Gawain

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Gawain (pronounced /ˈgɔːwɪn/ or /gəˈweɪn/; also called Gwalchmei, Gawan, Gauvain, Walewein, etc.) is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He is almost always portrayed as the son of Arthur's sister Morgause (or Anna) and King Lot of Orkney and Lothian, and his brothers are Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Mordred. In some works he has sisters as well. Gawain is often portrayed as a formidable but brash warrior, fiercely loyal to his king and family. He is a friend to young knights, a defender of the poor, and a consummate ladies' man. In some works, his strength waxes and wanes with the sun; in the most common form of this motif, his might triples by noon, but fades as the sun sets. His knowledge of herbs makes him a great healer, and he is credited with at least three children: Florence, Lovell, and Gingalain, the last of which is also called Libeaus Desconus or Le Bel Inconnu, the Fair Unknown. In later Welsh Arthurian literature, Gawain is considered synonymous with the native champion Gwalchmei.

Gwalchmei

Gawain is commonly considered identical with the Welsh hero known as Gwalchmei ap Gwyar. Gwalchmei was a traditional hero of Welsh legend, but his popularity greatly increased after foreign versions, particularly those derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, became known in Wales.^[1] The early romance Culhwch and Olwen associated with the Mabinogion ascribes to Gwalchmei the same relationship with Arthur that Gawain is later given: he Arthur's sister's son and one of his leading warriors.^[2] However, he is mentioned only twice in the text; once in the extensive list of Arthur's court towards the beginning of the story, and again as one of the "Six Helpers" who Arthur sends with the protagonist Culhwch on his journey to find his love Olwen.^[1] Unlike the other helpers he takes no further part in the action, suggesting he was added to the romance later under the influence of the Welsh versions of Geoffrey's Historia.^[1] Still, Gwalchmei was clearly a traditional figure; other early references to him include the Welsh Triads; the Englynion y Beddau (Stanzas of the Graves), which lists the site of his grave; the Trioedd y Meirch (Triads of the Horses), which praises his horse Keincaled (known as Gringolet to later French authors); and Cynddelw's elegy for Owain Gwynedd, which compares Owain's boldness to that of Gwalchmei.^[2] In the Welsh Triads, Triad 4 lists him as one of the "Three Well-Endowed Men of the Isle of Britain" (probably referring to his inheritance),^[3] while Triads 75^[4] and 91^[5] praise his generosity to guests and his fearlessness, respectively. Some versions of Triads 42^[6] and 46^[7] also praise his horse Keincaled, echoing the Triads of the Horses.

Scholars are not entirely convinced that the later character of Gawain is derived from the Welsh Gwalchmei ap Gwyar, but later Welsh writers clearly thought this was the case; the name "Gwalchmei" consistently substitutes for "Gawain" in Cymric translations and adaptations of foreign works, such as the Welsh Romances of the Mabinogion. The name itself is the subject of speculation; in Welsh, the term gwalch translates as falcon or hawk, but both mei and the alternate mai are more obscure. They may be archaic petrified genitives of Middle Welsh ma, meaning "plain, field" (from Brythonic *magos, genitive *magesos), but the exact relationship is debated.^[2] Mai is the modern Welsh name for the month of May, leading to the popular speculation that the name means "Hawk of May," but this derivation is unlikely.^[2] Additionally, not all scholars accept the gwalch derivation; noted Celticist John Koch has suggested the name could be derived from a Brythonic original *Wolcos Magesos, "Wolf/Errant Warrior of the Plain."^[8] At any rate the spelling "Gwalchmai" has become popular, and there is a small village in Anglesey called Gwalchmai, probably named after the 12th-century bard Gwalchmai ap Meilyr.

The Gwyar (meaning "gore"^[9] or "spilled blood/bloodshed"^[10]) in Gwalchmei ap Gwyar is likely the name of Gwalchmei's mother, rather than his father as is the standard in the Welsh Triads.^[11] Matronyms were sometimes used in Wales, as in the case of Math fab Mathonwy and Gwydion fab Dôn, and were also fairly common in early Ireland.^[11] Gwyar is named as a female, a daughter of Amlawdd Wledig, in one version of the hagiographical genealogy Bonedd y Saint, while the 14th-century Birth of Arthur substitutes Gwyar for Geoffrey's Anna as Gwalchmei/Gawain's mother.^[12] Other sources do not follow this substitution, however, indicating that Gwyar and Anna/Morgause originated independently.^[13]

Gawain in early literature

In the Gesta Regum Anglorum of around 1120, William of Malmesbury records that Gawain's grave had been uncovered in Pembrokeshire during the reign of William the Conqueror, and writes that the great nephew of Arthur had been driven from his kingdom by Hengest's brother, though he continued to harry them severely.^[14]

Gawain is a major character in the Arthurian section of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, where he is a superior warrior and potential heir to the throne until he is tragically struck down by Mordred's forces. Several later works expand on Geoffrey's mention of Gawain's boyhood spent in Rome, the most important of which is the anonymous Medieval Latin romance The Rise of Gawain, Nephew of Arthur, which describes his birth, boyhood and early adventures leading up to his knighting by his uncle.^[15]

The sheer amount of later works featuring him speaks to his popularity; he is an important character in most of Chrétien de Troyes' romances, functioning as a model of chivalry to whom the protagonist is compared and contrasted. His role in the unfinished Perceval, the Story of the Grail is so substantial that some commenters have wondered if his adventures were originally meant to form a separate book. However, Chrétien's title hero usually proves morally superior to Gawain, who follows the rules of courtliness and chivalry to the letter rather than the spirit.

Gawain in French literature

Gawain unwittingly fights Ywain, from Chrétien's Knight of the Lion

A large number of romances in French appeared in Chrétien's wake, and Gawain was portrayed in various ways. Sometimes he is the hero, sometimes he aids the hero, sometimes he is the subject of burlesque humor. In the Vulgate Cycle, he is depicted as a proud and worldly knight who demonstrates through his failures the danger of neglecting the spirit for the futile gifts of the material world. On the Grail quest, his intentions are always the purest, but he is unable to use God's grace to see the error in his ways. Later, when his brothers Agravain and Mordred plot to destroy Lancelot and Guinevere by exposing their love affair, Gawain tries to stop them. When Guinevere is sentenced to burn at the stake and Arthur deploys his best knights to guard the execution, Gawain nobly refuses to take part in the deed even though his brothers will be there. But when Lancelot returns to rescue Guinevere, a battle between Lancelot's and Arthur's knights ensues and Gawain's brothers, except for Mordred, are killed. This turns his friendship with Lancelot into hatred, and his desire for vengeance causes him to draw Arthur into a war with Lancelot in France. In the king's absence, Mordred usurps the throne, and the Britons must return to save Britain. Gawain is mortally wounded in battle against Mordred's armies, and writes to Lancelot apologizing for his actions and asking for him to come to Britain to help defeat Mordred.

In the Prose Tristan and the Post-Vulgate Cycle Gawain is a villain and a murderer. This depiction was not as popular in subsequent literature, however, as this type of generic evil does not make for a very good hero or foil for a hero, or indeed even an interesting villain. For the most part Gawain remained an honorable if flawed champion.

Gawain in English literature

For the English and Scottish, Gawain remained a respectable and heroic figure. He is the subject of several romances and lyrics in the dialects of those countries, and his reputation remained untarnished perhaps through a reluctance to follow the French in portraying a British knight negatively. He is the hero of one of the greatest works of Middle English literature, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where he is portrayed as an excellent, but human, knight. In The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, his wits, virtue and respect for women frees his wife, a loathly lady, from her curse of ugliness. Other important English Gawain romances include The Awntyrs off Arthure (The Adventures of Arthur) and The Avowyng of Arthur.

These glowing portraits of Gawain all but ended with Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is based mainly, but not exclusively, on French works from the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles. Here Gawain retains the negative characteristics attributed to him by the later French, and the popularity of Malory's work ensured that most post-medieval English-language writing would retain those characteristics. Nonetheless, Gawain is cited in Robert Laneham's letter describing the entertainments at Kenilworth in 1575,^[16] and the recopying of earlier works such as The Greene Knight suggests that a popular tradition of Gawain continued. The Child Ballads include a preserved legend in the positive light, The Marriage of Sir Gawain a fragmentary version of the story of The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, and recently, many writers have returned to the old English and Welsh sources and found a much more heroic Gawain. The character appears in a positive light in novels like Gillian Bradshaw's Hawk of May, Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex, and Stephen R. Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle. He is also the subject of Harrison Birtwhistle's and David Harsent's opera Gawain.

Notes

References

• Bromwich, Rachel (2006). Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain. University Of Wales Press. ISBN 0-7083-1386-8.
• Busby, Keith (1991). "Gawain." In Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4377-4.
• Koch, John T. (1995). "The Celtic Lands." In N. J. Lacy (ed.), Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Recent Research, pp. 239-322. New York.
• Pughe, William Owen (1832). A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, Explained in English. London. Online
• Rhys, John (2004 [1901]). Studies in the Arthurian Legend. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-8915-5.
• Wilhelm, James J. (1994). The Romance of Arthur. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8153-1511-2.

External links

• Gawain page at the Camelot Project
• Dr. Anthony Colaianne, Chris Baugh - Medieval English Narrator - listen to recorded excerpts of Medieval English literature with text alongside for translation help. Several excerpts from Sir Gawain.
• Sir Gawain page including online translation
• Timeless Myths: Sir Gawain