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[T]here hoved a great hall and fair:
Turrets rising in tiers, with tines at their tops,
Spires set beside them, splendidly long,
With finials well-fashioned, as filigree fine.
Chalk-white chimneys over chambers high
Gleamed in gay array upon gables and roofs;
The pinnacles in panoply, pointing in air,
So vied there for his view that verily it seemed
A castle cut of paper for a king’s feast.
The good knight on Gringolet thought it great luck
If he could but contrive to come there within
To keep the Christmas feast in that castle fair
and bright.
( 794 –806 )
This passage describes Gawain’s first
sighting of the host’s castle, in Part
At this point in the poem, Gawain begins to look very
much like a pilgrim. He wanders through the wilderness praying and
fasting, looking for a sacred place. What he finds is the host’s
castle, whose incredible beauty represents a holy answer to his
prayer. To Gawain, the castle looks “grand and fine,” and to a medieval
Christian reader, it might sound very much like the legendary New
Jerusalem of Revelations. In the Christian tradition, the physical
pilgrimage to Jerusalem provides an allegory for the spiritual pilgrimage
of the human soul to heaven. Here, the fantastically pure towers
might at first blush seem to evoke the holy city. However, the poet
tells us the castle also looks as though it were cut out of cardboard
or paper. Though it appears to be a safe haven, and even like the
heavenly city to which all Christian souls should aspire, the poet
lets the reader know that this castle is a mere facade. Gawain does
not realize his mistake until Part
