The Marriage of Sir Gawain

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE

Country or Culture: England

Genre: Legend

PLOT SUMMARY

Maud Isabel Ebbutt’s “The Marriage of Sir Gawayne” begins at King Arthur’s court during the Christmas season. A bored Arthur upbraids his knights for their sloth, threatening to stay at the table “till some adventure be undertaken” (267). As the knights defend themselves against this charge, a sobbing maiden appears before them and begs for vengeance on a giant who drove away her lover and mistreated her in his castle. When the giant released her, he mocked her threat of justice at the hands of King Arthur.

Provoked by the report of the giant’s scorn, King Arthur sets forth the next day to challenge him, but the giant’s magic powers disable the king. The giant then offers to release the king on the condition that he returns on New Year’s Day with the correct answer to the question, “What thing is it that all women most desire?” (270). The humiliated king has no choice but to accept the terms, and he travels around the land, receiving all manner of responses as women relate to him their desire for wealth, beautiful clothing, handsome lovers, and so forth. Sensing that he has not yet received the right answer, the king sadly returns at the appointed time. On the way, he meets a hideously ugly old woman. After he apologizes for ignoring her, she promises to reveal the true answer if he agrees to give her whatever she requests. King Arthur accepts her offer, is told the correct reply, and returns to the giant, who is enraged to realize that his own sister has betrayed him by revealing the answer. The king departs and returns to the loathly lady who requests that Arthur find a young, brave, handsome, and courteous knight to marry her. Utterly dejected, Arthur returns to his castle at Carlisle, where his nephew Sir Gawain (here spelled “Gawayne”) gallantly offers to marry the hag.

The next day, Arthur arranges a hunting party to keep his knights from noticing their journey to transport the loathly lady to the castle. Unfortunately, Sir Kay notices the lady’s scarlet dress and proceeds to mock and deride her, but Sir Gawain interrupts to defend the lady’s dignity. Arthur is forced to reveal his promise to provide a handsome and courteous knight as the husband for the lady, and Gawain again nobly steps forward as Kay persists with his bad manners. The knights bring the lady back to Carlisle, where a somber wedding ensues, but Gawain’s courtesy ensures that no one dares to be disrespectful of his new wife.

Later that evening in the bedroom, Gawain’s sadness prompts the lady to question his silence. Turning toward her, Gawain is amazed to find a beautiful young maiden with black eyes and long curly hair. She explains that a witch has cast a spell on her that transforms her into a hideous old woman for half of each day, and Gawain must choose whether to have her “fair by day and ugly by night, or hideous by day and beauteous by night” (282). Gawayne first chooses to have her true form at night, but when the lady explains the disadvantages of this choice, he quickly changes his mind. She again points out the problems with his second choice, at which point he offers to allow her to decide. She immediately rejoices and informs him that with this answer, he has completely broken the spell and restored her true form. She then explains that her father had married a witch, who cast a spell on her and her brother. Both are now free thanks to Gawain’s courtesy and wisdom. The next morning, the happy couple present themselves to the court, and all rejoice at the blissful news.

SIGNIFICANCE

Ebbutt’s early twentieth-century version heightens the moral tone of this medieval English story, which was originally a parody of romance tales and ideology. In some medieval versions, often called simply “The Loathly Lady,” the element of parody is evident in details such as the hag’s bad manners at her own wedding, which offend everyone. Furthermore, the idea of actual female sovereignty was likely considered a joke in the Middle Ages, a humorous commentary on the tension between the sexes in an era in which male dominance was assumed as part of the proper order of society. For a medieval audience, the fantasy of female sovereignty came from tales of romance and courtly love, or more accurately, fin amor (pure love), according to which brave knights swore to serve their ladies, analogous to how such knights took oaths to serve their lords in war. The idea of serving one’s lady, however, was more of a narrative ideology than a reality: a knight served his lady to prove his courtliness, but men did not grant sovereignty to women in the way that Gawain does for the hag, whose appearance was likely a source of humor as well. One famous version of the story appears in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, where the incontrovertible Wife of Bath tells the story as a way of displaying her desire for both power and traditional romance.

Ebbutt wrote in a period in which many anthologists greatly desired to recast legends and fairy tales in didactic terms as part of a movement to create national cultural identities, a movement that evolved in part through the revival of traditional popular stories. With this goal, Ebbutt discards the humorous details and heightens the moral tone by, for example, beginning the story with a preface emphasizing the rare value of not just courtesy but “gentle courtesy” (265)—that is, the respectful treatment of maidens and others of lower status. Gone is the loathly lady’s uncouth behavior, which Ebbutt replaces with details like Kay’s ungracious mockery that Arthur must finally interrupt by threatening him with banishment. With these details, Ebbutt transforms Gawain into a true hero and exalts with a new seriousness the virtues of courtesy and loyalty to all who merit such respect.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Selected Canterbury Tales: A New Verse Translation. Trans. Sheila Fisher. New York: Norton, 2011. Print.

Ebbutt, M. I. “The Marriage of Sir Gawayne.” Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race. London: Harrap, 1920. 265–85. Print.

Hahn, Thomas. Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Pub., 1995. Print.

Matthews, John. Sir Gawain: Knight of the Goddess. Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2003. Print.

Passmore, Elizabeth S., and Susan Carter. The English “Loathly Lady” Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Pub., 2007. Print.