Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Man and the Natural World

The fact that the Green Knight is entirely green and that butterflies and birds are embroidered on his clothing suggests that we are meant to connect him to the natural world. He might represent nature and animal instincts, in contrast to the more civilized world of King Arthur’s court.

In medieval romances, a man’s ability to control his horse is a symbol of his masculinity and his own self-control. The greater the horse he controls, the greater the man. So, the fact that the Green Knight’s horse is huge, strong, and spirited but obedient to him tells us that his character is very strong, masculine, and in control of himself, too.

This section, and the lines that follow it, detail the way that the seasons naturally give way to one another. We know that after a year passes and the winter arrives again, Gawain must travel to the Green Chapel to meet his fate.  So, the feeling we are left with here is one of man’s powerlessness to stop the turning of the earth and, by extension, his fate.

The fact that the cold winter weather troubles Gawain even more than the fierce beasts with which he battles emphasizes the precariousness of a man’s position when forced to endure the elements without the protection of walls and a fire. Gawain’s suffering in the open wilderness helps us to appreciate the contrast represented by the civilized and fire-lit halls of Arthur and the Bertilak.

The Middle English word this passage uses to describe the beasts with which Gawain meets, "mervayl," (translated here as ‘wonders’) is one often used to describe supernatural happenings. And indeed, some of the animals Gawain meets with, like dragons and ogres, might be considered part of the supernatural world. But intermixed with them are real animals like bears and wolves, suggesting that in the world of the poem, nature is just as alien and marvelous to the civilized world of King Arthur’s court as apparitions from the land of fairy.

This passage focuses on the hunters’ dominion over the natural world by recounting how the sound of the hunt echoes throughout the whole valley sending animals scattering. As a counterpoint to the animal fear, however, is the orderly, rule-governed nature of the hunt itself. Lines of ‘beaters,’ basically people who guard a pre-determined boundary to hem the animals in, allow the male deer to pass through their line because the lord has ordered that stags cannot be hunted at this time of year. So the hunt becomes a set of civilized rules by which order is enforced in the natural world.

The medieval hunt was an event that depended upon the cooperation of animals to bring down other animals. Here, the huntsmen "uncouple," or loose, their hounds, inciting them to pick up the scent of the prey with their horn-blasts. Mounted, the huntsmen depend upon their horses to follow the hounds. This scene, then, emphasizes the close relationship between the hunters and their animals as they ride out in pursuit of their prey.

In contrast to the deer, which are very easily brought down, the huge boar that the hounds scent out manages to give the huntsmen more of a run for their money, knocking many of them down and later, injuring them by goring them on his tusks. Because of the difficulty of his capture, the boar represents more of a prize even though he provides less meat than all the deer. He is a trophy-animal, whereas the deer are prized for their meat.

Recall that at the same time as Bertilak hunts the boar, Gawain faces his lady’s attempt to seduce him. This passage alludes to the sexual tension of that situation by portraying Bertilak’s slaying of the boar in language suggestive of sexual intercourse.  Bertilak drives his sword (in medieval romance a phallic object) up to the hilt into the animal’s throat (in Middle English, the ‘slot’) just as a penis might penetrate a woman’s vagina.

Sir Bertilak proves his valor by grappling with the wild boar from which everyone else backs away out of fear. He subdues him by taking careful aim, moreover, demonstrating the superiority of human rationality over even the brute strength of an animal like the boar.

The fox gives the huntsmen more of a run for their money than even the boar with his very human-like "wiles." Instead of running a straight race, he sometimes doubles back to confuse the hounds and runs for cover, perhaps planning to wait it out and escape when the time is right. The hunters’ ability to capture him, then, will represent the ultimate triumph of man over nature. The fox may also represent Gawain who, in his meeting with the lady on this day, must deploy rhetorical twists and turns to thwart her seduction attempt, which is more aggressive than ever before.

The fact that the Green "Chapel" is little more than a mound of grass represents just how far Gawain has come from the civilized world both geographically and symbolically. Medieval readers might also have recognized this hillock as a "fairy mound" a place that was supposedly an entrance to the world of fairy and where strange supernatural events were thought to have occurred. The Green Chapel thus links this place, and its guardian, to both the natural world and the world of fairy, or the supernatural.

As Gawain and his guide get closer to the Green Chapel, the landscape appears progressively more wild, with sheer rock-faces, a moor (or high plain) covered in fog, and streams whose foaming and splashing appears aggressive and menacing. This wildness may represent the Green Knight’s wildness, his separation from the civilized world.

Gawain accepts the girdle as a sign of the frailty of the "flesh," or body. He failed to disclose his receipt of the girdle to Bertilak because he was too attached to his own life.  He gave in to an animal instinct for survival rather than following the rules of civilized society. Accordingly, instead of seeing the human ingenuity of the girdle, its monetary value, or the status it might confer in society, Gawain links it to the sins of the flesh.