Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in its original Middle English:
SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,
Þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondeȝ and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe:
5 Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,
Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicome
Welneȝe of al þe wele in þe west iles.
Fro riche Romulus to Rome ricchis hym swyþe,
With gret bobbaunce þat burȝe he biges vpon fyrst,
10 And neuenes hit his aune nome, as hit now hat;
Tirius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes,
Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes vp homes,
And fer ouer þe French flod Felix Brutus
On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he settez
15 wyth wynne,
Where werre and wrake and wonder
Bi syþez hatz wont þerinne,
And oft boþe blysse and blunder
Ful skete hatz skyfted synne.
20 Ande quen þis Bretayn watz bigged bi þis burn rych,
Bolde bredden þerinne, baret þat lofden,
In mony turned tyme tene þat wroȝten.
Mo ferlyes on þis folde han fallen here oft
Þen in any oþer þat I wot, syn þat ilk tyme.
25 Bot of alle þat here bult, of Bretaygne kynges,
Ay watz Arthur þe hendest, as I haf herde telle.
Forþi an aunter in erde I attle to schawe,
Þat a selly in siȝt summe men hit holden,
And an outtrage awenture of Arthurez wonderez.
30 If ȝe wyl lysten þis laye bot on littel quile,
I schal telle hit as-tit, as I in toun herde,
with tonge,
As hit is stad and stoken
In stori stif and stronge,
35 With lel letteres loken,
In londe so hatz ben longe.
In Tolkien’s translation:
WHEN the siege and the assault had ceased at Troy,
and the fortress fell in flame to firebrands and ashes,
the traitor who the contrivance of treason there fashioned
was tried for his treachery, the most true upon earth –
it was Eneas the noble and his renowned kindred
who then laid under them lands, and lords became
of well-nigh all the wealth in the Western Isles.
When royal Romulus to Rome his road had taken,
in great pomp and pride he peopled it first,
and named it with his own name that yet now it bears;
Tirius went to Tuscany and towns founded,
Langaberde in Lombardy uplifted halls,
and far over the French flood Felix Brutus
on many a broad bank and brae Britain
established full fair,
where strange things, strife and sadness,
at whiles in the land did fare,
and each other grief and gladness
oft fast have followed there.
And when fair Britain was founded by this famous lord,
bold men were bred there who in battle rejoiced,
and many a time that betid they troubles aroused.
In this domain more marvels have by men been seen
than in any other that I know of since that olden time;
but of all that here abode in Britain as kings
ever was Arthur most honoured, as I have heard men tell.
Wherefore a marvel among men I mean to recall,
a sight strange to see some men have held it,
one of the wildest adventures of the wonders of Arthur.
If you will listen to this lay but a little while now,
I will tell it at once as in town I have heard
it told,
as it is fixed and fettered
in story brave and bold,
thus linked and truly lettered,
as was loved in this land of old.
(Tolkien 17-18)
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What is most striking in the first stanza of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is how the poet feels obliged to trace back the origin of the Arthurian Legend to the cycle of Troy. Indeed, the notion was first proposed more than two centuries earlier by Geoffrey of Monmouth, yet we would be looking in vain if we searched for any mention thereof in other Middle English Arthurian romances.
Maybe that was due to the tripartition of the epic matter established in the Chanson des Saisnes by Jean Bodel not much time after Geoffrey. The three matters deemed worthy of poetical consideration were, according to him, the matter “de France”, set aside from the matter “de Bretagne”, and both being set aside from the matter “de Rome la grant” (6ss). These three matters corresponded to the Carolingian cycle, the Arthurian cycle and everything pertaining to the Latin and Greek Classics, respectively.
Therefore, it is as if three different worlds were established, three independent settings which make it so that Charles the Great is not mentioned in the Bel Inconnu any more than Achilles is in the Chanson de Roland, or, to relate to our contemporary popular culture, any more than Darth Vader could be mentioned in a Star Trek episode (actually, there could be cross-overs, but there is no trace of that in romance).
Much more peculiar must therefore the incipit of Sir Gawain look to us, with his borƺ, fortress, of Troye utterly “brittened and brent to brondeƺ and askez”, “fallen in flame to firebrands and ashes” (SGGK 2); Eneas’ treason, and the colonization of Tuscany, Lombardy and “brode Bretayn”, “broad Britain”, by Tirius, Langaberde and Felix Brutus, Eneas’ own grandson.
The exactly opposite movement, from Britain to the continent, is found instead in the third stanza of the Alliterative Morte Arthur, another alliterative Arthurian romance composed at the same time as Sir Gawain:
When that the King Arthur by conquest had wonnen
Casteles and kingdomes and countrees many,
And he had covered the crown of that kith riche
Of all that Uter in erthe ought in his time:
30 Argayle and Orkney and all these oute-iles,
Ireland utterly, as Ocean runnes,
Scathel Scotland by skill he skiftes as him likes,
And Wales of war he won at his will,
Bothe Flaunders and Fraunce free till himselven
35 Holland and Hainaut they held of him bothen,
Burgoigne and Brabaunt and Bretain the less
Guienne and Gothland and Grace the rich,
Bayonne and Bourdeaux he belded full fair,
Touraine and Toulouse with towres full high,
40 Of Poitiers and Provence he was prince holden;
Of Valence and Vienne, of value so noble,
Of Overgne and Anjou, those erldoms rich,
By conquest full cruel they knew him for lord
Of Navarre and Norway and Normandy eek
45 Of Almaine, of Estriche, and other ynow;
Denmark he dressed all by drede of himselven
Fro Swynne unto Swetherike, with his sword keen!
(TEAMS)
Here the emphasis is placed more on the exaggerated list of all the countries that Arthur allegedly “by conquest had wonnen / casteles and kingdomes and countrees full many” (AMA 26-27), even if one finds mention of the heritage of Uter who left him command over “all that Uter in erthe ought in his time” (AMA 29). That England never actually conquered most of these territories seems obviously a neglectable detail, if one means to appreciate this work for what it is. Anyway, a more modest version of a list of Arthur’s domains appears in the incipit of Ywain and Gawain:
Arthure, the Kyng of Yngland,
That wan al Wales with his hand,
And al Scotland, als sayes the buke,
And mani mo, if men wil luke
(Ywain and Gawain 7-10)
In my translation:
Arthur, the king of England,
Who won the whole of Wales by his hand,
And the whole of Scotland, as the book says,
And many others, if one will search
Besides, in the preceding stanza of the Alliterative, the second, it was mentioned how Arthur had conquered Rome itself from the alleged emperor Lucius (introducing what will constitute the main plot).
This stanza, following a prayer to the Lord in the first 11 lines, has also much in common with the incipit of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. First of all it is obviously shared the praise of both the valour and the courtesy of knights, those “bolde” “baret þat lofden” (SGGK 21), “bold men who in battle rejoiced” and “in mony turned tyme tene þat wroƺten”, “many a time that betid they trouble aroused” (SGGK 22), although they are the same “luflych lorde, ledeƺ of þe best”, “lovely lords, lieges most noble” (SGGK 37), “þise gentyl kniƺtes”, “that chef were of chivalry and cheftains noble” (AMA 18), besides “doughty in their doings and dredde ay shame” (AMA 20) because “both wary in their workes and wise men of arms” (AMA 19).
Also The Weddyng of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell for Helpyng of Kyng Arthoure mentions “his bold knyghtes good” (WGR 17), although the attention is focused on King Artù: “Of alle kynges Arthure beryth the flowyr, / And of alle knyghtod he bare away the honour / Wheresoever he went. / In his contrey was nothyng butt chyvalry / And kyghtes were belovid by that doughty, / For cowardes were evermore shent” (WGR 7-12).
The peculiarity of Sir Gawain is that the accent of praise on valour, although overshadowed by the notion that the bold men aroused trouble, nonetheless seems to acquire a playful and ironic overtone, also with the complicity of the festive atmosphere, as if all the troubles of human strife were seen by a benevolent father who looks at his children playing men-at-arms. This trait, altogether absent from the ferocity of the Alliterative and the celebrative tone of the Weddyng, reveals a more refined sensibility by the Gawain-Poet.
Even the same praise of Arthur here, “bot of alle þat here bult of Bretaygne kynges, / Ay watƺ Arthur þe hendest”, “but of all that here abode in Britain as kings, ever Arthur was most honoured” (SGGK 25-26, is moderated by the mention of an unprecised source, “as I haf herde tell”, “as I have heard saying”. Differently from that, the praise of the Stanzaic Morte Arthur is incidental, almost as if pointing out the obvious: “In Arthur dayes, that noble kyng” (SMA 5). In the Weddyng, in the same way, nothing comparable to the rhetorical diminutio in Sir Gawain is found.
Besides, a source is mentioned for other reasons, much more univocally claiming truth, in The Awntyrs off Arthure at Terne Wathelyne, where one may find, precisely in the second line, “as the boke telles”, “as the book says” (AATW 2). We have already seen the book mentioned in Ywain and Gawain. Mentions of (French) books as sources abound in Malory. An oral source is found instead in The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawane, where we read “as trew men me tald”, “as true men told me” (KTGG 1). Also the story of Sir Gawain is allegedly told as the poet “in toun herde, with tonge”, “heard it at court, being spoken”.
The invitation to listen, desumed from orality, is also a trait present in many works: in Sir Gawain: “if ƺe wyl listen þis laye bot on littel quile”, “if you listen to this story but for a little while” (SGGK 30); in Weddyng: “Lythe and lystenyth the lif of a lord riche!” (WGR 1), and then very similarly to Sir Gawain: “now, wyll ye lyst a whyle to my talkyng” (WGR 13); but also in the Alliterative: “ye that lust has to lithe or loves for to here (…) herkenes now hiderward and heres my story!” (AMA 12, 25).
Similar invitations are found in another poem of the Gawain cycle, Syre Gawene and the Carle of Carelyle: “Lystennyth, lordyngs, a lyttyll stonde” (SGCC 1); also in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur: “Lordinges that are lefe and dere, / Listeneth and I shall you tell” (SMA 1-2).
The specificity of a text suspended between orality and writing of many Middle English works grants them a peculiar flavour, difficult to detect otherwise, surely not in the French originals, or at least not in the same measure.
Furthemore, the focus on adventure is well present in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, since the one which the poet is going to narrate is said to be one of the most prodigious: “Forþi an aunter in erde I attle to schawe / Þat a selly in siƺt summe men hit holden, / And an outtrage awenture of Arthures wondereƺ”, “Wherefore a marvel among men I mean to recall, / a sight strange to see some men have held it, / one of the wildest adventures of the wonders of Arthur” (SGGK 27-29).
Similarly in the Stanzaic one reads that the poet will tell “by olde dayes what aunters were / among our eldres that befell; / in Arthur dayes, that noble kyng, / Befell aunters ferly fele” (SMA 3-6). Adventure and marvel are close comrades, and on this surely many different poets agreed.
To conclude, many aspects of the incipit of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight can be considered as topical in that literary phenomenon which is called the Middle English Arthurian romance. In particular, it is clear that it shares more with other alliterative poems and with other romances in the Gawain cycle. Nonetheless, the Gawain-poet interprets these topoi in a strictly personal fashion, in some cases even subverting the tropes, with definitely positive results.
Abbreviations
AATW= The Awntyrs off Arthour at Terne Wathelyn
AMA= Alliterative Morte Arthur
KTGG= The Knightly Tale of Golagros and Gawain
SGCC= Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlyle
SGGK= Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
SMA= Stanzaic Morte Arthur
WGR= The Weddyng of Syr Gawene and Dame Ragnell for Helpyng of Kyng Arthoure
Bibliography
King Arthur’s Death – The Middle English Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Alliterative Morte Arthur, ed. by L.D. Benson and E.E. Foster, TEAMS, Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1994
Middle English Romances, ed. by S.H.A. Shepherd, New York – London: Norton, 1995
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, Oxford: OUP, 1936
Syr Gawayne: A Collection of Ancient Romance-Poems, ed. by F. Madden, London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1839
Tolkien, J.R.R, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo, London: Harper Collins, 2006