The Green Knight – A Story of Killing the Boy

Many people who have had a near-death experience tell that their whole life flashed before their eyes. Although, it is difficult to try out and experience the reality of it, experience shared by such people is interesting and indicates what it means to be a conscious human being rather a living thing.   

Many of us would have also seen drastic behavioral changes in people after they have gone through a difficult disease or after they have gone through an accident but by mere luck their life was saved. Such life altering events have influenced their thought process and their understanding of life in such a way that all their acts, their discussions, their decisions reflect the strong influence of death.

This is not just about the exposure real life-taking moments; Sometimes, these near-death experiences are symbolic. Everyone of us have such moments in our life where we reject who we were and what we represented earlier to accept what is about to happen in order continue our journey forward, to survive. Such events are very common in everyone’s life and are very uncomfortable in every sense, that is why we never discuss such things very often.

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is a one such piece of Chivalric Romance from the 14^th century which is closely bound to the legends of the King Arthur. The story of the Green Knight is one of the most important parts of English literature.

This discussion is based on a movie called “The Green Knight” by David Lowery starring Dev Patel as Sir Gawain who is the nephew of King Arthur. There will be heavy spoilers in the further expansion of ideas so, Warning! Those who have watched the movie can simply skip the synopsis.

The Green Knight

In this story, Sir Gawain (who is yet to become a knight) is the son of King Arthur’s Step Sister who performs enchantments and magic. On the morning of Christmas, Gawain is with his lover called Essel in a brothel instead of visiting the Church for which he receives scolding from his mother. Gawain’s mother asks to leave without her to the Christmas celebration at the King Arthur’s Round Table. Where, King Arthur, asks Gawain out of all the knights present in the tower to have a sit by his side. After having a discussion with King Arthur and his wife Guinevere, Gawain realizes that, out of all the Knights present for the celebration, he is the only one who has nothing to talk about his honorable deeds, brave acts to support his “Knighthood”. He realizes that though people expect him to be a knight by the birth-right, he has not done anything to prove and validate this knighthood. The queen tells Gawain that, he is yet to receive the opportunity to prove his worthiness, which settles the storm in Gawain’s mind. And at this moment the Green Knight appears in the celebration. The green knight looks exactly like ‘the Groot’ from Marvel movies. The appearance of the Green Knight is caused due to the magic of Gawain’s enchantress mother. The Green Knight appears near the round table with his horse and an axe to play a game. The game’s rules are simple- One able man from the Kings knights will get an opportunity to strike a blow to the Green Knight and if it hurts the Green Knight, he will be the owner of the axe of the Green Knight and in a sense the fame, glory followed with it. But, his poses one condition to this game- that after hurting the Green knight and owning his axe, the game will only be considered as completed when the same person will visit him in the Green Chapel after exactly one year and one day. The Green Knight will return the same strike to the person and then they will part on a friendly note.

Everyone in the celebration is scared by mere presence of the Green Knight and hence is scared to represent the King against the Green Knights proposal. This is the moment where Sir Gawain (with all the adrenaline) realizes that demonstration of courage for the opportunity offered may prove his worthiness and he accepts the challenge of the Green Knight. King Arthur offers his Excalibur to blow the strike against the Green Knight. Without any defense, the Green Knight offers his neck to Sir Gawain and seemingly confused but in the rush of proving himself, Sir Gawain separates the Green Knight’s head from his rest of the body and people cheer for him.

In few moments, the decapitated body lifts the separated head to remind everyone that this is only the half part of the game and the game will be finished when the Green Knight will return the same blow to the same person in exactly one year and one day in Green Chapel.  

This is the dreadful moment when Sir Gawain realizes the foolishness that has brought upon the death in front of him. And swiftly, the year passes – the stories of the Green Knight have made him famous all over, thus reinforcing people’s belief in his chivalry and honor.

But deep down, Sir Gawain knows that it is only the death and its fear that he has received after performing this act on the Green Knight. But, as an aspiring Knight and heir to the throne, he thinks that honor calls upon him. Facing the Green Knight is the only option for proving the nobleness and greatness of his character. With heavy heart and knowing that the return blow by the Green Knight will be more than sufficient to end his life, Sir Gawain leaves for the Green Chapel with the same axe to complete the challenge. On this journey his mother has given him a magic girdle –a sash, a magic belt which will protect him from any harm as long as he wears it.

On the journey ahead Gawain meets a boy in a battlefield who gives him direction to the Green Chapel and asks for return of the favor. Gawain simply thanks him and after forcing for the payment he pays the boy a coin. The same boy with his friends loots Gawain stealing all his belongings with the axe. They tie Gawain all over leaving him to rot to death. Sir Gawain- helpless at first realizes that in order to survive he must break himself free and tries to free himself with the sword left behind. By the night, with a strong feeling of homesickness, he visits an abandoned house where he finds a bed to rest. A ghost of a young woman called Winifred awakens him which demands her head to be retrieved from the lake nearby. Gawain asks Winifred what’s in it for him to help her. Winifred refuses to provide anything in return but anyways Sir Gawain reunites her head with her body. He receives his lost axe in return reminding him that he cannot return home because his fate is waiting for him.

In this journey, Gawain makes friendship with a fox who is constantly following him. During a storm, Gawain lands in a Castle where a he is welcomed by a Lord, where he loses the fox. The Lord treats Gawain well and comforts him that he is very close in his journey and the Green Chapel is mere a day close from his castle so he can rest for few days. The lord’s lady has uncanny resemblance to Essel- the love of Gawain and the lord’s mother is always seen blindfolded yet aware of the surrounding around her as if she can still see Gawain. This creates some uncomfortable situations for Gawain. The lord’s lady makes seductive advances on Gawain and on the other hand the lord proposes that he will return whatever best he will receive from the hunt to Gawain and Gawain will return him whatever the best he has received in from the castle in that day. The lord’s lady offers the girdle similar to the girdle Gawain lost during the thievery at the battlefield in the return of his kisses. Feared to the the loss of his life, Gawain gives the kisses to the lady for the Girdle in exchange and flees from the castle as soon as possible. When crossed by the lord and asked for the return of the boar from his hunt, Gawain hides the Girdle and only gives the kisses in return to the lord which he had received form the lady. The lord also frees the same accompanying fox found during the hunt to Gawain, thus Gawain and the fox are reunited for the final journey.

The fox starts speaking to Gawain asking him to return from this journey and nobody will know of it and he still has the chance to live more years because it is only the death that he is approaching towards, in the coming moments.

Gawain refuses the fox’s offer to leave from the challenge and to prolong his life saying that it will not be honorable and great. And hence, approaches the Green Chapel with all the mixed feelings of courage and fear of the death. He sees the Green Knight in hibernation and waits for him to awaken. On the exact next day as planned – the Green Knight wakes up and asks Gawain that is it the same day to complete the challenge.  Helplessly and knowing that this will be the final day of his life, Gawain offers the axe to the Green Knight and his neck to return the same blow he struck to complete the challenge- the game.

At first stroke Gawain flinches, and he is reminded by the Green Knight that when Gawain was about to blow the strike the Green Knight didn’t flinch.

At second strike Gawain again flinches and asks that is this everything that is in life? And the knight says this is all there is.

Upon accepting that this truly is his final moment, Gawain gathers all the courage, escapes from the third strike and leaves the Green Chapel knowing that he has not completed the challenge. But, he is aware that whatever has happened is only between him and the Green Knight, nobody can challenge or question the greatness of the Sir Gawain plus he gets to live by missing the challenge, fooling the death itself. After his return, Sir Gawain becomes the King Gawain- the successor of King Arthur and the greatness of the title. He becomes father of son from Essel but rejects Essel because of her identity with the brothel. He marries a lady of a noble house and becomes a father to a girl. Then in a battle loses his son. After this huge loss, he also loses the respect people gave him. In this downfall, when the enemy attackers are finally on the verge of acquiring the castle, King Gawain realizes that this will be his last moment. During all these events after the escape from the Green Chapel we as an audience understand that the Gawain sustained the third strike because of the Girdle given by his mother. Sir Gawain and King Gawain thereafter never let go of the girdle understanding that it was only the girdle which kept him alive. Even in the intimate moments with woman he never removed the girdle as his life was bound to it. At the final moments of the attack, at the castle, King Gawain realizes that he has accomplished and experienced everything that there is to do and experience in life. Satisfied with his achievement and the life experiences gained after the event at the Green Chapel, King Gawain removes the girdle and his head falls down which was held till date from the strike of the Green Knight only because of the girdle.

Then there is complete moment shift in the movie where we see the face of young Gawain still in the Green Chapel waiting for the third strike from the axe of the Green Knight. Until this moment, we as an audience understand that we were seeing the whole life of Sir Gawain flashing before his eyes which is such a strong feeling that it cannot be expressed in words.

This is the near-death moment – where Gawain realizes that whatever you do whatever you try to run from –the death will be the only destination and accepting it in a fearless way is the only option and pathway to the so called ‘greatness’ that he was seeking from this challenge anyway.  

He accepts the consequence of the event and with the revelation of life and death, with the clarity,with the fearlessness in mind, Sir Gawain removes the Girdle from his body and asks the Green Knight to blow the return strike to complete the challenge. The Green Knight holds his axe down and relieves Sir Gawain with his head for the bravery, thereby completing the challenge.

The synopsis is mere an attempt to cover the important moments of the story and the movie. David Lowery deserves great recognition, hats off for the details he has scattered all over in the movie and the justice he has done to the great story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Now, with the key takeaways from the movie,

Sir Gawain’s test of Knighthood

Popularly, the story of the Green Knight represents the five virtues of a knight. The movie highlights this when the Gawain prepares for the journey to the Green Chapel. Here, the queen prays for the strength in five fingers, sharpness of five senses, inspiration from the five joys of the blessed Virgin Mary, enthusiasm from five wounds of her son Jesus.

The qualities a knight should possess are the five virtues namely Generosity, Chastity, Friendship, Courtesy and Piety. The Green Knight’s story is actually a story of Sir Gawain failing at all these virtues before he accepts his final fate.

Generosity- Gawain doesn’t recognize the help provided by the boy in battlefield for the directions provided by him and upon only force does he give him a coin to complete the transaction of help. For Gawain at this moment, the direction has no value because he thinks that he would have found the way to Green Chapel anyways, thereby undermining the help provided by the boy from battlefield.

Courtesy- After all the looting acts of the boy from battlefield and his mates, Gawain somehow escapes himself to an abandoned house and sleeps there. Winifred, the woman’s ghost and the occupier of the house asks Gawain to retrieve her head for which without showing any courtesy Gawain asks something in return thereby failing the second time.

Friendship- After leaving the lord’s castle without acknowledging the support and gifts from the lord, Gawain rejects the suggestion of his companion fox to either end this journey here and return to his people safely without revealing what actually happened or facing the Green Knight with all the courage without the protective girdle; For it will be the only right way to do it. Gawain rejects the suggestion of his friend and scares him away thereby ending the friendship.

Chastity- The acceptance of the seductive advancements from the castle’s lady only to get the life protecting girdle shows the failure of Gawain at chastity.

Piety- Piety can roughly be called as religiousness, one’s spirituality. As from the start of the story it is clear that instead of going to the church on the Christmas day, he spends the day in brothel. All of the decisions are made to please himself neither God or the King or his people. Hence, he fails at this too.

These are the five virtues of the honorable Knight which are highlighted in the Arthurian legends and the religious mentions too.

So, in nutshell even if Gawain had failed miserably at all five virtues, the girdle would have given him the opportunity to live his life to the fullest. But, upon having this near-death experience and understanding how worthless his life- even after all the achievements- will be as there is no honor in it, Gawain presents himself to death. Honor was the only thing he was seeking from this challenge. The decision of dying with an honorable life rather than living a false and self-centered life is the decision that shapes the character of Gawain in the last moments in Green Chapel making him the true Knight, the true heir to the King Arthur. It is his understanding and acceptance of the death as the final destination which makes him brave, which gives him all the knowledge that was required to understand the life in those few moments.

I think this is a story of a boy becoming a man:

The good thing about the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is that it tells the qualities an honorable person should possess to live a fulfilled life whatever it’s span maybe. The great thing about movie The Green Knight is that it opens the story for further interpretations which connects a Late 14^th century to the 21^st Century. The early part of the story, represents a fickle, lightheaded, royal blood carrying boy called Gawain who is unaware of the real callings of the life and responsibilities in order to achieve the greatness. Gawain irresponsibly spends his time in brothels knowing that the knighthood will be given to him anyways by blood. It is only upon the realization by the influence of the King and the queen that he becomes aware of the fact that real greatness demands great deeds. And in order to do some great, he decides to accept the challenge of the Green knight on a whim or without a thought.

After easily blowing the strike and decapitating the Green Knight, Gawain thinks that now he has done enough to prove his worth to the other knights and the King. It is only when he gets the weight of responsibilities and the consequences of this action when the decapitated head reminds him of the returning the same strike. Poor boy Gawain passes the whole year with a dread to face his death. Gawain still thinks that honor and greatness is only about doing some extraordinary things and getting famous on the stories of these acts. As the year comes to an end, deep down-he also knows that he must face the fate of his actions. Hence the reason when the King Arthur reminds him to go to Green Chapel, Gawain tells him “I fear I am not meant for the greatness”. This moment shows the cravings for fame, greatness but rejection of responsibilities coming with it for a young boy like Gawain.

Helplessly, when Gawain embarks on the journey to the Green Chapel- he is equipped with all the tools and weapons to ensure the successful journey. Even after that, he is robbed by some people. These events reflect the exposure of a fickle boy to the real world where all the hereditary, materialistic provisions prove of less value and only his grit and his spirit of survival can help him to stand strong in such attacks. The breaking of the shield of Gawain by the boy from the battlefield indicates that even the protection given by your guardians will not hold longer when you are exposed to the acts of the real world during the journey of greatness.

Here, Gawain sees the options in front of him- either he can die to a green moss-covered skeleton or he can escape from this anyhow. Gawain successfully escapes with the help of the sword. This gives some hope to the development of the character.    

The events with the Winifred indicate the challenges in the journey of greatness. Here, Gawain is a lazy and whining boy where he asks for help from the ghost which is already in dire need of help. But, upon hearing about his resemblance to the knight who decapitated Winifred, Gawain understands what he can become if he is not on the right path. Helping the Winifred adds one more credit in the journey of his greatness. Helping her, Gawain receives the axe again reminding him of the path he should chose. Still our boy is under the fear of what comes next, the uncertainty and survival through it.

The fox in his journey represent the inner conscience Gawain speaks to when he is traveling alone. There is no one to interact and socialize at this moment hence only himself with whom Gawain interacts which is shown as a fox. This is his inner voice and also his primitive safety seeking mindset which tries to avert him from risks during the journey of greatness. After the eating the hallucinating mushroom, our boy Gawain also seeks short cuts from the giants in his journey, showing the immaturity he still holds to ease his journey.

The fox howling to the giants for not offering their shoulder is indication of our boy Gawain mocking the great giants but continuing the journey without anyone’s help again gives us the hope for the character development of Gawain.

The events at the castle and its lord, his lady and his mother are the representative of the important life decisions Gawain will make when he will achieve the greatness. They represent the life after completing the Green Knight’s challenge. Here, the truthfulness, transparency in the relations whether they are between Gawain and the lord or the between Gawain and the lady are important. If you see properly, there is a bond created between the lord of the castle and Gawain and similar bond between lady and Gawain. This bond represents the comfort we enjoy with our relationships. This comfort of relationship causes him to rest more at the moment when he is so close to his goal. This represents the loss of focus of our boy Gawain in his journey of greatness. The intermixing of emotions, no control on the emotions, the comfort deviates the mind and body of Gawain from the goal. Strong attachment, entanglement with the relations which are merely dependent on give and take transactions blurs the vision of Gawain. You will see the lord asking for something in return for his hunt, the lady asking for something in return for the girdle all the time when Gawain is in their castle.

You will also see the context of whole movie in their one common discussion with Gawain. The Green according to the lady symbolizes the life as in a green tree, green earth and the also as a death as in the green moss which covers all the dead bodies and non-living cobbles all around.

After parting away from all the emotional attachments, hence leaving the castle as early as possible Gawain again meets with his fox friend indicating the loss of his inner self, his conscience during this relaxing period where fox was not with him.

When Gawain reaches the river for the final step of the journey the fox tells him to either stop here or go ahead without the girdle. This is the conflict going in his Gawain’s mind which is shown through the dialogue between Gawain and the fox. The fox being sly animal represented here as Gawain’s conscience- his inner-self, shows how our mind tricks us to remain in comfort zones only to make our lives simple and easy thereby taking us away from the greatness.

Anyways, the good thing about the story is Gawain seeking for greatness and his deep-down hidden honesty which helps him to continue the journey. But, most of the courage he has for the further journey is resided in the protective girdle in which he has blind faith. The girdle is the representative of all the misconceptions, ‘our’- versions of truth, the truth etched on our minds by our surrounding that we think will protect us from all the bad that is in the world. The girdle that Gawain blindly holds on for his life are the metaphors of the boundaries of un-upgradable beliefs, preconceptions we keep in order to maintain our version of facts. Hence, at the final moment of realization of worthlessness of the girdle, Gawain puts his beliefs, his preconceptions aside and accepts death as the only truth which is the death.

When Gawain reaches the Green Chapel, he sees the Green Knight in hibernation- sleeping and unaware of the surrounding. Even though Gawain knows that his death- the Green Knight is sleeping, he is not going to survive this event. There will be any time that the Green Knight will wake up and kill him. This is a perfect metaphor of how we are always running away from death, how we console ourselves about the things we are going to do when death is not around and when we are living. The un-acceptance of the presence of death to live life and then helplessly accepting its presence and slightly (not fully) embracing it in the final moments shows how pity and how limited we as a human beings are in our final moments.      

Sir Gawain’s transformational journey and the philosophy of the meaning of life

Next important moments in this story define why we as a human can lead our lives to greatness despite of having surrounded by the limitations of life and death.

The first flinch of the Gawain on the green Knights strike is the moment of self-reflection with what could Gawain had done better in order to not land here. There is still that young whining boy present there. The dialogue between the Green Knight and Gawain are very impactful here:

1^st Strike

The Green Knight– You have had a year to find the courage

Gawain– One year or a hundred it wouldn’t make a difference. Give me a moment.

This shows the realization of procrastination, loss of valuable time for Gawain in his supposedly last moments. Now he is trying to steal some moments to gather that courage!

2^nd Strike

The Green Knight – Are you ready? (Twice)

Gawain– Yes

(If one remembers the start of the movie, Gawain is asked by a woman in brothel on the Christmas day that “Isn’t he a Knight already?”to which Gawain answers that “He is not ready yet”. This looks funny at this moment)

The Green Knight – The I shall get to hacking.

Gawain– Wait, wait. Is this really all there is?

The Green Knight– What else ought there be?

This is the moment when Gawain accepts that he cannot escape the death also the worthlessness of the life, the nihilism.

The 3^rd Strike

It is the moment before the third strike where Gawain’s whole life, his future life flashes before his eyes where he dies in that life leading to the realization that whatever journeys of life he will embark upon the final destination is always going to be the death. The honor gained, the greatness of life will be dependent on the how he has lived it and accepted the death rather than running away from it. The third strike is symbolically the death of the boy called Gawain and the birth of a Man- Sir Gawain and the true heir to King Arthur.

The famous quote from Confucius really resonates with the conclusion of the story:

“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”

Confucius

Sir Gawain’s transformational journey and the psychology of the Man-Child

A trend discovered by a Swiss psychologist called Marie- Lois von Franz, showed that many adults in spite of achieved physically adult state were not psychologically matured. These were called as “Puer Aeturnus” (Latin for “eternal child”).  Surprisingly this trend was found in mid-20^th century. The whole idea behind “Puer Aeturnus” is that due to the complete confinement, extra care and easy, comfortable provisions by their parents, the young men in their peak years like 20s and 30s are struggling to lead their own life independently. Many are victims of virtual world, video games, internet living life in passive and supposedly in a safe way. And this is linked to many psychological, sexual, academic, professional, financial, social disorders. The solution to this problem is simple in a way which requires separation of this adult-child from his comfort providers.

Sigmund Freud has said somewhat similar thing:

The idea is to get out of the influence of someone who is responsible for the way of our life and its consequence. The death of father figure for a boy is the moment when there is no greater figure, experienced person thereby ‘efforts saving’ person for his further life. This is time when the boy realizes that he has to make the decisions for himself and become responsible for their consequences.

Carl Jung expanded the idea of the death of father figure in an interesting way. According to Jung, even the realization of a person to the fact that his father rather his parents, guardians thereby someone guiding him to make his path easier will not be with him forever. There will be times when he has to take his decisions and own the consequences.

Jordan Peterson has given one excellent explanation on becoming independent from parents using the examples of the story of Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Harry Potter.

I believe that the transformational journey of Sir Gawain also resonates with his separation from the comforts of his life. Here, King Arthur- his uncle and the supposedly greatest father of their time (because no other father had the courage and strength to pull the Excalibur in those times) is the father figure and the Sir Gawain’s mother are his parents. Seeing the fickle behavior of Sir Gawain, I think that King Arthur and Sir Gawain’s mother plan this game for his transformation from Man-Child, because this will be the person who would be carrying King Arthur’s legacy, who will become the leader and father of all the people.

The same thing of losing that adult-child is also reflected in the popular culture of our modern days as seen in Game of Thrones. There is one exact episode where all such relevant things happen. It is the Episode 5 of Season 5 of Game of Thrones called “Kill the Boy”.

In this episode, we see that Ser Barristan Selmy dies due to the attacks of “Sons of Harpy”. He was the father figure for Daenerys. Upon realising that there is not wiser and experienced person to counsel her, Daenerys takes the charge and responsibility of her decisions thereby establishing her command over Meereen. Here, the events show the death of parent-like figure which transforms Daenerys to kill that adult-child in her and take the charge of her decisions and the responsibilities that come with it.

And in the same episode, we see that Jon Snow has brought the Wildlings under same roof where the Night’s Watch lives. Jon is now thinking about making alliance of the Night’s Watch with the Wildlings who consider each other their greatest enemies. Jon thinks that, he could not make this decision on his own and seeks someone’s experience to make the decision right. Hence, he approaches Maester Aemon for the advice where Maester Aemon clearly tells Jon Snow to own the consequence of his decisions.

Maester Aemon exactly tells Jon Snow the following:

“You will find little joy in your command. But, with luck you will find the strength to do what needs to be done.

Kill the boy, Jon Snow. Winter is almost upon us.

Kill the boy and let the Man be born”.

This scene exactly resonates with the death of the man-child similar to the story of the Green Knight, which seems absolutely magical. The indirect influence of such values, the permeation of such strong ideas, their eternal and imperishable nature precisely points to what makes us a true human beings and is mesmerizing on so many levels.    

OR

Maybe, the story of the Green Knight is in a way that story told to the adolescents to teach them to take the charge of their lives

OR

Maybe, it was just a fun game played on Christmas for the entertainment to make the day more memorable (and to shake Sir Gawain to his core for the year as the longest running prank!).

Jokes aside, but the symbolism and the depth of the characters and their intentions and the lessons that we learn from the story, the relevance of such an old story even with the times of today makes the story of the Green Knight so special for us. That’s all there is, that can be penned down for such a piece from ancient literature.   

References and further readings:

1. 2017 Maps of Meaning 04: Marionettes and Individuals (Part 3) – By Jordan B Peterson
2. Carl Jung and the Psychology of the Man-Child
3. Photo of Carl Jung from Britannica