"In many an age bygone, they brought about trouble.
More wondrous events have occurred in this country
Than in any other I know of, since that same time."
As the narrator introduces the context of the story, he explains that King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are part of an "age bygone." This description helps familiarize the reader with the setting of the poem: Arthur's Camelot was, in Medieval England, considered both historical and mythical when discussing the evolution of Britain. By acknowledging this "bygone age," the narrator implies that some elements of the text might seem familiar or realistic while others are more fantastical or magical.
"When the siege and the assault were ended at Troy,
The city laid waste and burnt into ashes..."
The text begins with the narrator's recapitulation of major historical events, including the fall of Troy, which occurred roughly 2,000 years before the action of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The narrator begins his story so far back because he is attempting to trace the founding and development of England (and King Arthur) to much older histories like those of Ancient Greece and Rome. As such, the narrator associates Arthur's court, Britain, and the literature of England with this broader tradition, thereby elevating his own subject matter.
"Yet he had no helmet nor hauberk either,
No neck-armour or plate belonging to arms,
No spear and no shield to push or to strike;
But in one hand he carried a holly branch
That is brilliantly green when forests are bare,
And an axe in the other, monstrously huge."
In the description of the Green Knight, the narrator toys with audience's expectations. The Green Knight is at once massive and well-proportioned, fierce but delicate. In many ways, the Green Knight is a walking paradox, a description that emphasizes his mythical appearance. The narrator also associates the Green Knight with nature through his greenness and the holly branch that he carries, suggesting that he is a mysterious but benevolent force.
"Where are now your arrogance and your victories,
Your fierceness and wrath and your great speeches?
Now the revelry and repute of the Round Table
Are overthrown with a word from one man’s mouth,
For you all cower in fear before a blow has been struck!"
When the Green Knight poses his challenges to the Knights of the Round Table, he is initially met with surprise and apprehension. Here, the Green Knight goads those in Arthur's court into playing his game, suggesting that their reputation is at stake if they do not accept his challenge. He also suggests that reputation itself is fragile and fleeting, as it can be destroyed with something as simple as "a word from one man's mouth."
"For always faithful in five ways, and five times in each case,
Gawain was reputed as virtuous, like refined gold,
Devoid of all vice, and with all courtly virtues
adorned."
After Gawain has agreed to the Green Knight's challenge, the narrator describes the poem's hero as virtuous. Notably, however, the narrator insisted that Gawain is "reputed" virtuous, meaning he has a reputation to uphold over the course of the narrative. The text subtly encourages the audience to question whether Gawain's reputation will remain intact by the end of the poem.
"The most splendid castle ever owned by a knight,
Set on a meadow, a park all around,
Closely guarded by a spiked palisade
That encircled many trees for more than two miles."
When Gawain spies Bertilak's castle, he is tired, cold, and hungry from his travels through the enchanted forest. The castle appears to him as almost supernatural, exuding a mirage-like appearance that awes and seduces the weary knight. This description foreshadows the role that magic and enchantment will play in the rest of the poem.
"The noblest pressed forward with many attendants,
Gathered together the fattest of the deer,
And neatly dismembered them as ritual requires."
This quotation emphasizes the importance of ritual in the poem, specifically with regard to Medieval hunting. Here, the narrator introduces the elaborate butcher scene in which a deer is skinned, dismembered, and distributed among those who played a part in the hunt. The precision and detail provided in these hunting scenes underscores the notion of hunting as an art form performed by nobility.
"No modest coif on her head, but skilfully cut gems
Arranged about her hair-fret in clusters of twenty;
Her lovely face and throat displayed uncovered,
Her breast was exposed, and her shoulders bare."
On the final day of Lady Bertilak's seduction attempt, she puts more care and consideration into her appearance than she ever has before. She leaves most of her skin bare and adorns herself with jewels, rather than remaining modest or covered. This quotation emphasizes the Lady's fierce intentions with Gawain while also foreshadowing the challenge that awaits Gawain when the Lady comes to him once again.
"Then he goes to the mound and walks around it,
Wondering to himself what it could be.
It had a hole at the end and on either side,
And was covered all over with patches of grass,
And was all hollow inside; nothing but an old cave,
Or a fissure in an old rock, what to call it he hardly
could tell."
When Gawain is searching for the Green Chapel, he unknowingly happens upon it in the woods when he spies a simple mound of grass covering a cave. This description is significant because it challenges both Gawain's and the audience's expectation of what the "chapel" will look like, associating it more with the natural world than the jewels and adornments of the castle. Furthermore, Medieval readers may have understood this description as an allusion to "fairy mounds," or alleged entrances to supernatural worlds.
"For fear of your blow taught me cowardice,
To give way to covetousness, be false to my nature,
The generosity and fidelity expected of knights."
At the end of the poem, Gawain is profoundly disappointed in himself. He curses himself for "covetousness," or his desire to keep the girdle to protect his life. Here, Gawain realizes that he has given in to an animal instinct for survival rather than upholding the principles of man and the decorum becoming of a knight. As the poem concludes, he resolves to wear the girdle forever as a reminder of his moral failure.
