The reinstatement of Middle English
into my college life was a smooth one, since King Arthur's request was
rather similar to the request of my most familiar middle-aged buddies—those
being, the Wife of Bath and her gaggle of travelers (Canterbury Tales) one-upping each other with
interesting stories. **Sidebar: I’d be much more interested in a free round of
booze for my great, interesting story than King Arthur’s idea of fun (ie;
watching him not eat from the rather excessive spread of food.
#YourGameIsBoringBro)**
Anyway…
I cannot
entirely decide who I am more interested/fascinated by: the shocking, marvelous
Green Knight or the ballsy, loyal Sir Gawain. For sure, Sir Gawain is a brave
guy. Beyond bravery, though, he is admirable for his commitment to King Arthur,
even after his courts de-glorification in the face of the Green Knight: “Where’s
the fortitude and fearlessness you are so famous for?/…what a scandal!/You flap
you flinch and I’ve not raised a finger!” Even after King Arthur & his
round tables abilities have been showed to be lacking, Sir Gawain maintains that
King Arthur, and his men, are “brave and bold” and worthy of his self-sacrifice.
(Can’t say I’d agree, regardless to how scary this guy may be). The Green Knight,
though, appears as a street corner magician—not magical in the sense that he is
foreign and not understood, and therefore must be magic (which I’m sure much of
King Arthur’s crew believed), but because he propositions the crowd in a pick-a-card-any-card manor, saying “So
who has the gall? The gumption? The guts?/ Who will spring from his seat and
catch my weapon?” Sadly, I imagined him with his stage assistant, distracting
the audience with her beauty, ready to fool some fool into taking on this
battle, little do they know…. he can still live, breathe and walk without his
head! Talk about trickery
While
reading the story, I wondered what the Green Knight looked like. What I found surprising
was Google Images wide range of interpretations. While one photo makes him and
his horse look possessed, another portrays him as a grass-like-monster emerging from
the soil and asking someone to chop off his head. I pictured him similarly to
the third photo pictured: majestic, kind of strange, but altogether
approachable, in the your kinda green and off-putting, but i'll ignore that sort of way.....
I hadn't thought of the Green Knight as a "street corner magician," but that's actually a really good analogy. Although, instead of asking the audience to come to him, he sort of ropes them into that position before asking for a lovely volunteer. A little more aggressive than your average magician, I guess...
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I would have been scared as soon as he walked into the castle, but everyone was drunk...I digress. He was a sweet talker as well, so I saw him as a business man. A skillful one....but maybe the only reason Gawain stepped up was because; A. He is noble and B. He was so scared of this man, he just wanted him to leave. I could be completely off though. Great poetic structure though! Same to the Canons Assistants tale.
ReplyDeleteYour idea that the Green Knight is reminiscent of a street corner magician draws an interesting parallel to the Canon's Yeoman tale, where the canon is basically a con artist. Obviously the Green Knight actually IS magical, unless people picking up their own severed heads is more normal than I thought, but they both use trickery to get people to play their game. It seemed to me that in both of these stories, magic was presented as an untrustworthy force, although of the two readings, Chaucer definitely took it a bit further.
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