Year of the epic poem XV

The fourteenth century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a short poem about the ever-popular Arthurian knight Gawain. One Christmas, a mysterious Green Knight comes to Arthur's court, challenging anyone present to trade axe blows with him, a hit now for a hit a year hence. King Arthur steps up when none of his knights do, but his nephew Gawain stands to take the king's place. Gawain strikes off the Green Knight's head. The headless body picks up the head and speaks to the assembled crowd, reiterating the terms of the challenge to Gawain.

A year later, Gawain sets off in search of the Green Knight and finds himself a guest at a welcoming castle. The lord of the castle makes a deal with Gawain such that the latter is to sleep late while the lord and his men go hunting. At the end of the day Gawain will receive whatever the lord caught on the hunt, and the lord will receive whatever Gawain got in the castle. During each hunt, Gawain is sorely tempted and tested by the lord's wife. He stands firm, but in fear of his life takes a green and gold belt from her that is supposed to render him impervious to harm.

Finally, Gawain sets off from the castle to find the abode of the Green Knight. He deals Gawain two feints and a small nick on the neck, just enough to draw blood and leave a scar. The deal done, the Green Knight is revealed to be the lord of the castle, who gave him the single slice as payment for his inconstancy with regard to the belt. Chastised, Gawain confesses and returns to Arthur's court, bearing the scar and the belt as signs of his sin.

Gawain is the chivalric ideal to which every knight would have attained. Even as an ideal, though, he was still a man, as this poem demonstrated. He was faithful and true, constant and courteous, and yet even though he resisted the strongest of trials and temptations he was not impervious to sin. He confessed, though, and he was absolved and restored by the Green Knight. He bore the outward signs of his sin in the scar and the green belt, but the inward stain of his sin was cleared away.

It was an enjoyable poem, and I love the English alliterative style. One section detailed the turning of the seasons in some of the most beautiful language I've read. And the story of courage in the face of doom, constancy in the face of temptation, and confession in the face of sin was quite engaging. I think it'd be worth adding to the yearly reading list alongside Beowulf.