I've read this in both the original ME and the [a:Marie Borroff|42684|Marie Borroff|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-ccc56e79bcc2db9e6cdcd450a4940d46.png] translation (very good) which you find in the Nortons and can't believe I never recorded it on goodreads before as it is a favourite of mine. It's a fantastic story: the suspense is rich which the verses and metre only amplify. The pacing is incredible, especially when compared to some of the other poems from this period. It's got a cinematic quality which unfortunately no one has ever carried forward onto the screen. I wish that someone would do it well! Whenever people scoff at the idea that something from so long ago is unappealing and irrelevant to our modern interests I want to point them here because this story is so cool.

The first time I read this it was for the very first English class I took at university (which I so loved). It was Friday, it was Hallowe'en, and that English course was my only class that day. We only had to read the first part, and I did so in the morning before class began at 11. Every verse drew me further in, eerie and suspenseful, and the unsettling end of that first fit put me in the most joyfully spooky Hallowe'en mood. ( )

Ah, those dangerous women! The Arthurian romance is replete with wily ladies. A particularly fetching one in this adventure almost lures Sir Gawain into adultery. He remains virtuous but afterward shakes his head and confesses:

“But no marvel it is if made be a fool,
and by the wiles of woman to woe be brought.
For even so Adam by one on earth was beguiled,
and Solomon by several, and to Samson moreover
his doom by Delilah was dealt; and David was after
blinded by Bathsheba, and he bitterly suffered.
Now if these came to grief through their guile, a gain ‘twould be vast
to love them well and believe them not, if it lay in man’s power!”

So correct conduct for a knight is to “love [women] well and believe them not.”

Sir Gawain shows masterful self-control. A pretty wife tries on three successive mornings to seduce him while her husband, lord of the castle, is out hunting. Sir Gawain’s behavior during those three trials helped me understand what is meant by “courtesy” in the code of chivalry. The chivalrous knight is both a fearless warrior and a refined courtier, the original “officer and gentleman.” But Gawain’s “courtesy” is not just the niceties of manners and conversation. It is the ability to remain gracious in a compromising situation, to forfeit one’s own dignity if needed so another person can save face, even if that person does not deserve the kindness. The courteous knight puts the mental and emotional welfare of others before his own.

Sir Gawain is caught between two knightly responsibilities: 1. not to cause distress to a lady and 2. not to cuckold his host.

“For she, queenly and peerless, pressed him so closely,
led him so near the line, that at last he must needs
either refuse her with offense or her favours there take.”

What a dilemma!

“He cared for his courtesy, lest a caitiff he proved,
yet more for his sad case, if he should sin commit
and to the owner of the house, to his host, be a traitor.
‘God help me!’ said he. ‘Happen that shall not!’”

Sir Gawain talks his way out of bedding his hostess with the “I’m not good enough for you,” defense, although he fills many poetic lines in the process.

There is so much to enjoy in this gorgeous poem. The main theme is a complex discussion on the conflict between codes of honor and human nature. It’s also worth reading for the lush depictions of nature, the seasons, and the manly sport of hunting. This translation by J.R.R. Tolkien feels close to the original spirit and tone of the poem. A lyrical but more accessible translation by Jessie Weston is available online at http://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/weston-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight .

The code of chivalry, as symbolized by the pentangle: https://maryoverton.wikispaces.com/Five+Virtues+of+Troth