Gawain's World Part 1 - It's Not Easy Being Green

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hello. Welcome back.

[00:00:02]Hopefully, if you're watching this, you've already seen my video explaining the basic progression of Arthurian lore and how it makes no sense.

[00:00:10]I figured if I couldn't make it make sense, I could at least show why it makes no sense.

[00:00:15]And this is why I chose this story specifically to focus on.

[00:00:19]Gawain and the Green Knight.

[00:00:21]I've spent a lot of time on Arthurian lore and even more looking at J.R.R.

[00:00:26]Tolkien.

[00:00:28]Enough to know that Tolkien disliked the inconsistent mythology of King Arthur.

[00:00:33]It makes sense.

[00:00:35]Tolkien built a world that was remarkably internally consistent, vivid, and nuanced.

[00:00:41]Arthurian lore might as well be a Rorschach inkblot test in comparison.

[00:00:46]So, when I saw that Tolkien spent enough time to write a book on a specific work in the Arthurian mythos, I was not only surprised, but I decided it needed further investigation.

[00:00:58]To be clear, it wasn't just Gawain and the Green Knight he worked on.

[00:01:03]He was investigating three works of an author whose name is uh we don't know.

[00:01:09]And we are actually not 100% sure that this same author wrote all three.

[00:01:17]But most people who study it think that Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Orfeo were written by the same unknown person.

[00:01:27]If Tolkien thinks that they're the same person, honestly, that's good enough for me and should be good enough for everyone.

[00:01:35]This unknown author was a contemporary of Chaucer, but the style is drastically different.

[00:01:42]In fact, this author wrote in alliterative verse.

[00:01:46]If you remember my videos on Beowulf, you know that alliterative verse was a form of poetry that didn't use rhyme, but instead common syllabic sounds at the beginning of words, multiple lines in a row.

[00:01:59]As I mentioned in the Beowulf videos, it's a fantastic way to store information.

[00:02:05]Emphasize what you consider to be important and sneak in subtle messages.

[00:02:11]It's a huge reason why Beowulf was Tolkien's absolute favorite work of literature.

[00:02:16]This story with themes of nature cycles, Christianity, chivalry, and romance is, frankly, an awkward fit in Arthur's world.

[00:02:27]It's not that outside cultural themes haven't made their way into other Arthurian stories before.

[00:02:33]That's well documented.

[00:02:35]Themes of kings under the mountain, Celtic fae and magic find their way into most of the lore.

[00:02:42]Hell, many of the iterations of Merlin are directly as a Celtic druid, and Morgan le Fay's name literally means Morgan the fairy.

[00:02:52]So, why would Gawain and the Green Knight be out of place?

[00:02:56]It's a story with oak and holly, or summer and winter kings, front and center.

[00:03:02]It's about testing knightly virtues. I do this as much as I can. Now, we've got to find the Holy Grail. Come on. Will you let me have just a little bit of power? No? Go and help yourself.

[00:03:12]Theoretically, it should fit perfectly next to all the other stories.

[00:03:17]But, it doesn't.

[00:03:18]This video is largely an attempt at explaining why the story doesn't feel the same as the rest of Arthurian lore.

[00:03:27]First, let's go through the story in extreme detail.

[00:03:31]We come to Camelot on Christmas Eve. The court is exchanging gifts in anticipation of the feast.

[00:03:38]Without warning, a giant green man bursts into the hall.

[00:03:44]When I say green, I mean he was green, his hair was green, his clothes were green, even his damn horse was green.

[00:03:53]He has a giant axe in one hand and a holly bow in the other.

[00:03:58]We can move past the fact that Camelot's security is basically Paul Blart without a Segway asleep at a turnstile.

[00:04:05]This guy calls the entire hall, the Knights of the Round Table, too weak to fight him, and nobody disputes it.

[00:04:14]Instead, he says, "Let's play a game.

[00:04:19]Someone gets to take a big boy swing of that axe at him, and he is wearing no armor, but the jolly green giant gets to strike them back in exactly 1 year and a day."

[00:04:30]With all these brave Round Table Knights, none dare, and King Arthur prepares to accept the challenge, because apparently politely refusing the game would be lame of him.

[00:04:43]Gawain convinces him that we can't risk the king on a game like this, so Arthur should let him do it.

[00:04:50]Frankly, the logic is a bit stunted here because Gawain is Arthur's nephew, and although it's not said in so many words, he would be the heir to the throne at this time.

[00:05:01]But the plot isn't trying to examine a family tree and debate the succession like a nerd, the plot is testing Gawain as a knight.

[00:05:10]So, first test here with woodsy Hulk bent down and neck bared, goes well.

[00:05:17]Gawain cleanly lops his head off.

[00:05:20]The court has no time for a sigh of relief as the laughing green man grabs his head, shows it to Guinevere for some reason, reminds Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in a year and a day, then skips out of the hall humming the theme song from Breakfast Club.

[00:05:37]The story glosses over some adventures Gawain has in the intervening year, but as Gawain's due date approaches, he starts questing to find the Green Chapel.

[00:05:48]Now, to be clear, nobody knows where it is or even what the Green Chapel is.

[00:05:54]Tall, green, and handsome did not give directions or drop a pin.

[00:05:58]Gawain is really not making much progress when he happens upon a great, beautiful castle with a super friendly lord and beautiful lady, as well as an older hag who is treated with utmost reverence.

[00:06:12]The lord seems to laugh between every sentence he finishes and tells Gawain there is a path not 2 mi away that will take him straight to the Green Chapel and that Gawain should stay as his guest the next 3 days until he has to go to the chapel.

[00:06:28]Gawain is visibly relieved because apparently he was more stressed out about not finding the place than he was about having his head cut off.

[00:06:37]They all sit down for a feast, the hag in a place of high honor above the lord.

[00:06:42]Gawain and the lord, whose name is Bertilak, engage in a polite off.

[00:06:47]Then the lord proposes a game.

[00:06:50]After the last game, alarm bells should be going off for Sir Gawain, but he agrees.

[00:06:57]The game is that Lord Bert goes hunting every day and gives Gawain whatever he gets that day.

[00:07:03]Gawain stays in the castle doing next to nothing and gives whatever he gets throughout the day to Lord Bert.

[00:07:11]Hardly seems fair, but they pinky swear and go about their days.

[00:07:15]The first day Bert downs a deer and brings it back to the castle for Gawain.

[00:07:20]Gawain gets ambushed in his bedroom by Bert's wife, who is unsubtle in her attempts to seduce him.

[00:07:27]Gawain proves his virtue by refusing to have sex with Bert's wife, but he also does not tell Bert that his wife is a Though Gawain did not sleep with her, it would have been unchivalrous to turn her down flat.

[00:07:41]So, he accepted a platonic kiss on the cheek.

[00:07:45]He gives this kiss to Bert.

[00:07:47]Bert asked where he got the kiss from.

[00:07:50]As he well might.

[00:07:51]And Gawain gets him on the technicality that it was never part of the game to tell him where he got it.

[00:07:57]The second day is similar.

[00:07:59]Bert hunts down a boar and brings it back.

[00:08:02]His wife the spends the day blasting Doja Cat and twerking at Gawain. Before finally giving up and settling for two kisses.

[00:08:10]Gawain gives both kisses to Bert.

[00:08:13]Day three is an absolute doozy.

[00:08:17]Bert hunts fox and he exchanges it with Gawain for three kisses.

[00:08:21]But in between those three kisses and Gawain's twitching eye is a cover-up.

[00:08:26]Lady the offers Gawain a gold ring.

[00:08:29]Which he refuses.

[00:08:31]Finally, she offers him her sash. Her green and gold sash, she says, will protect him from all physical harm.

[00:08:41]Gawain, thinking [clears throat] he will have his head cut off by the Green Knight the next day, takes it but does not give it to Bert despite that being a violation of the rules of their game.

[00:08:52]The lady also demanded he keep the sash secret from her husband.

[00:08:56]Apparently, she was fine with her husband knowing about the gold ring, the adultery and the Peter Gabriel boombox, but not about the sash.

[00:09:05]She still tried to sleep with him. At this point, scooting at him on the floor, legs up, crotch first like a dog with worms. But Gawain remained nobly chased.

[00:09:15]Gawain wakes up the next day without having a beautiful woman try to get his cookies and he heads off to the Green Chapel.

[00:09:23]The Green Chapel is just an earthen mound containing a cavern.

[00:09:27]And he finds the Green Knight outside of it ominously sharpening his axe.

[00:09:32]Gawain gets down, bares his neck and the Green Knight gives him a big, fake swing.

[00:09:40]He makes fun of Gawain for flinching, and Gawain feels the shame deeply for some reason.

[00:09:47]The second time Gawain doesn't flinch, but it's still a fake swing.

[00:09:52]Gawain is getting understandably angry at this point, but the Green Knight explains the rule of threes and points to the storyboard where everything else was done in threes.

[00:10:01]Gawain settles back down to get his head sliced off, and the Green Knight swings all the way down and stops after barely nicking Gawain's neck.

[00:10:09]He puts his axe away, laughs some more, and starts spouting exposition.

[00:10:15]The Green Knight was testing him, and he was also Lord Bertilak, and Lord Bertilak was testing him, too.

[00:10:23]He knocked Gawain on the third stroke because of his attempt to conceal the gift of the sash.

[00:10:28]Gawain is ashamed to have behaved deceitfully, but the Green Knight laughs some more. It's kind of his thing. And says Gawain is most blameless of all knights in the land.

[00:10:39]He also tells Gawain that he was secretly working for Morgan le Fay the whole time in an attempt to scare Guinevere to death with his headless horseman trick.

[00:10:49]And Morgan was the revered old hag at his table in the castle.

[00:10:53]Gawain wears the sash as a token of shame, I assume at this point because of self-esteem issues.

[00:11:00]And all of the other knights decide to also wear green sashes.

[00:11:05]I don't want to say Gawain is a gay icon, but he turned down sex from a beautiful woman multiple times, kissed a man six times, and started a brightly colored sash trend with all the other boys from Camelot.

[00:11:19]That's Gawain and the Green Knight.

[00:11:21]Faithfully, if sassily, recounted.

[00:11:25]Now that we understand the story, I hope you'll join me for part two where we will dig into the symbolism, esoterica, and of the story and try to figure out why it captured J.R.R. Tolkien.

[00:11:39]Thanks for listening.

[00:11:41]Thousand Voices out.