Now, that I have referenced some history of medieval times, armor, and heraldry; we can now look at some Arthurian stories of the Sir Gawain character and try to piece what his heraldry symbol or coat of arms might look like. I would like to start with the description of the Sir Gawain character in the Pearl Poet’s poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , as it is one of the easiest to interpret what Sir Gawain’s armor looks like and what his heraldic symbol is. This poem was written in the late 14th century, which is an important element in why the poet choses certain types of symbols and vivid descriptions of Gawain’s armor. From lines 568-639 the Pearl Poet describes in intricate detail the armor of Sir Gawain and starts off with mentioning
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The poet spends a great deal in describing the shield, “the shield that was of shiny scarlet/With the pentangle depicted in pure gold hues.” (619-620). Gold is mentioned her again but the major element at play it the symbol of the pentangle. The poet does not make the meaning behind this symbol abstract, as he describes what it represents, “It’s a sign that Solomon established some time ago/As a token of truthfulness, which it bears title to/For it is a figure that is formed out of five point.” (624-626). The poet goes on to elaborate on the the significance in the “five points”, as five represented the five sense, five fingers, five wounds christ suffered, and the five delights. The last piece of description about the shield, is the poet’s mentioning that the back side of the shield has a painting of the Virgin Mary. All these description of symbols and colors of Gawain’s armor plays as major role throughout the poem, especially the association to the “spiritual illumination”. This information of color, symbols, and material can now be easily interpreted to a visual which I will …show more content…
The earlier Arthurian texts mentioning Sir Gawain don’t go in great detail of what Gawain’s armor looks like, but does shed light on a more probable heraldic symbol. According to Helmut Nickel’s essay titled, “Notes on Arthurian Heraldry: The Retroactive System in the “Armagnac” Armorial”, there is a strange complication is Gawain’s heraldry. Nickel mentions that if we look to the traditional methods of medieval heraldry, knights like Lancelot and Gawain’s family seem to fit the mold. As Gawain’s heraldic symbol is usually associated to that of his father King Lot and place of his birth, but even those things seem to fluctuate through the years or from author to author. Gawain’s family is sometimes associated with being from Lothian or Orkney, both are regions of Scotland. Nickel describes that, “In French literary and pictorial sources of the thirteenth an fourteenth centuries Sir Gawain is bearing a white shield with and red canton.” (Nickel, 2). This early heraldic symbol of the white shield and red canton usually relates to earlier stories of the Gawain character when he was known as Gwalchmai in earlier Welsh legend such as Culwch and Olwen, but has it closer association to Chrétien de Troyes’s description of Gawain in Perceval. Then Gawain’s heraldic
The poet spends a great deal in describing the shield, “the shield that was of shiny scarlet/With the pentangle depicted in pure gold hues.” (619-620). Gold is mentioned her again but the major element at play it the symbol of the pentangle. The poet does not make the meaning behind this symbol abstract, as he describes what it represents, “It’s a sign that Solomon established some time ago/As a token of truthfulness, which it bears title to/For it is a figure that is formed out of five point.” (624-626). The poet goes on to elaborate on the the significance in the “five points”, as five represented the five sense, five fingers, five wounds christ suffered, and the five delights. The last piece of description about the shield, is the poet’s mentioning that the back side of the shield has a painting of the Virgin Mary. All these description of symbols and colors of Gawain’s armor plays as major role throughout the poem, especially the association to the “spiritual illumination”. This information of color, symbols, and material can now be easily interpreted to a visual which I will …show more content…
The earlier Arthurian texts mentioning Sir Gawain don’t go in great detail of what Gawain’s armor looks like, but does shed light on a more probable heraldic symbol. According to Helmut Nickel’s essay titled, “Notes on Arthurian Heraldry: The Retroactive System in the “Armagnac” Armorial”, there is a strange complication is Gawain’s heraldry. Nickel mentions that if we look to the traditional methods of medieval heraldry, knights like Lancelot and Gawain’s family seem to fit the mold. As Gawain’s heraldic symbol is usually associated to that of his father King Lot and place of his birth, but even those things seem to fluctuate through the years or from author to author. Gawain’s family is sometimes associated with being from Lothian or Orkney, both are regions of Scotland. Nickel describes that, “In French literary and pictorial sources of the thirteenth an fourteenth centuries Sir Gawain is bearing a white shield with and red canton.” (Nickel, 2). This early heraldic symbol of the white shield and red canton usually relates to earlier stories of the Gawain character when he was known as Gwalchmai in earlier Welsh legend such as Culwch and Olwen, but has it closer association to Chrétien de Troyes’s description of Gawain in Perceval. Then Gawain’s heraldic