Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem following a knight in King Arthur’s court, named Gawain, who accepts a challenge from an outsider, the Green Knight. The Green Knight challenges any man to chop off his head, as long as in a year’s time the Green Knight can do the same to him. Gawain accepts the challenge, dismembers the Green Knight’s head, and in a year’s time sets off to fulfill his promise. He is given a shield for his journey, and the symbols on the shield, the pentangle and Virgin Mary, are said to offer divine protection. However, Gawain’s trust in this divine shield is tested when he is offered a magical girdle said to protect the man who wears it from being “killed by any craft on earth.” (3.1854). In the end, Gawain’s lost
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He makes a deal with the host, but the power of the magic girdle overtakes his promise. It is said that “for the man who possesses this piece of silk, if he bore it on his body, belted about, there is no hand under heaven that could hew him down, for he could not be killed by any craft on earth.” (3.1851-54). Gawain sees the value of the girdle, which becomes clear in fitt four, lines 2030-2042. He makes sure not to forget his gift which will “keep him safe when consent he must to endure a deadly blow, and all defense denied.” (4.2040-42). Gawain’s hiding of the girdle shows his lack of faith in the virtuous pentangle. If he truly trusted the pentangle, he would not have kept the girdle. Gawain comes to this realization in the end when the Green Knight exposes the trick. Gawain feels awful about his lack of faith and his disregard for the pentangle’s significance and decides to wear the girdle as a mark shame. “This is the badge of false faith that I was found in there, and I must bear it on my body till I breathe my last.” (4.2501-10). However, Arthur’s court quickly turns the girdle into a badge of honor when everyone begins wearing one. “Each brother of that band, a baldric should have, a belt borne oblique, of a bright green, should be worn with one accord for that worthy’s sake.” (4.2516-18). So the symbolism behind the girdle changes in the poem. Originally, the girdle was a symbol of protection for Gawain, then it becomes a symbol of shame, but in the end it’s shifted to a symbol of
He makes a deal with the host, but the power of the magic girdle overtakes his promise. It is said that “for the man who possesses this piece of silk, if he bore it on his body, belted about, there is no hand under heaven that could hew him down, for he could not be killed by any craft on earth.” (3.1851-54). Gawain sees the value of the girdle, which becomes clear in fitt four, lines 2030-2042. He makes sure not to forget his gift which will “keep him safe when consent he must to endure a deadly blow, and all defense denied.” (4.2040-42). Gawain’s hiding of the girdle shows his lack of faith in the virtuous pentangle. If he truly trusted the pentangle, he would not have kept the girdle. Gawain comes to this realization in the end when the Green Knight exposes the trick. Gawain feels awful about his lack of faith and his disregard for the pentangle’s significance and decides to wear the girdle as a mark shame. “This is the badge of false faith that I was found in there, and I must bear it on my body till I breathe my last.” (4.2501-10). However, Arthur’s court quickly turns the girdle into a badge of honor when everyone begins wearing one. “Each brother of that band, a baldric should have, a belt borne oblique, of a bright green, should be worn with one accord for that worthy’s sake.” (4.2516-18). So the symbolism behind the girdle changes in the poem. Originally, the girdle was a symbol of protection for Gawain, then it becomes a symbol of shame, but in the end it’s shifted to a symbol of