The Game Of Sir Gawain And The Battle Of Troy

The ceasefire of the battle of Troy was the pre-founding of a story of which Pearl Poet tells in great detail about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. As if a battle were a game, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a poem in which many games are played; serious but also symbolic games. After the battle of Troy, noble heroes set forth to build cities. Romulus was the founder of Rome, Ticius of Tuscany, and Brutus of Britain. Along the many leaders of Britain, it is said the greatest was King Arthur. The poet’s game of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is an “awesome episode in the legends of Arthur.” In essence, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight revolved around games, because the Green Knight played a game on Sir Gawain and his five senses, a game …show more content…
But when it came time to feast, King Arthur proposed a game; he refused to eat his meal until he was told a grand story. The games had already begun because afterwards came a marvelous surprise, the Green Knight. The Green Knight was described in much detail and what came with his grand entrance was a grand opportunity for a grand story. Lines 179-198, “The fellow in green was in a fine fettle. The hair of his head was as green as his horse, fine flowing locks which fanned across his back, plus a bushy green beard growing down to his breast, which hung with the splendid hair from his head and was loped in a line at elbow length… No waking man had witnessed such a warrior or weird warhorse-otherworldly, yet flesh and bone”. The Green Knight was a knight whom held pacts as hard as iron, he took them extremely seriously. The Green Knight said he had heard much of King Arthur’s Knights and asked to play a game, the game being that someone would strike him with the Axe he held in his hand, knowing in a year’s time he would do the same to he who struck him. The people found this shocking as he mocked King Arthur’s Knights for being cowardly until Sir Gawain rose and took the Axe to strike him. The Green Knight’s head came rolling off but he stayed on his horse and picked his head up as if nothing had happened and then restated his terms. …show more content…
He is escorted but his escort warns him that no one ever survived an encounter with the Green Knight. The escort then left him when they got too close to the woods and Sir Gawain was on his own. He found the Green Chapel and met with the Green Knight. The Green Knight complimented him on being prompt. The Green Knight then wielded a Danish Axe and on the first attempt to finish the pact Sir Gawain flinched. The Green Knight dropped the axe and told him not the flinch. Just as the first day of the hunting when Gawain battled the lord’s lady in bed who was trying to commit adultery, he flinched on the Green Knight’s first swing. The flinch represents the fact that Gawain was not going to tell the lord about the kiss, but decided to anyway but in a discreet manner. The second swing Sir Gawain held still and as the Green Knight brings the axe down on his head, he doesn’t flinch and the Green Knight stops the Axe and compliments him on not flinching. As on the second day of the hunting games, Sir Gawain could have lied about what he had won but did not; instead he still gave the lord two kisses while being discreet. The Green Knight then brought out the Axe once more, and this time all the way down but did not cut his head off, instead he gave Sir Gawain a mere cut on his neck. Sir Gawain held the pact for the first two days, he did not for the third day because he failed to give the lord the