Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

Gawain is willing to accept his misdeeds and understands thathis actions have threatened his society’s code of chivalry and theexpectations of the court, and is thus prepared to deal with themonstrosity that lies ahead of him. Yet, institutional body within thistext is unwilling to deem themselves capable of producing a monsteror harboring the monstrous, therefore leading the court to reconcilethemselves with Gawain’s actions. To maintain the Green Knightas the monster, and Gawain as a respectable citizen, King Arthurdeclares that “every knight in the brotherhood—should bear such abelt”—or the green girdle—“a bright green belt worn obliquely to thebody, / crosswise, like a sash, for the sake of this man (Uche burneof the brotherhede, a bauderyk schulde have, / A bende abelef hymaboute, of a bryght grene, / And that, for sake of the segge, in sweteto were)” (lines 2516-2518). The governmental body is, therefore,able to adapt their societal expectations by clearly identifying goodand evil; they turn Gawain’s sin into a mark of honor, and maintainthe Green Knight as evil in flesh.Like Wonders and Sir Gawain, Grettir’s Saga also embodies the notionof the governmental body striving to maintain the status quo. Thegovernment in this case, is the institution of outlawry. As described inthe Appendix of the saga, “outlawry served as a legalized step towardsblood-taking and replaced a legal judgment of execution” (Byock 239).Additionally, “outlawry provided Icelandic society with an efficientand cost effective means of dispensing with troublemakers” (239).One can then see that outlawry functions as the institutional bodywithin the saga, for it is through this institution that the monster ispushed to the borders, helping to define society’s identity, while alsoproviding a means for the preservation and protection of the statusquo. With such conformity in place, the Icelanders have the abilityto eliminate otherness from the inside out and assert, through unity,their dominance in the world. Interestingly, the saga uses Grettir’sexistence to explore both the monster and the borderlands, while122 afternoons of alterity