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The Seasons
At the beginning of Parts
Read more about the changing of seasons in John Knowles’s A Separate Peace.
Games
When the poem opens, Arthur’s court is engaged in feast-time customs, and Arthur almost seems to elicit the Green Knight’s entrance by requesting that someone tell him a tale. When the Green Knight first enters, the courtiers think that his appearance signals a game of some sort. The Green Knight’s challenge, the host’s later challenge, and the wordplay that takes place between Gawain and the lady are all presented as games. The relationship between games and tests is explored because games are forms of social behavior, while tests provide a measure of an individual’s inner worth.
Magic
Like many Arthurian legends, Sir Gawain occupies a magical landscape. The repeated instances of magic highlight the poem’s tension between paganism and Christianity. The Green Knight’s strange appearance leads King Arthur’s knights to wonder if he is of the fae or elven. The Green Knight’s miraculous imperviousness to beheading heightens the sense of wonder and supernatural in the poem. On his ride to seek the Green Knight, Sir Gawain does battle with magical creatures, including giants. Interestingly, although Sir Gawain encounters beasts in his journey and the magic of the Green Knight, not until he reaches the green chapel does he evoke the devil, using specifically Christian terminology for the supernatural. The Green Knight even speaks of absolving Sir Gawain of his sin and taking his confession, almost like a Catholic priest. However, the Green Knight, who earlier celebrates Christmas with Sir Gawain, nevertheless describes Morgan Le Fay as a goddess, which may seem strange for a character in a Christian work who is otherwise portrayed with dignity and virtue. The strange hybrid nature of magic in the poem highlights the contrast between Sir Gawain, the perfect Christian Knight, and the Green Knight, an emissary of a pre-Christian world.
