This week’s discussion focuses upon Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I will herein go beyond the recitations of the story itself and address the story “between the lines:” Morgan le Fay hated King Arthur, and especially Queen Guinevere. Arthur was the half-brother of Morgan. Arthur was born as the result of a “magical” deception of Merlin, his Uncle (and the understood “Wizard of the Realm”). Morgan bemoaned that her father, the Duke of Cornwall, was killed so Arthur’s father, Uther Pendragon, could satiate his unbridled passion for Morgan’s mother, Igraine. Got all that?
So now we come to Arthur, who not only becomes King, but becomes the most successful king the Isles of Briton have ever known. Arthur was the first to unite the factions of Briton warlords to fight together against the invading Saxons. Arthur achieved this through a fellowship of knights who were sworn to Arthur’s cause – as well as to Arthur’s noble precepts of respect, honor, duty, service, valor, courtesy, and righteousness. These were the Knights of the Round Table. These were the men who followed Arthur’s rule – based upon their communal belief in the Arthurian chivalric code – a chivalric code that existed long before the High Middle Ages ever conceived of such, or …show more content…
Is it the errant Christian knight, or the ultimately merciful pagan? Remember, Gawain did not hesitate to chop off the Green Knight’s head – yet, he markedly hesitated to fulfill his bargain in receiving his agreed blow in kind. Gawain – and by extension, Arthur and his court – offered no such mercy. Yet, Morgan le Fay, through her enchanted husband, Bercilak –
So now we come to Arthur, who not only becomes King, but becomes the most successful king the Isles of Briton have ever known. Arthur was the first to unite the factions of Briton warlords to fight together against the invading Saxons. Arthur achieved this through a fellowship of knights who were sworn to Arthur’s cause – as well as to Arthur’s noble precepts of respect, honor, duty, service, valor, courtesy, and righteousness. These were the Knights of the Round Table. These were the men who followed Arthur’s rule – based upon their communal belief in the Arthurian chivalric code – a chivalric code that existed long before the High Middle Ages ever conceived of such, or …show more content…
Is it the errant Christian knight, or the ultimately merciful pagan? Remember, Gawain did not hesitate to chop off the Green Knight’s head – yet, he markedly hesitated to fulfill his bargain in receiving his agreed blow in kind. Gawain – and by extension, Arthur and his court – offered no such mercy. Yet, Morgan le Fay, through her enchanted husband, Bercilak –