What You’ll Love about… Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
I love how funny Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is. The humor doesn’t get enough recognition. If you’ve seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you will recognize certain moments in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I would warn against thinking that Monty Python was making fun of serious material. The humor was built into the original; they were borrowing, not satirizing.
You will probably have heard of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and you may mistakenly think that the original chivalric romances were serious, straightforward tales of honorable deeds and righteous adventures. What you probably don’t know is that Arthur, the world’s most famous cuckold, is dull, childish, and hot-headed, and that the Knights of the Round Table, particularly Lancelot, are bloodthirsty murderers, rapists, adulterers, and fools. For a taste of this, you can take a look at Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. It is essential for you to be aware of this aspect of Arthurian literature, because it provides important context for Sir Gawain’s story. His virtuousness shines more brightly if you are aware of how horribly Arthur and his knights behave most of the time.
I love when the Green Knight asks who is in charge when he enters Arthur’s banquet hall. There are a few reasons why the question is ridiculous. First, the Green…
