Endnotes
Those who are interested in literary sources will find much entertaining matter in Kittredge’s Study of Gawain and the Green Knight or Miss Weston’s Legend of Gawain. ↩
Gaston Paris. ↩
Truest on earth: qualifies Aeneas, and not treachery, in spite of the curious parallel in the alliterative Destruction of Troy, 11, 350:
“The trayn of the traytours that truly were fals,”
where the reference is quite different, viz. to the surrender of Troy. D. T., however, probably got the phrase from Sir Gawain. ↩
Éneas: having betrayed Troy to the Greeks, he was (according to the medieval story) tried by the Greeks for not surrendering Polyxena. The immediate source of the story is Guido della Colonna’s Historia. ↩
Noble by birth. ↩
Ticius: the eponymous founder of Tuscany, as Langobard and Brutus (grandson of Aeneas) are of Lombardy and Britain. The Brutus-story in medieval writers derives, sometimes directly, but more often through a vernacular Brut like Layamon’s, from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, Bk. I. ↩
Turmoil. ↩
Linked: this and the following line point to the Old English alliterative poetry having been a living and continuous tradition in the district where Sir Gawain was written. Other fourteenth-century alliterative poems from the same district are Morte Arthure, Destruction of Troy, and Wars of Alexander. ↩
Carols: these were originally popular ring-dances. Their elaboration during the Middle Ages into “courtly” dances of various patterns, with accompanying songs, was due to the French. ↩
New-Year’s gifts. ↩
Ladies laughed loud: a game of forfeits in which the penalties were kisses seems to be referred to. It is curious that although Arthur’s court is constantly referred to as the Round Table, the arrangements at dinner are those of the poet’s own time. The seating is that of a modern college hall, the chief persons being at the high table on the dais, and the rest of the company at the “sideboards” along the walls. Note, however, that the seat of honour was in the middle of the high table, not at the end. ↩
Arrayed ↩
A rich stuff. ↩
Boyish. ↩
Trusty. ↩
It was during the twelve years of peace that Arthur made a practice on Feast-days of “finding adventure,” as Wace tells us in his Brut:
“Furent les mervelles provees
Et les aventures trovees.”
The Feast-days were the Christian festivals of Easter, Ascension, Whitsun, All-Hallows, and Christmas. ↩
Gawain, as the “Queen’s Knight,” sits on her right. Baldwin is at the end of the high table, and Agravain between him and Gawain. Bedwini is the name of Arthur’s domestic bishop in the Mabinogion; Baldwin, or Baudwin, is the French form, but there was a famous Archbishop Baldwin at the end of the twelfth century who brought the Welsh sees under Canterbury, and this form of the name may well have appeared even in the Welsh romances. ↩
Stewed meats. ↩
The tight-fitting coat-hardy, the mantle, the long hose, and the jewelled belt are all features of knightly dress in the time of Edward III.
The word “start” (as in red-start) here rendered “pommel” was probably an ornament at the back of the saddle, but I cannot think of any proper name for it. ↩
Breast-piece. ↩
Studs on the bit. ↩
Enamelled. ↩
Clasped. ↩
A short close-fitting tunic. ↩
Thread of gold. ↩
Lightning. ↩
Withstand. ↩
Neckpiece. ↩
Grain: this was a spike projecting beyond the axe in the line of the handle. The highly decorated double-axes or halberds with similar projections, which begin to appear about this period (see illustrations in Chambers’s Encyclopaedia) are a different weapon. ↩
Company. ↩
Valiant. ↩
Battle-axe. ↩
Without resistance. ↩
Foal. ↩
Overturned. ↩
Such bragging or “gabbing,” as it was called, is not uncommon in medieval romances. ↩
Steadfast. ↩
Covenant. ↩
Spend. ↩
Readily. ↩
Bends. ↩
Spurned. ↩
Doomed. ↩
Play. ↩
Interludes were properly plays, usually farcical, introduced between the acts of the mystery plays or moralities. So the beheading is a relief from the customary courtly carols. ↩
Tapestry behind dais. ↩
Runs by. ↩
Cold shrinks adown: the poet seems to have imagined that in summer the cold retreats from the surface to the interior of the earth. ↩
Clarence: from the proximity of the names, it is tempting to suppose that the title suggested itself because Lionel, son of Edward III, became Duke of Clarence in 1362. There is, however, a Duke of Clarence in the French Lancelot romance. ↩
Steel shoes with broad toes. ↩
Knee-pieces. ↩
Linked. ↩
Elbow-pieces. ↩
Gringolet: the form with r is French; the better form is Guingalet, of which the first element is the Welsh gwyn, “white.”
The helmet was stuffed so as to fit comfortably on the head, and stapled so as to prevent the jointed pieces from springing.
The kerchief mentioned is the “kerchief of cointise”; it was usually worn at tournaments as a lady’s favour. ↩
Saddlebows. ↩
Parrots. ↩
Doves and truelove knots. ↩
Embossed (in embroidery). ↩
Maid. ↩
Pentangle:
The symbol no doubt came from the Pythagoreans, through the Gnostics; being, like the circle, a perfect or “endless” figure, it had magical properties. Cf. Scott, Marmion, III 20:
“His shoes were marked with cross and spell,
Upon his breast a pentacle.”
“Pentacle” is the right form of the word. ↩
Speech. ↩
In Geoffrey of Monmouth, IX iv, it is Arthur’s shield Pridwen “which has on the inner side the image of holy Mary, Mother of God, that many a time and oft did call her back into his memory.” We must understand the image to be on the inner side of Gawain’s shield also. ↩
Magnanimity. ↩
Purity. ↩
Knightly virtues. ↩
In the romances Arthur is usually a mere figurehead and such criticisms of him are not uncommon. ↩
Logres: England south of the Humber, from Welsh Lloegyr. ↩
Over at the Holyhead: the description is curious, as the fords are not opposite the Holyhead side of Anglesey, and perhaps Holywell (which has been suggested) is the right reading. It looks as though the poet only knew Wales as he had seen it from the Wirral; Neston in the Wirral was an important medieval port, and there may have been a low-tide ferry from the Neston bank across the Dee. If Holyhead is right, he may have thought that there were other ferries or fords lower down. In that case the forelands would be the two at the mouth of the Dee estuary as seen from Neston, and might well be described by anyone at that point as “over at the Holyhead,” that port being a frequent destination from Neston. Note that the expression “till again he made shore” implies a passage which would take a considerable time. A knight who fought with dragons, giants, and supernatural enemies might be expected to ford even a considerable arm of the sea. ↩
Said No to him. ↩
Ford. ↩
Dragons. ↩
Swamp. ↩
Redeem. ↩
Crossed. ↩
Glade or open ground. ↩
Laund: not uncommon still in place-names in Pendle, Rossendale, and other old forests of Lancashire.
St. Julian was the patron saint of travellers. ↩
Draws reign. ↩
Decorated in hornworks.
Hornwork: described in N. E. D. as “a single-fronted outwork the head of which consists of two demi-bastions connected by a curtain and joined to the main work by two parallel wings.” ↩
Watchtowers. ↩
Man. ↩
Set him on foot: owing to the weight of his armour an armed knight required assistance to mount or dismount. At Crecy the unseated knights lay helpless on the ground. ↩
Stretched. ↩
A mantle of silk. ↩
Tablecloth. ↩
Saltcellar. ↩
Coals. ↩
A feast: the point of Gawain’s remark and the answer of his attendants is that Christmas-eve is a fast-day. ↩
Excellence. ↩
Without asking. ↩
In the older (and English) Arthurian tradition Gawain is the paragon of all the knightly virtues. The low esteem in which we find him held in the Arthurian poetry of Tennyson and Morris came through Malory from the French romancers, who had rivals (e.g. Lancelot) for his place.
“Nurture” means good-breeding. So in Malory, VIII 3, Tristram is sent to France “to learn the language and nurture.” ↩
Friendly. ↩
Embraced. ↩
Complexion. ↩
Neckerchief. ↩
Wimple. ↩
Chimney: i.e. fireplace. The private sitting-room with a fireplace was uncommon (even for the master of the house) till the fourteenth century. ↩
Apart. ↩
Out of town simply means from among men. We have the converse expression in the well-known lyric;
“Lenten is come with love to town.”
↩
Frankish fare: many refinements of behaviour in the relations between the sexes, which came in during the fourteenth century, were due to the influence of the amour courtois of the French. The expression occurs also in the Chester play, Noah 100, where Noah’s wife addresses him ironically:
“For all thy Frankish fare
I will not do thy rede.”
↩
Bags. ↩
Moot: as the horn has only one note, the calls are distinguished by the number and length of the notes. ↩
Scenting hounds. ↩
I.e. on a false scent. ↩
Greyhounds.
Note that the greyhounds at the stations were used for pulling down the deer. The animal in recent times has been bred for speed and the coursing of the hare, and the species here mentioned was probably more like the Scottish deerhound in build. The Book of St. Albans says, however, that a good greyhound should be “headed like the snake and necked like the swan,” which recalls the modern type. ↩
Close season. ↩
Commotion. ↩
Stations: the object of these was to hold the deer in and drive them towards the “lower stations” where the lord and his retainers were posted for the kill. The technical name for these lower stations was “the receipt.” ↩
Went. ↩
Stretched himself. ↩
Uttered. ↩
Wrap. ↩
Brave. ↩
Treasure. ↩
Knight (or lady). ↩
Speak. ↩
Severe. ↩
Entertainment. ↩
Decorous. ↩
A setting out of the kill.
Quarry: Fr. cuirée, a hide; originally, the offals with which the hounds were rewarded, so called because they were served to them on a hide. ↩
Assay: “to see the goodnesse of the flesh and howe thicke it is” (Turberville’s Noble Art of Venerie).
The arber was cleaned and filled with blood and grease, and then stitched up again. ↩
First stomach. ↩
Pipes in the throat. ↩
The fore offals. ↩
The hinder offals. ↩
Neck. ↩
Corbies’ fee or Raven’s Bone: a gristle from the brisket. ↩
Leather: i.e. the tripes. ↩
Season of winter: i.e. when hinds were hunted. The hunting of the hart took place in the late summer. ↩
Swamp overgrown with brush. ↩
Stagnant pool. ↩
Knar: what would be called in North Lancashire a scree. Carr, flash (e.g. in the Douglas valley), knar, and knot are all common in Lancashire place-names. “Flash” is common in Cheshire also, especially in the Weaver valley. ↩
Rocky spur. ↩
Herd. ↩
Pack. ↩
Tough flesh round shoulder. ↩
Gallops. ↩
Bush. ↩
Attend to. ↩
Favour. ↩
Chivalrous love. ↩
In spite of. ↩
Cut up. ↩
Collops. ↩
Lights and trimmings. ↩
Conduit: any song in honour of the Christmas season such as we now call carol, e.g. the famous Caput apri defero. The “carols” mentioned in the line are, of course, the songs accompanying dance commented on in note 9. ↩
Turn out best. ↩
Small hound. ↩
The gray: i.e. the fox. In hunting books of the period, however, it always seems to mean the badger.
Kennet is the Norman form of the diminutive of chien. The Book of St. Albans says “the kinds of hounds are raches, kenets, and terrours (i.e. terriers)”; the kennet is what we should now call a beagle or harrier. ↩
Failed. ↩
Reaching. ↩
Tressure: properly the wire with which the fret, or jewelled open-work headdress, was built up. The lady was a leader of fashion, for this headdress was not common till the time of Richard II. The old dame, who still wears (see note 94) a “gorget” or wimple, is no doubt meant to appear as still following a fashion which is a generation old. ↩
Fate. ↩
Offered. ↩
Shelter. ↩
Stroking. ↩
Embraces. ↩
Gains. ↩
Sharp. ↩
Pinched. ↩
Body-piece. ↩
Lovelace. ↩
Good condition. ↩
Asked. ↩
Moderation. ↩
Track. ↩
Shore: here means a precipitous bluff. The word is common in Lancashire place-names, and is even used as a common noun. ↩
Steep. ↩
The devil. ↩
Face. ↩
Hurt. ↩
Force. ↩
Made show.
They still say, of a man who makes a great show of doing something, “he ettles better than he does.” ↩
Mad. ↩
Fierce. ↩
Observe how skilfully the Green Knight reveals that he is the same man as Gawain’s host. ↩
Mortification. ↩
True character. ↩
Goddess high: because Merlin has taught her how to use supernatural powers. Morgan is the name of an old Celtic goddess. ↩
Tintagel: the seat of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. The story of how his duchess, Igerne, was deceived by Merlin’s arts into believing that Uther was Gorlois will be found in Geoffrey’s History, VIII 19, 20. Morgan was presumably her daughter by Gorlois, but I can find no record of the fact. ↩
Books of Britain: i.e. the Bruts mentioned in note 6. ↩