THE SHORT OXFORD HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

strides up to his missing head, picks it up, bows to the King, disembodiedly repeats his dire condition, and rides out of
Camelot with fire sparking from his horse’s hooves (‘his hed in his handes | Þat Þe fyr of Þe flint flaZe for fole
houes’). The Gawain-poet has not only fused a Celtic beheading myth with an Arthurian adventure; he goes on to
interpret Gawain’s subsequent quest to find the Green Knight and his Green Chapel, and his resistance to temptation,
in terms of Christian knighthood.
Gawain sets out on his mission on All Saints’ Day (1 November) when the optimism of new beginnings at New
Year seems to have melted into the unease of the season of dying. Nevertheless, he prepares himself ceremoniously
and splendidly:
[p. 44]
He dowellez þer al þat day, and dressez on þe morn,
Askez erly hys armez, and alle were þey broZt.
Fyrst a tulé tapit tyZt over þe flet,
And miche watz þe gyld gere þat glent þeralofte;
Þe stif mon steppez þeron, and þe stel hondelez,
Dubbed in a dublet of a dere tars,
And syþen a crafty capados, closed aloft,
Þat with a bryZt blaunner was bounden withinne.
Þenne set þay þe sabatounz upon þe segge fotez,
His legez lapped in stel with luflych grevez,
With polaynez piched perto, policed ful clene,
Aboute his knez knaged wyth knotez of golde;
Queme quyssewes þen, þ coyntlych closed
His thik prawen þyZez, with þwonges to tachched;
And syþ þ brawden bryné of bryZt stel ryngez
Unbeweved þ wyZ upon wlonk stuffe,
And wel bornyst brace upon his boþ armes,
With gode cowterz and gay, and glovez of plate,
And alle þgodlych gere þat hym gayn schulde þat yde: t
Wyth ryche cote-armure,
His gold sporez spend with pryde,
Gurde wyth a bront ful sure
With silk sayn unmbe his syde.
(He stays there all that day, and dresses in the morning, asks for his arms early and they were all brought. First a carpet of red silk
[tulé] was spread over the floor, and much gilded armour gleamed upon it. The strong man steps on it, and takes hold of the steel,
clad in a doublet made of costly oriental silk [tars), and then in a skilfully made hood [capados], fastened at the neck and trimmed
with ermine [blaunner]. Then they put steel shoes [sabatounz] on the knight’s feet, his legs were wrapped in steel with handsome
greaves, with knee-pieces [polaynez] attached to them, polished clean, fastened to his knees with knots of gold; then fine thighpieces
[quyssewes], which cunningly enclosed his thick muscular thighs, were secured with thongs; and then the linked coat of
mail [bryné] of bright steel rings enveloped the warrior, over a tunic made of glorious material; and well-burnished arm-pieces
[brace] upon both his arms, with good, fair elbow-pieces [cowterz) and gloves of steel-plate, and all the goodly gear that should be
an advantage to him at that time; with rich coat armour, his gold spurs splendidly fastened, girt with a stout sword and a silk girdle
at his side.)
Thus accoutred, and with an image of the Virgin Mary on the inside of his shield and mystical pentangle on the
outside (the symbol of the virtues central to his pure knighthood), Gawain rides out into filthy weather and empty
landscapes. The rain freezes as it falls, the waterfalls are ice-bound, and the nights are bitter. He fights, the narrator
tells us almost offhandedly, with dragons, wolves, and wild men of the woods, but his spirits are kept up by prayers to
Christ and to his holy mother. Gawain’s real test comes when neither he nor the reader expects it. Having come
across a castle in the wilderness (it appears by happy accident) he is warmly received for yet another round of
Christmas rituals and festivities. He is as strict in his religious observance as he is warm in his responses to his host’s
courtesy, readily agreeing to exchange ‘winnings’ with him. On the third day, however, he fails to give up a girdle
presented to him by his hostess (it is supposed to protect its wearer from death). When Gawain is finally directed to
the Green Chapel he honourably kneels to receive three blows from the beheading axe; two are feints, aborted by the
seeming skill of the Green Knight; the third lightly cuts his neck. The Knight then reveals himself as the lord of the