Green Cities

            On Sunday morning after yoga I skipped song practice to start working on my essay but when I tried to open up a document Word for Windows crashed. Even when I shut it down in the Task Manager it wouldn’t open. But after restarting my computer Word reluctantly got on its feet like the old work horse that my father had which needed to be hoisted with pullies just to get up from lying down in the straw. 

            I got to work on the paper around 7:00, and spent the first four hours finishing my translation from Middle English of the description of the Green Knight from the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". 

            At 11:15 I took a siesta and dreamed I was in a porn place that had a masturbation room. A man unlocked a door for me and I went in but it was basically just a grungy washroom with a few toilet seats and only one of them in a stall but without a door. A chest that I opened was filled with strange sex toys that seemed to be mostly made of stuffed fabric and some of them seemed almost alive but without mechanical movement. I realized that I’d left my backpack somewhere else and I went to go looking for it. I woke up worried about my backpack and had to calmly explain to myself that I have my backpack and only lost it in a dream. 

            I got up at 12:15 and got to work. I started by writing in long hand in stream of consciousness whatever thoughts popped into my head about the meaning of how the Green Knight is described. Then I transcribed those notes and started organizing them into an argument. 

            For lunch I had crackers and cheddar. 

            I kept on working. 

            For dinner I sliced the bottom from a round loaf of whole grain cranberry raisin bread and used it for pizza crust. 

            I was pretty much done with the writing part of my paper by 20:00 but spent the next three hours on my citations and numbering the lines of my translation so I could reference them in the essay. I uploaded the paper at around 23:00. 

            I relaxed for a while, did the dishes and got ready for bed. 

            Here is my essay: 

 The first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly – Cornish carol 

The Green Knight as the Balance Between Civilization and Nature

            In the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, lines 136 to 220 present the visual description of the Green Knight and his horse (Sir Gawain). Because alliteration is important to the meaning of this work but often lacking in the Broadview translation of this poem by James Winny, I have written my own translation of these lines. For this I have used the Gutenberg Middle English Dictionary online and also Middle English descendant words still in the lexicon of modern English, although sometimes rarely used (Webster’s). 

            The description of the Green Knight shows him to represent an idealized balance between man and nature. This equilibrium manifests itself in various ways: In the knight having the size and the physicality of a large animal contained in an admirable human body; in having the hue of a natural forest while at the same time wearing the colour of the wealth that men oppose nature to obtain; in being a rider in harmony with what would be a wild horse for any other man; and finally between battle readiness and an inclination toward peace. 

            The narrator declares of the Green Knight that he is “on Earth’s mound the most high in all measure" and so his size exceeds that of King Arthur, his men or of anyone else in the world (Christian 137). But he is also stronger as is shown by the fact that “the steel of a strong staff” of the knight’s large battle axe “was gripped by the stern (Christian 214).” His size and his might inspire the speculation that “half ogre on Earth that I gather he was / but mostly a man I mind him to have been” indicating that the Green Knight straddles the scales between being a manlike monster of pre-civilization and being a man as the speaker understands men to be (Christian 140-141). But the knight’s monstrosity stands in contrast to his beauty for he is “the merriest of massive men” whose features are attractively arranged and “follow that form that he had (Christian 142, 145).” And so all in one form the Green Knight is balanced as both the beauty and the beast. 

            In the Green Knight’s appearance we find the most striking symmetry of opposites. Although inhumanly large, he has human form, yet his man’s body is “all over fully green”, which is the colour of the natural world (Christian 150). He wears also “all garbs in green … and all the enamelled metal was thus / the stirrups he stood on were stained of the same (151, 169-170).” And even much of his jewellery “glimmered and glinted all full of green stones (Christian 172)”. So the verdancy of his body and his adornments present us with a being who seems to be the embodiment of nature. But this characteristic is interwoven, sometimes literally, with a colour that is more often associated with civilized humanity’s workings against the natural world. 

            The Green Knight’s clothing, metalwork and jewellery are often intricately married with gold such as the “gay gaudies of green each in the middle of gold (Christian 167).” But a more distinct example of this wedding of wealth and nature is found in the treatment of his horse’s mane. It is “well curled and combed with full many knots / folded in with fine gold thread about the fair green / always a herl of the hair and another of gold (Christian 188-190).” Another similar decoration of the steed’s coiffure adds “many bright bells of burnished gold” to the “tail and his topping … bound both with a band of bright green (Christian 191-192, 195).” Finally the Green Knight’s battleaxe has a “grip all of green steel and of hand hewn gold (Christian 211).” And so here we have a being that lives the best of both worlds. He acquires the opulence of fine crafted gold while at the same time being at one with nature. 

            The Green Knight’s synthesis with nature is most pronounced in his relationship with his horse, which is also “fern hued of that ilk (Christian 173)”. That his stallion is of the same colour as he it indicates that each of the two are a piece of the same entity. And yet even in this harmonious relationship the horse resists the knight’s control while at the same time giving in to his will. “A green horse great and thick / a steed full strong to restrain / that battled the bridle quick / but his rider held him in rein (Christian 175-178).” This shows that a balance between humanity and nature can exist, but only with a slight imbalance, with a tension of spirited resistance over which the knight is always ready to maintain control. 

            This balancing of tensions by the Green Knight is finally exemplified in the manner in which he arrives at King Arthur’s court, ready for both friendship and war. He carries in one hand a symbol of peace in the form of a bob or cluster of holly, and in the other a fearsome battle axe (Christian 206-210). The holly like the knight is always green, and the knight is somewhat similar to the Holly King in British folklore. It is significant that Arthur and his knights are celebrating Christmas and in arriving with the holly the Green Knight brings something from pagan times into this civilized setting.

            Mirroring this same balance of accord and contention is the way that this larger than life entity comes to a gathering of warriors without any armour and is therefore uniquely vulnerable (Christian 203-205). He is both fearsome and at the same time defenceless. 

            The Green Knight personifies an alliance between civilization and nature. He displays the beauty of human accomplishment while riding the spirited horse of the natural world and tanning in that realm’s green light. He is balance and yet his arrival and presence unbalances the court of King Arthur. He comes as a living reminder to kings and lawmakers that balance is required and that we all need to become a little more green if we don’t want to lose our heads. 

    

            Translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight lines 136-220 Copyright Christian Christian 

            … an awesome master On Earth’s mound the most high in all measure

            From neck stem to hip sides so thick set and square 

            And his legs and his limbs so long and so great 

            Half ogre on Earth that I gather he was                                                        140 

            But mostly a man I mind him to have been 

            And to eye the merriest of massive men that might ride 

            For his back and his breast were all strong on his body 

            Both his womb and his waist were worthily small 

            And all his features followed that form that he had                                     145 

                                    Fit clean; 

                        But on his hue men looked with wonder 

                        Set in his semblance seen 

                        This fearsome freakish warrior

                        was all over fully green                                                                    150 

 

            And all garbs in green this guy did he wear  

            A straight-coat full stretched that stuck on his sides 

            A merry mantle over, matted within 

            with expert pure peltwork of a piece that fit clean  

            of blithe badger full bright, and also his hood                                              155 

            that was lifted from his locks and laid on his shoulders 

            His well haled hose were the same 

            That shrunk tight to his shins with comely spurs below 

            Of bright gold on silk bands richly embroidered 

            And shoeless under shanks where he rides his cheval                                 160 

            And all his vestment verily was pure verdure 

            Both the bars of his belt and other blithe stones 

            That were richly arranged in radiant array 

            In silk work about himself and his saddle 

            T’would be too tough for to tell of half the trifles                                       165 

            embroidered above with birds and butterflies 

            with gay gaudies of green each in the middle of gold 

            The pendants of his strapping, the proud crupper, 

            his mullen, and all the enamelled metal was thus 

            the stirrups he stood on were stained of the same                                        170 

            and his saddle arch all after and his atheling skirts 

            that ever glimmered and glinted all full of green stones 

            the foal that he fit on was fern hued of that ilk 

                                    certain 

                         A green horse great and thick                                                          175 

                         A steed full strong to restrain 

                         that battled the bridle quick 

                         but his rider held him in rein 

            Well gay was this guy geared in green

            and the hair on his head well suited his horse                                              180 

            Fair fanning fax enfolded his shoulders 

            A beard big as a bush hung over his breast 

            That was reached by his handsome hair from his head

            It was edged all around above his elbows 

            So the top half of his arms were hid in the way                                           185 

            Of a king's hooded cape that covered his neck 

            The mane of that man’s horse was much like it  

            Well curled and combed with full many knots 

            Folded in with fine gold thread about the fair green 

            Always a herl of the hair and another of gold                                              190 

            The tail and his topping were twined in the same suit 

            And bound both with a band of bright green 

            Dubbed with dear costing stones to the end of the dock 

            And then thrawed with a thong in a twirl-knot aloft 

            On which many bright bells of burnished gold rang                                    195 

            Such a foal on Earth’s fold nor fellow as rider 

            Was never seen in that salon with sight ere that time 

                                    With eyes 

                        His look was lightning and light 

                        So said all that him spied                                                                  200 

                        It seemed that no man might 

                        Under his dints not die 

            Yet he had no helmet and no hauberk neither 

            no neck piece nor no plate that pertained to arms

            nor no shield nor no shaft none to shove and to smite                                 205

            but in his one hand he had a holly bob 

            like those greatest of green when groves are bare 

            and an axe in the other so huge and unmet 

            a spine chilling sparth and whoso might expound in a spell

            would say the head had the length of a yard                                                210 

            the grip all of green steel and of hand hewn gold

            the blade burnished bright with a broad edge 

            as well shapen to shear as a sharpened razor

            the steel of a strong staff was gripped by the stern

            that was wound with iron around the wand’s end                                        215

            and all engraved with green in gracious work 

            a lace lapped about that locked at the head 

            and so along the handle hitched often around 

            with attractive tassels thereto attached just enough 

            on buttons of bright green embroidered so rich                                           220 

 Works Cited

“A Concise Dictionary of Middle English.” Gutenberg.org, 

           https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10625/10625-h/dict1.html, accessed 17 October 2020. Christian, Christian. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. Translation, University of Toronto. 2020, lines 136-220.

           Unpublished manuscript. 

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise edition, 

           Volume A, 3rd Edition, Edited by Black Joseph, L. Conolly, K. Flint, I. Grundy, D. LePan, R. 

           Liuzza, J. McGann, A. Prescott, B. Qualls, C. Waters, Broadview, 2019, pp. 230-232, lines 136-

           220. 

Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary. Unabridged, Second edition, The World Publishing 

           Company, Cleveland and New York, 1968.