Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Part 2

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Part 2
Christian protection in Gawain’s Travels

The second part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight gives the reader a more examples of the blending between Christian and Pagan symbols during Gawain’s travels to the Green Knight’s castle.
As he leaves, Gawain is dressed in Christian symbolism. His fellow knights and ladies “clasped and kissed him, commending him to Christ” (174). This is a blessing that he might have the Lord watch over him while he is gone. Many churches today have similar ceremonies for the blessing of missionaries.

His attire, for both himself and his mount, are dripping with ornamentation, a complete opposite of the way Christ entered Jerusalem. The horse was “bridle and the bass bedecked all with gold”; with red studs and “embroidered with the best gems.”(174).

On all of Gawain’s armor is the five pointed star or pentangle in brilliant gold. The pentangle is “a five-pointed star, formed by five lines that are drawn without lifting the pencil from the paper, supposed to have mystical significance.”(175) The pentangle symbol can hold many different meanings. From “the five wounds that Christ got on the cross”, to “the five joys”, Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension, and Assumption, it is the idea that the symbol gave protection that is significant.

These Christian symbols of protection in many ways are adopted and adapted from pagan traditions and symbols. In drawing the pentangle, or just writing itself, magic is created. Anglo Saxon traditions also decorated armor, and occasionally tack, with gems and gold fittings. Christian tradition holds that Christ was a simple man with few adornments; after all, he did ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey colt. The symbols of the richly decorated knight and horse, with the magical protection of writing show that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight blend the Christian and Pagan, and the Anglo-Saxon and French, but the tale slowly becomes more Anglo-Saxon/Pagan than French/Christian.