Transcript The Odyssey - Council Rock School District

Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight
Fit I
New Year’s Day
 Typical English Christmas-time
revelry and merry-making
 “Hondeselle” = New Year’s gift
meant to express good wishes
 “giving games” = a kissing game
involving a man leading a woman
with a green sash
New Year’s Day
 Green = the promise that spring
will follow winter
 Holly = “wassail bob,” Christian
symbol of good luck, of pagan
origin
A Golden Age of Camelot
 Harkens the pre-Lapsarian bliss of
Eden
 Guenevere/Eve = temptress?
adulteress?
Courtly Manners
 The Green Knight is boorish in his
entrance and demeanor, except
when he formally challenges
Gawain
 Gawain’s speech is courtly and
elevated at all times
The Goddess
 Gawain is at Guinevere’s side
 Gawain steps in for Arthur
 Gawain is a medieval version of
the Celtic-era Knight of the
Goddess
The Boast
 Rude intrusion of the
supernatural on the feast = green
 “Christmas Game”
The Challenge
“I shall offer to him this fine axe
freely. . .
And I shall bide the first blow, as
bare as I sit here.”
Completely without armor
The Insult
“What, is this Arthur’s house, the
honour of which /Is bruited
abroad so abundantly?”
The Quest
 A year and a day = traditional
period of mourning before the
dead rise
 The quest comes to Gawain
 Journey through unknown
territory to the Green Chapel
Final Words
“Now Gawain give a thought,
Lest peril make you pause
In seeking out the sport
That you have claimed as yours.”
Can the game be won?