Setting, Location, and Geography
Nicola Alter argues that this is just as important as a text’s major character.
What is setting?
King who hosts the Christmastide feast.
Who is King Arthur?
Knightly code of conduct that the poem critiques.
What is the chivalric code/chivalry?
The Green Knight does this after Gawain chops off his head.
What is hold up his head?
”I am the weakest, I am aware, and in wit feeblest,/and the least loss, if I live not.”
Who is Sir Gawain?
Poul Anderson states that fantasy settings draw from science, nature, and this.
What is the real world?
Mysterious giant who carries an axe and holly branch.
Who is the Green Knight?
The poem opens and closes with this idea.
What is how nations are built through violence?
Gawain sees this beacon in the distance after journeying through danger and wintry weather.
What is Bertilak's castle?
“There passed through the portals a perilous horseman,/ the mightiest on middle-earth in measure of height”
Who is the Green Knight?
When creating authentic settings, fantasy authors draw from this, which contains knowledge that readers and writers share.
What is the repertoire?
Woman who tries to seduce Gawain.
Who is Lady Bertilak?
These scenes are interspersed in order to foreshadow what is to come for Gawain.
What are scenes of the hunt and scenes with Lady Bertilak?
What Gawain gifts Lord Bertilak at the end of the three-day hunt.
What are three kisses?
“For which cause the knight had in comely wise/on the inner shield her image depainted"
Who is the Virgin Mary?
This analogy shows how a reader predicts and rethinks what happens in a text.
What is the horizon?
The true identity of the Green Knight.
Who is Lord Bertilak?
The Green Knight’s decapitation and this other injury demonstrate emasculation.
What is Gawain's nick on the neck?
This stark image compels Gawain to jump up and grab his shield and sword.
What is blood on the snow?
“the other was clad with a cloth that enclosed all her neck, / enveloped was her black chin with chalk-white veils"
Who is Morgan le Fay?
Nicola Alter references this scholar’s theory in order to discuss how readers and writers create fantasy worlds together.
Who is Wolfgang Iser?
Person behind the entire ruse/game.
Who is Morgan le Fay?
This represents femininity, protection, shame, and honor.
What is the green girdle?
Gawain places the blame on ________ after learning the truth behind the ruse.
What is/who are women?
"It had a hole at the end and at either side,/and with grass in green patches was grown all over,/and was all hollow within: nought but an old cavern"
What is the Green Chapel?