The Nature of the Girdle Anonymous College

In the Pearl Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, after two failed attempts at seducing Gawain, Lady Bertilak grants the knight a gift in response to his disinterest and inability to give her a keepsake of any sort. As Gawain refuses the gift of the exquisite, red gold ring, Lady Bertilak gives him a sash made of green silk and embroidered with gold thread. Gawain initially declines this gift as well, insisting that he will not accept anything until he has completed the Green Knight’s challenge. But, Lady Bertilak counters that and claims the girdle possesses magical qualities, and Gawain accepts the gift, convinced that it would bring him immunity against the Green Knight’s blade.

Therefore, the promised protection is the first meaning Gawain associates with the girdle, as it seemingly served its function of safeguarding him, though not in the same way as Lady Bertilak claimed. His belief in the girdle’s magical properties provided assurance that he may perhaps be spared from death, and convinced him to tell the truth, making it a motif of his survival. As the Green Knight, revealed to be Lord Bertilak, said, “By confessing your failings you are free from fault / and have openly paid penance at the point of my axe”...