Chivalry In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Charles Kingsley says, “Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left undressed on earth.” Around the 1200’s, the tale of King Arthur and Merlin started to emerge and show the way of how knights lived in their days. When we think of King Arthur, we think of knights, swords, jousting, and the roundtable, but there was a code in which all of these were influenced by. If you were to be a knight, you were to live under a code called chivalry, which is kind of like the Anglo-Saxon code to the Anglo-Saxon warriors. Although, the Anglo-Saxon code and chivalry are two different things, but they are kind of similar in a way: they are both are guidance manuals. In the story,

“Beowulf”, Beowulf shows the traits that a good warrior would follow under the Anglo-Saxon code, and the same goes in the texts about King Arthur. In the texts, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and “Morte d’Arthur”, they both show three characteristics of chivalry: honor/respect, courage, and strength.
In the texts, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and “Morte d’Arthur”, the main characters in each story show honor/respect.

When we honor someone, usually after their death, we honor them in way to make them look good for who they are. This was a huge deal for knights to show respect, but not to one other person, but to themselves and their families. An example from, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” would be the dearly trusted knight and nephew of Arthur, Sir Gawain. When the Green Knight offered his challenge, and Gawain wanting to stand up for it he makes an interesting phrase. He says, “I am the weakest, well I know, and of wit feeblest; and the loss of my life would be least of any; that I have you for uncle is my only praise.” He knows he’s not the greatest knight of them all, but he’ll do anything in honor for his king. In “Morte d’Arthur”, after King Arthur passes away, Sir Bedivere did what he thought would be the most honorable thing for Arthur. He says, “For from hence will I never go by my will, but all the days of my life here to pray for my lord Arthur.” Then he vows for the rest of his life to serve for the hermit to fast and pray. There are other characteristics shown from the two

texts.
In the both texts, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and “Morte d’Arthur” they show a great deal of courage from the characters in each. When it means to have courage, it’s not necessarily meaning that you don’t have fear, but you are able to have strength in conquering a great fear. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, when Sir Gawain does take the challenge, he was told that if he does cut off the Green Knight’s head he will have to go and see him at his home. Sir Gawain knew what he was doing and he knew that he had to take the Green Knight alone after seeing the knight pick up his own chopped off head, and nearly after a year searching he says, “And what I promised you once shall straightway be given.” He still is keeping his promise not knowing for sure how he’ll end up. In “Morte d’Arthur”, King Arthur knew that he was going to die by the hands of his son from a dream he had. He tried to avoid it, but eventually causes it, and now knows what lies next. After everyone was dead and all was left was Arthur and Mordred to do battle, Arthur says, “Now tide me death, tide me life, and now I see him yonder alone, he shall never escape mine hand. For at a better avail shall I never have him.” Arthur what he had to do and kill Mordred knowing the consequences of doing it. One other key in living the life of chivalry is to have strength.
In both the texts, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and “Morte d’Arthur”, the characters show a great amount of strength in different ways. Having strength can not only mean you’re strong physically but it can also mean that you have strength mentally and emotionally. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Sir Gawain shows great amount of strength when he was able to cut off the head of the Green Knight. Even before Gawain goes and does it, King Arthur says, “Keep, cousin, what you cut with this day, and if you rule it alright, then readily I know, you shall stand the stroke it will strike after.” Also it took a lot of guts to cut off one’s head, a lot of people wouldn’t have been able to do that kind of stuff. In the texts, “Morte d’Arthur”, King Arthur was able to show strength of his own when he had the spirit to kill his own son. Before he goes and does it, he says, “Now give me my spear for yonder I have espied the traitor that all this woe hath wrought.” Then after Sir Lucan brings him a spear, Arthur goes and kill’s his son Mordred. I bet it wasn’t easy to kill your one and only son but it was something that needed to be done. Also, when he was on the verge of death and was able to wait to see if Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake.
To live the life of chivalry you had to have honor, courage, and strength to be a great knight, and in the two texts, “Sir Gawain and the Green Night” and “Morte d’Arthur”, show examples of all of them. Sir Gawain showed honor when he was going to do the Green Knights challenge even though he knew he wasn’t the best one to do it in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and in “Morte d’Arthur”, Sir Bedivere showed honor when King Arthur died. In the “Green Knight”, Sir Gawain showed courage when he face the Green Knight alone, and Arthur showed courage when he was facing his ultimate death in “Morte d’Arthur”. In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, Gawain showed much strength when he was able to cut off the head of the Green Knight, and Arthur showed strength when he was able to kill his son and live long enough for Excalibur to be returned in “Morte d’Arthur.” Freda Adler says, “There is another side to chivalry, If it dispenses leniency, it may with equal justification invoke control.”