...Chivalry is more than just a few rules; it is a way of life followed by knights (Grendler 154). Deriving from the French word "chevaliar," which means knight, chivalry was the social structure of Medieval Europe (154). During medieval England, values of honor, valor, courtesy, purity, and loyalty to his lord was expected (154). In Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, the code of chivalry and influence is demonstrated through the Green Knights test of Gawain's honor and valor and Bertilak's test of Gawain's courtesy and purity. In Medieval England, knights were the foundation of the chivalric system (155). They were soldiers with respected training. armor, and weapons (155). Knights were also known for their main focus on virtue, honor, and courtesy (155). According to the Song of Roland, there are seventeen entries in the Knights Code of Chivalry, one of which being to live by honor and for glory (156). When the Green Knight barged into the court wanting to play a game, everyone was shocked and scared (Gawain 235). The Green Knight's reason for coming was to test King Author's reputation: courtesy, valor, and honor (Gawain 257-265). However, it is Sir Gawain that stands up to take on the game, showing a great sign of courteousness to King Author (Gawain 345). The chivalric system...
Words: 839 - Pages: 4
...Green Chivalry During the Renaissance period, many prestigious virtues were important parts of culture and life. Lords and knights were expected to display numerous traits such as courtly love, chivalry, and piety. The knights were expected to follow a certain code at all times. Throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain displays many chivalrous acts; however, he has to overcome his fears to remain a chivalrous knight. One example of chivalry in the poem is when Gawain makes an engagement with the Green Knight that he will chop off the Green Knight’s head. Gawain agreed to return in a year to allow the Green Knight to return his blow. Gawain’s chivalry is clear when he returns to receive his end of the contract with the Green Knight. This is clear as Tolkien translates, “‘On my word, sir, I welcome thee with a will to my place, / and thou hast timed thy travels as trusty man should, / and...
Words: 525 - Pages: 3
...Chivalry is a religious, moral, and social code that knights followed; the qualities that an ideal knight was expected to have, such as honor, courage, justice, courtesy, and respectfulness. Temptation is an action/thing that attracts someone to do something usually wrong/unwise. These two collide in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to show just how far the high and mighty Gawain could fall. Gawain is the epitome of knighthood; humble, respectful, handsome, and courteous. He is, in a sense, perfect, but of course nothing is perfect, and Gawain is no exception. “First he was deemed flawless in his five senses;/ and secondly his five fingers were never at fault;/ and thirdly his faith was founded in the five wounds/ Christ received on the...
Words: 1107 - Pages: 5
...The Big Three (Three Primary Elements of Chivalry) The first thing that often comes to a person’s head when they hear medieval times is knights. They think of all of the bright shiny armour with the big swords and all of those tags that go along with it. That is really all that they think of when they think of a knight though, they think battle and bright and shiny armour. What people generally don’t perceive is what it took the knight to become a knight. Along with that they don’t realize what really even makes the knight a knight other than the fact that he has to go to battle and fight. In the stories Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by Marie Borroff and Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, they go a little deeper into what it actually means to be a knight. They begin to point out the things that actually classify one as a knight. There are three primary elements that classify a knight: courage, loyalty, and honor....
Words: 943 - Pages: 4
... King arthur satire essay Chivalry was the great code of conduct respected by the knights and heroes during the romantic medieval era. Marked by honor, courtesy, and generosity, chivalry included skill, valor, loyalty to both God and the king, having sympathy towards the sick, oppressed. Within the same general area of chivalry was courtly love. The men fought to attain their ladys affections and love by waging war in their name, or by romancing them. Knights were to devote themselves entirely to one woman.This love was was between a knight and a married woman. However, in each of these pieces are also characters who stray from this ideal code of conduct, Seen in Monty python and the holy grail. Sir Gawain in the Green Knight is a story about chivalrous values and trickery. This story involves the Green knight’s arrival at King Arthur’s feast one evening. The green knight challenges the king to his game and just as King Arthur accepts Sir Gawain insists on accepting the challenge instead. The Green knight is beheaded, but picks his head up and tells Sir Gawain that he must meet him in one year so that he can return the challenge. Sir Gawain sets off on his journey one year later and arrives at a castle. He is graciously let inside where he stays a few days. The lord / the green knight creates a game of his own involving the Lord hunting and Sir Gawain remaining at the castle with the game to test his chivalry and his faith. In monty python and the holy grail starts out with Arthur...
Words: 754 - Pages: 4
...Testing the Actions of a Knight The story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was translated by Burton Raffel during the Middle Ages. Actions show what your true character really is. The actions of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight addresses the code of conduct for knights during that time period. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Burton Raffel, addresses the code of conduct for knights in the Middle Ages through the actions of Sir Gawain in order to reveal his true character. The Green Knight walks in and challenges the men’s knightly-hood by submitting to a blow from the ax if he can return the blow a year and a day in the future. Every knight just starts looking around roaming the room with their eyes. His challenge sparks...
Words: 709 - Pages: 3
...210-002 24 January 2013 Gawain’s Test of Chivalry The code of chivalry plays a big role in shaping the values and actions of Sir Gawain and the other characters in the poem. Throughout the poem, Gawain’s main focus is staying true to the chivalric code, even if it means he will die honoring it. Christian beliefs also have a significant impact on knightly conduct, and they are both brought together in Gawain’s symbolic shield. Gawain’s chivalry is constantly tested throughout the entire poem, and overall he does a pretty good job of staying loyal to the code. Although he does fail at one point in the poem, it only reveals his imperfect human nature. When reading “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, one should keep in mind the various moral aspects of chivalry in order to acquire a better understanding of the text. Loyalty, courage, honesty, honor, and courtesy are all some of the traits that a knight of chivalry embraces. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” tells the story of Gawain’s test of his chivalric attributes. The test administrator in the poem is the Green Knight. He wants to test the courage and integrity of Arthur and his court. When Gawain, the only knight who steps up to the Green Knight, accepts the challenge, he displays great courage and loyalty to his king. After Gawain strikes his blow unto the Green Knight, this is when the true test begins. To maintain his honor, Gawain will have to journey to the Green Chapel and fulfill his end of the agreement...
Words: 776 - Pages: 4
...Knightliest of Knights I find these passages significant because Sir Gawain shows how and what it takes to be a chivalric knight of the Round Table under King Arthur. The first time we see the chivalric knighthood of Sir Gawain is when he accepts the challenge presented in front of everyone from the Green Knight. During a time of feasting and frolicking, the Green Knight enters King Arthur’s court and makes his presence known to everyone. He then offers a challenge to everyone in the court, including the King and all of his knights of the Round Table. When a hush falls over the court and nobody steps forward to acknowledge the challenge, King Arthur takes the axe offered from the Green Knight and heaves it over his head. Before he can strike the Green Knight, Sir Gawain emerges and stops the King. He tells King Arthur that he will take the challenge and the melee shall be his. This is the first example we see of the chivalry presented by Sir Gawain. A knight must be loyal to his lord and to God and a knight must never run from a challenge; Sir Gawain definitely shows loyalty to King Arthur when he takes the challenge from the King so the King does not lose his life in the end being as the person who accepts the challenge has to give the Green Knight a strike from the same axe. The second time Sir Gawain’s chivalry is presented is when he sticks to the challenge he accepted from the Green Knight and finds him in a year’s time to give the Green Knight his due. Most...
Words: 644 - Pages: 3
...The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by John Gardner, is set in the Middle Ages. This was a time in history when people focused on the values and ideals of the Code of Chivalry, a code of honor intended to govern knightly behavior. As Arthur and his knights get together to feast and celebrate Christmas and the new year their festivities were interrupted by a man of green who wandered about searching for adventure so that he can disprove his chivalry. The two values that are most clearly stated in the poem are courage and honor. It will become clear by the actions of the characters that courage and honor is shown in several different areas of the poem. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, courage is defined as “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” Courage can be shown in a variety of ways. In this particular instance the Green Knight challenged King Arthur or any of the knights of the roundtable to take his ax and hit his bare neck. He said to them, “And I will stand still for your stroke, steady on the floor, / provided you honor my right, when my inning comes, / to repay” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 213). Clearly, the Green Knight shows a tremendous amount of courage, knowing the danger that it is going to befall him if one of the knights takes up the ax to his neck. Sir Gawain is another instance where courage was lost and then found. After a year, Gawain met the Green Knight to seal...
Words: 763 - Pages: 4
...Knights of the middle ages were held to a code of chivalry. Also, a knight held a prestigious position. A knight had to show bravery, loyalty, generosity, courtesy and devotion to the liege. Knights believed deeply in the code of chivalry. They had to show mercy to those they defeated. The knights in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” showed good and bad qualities when considering the codes of chivalry. The knight in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” showed loyalty to King Arthur. He showed his loyalty by taking the place of King Arthur’s challenge to the Green Knight: Gawain by Guenevere Toward the king doth now incline: “I beseech, before all here, That...
Words: 886 - Pages: 4
...foes to defeat, heros would not exist. In two texts, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf, a hero battles his respective villain to uphold his values, and as such, save his world. Challenged by a green knight, Sir Gawain must receive blows to the neck by the creature after staying in the house of a Sir Bertilak. All the while, he must try to conciliate two differing moral codes. Beowulf, on the other hand, must defeat various monsters to protect his people and his allies. Although both must prove their worth, Sir Gawain must resist temptation to sin, while Beowulf must protect his people and their allies. A giant, green warrior rides into a hall full of King Arthur’s men. Sir Gawain stands up, in place of King Arthur, and delivers a decapitating blow to the Green Knight after Sir Gawain promises to find him to receive a blow in return. As Sir Gawain searches for the Green Knight, he finds shelter in the castle of a local lord, Lord Bertilak, and his wife, Lady Bertilak. In the Church, desires of the flesh are considered evil, and should be avoided. In the chivalric code, one must always obey authority. These two values come in contradiction when Sir Gawain is asked by Lady Bertilak to give a kiss to her. “‘One gracious as Gawain is rightly held to be, with courtesy contained so clear in himself, could not lightly have lingered so long with a lady, but he craved a kiss out of...
Words: 920 - Pages: 4
...life? • Set of rules which everyone/all needed to follow; there was a moral obligation to serve the “lord” in faith and/or valor (courage/bravery) • Follow a chain of command; respect for authority (Abbott and King of the court) • Establishes commitment within a community (religious or court/chivalric code) to bring unity • ? powers used to tempt or destroy o The Green Knight – the beheading game; Lady Bertilak at the castle (3 temptations/seductions); the green girdle o Rule of St. Benedict (Prologue lines 17?)...
Words: 1384 - Pages: 6
...The final element represented in the story is chivalry. Throughout the story Sir Gawain’s chivalry is constantly being tested. The ideals of chivalry come from the Christian concept of morality. When Sir Gawain sets off on his journey his morality is tested at the castle. He agrees to give the lord whatever he wins but his morality fails him and he does not live up to his word. He was tempted by the lord’s beautiful young wife and succumbed to her. However, it wasn’t just that he was kissing the lord’s wife but he also kept the green girdle from the lord, going against their agreement. “When the lord returns from the hunt, Gawain gives him the kisses but keeps the sash a secret.” Although Gawain was un-chivalrous in kissing his wife he still maintained some morality by not sleeping with her. Sir Gawain now posses the magical green sash and also a guilty conscience, though he is able to redeem his earlier actions by confessing to the Green Knight, who was lord of the castle. Sir Gawain shows this time that he is truly chivalrous by admitting his wrongdoings; he has regained his sense of morality, and asks for the knight’s forgiveness. “I can’t deny my guilt; / My works shine none too fair! / Give me your good will / And henceforth I’ll beware” (256-259). From this Gawain learns that he is just a physical being who is concerned above all else with his own life. Chivalry provides a valuable set of common ideals towards which one strives to achieve, however, a person must still remain...
Words: 309 - Pages: 2
...paganism, between virtue and sin, between light and utter darkness. An Era portraying a country trying to adapt to drastic changes brought on by the Norman Conquest of 1066, a country fighting to establish its own history in order to gain independence. A Period of knights and ladies, of valour and good faith, which gives life to some of the highest ideals mankind has ever known. It has introduced us to concepts such as chivalry and courtly love, pure expressions of spiritual essence. Of these ideals poets and authors wrote with lively passion, embroidering them in poems such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or The Wife of Bath. Although its poet remains unknown, the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight remains instilled in our minds as one of the prime examples of chivalry, Gawain representing the chivalrous ideal of the period. His story begins at New Year, in a court filled with joy and happiness, during a banquet thrown by the legendary King Arthur. In the midst of the merriment, the King expresses his desire to behold a marvel, refusing to eat until he had done so. His desire is soon to be fulfilled, as a mysterious creature of the purest green strides in the castle atop his steed, which was also green. This creature exudes of beauty and power, inspiring...
Words: 3278 - Pages: 14
...When one thinks of youth, it can be associated with joy and freedom, but being young can also have its disadvantages. No one fully believes in young people capabilities or trust that they can handle responsibility. Many people might even believe that being young makes one oblivious to the troubles of the world. Because of Sir Gawain’s youthfulness, he faced opposition from the fellow knights and even criticized himself. He feels as though he lacks in both the mental and physical department compared to other knights. Just like any other young individual, Gawain does not quite realize his full potential, but as he grows and exemplify chivalry he becomes more confident and no longer let his youthfulness define him. As the poem begin, we learn...
Words: 524 - Pages: 3
