of material concerning

the sidhe. There is an Other World journey in which Gawain

travels the long and perilous route to the Green Chapel,

fighting men and beasts along the way in accordance with

the conventions of such a journey. Bercilak's castle and

the chapel each indicate they are part of Fairyland. The

castle is as beautiful as any fairy dwelling ever described.

Its trappings are the finest; the people Gawain meets are

among the loveliest he has ever seen. Bercilak treats

the young knight most hospitably, providing his guest

with restful quarters, excellent refreshments, and pleasant

companionship. Just as the land of the sidhe is full of

bright light, peopled with lovely creatures, and embel-

lished with the finest materials, so too is the castle

where Gawain stays.

,.
_.
 92

The Green Chapel is no less part of the.Other World

for being different from Bercilak's castle. Fairies have

long been thought to haunt burial mounds, and the chapel

is no structure at all, but a mound. The Chapel and its

immediate area are covered with growing plants during the

dead of winter, making it an unnatural place, a green

place of fairies. Furthermore, the Green Knight's name

links him and the mound to the sidhe, for Bercilak of the

High Hermitage is part of a complex religious image ini-

tiated in the reference to the area as a chapel. The

mound is consecrated to the fairies who were once deities,

and Bercilak is a hermit in the service of Morgain the

goddess.

The color green is not chosen arbitrarily, for al-

though in the Red Branch and Pwyll the magical creatures

are grey, green is the fairy color as well as the Celtic

color of death. Green dominates the poem; it is the color

of the knight, his horse and armor, the holly branch, the

Chapel, and the girdle. When the knight enters Arthur's

court, his appearance bespeaks two things to the Christmas

revellers: the intruder has fairy affiliations and he is

a harbinger of death. Even though the Green.Knight says

he wishes no one harm, none of the revellers believes him

because of his color. The visitor carries a large green

ax and a holly branch, both of which are tokens of his

animosity against Arthur's court. The ax is obviously a

 93

threat once the giant discloses the rules of his challenge,

and the holly, a death symbol, further dampens any en-

thusiasm for the unusual bargain.

The Green Knight is well aware of his visage and

its effects on Arthur's court. He knows that his sudden

appearance in the hall and the proffered game carry a

subtle meaning to those attending Arthur's feast. Both

his size and the effect of his color on the revellers give

the fairy knight the upper hand in the situation. Arthur's

men are challenged, but the unfair advantage which they

face prevents them from behaving more nobly than they do.

Arthur's pride will not allow the awesome green guest to

leave bearing the tale of the Round Table's unwillingness

to take up his challenge. Even though he expects dire

consequences from the confrontation, Arthur accepts.

Gawain's own pride and sense of justice will not allow

him to watch his king contest with a fairy, so the young

knight takes his lord's place. Gawain, too, knows that

the giant knight is a creature sent by the sidhe and that

his prospects of winning are not good. When he decapitates

the visitor, the head reminds him of their bargain; the

veiled message of the Green Knight's appearance becomes a

clear and grisly reality for all those present. The giant

green man, his ax, and the holly branch signify a meeting

with the sidhe and the possibility of death for one of

Arthur' s knights.
 94

Another fairy feature in GGK is the green girdle

which Bercilak's lady gives to Gawain. Its function is

twofold: it is both a fairy gift and a vestige of the

battle belt which Cuchulainn.wears. Fairy mistresses who

summon their lovers always give a present which provides

wealth and protection or power to its owner. In the role

of the fairy mistress, Bercilak's lady has a gift for her

lover, although-Gawain is not a lover in the sense that

he neglects either his obligation to his religion or to

his host. He is a perfectly courtly lover who maintains

his chastity as well as his duty to the lord of the manor,

while not offending the lady. Since Gawain does not wish

to receive a love token from Bercilak's wife, it takes

all her powers to persuade the young knight to accept her

gift. Finally she must resort to playing on Gawain's

fear of death.

Since the green girdle protects its owner from all

attack, it bears a definite resemblance to the battle

belts of the Irish tales. Cuchulainn and Curoi both have

belts which deflect enemy spears and arrows. The Green

Knight also wears a green girdle at Arthur's court,

probably the same lace given later to Gawain. Doubtless

the Irish battle belt is the ultimate source for the girdle

in GGK, and as a green gift, the lace is another connection

with the fairy world.

.
 95

Another element in GGK which reveals the poem's Celtic

tradition which the poet carefully details is Gawain's

shield when the young knight arms himself. The front is

red with a gold pentangle, and in its upper area is the

image of Mary. This blazon resembles Cuchulainn's own

shield, and yet it keeps the heraldry familiar to a medie-

val audience. The GGK-poet made the change from circles to

pentangle, itself an ancient symbol long connected with

magic; it is a likely protection against fairies. In

addition, Gawain's bright blazon reinforces his ties with

Cuchulainn,providing still more proof that he is an expres-

sion of the solar hero's powerful character.

Overall GGK is completely saturated with Celtic fea-

tures. From its most obvious to its seemingly insignifi-

cant elements, the poem is filled with episodes, charac-

ters, and details of the Irish and Welsh stories. That

the work is comprehensively Celtic is interesting in view

of the theories of the poem's genesis as a French tale.

Alice Buchanan maintains that GGK "is closer in many

3
ways to the original Celtic form than is the earliest"

retelling of the story. It seems odd that a tale would

become more and more like its ultimate source the more it

was told, when the general trend is for stories to become

less like the original with each successive telling. The

answer must lie in the direct source of GGK being close

.. : - _....9 -'--u-_ ;..+.:iw: wy.,.-w,. .. ,..:...r.;.x..::ii: .t...:c;_.::ti:iK:..1 c.,.',;.a. bki:u r .;...u'.aso-.:.a ::, .:'.8. 3: . s .: .. v+.+: > .w, .xe9 ._. s.,,.h+.k ,> ,.w... . .- _._ -. " .y.,. .. , .z.,, .. 9 .. s.
.
 96

to the original stories. Although the Welsh tales are

closer to Gawain in time and geography than the Irish,

the poem itself is much closer to the Ulster Cycle.

However the Gawain-poet came across his source ma-

terials, he takes the story and tells it once again in

the West Midland alliterative line, giving the world a

medieval romance which, unlike its contemporaries, is more

than a loosely organized string of adventures. GGK tells

again the myths of the ancient Celts, refurbishing their

solar hero and polishing the rough-natured divinities and

their associates. It is through the knowledge of these

earliest analogues to the poem that a correct and en-

lightening interpretation of the work may be formed.

Without this information all attempts to understand GGK

are mere flounderings. Knowing the poem's Celtic heritage

helps to untangle the endless knots of which the work is

made.
 ENDNOTES

S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance

'Roger
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1927), p. 5.
2 Loomis, p. 57.
3 Alice Buchanan, "The Irish Framework of Gawain and
the Green Kight, "e PMLA, 47 (1932), 315.

97

.. :..-.., 1',-. .. _...,. -...... .. ._. ,..:.,.,,* . .... :.....:...a.1+y-_.rwl. .7/:... ... r.. ... .;r...;-, r_...::: . .+w . .;ya.:,.a .... T:..,,,.:,.w,;;":.+r :Y2 #aYJ w".,,. .w..us:.,ue..:;. it-.4--:cc oi.cs rv_- _ - - - ... G .. x _ _ - .6,. .. , < ,
-
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.