Journal of Taibah University the first issue

12
Haitham Abdulaziz Saab
green girdle” as magical symbols to ward off evil. In the dominantly
moral world of the poem, Gawain’s complex duality delineates signs
of his human frailty and may contradict the hero’s medieval pious
consciousness. On the other hand, Gawain’s traditional belief in
Christ’s Five Wounds, his reliance on Mary’s Five Joys, his manual
sign of the cross and his puzzling prayers, all suggest that the author is
concerned with representing a typical, medieval hero, who is neither
exemplary nor blameworthy. 15
If religion is used in Sir Gawain to emphasize the main theme
of chivalry and medieval spirituality in the context of marvelous
adventure, Epithalamion has a different religious emphasis altogether.
Since the poem celebrates a wedding occasion, religious allusions are
used only to serve the more significant social theme. The Renaissance
poem illustrates the age’s attitude towards social activities, such as
marriage, which only occupies the third, never-praised status of
medieval society. While Spenser exhibits the Renaissance’s interest
in social activities and values, the nature of such a moral work as Sir
Gawain makes the issue of marriage absolutely out of place. Spenser
writes about his own wedding when marriage has already gained
significance, especially as an essential component of an individual’s
faith. Renaissance ideology asserts that marriage can bring the
individual close to God, so it definitely has a sacred dimension. With
his dependence on Classicism, Spenser, however, presents a
harmonious fusion of pagan backgrounds- an integral part of the
genre, and Christian themes in his poem. The spiritual petition- for a
worldly end, of the beginning of Epithalamion articulates such
fusion:
Early before the worlds light giving lamp,
His golden beame upon the hils doth spred,
Having desperst the nights uncheareful dampe,
Doe ye awake, and with fresh lustyhed
Go to the bowre of my beloved love,
My truest turtle dove,
Bid her awake; for Hymen is awake (21-25).
A. R. Cirillo refers to these lines as a biblical echo of the “Song
of Songs.” The most noticeable themes that Spenser utilizes from the
“Song of Songs” are the awakening of the bride and the physical
description of the beloved. In this collection of songs that touches
upon the love life of a young man and a maiden, the speaker appeals