Similarities Between Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Edson Perez

9/19/14

EUH2021

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Christian text due to the fact that it mentions several religious figures, prayers and holidays. A story about a knight who makes a deal with a strange knight known as the Green Knight. The Green Knight challenges anyone of King Arthur’s men but all refuse except Sir Gawain. The Green Knight allows one blow with his axe but there is a condition and that condition is Sir Gawain must find the Green Knight in a year to receive a blow in return. Although this story does contain a lot of strange things that are not considered Christian or part of Christianity such as the Green Knight described as “one of the largest creatures in the whole world”(Gawain, line 137). But even before the Green Knight comes into the picture there is already mention of religion “When the knights arrived in the hall and Mass was over in the echoing chapel, the singing continued from the priests and the rest” (Gawain, lines 62-64), already you have Christianity being mentioned before the main character is introduced.

Before Gawain gives the Green Knight the first blow , the Green Knight is insulting King Arthur’s men for not willing to take his challenge and King Arthur says “Sir, God’s sake, your request is foolish; but if that’s what you want , it’s right you should het it”(Gawain, lines 323-324).

Then when Gawain decides to take the Green Knight’s challenge, King Arthur gave God’s blessing to Gawain (Gawain, line 370), this is before Gawain and the Green Knight go over the terms of their deal. As these terms are being reviewed by both the Green Knight and Sir Gawain the Green Knight says “By God, Sir Gawain” (Gawain, line 390). God is mentioned a lot throughout the first chapter

alone.
So far God is the only religious figure being mentioned but what that says is that Christianity is the main religion of the time, even if the story does have some strange and obscure creatures. But regardless of the weirdness surrounding the story it does not shy away from Christianity. If anything the story gets closer to religion as it progresses. But now it mentions more than just God but it speaks about saints an example would be “Yet until All Saints’ Day he stayed on with Arthur” (Gawain, line 536), All Saints’ Day is a Christian holiday. As Gawain is departing on his quest to receive the blow from the Green he says “I must set off to receive that blow, to seek out that creature in green, God help me!”(Gawain, lines 549-550), Gawain says this because he fears for his life and is asking God for help. But before Gawain left he attended Mass and later on would go say his goodbyes to the king and several other important people and it mentions that they would be praying for him to Christ (Gawain, lines 592-596), Christ is the son of God and they were praying for Gawain who was about to begin his journey to find the Green Chapel where he is supposed to receive the blow from the Green Knight.
Gawain says “all his trust was in the five wounds of Christ on the cross” (Gawain, lines 642-643) it also mentions “as the Bible describes” (Gawain, line 643) what does means if Gawain that all his trust belongs to his cross which has Jesus Christ crucified with the five wounds and pretty much says that he has strong faith in his religion which is Christianity and how he puts his trust in Christ.