The Green Knight’s Otherness

In, “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight,” the ‘unknown rider’ does not fulfill our working definition of the monstrous. On page eighteen, we are provided with a lengthy physical description of the Green Knight that may lead us to believe he is monstrous: he is an ‘unknown rider,’; ‘from broad neck to buttocks is so bulky and thick’; ‘half a giant on earth’ he seems; and not only possesses a ‘green hue,’ but is bedecked in green armor (‘guise’ and gear’). The Green Knight seems to exist at least momentarily as a monster not only because of his physicality, but because he is ‘unknown.’ He possesses attributes of a man, yet, he is a man no one in King Arthur’s court has ever seen before, does not reveal his name or identity right away (page 24), and the place where he resides, the Green Chapel, has never been visited by anyone in Arthur’s court. Also, similar to the other monsters we’ve encountered in previous readings he has ‘red eyes,’ and exhibits a similar hostility or rage we’ve seen characterize the Beowulf monsters; this reinforces a monstrous element within him. Yet, the Green Knight possesses not only a monstrous element, but a noble, and divine element as well that I believe pushes him towards fulfilling the ‘other.’

The Green Knight is a ‘noble warrior’ or ‘lord’; half of his name implies this. One could even argue that he possesses ‘beauty,’ something we’ve never attributed to the ‘monstrous.’ In the description on page nineteen the Green Knight’s hair (locks), the ‘trim hose’ along his shoulders, the ‘gold spurs fastened to his heal by silk bands,’ his ‘well fashioned foot gear,’ the ‘bosses on his belt,’ and ‘gems richly ranged’ on his clothing and saddle, speak to his nobility, and the wealth that he possesses. At the same time, the Green Knight is associated with the beauty that adorns him; he is simultaneously ‘unknown,’ monstrous to a degree because of his green hue, noble, and beautiful. Possessing such a mix of attributes or characteristics transforms him into an ‘other,’ and pushes him towards a spiritual realm.

On page nineteen, the Green Knight becomes associated with butterflies, marking him as a figure symbolic of transformation; this also, I will venture to say, possibly foreshadows his literal and figurative transformation. Also, he is associated with birds who are said to be divine manifestations, the spirits of the dead, and are symbolic of the ‘ascent to heaven.’ Here, the Green Giant gains a religious significance where he can promise both death and life. When Gawain decapitates him, the Green Knight rises, still alive, and tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel on the next ‘New Years Morn.’ Here, he is quite literally embodying life and death; figuratively, he promises both to Gawain for his fate is in the Green Knight’s hands. In light of Green Knight’s association with butterflies, he is not only promising Gawain life or death, but transformation. Let us hope that when Gawain meets the Green Knight for the second time, that he undergoes a figurative transformation, or better said, dies figuratively. With all of these elements in mind, the Green Knight does appear to be, to a degree, a divine manifestation. He is described as both ‘phantom’ and ‘fairy,’ and gains an almost mystical or ‘marvelous’ quality that works to ‘other’ him because he is simultaneously separated from the monstrous, and associated with it. The ugliness/monstrous element coupled with the ‘beauty’ earlier associated with the Green Knight reinforces the divine element he possesses, for it illustrates him, one could argue, as a subliminal image.

It will be interesting to hear what the class has to say about the chivalry The Green Knight exhibits, and whether or not, they think his conduct establishes him as a monster or not. None the less, the Green Knight possesses so many contradictions ( rage and peace (page 21), life and death, ugliness/monstrous and beauty) that associate him with the divine, and establish him as an ‘other’ within this story.