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. …show more content…
This is a huge one to knights, it is pretty evident why it is as well. Knights are always going into battle, whether they want to or not they have to do it because they have to show courage. They are out there to set an example to the younger children so if they are scared and run that isn’t a good example. Being role models was their goal in all reality so courage is something that they really have to portray. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight it says, “Gawain grips to his ax and gathers it aloft -- the left foot on the floor before him set -- brought it down deftly upon the bare neck, that the shock of the sharp blow shivered the bones and cut the flesh cleanly and clove it in twain, that the blade of bright steel bit into the ground.” (Page 176, Lines 192-197) This right here is very courageous of Sir Gawain. He knows that in one year he is to go to the Green Knight so the Green Knight can return the blow, but since he was a noble knight, he had to step up to the plate for this