Essay
The Test of Sir Gawain’s Chivalry

by

Gayane Piliposyan

One of the main themes of the romantic mystical poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is to show the rise of one of King Arthur’s knights, Sir Gawain, from his status as just one of many noble Knights of the Round Table to that of a legendary figure. The unknown author, who is believed to be the contemporary of Chaucer, skilfully develops this idea by putting Sir Gawain through a series of events and adventures designed to test his courage and devotion to the knightly code of chivalry. During the course of these he demonstrates his loyalty to the King and Queen, and the other chivalric qualities of a knight such as his courage, honesty and courtesy. In circumstances where he experiences strong temptation his human weaknesses are exposed and his behaviour does fall short of the standards demanded by strict adherence to the code of chivalry. However, his failures are fairly minor and only serve to make him appear more of a human character rather than a mystical one.
Sir Gawain is introduced in the poem at the very beginning when the New Year celebrations at Camelot are at their very height. He is the King Arthur’s nephew and “a ful siker knight” (110)† of the Round Table. Nothing seems to be able to disturb the feast which has been going for fifteen days “with alle the mete and the mirthe that men couthe avyse, such glaume and gle glorious to here, dere dyn upon day, daunsyng on nyghtes” (45). Suddenly the Green Knight appears in the celebration hall and issues his strange challenge. Although there are many knights present in the hall, at first nobody dares to accept, causing the Green Knight to mock the Round Table knights questioning their courage: “Where is now your sourquydrye and your conquests, your grydellayk and your greme, and your grete wordes?” (310). Finding the situation intolerable, King Arthur takes the axe “and the halme grypez, and sturnely sturez hit aboute, that stryke wyth hit thoght” (330). These events serve to emphasize the subsequent loyalty and courage of Sir Gawain, who steps forward and takes on the dangerous challenge, realising that he is likely to face to certain death. From this point onwards Sir Gawain’s portrait as a noble knight of the order starts to take shape. He is modest and does not appear to believe highly in himself, saying that he is “..the wakkest and the wyt feblest” (350). This may be an expression of his chivalric courtesy that makes him put himself lower than other knights, though he does also show that he is ambitious and wants to be regarded as a knight in his own right and for his own virtue and not just because of his kinship to Arthur.

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