27870844

A Knight of God or the Goddess?
: Rethinking Religious Syncretism in "Sir Gawain and the

Green Knight"
Author(s): LARISSA TRACY
Source: Arthuriana, Vol. 17, No. 3 (FALL 2007), pp. 31-55
Published by: Scriptorium Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27870844
Accessed: 15-12-2015 23:50 UTC
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A Knight of God or theGoddess?:
Rethinking Religious Syncretism in
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
LARISSA TRACY
An analysisof thepentangle and ofMorgan le Fay inSGGKsuggests
that the poem is neither a reaffirmation of Christianity nor a tool of
conversion, but a of inwhich and

poem religious synthesis paganism
non-Christian the Kabbalah?are as
ideologies?like Jewish presented
parallels toChristianity,notwholly appropriatedor obliterated. (LT)
modernpublicationin 1839,
itsfirst SirGawain and theGreenKnight
Sincehas been interpreted as a purely Christian poem, one that embodies
the rational virtues of Christian chivalry and righteousness1 or penitential
doctrine.2 In the poem, the evil sorceress,3 or reformer of sexual immorality,4
orchestrates an evil plot to test the renown and reputation ofArthur s court
and, if she is lucky, to kill her archrival Guinevere. But over the years, scholars
have illuminated themulti-faceted nature ofmedieval society, demonstrating
thatmedieval literature does not necessarily fit into a dominant Christian
mold from which all other religious traditions were erased.5 They have
broadened their view of theMiddle Ages and have begun to see a more
tolerant society where critics once saw a stubbornly and exclusively Christian
culture. Studies on magic inmedieval romances, persistent paganism, and
medieval Jewish mysticism have illuminated the connections between these
diverse traditions. Based on recent scholarship detailing the persistence of
medieval paganism and non-Christian religious philosophies, and more
enhanced readings of SGGK, I argue that the poem is neither a reaffirmation
of Christianity, nor a tool of conversion, but a poem of religious synthesis in
which paganism and other ideologies are presented as parallels toChristianity,
not wholly or obliterated. Unlike recent critical studies that
appropriated
focus entirely on theChristian aspects of the poem, or on the Celtic motifs
intertwined with theArthurian tradition, this article seeks to trace allusions
to other extant medieval a
religious philosophies thatmay be veiled criticism
of medieval religious intolerance. The depiction ofMorgan le Fay is crucial
to interpreting the as a of synthesis?where the rational
pentangle symbol
mind and soul are not only attributed toChristianity, but also to paganism
and Jewish mysticism in theKabbalah. In its points and lines the traditions
ARTHURIAN A 17.3 (2OO7)
31
32 ARTHURIANA
intertwine forming an endless knotte of religious synthesiswhere Christian

meaning is applied to a symbol with multi-layered significance. Taken in
the context of the Green Knight, the extensive discourse on the natural
world, and the portrayal of the tripartite goddess inMorgan le Fay, the
an ancient symbol towhich Christian values and virtues
pentangle becomes
not to to reinforce
have been applied, replace the pagan significance, but
the similariries between different religious traditions and perhaps challenge
the contemporary persecution of other religious groups throughout Europe.
This is not to deny the Chrisrian symbolism of SGGK but to illuminate its
relationship with the pagan and non-Christian past fromwhich irdraws its
inspiration.
This past has long been obscured and overlooked by criricswho insist on
a unilaterally Chrisrian
theology, but other traditions persisred and permeate
the fabric of medieval thought and poetry. The pagan world of the Celts
was a not-so-distant memory, and ourside of Church and urban centers local
folklore and superstition thrived. The Gawain-poet, or
despite, perhaps
because of, his likely clerical vocation, would have been aware of local lore
as well as access to texts of continental
having philosophy, such as those
translated and imbedded in theworks of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225?1274).
Just as Aquinas incorporates elements in his theory of natural law drawn
from Platonism, Aristotle, Roman law, Stoicism, and theChristian Fathers,6
the Gawain-poet interweaves some of those same ideas with beliefs from
local pagan tradition, Jewish mystical teachings of theKabbalah, and other
into a new Christian of older, established
ideologies interpretation symbols.
Much likeChaucer's satirical references to alchemy, Islam, and Judaism in the
a
Canterbury Tales, theGawain-pott may be issuing challenge to his audience
for a sense of religious tolerance, inheritance, and continuity
through the
synthesis of these beliefs in the reinterprerarion of the pentangle.
The interpretation of signs was farmore murable in themedieval mind,
so the new
pentangle could be given meaning without contradicting itsother
traditions. This does not seem impossible for a poet described as provincial,
but highly sophisticated, who was well acquainted both with the international
culture of the high Middle Ages and with ancient native traditions/ 7The
poet goes to great lengths to explain theChristian significance of this symbol,
which isunknown in any other medieval English literaryworks,
inrerrupring
his narrative with a forty-three-line (623-65)
description, carefully, almost
pedantically, expounding the symbolism of the pentangle/8 It is the sign
that Solomon set,
'In bytoknyng of trawê, bi tytleât hit habbe3,

For hit is a figurefcathalde3 fyue poynte3,
And vche lynevmbelappe3 and louke3 in o|3er,
And ayquere hit is eindele3, and inEnglych hit callen,
RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM IN SGGK 33
Oucral, as I here, \>zendcles knot*

[To be a token of truth,by its titleof old, /For it is a figure formed
of five points, /And each line is linked and lockedwith the next /
For ever and ever, and hence it is called / In all England, as I hear, the
endless knot.] (626-30)9
to thepentangleas a signthat 'inEnglychhit callen/ thepoet

By referring
establishes the sign s local presence and folklore significance. He associates it
with the endless knots ofCeltic designs, visible and well known tomedieval
audiences in architecture and precious illuminated manuscripts. But then the
poet reinterprets the sign, inventing a Christian meaning for a well-known
pagan symbol associated with native English magic, the classical Greek idea
of perfection, and the mystical divine feminine of the Kabbalah found in
texts of theZohar in from the thirteenth century. The
circulating Europe
effect is a complex discourse on the nature of religious devotion and the
pitfalls of human frailty.
Most modern critics, including noted literary scholars J.R.R. Tolkien
and E.V. Gordon, agree that the appearance of the pentangle in this poem
is unique in English or Romance literature. Tolkien writes, 'Nothing like
the symbolism attributed to ithere is known anywhere else.. .The absence
of recordinEnglish isdoubtlessaccidental,for [thepoet] could hardlyhave
expected his audience to follow his description of the figure if they had never
seen it.noThis assumes local
knowledge and recognition, though there are few
extant examples of it; one architectural
specimen dates from the eleventh or
twelfth century and another appears in a manuscript illumination from the
Tiptoft Missal, produced inEngland circa 1325.11 A pentangle appears in the
center of a astronomical
fifteenth-century English diagram.12 Pentagrams
appear on the tombstones of Knights Templar in theClaustro da Lavagem
in the Convento de Cristo in Tomar,
Portugal, built in 1162, and on the
fa?ade of the nearby Church of Santa Maria do Olival. A pentagram was
used on the seal of theCarmelite Priory ofAberdeen in the fifteenth century,
but thatmay have been a result of the poem s exposition of the s
pentangle
Christian virtues. As literature scholar R.H. Green says, the is
pentangle
'as old as history and as ubiquitous as the gammadion/ but the device 'is
very rare in theMiddle Ages/13 Despite its apparent rarity, the Gawain-poct
felt itwas themost appropriate symbol for
tying together the threads of his
and Gawain's a
story representing virtues, according it prominent place in
the narrative as the emblem on his shield, surcoat, and helm.14
The pentangle has a problematic history; its
origins are obscure but
decidedly magical, which in turn presents difficulties for scholars convinced,
as noted critic R.S. Loomis that the
literary was, poet of SGGK'would have
been horrified by the accusation that he had
represented sympathetically a
custom of However, the poem retains more than brief
reeking paganism/15
34 ARTHURIANA
traces of was interested in

paganism, suggesting that the poet exploring the
similarities in religious traditions by applying overt Christian interpretation
to to illustrate the confluence of these ideas. Green
recognized pagan symbols
a detailed of the
gives history pentangle, also called thepentalpha, pentagram,
as the poet does, with
andpentacle, associating the symbol, King Solomon: 'a
syngefcatSalamon setsumquyle'[a signbySolomon sagelydevised] (625).16
The association with Solomon seems to be historically inaccurate; however, it
is amistake perpetuated during theMiddle Ages. In the kabbalistic tradition,
the sign of Solomon is the star that has come to
Magen David, the six-pointed
represent Judaism as awhole. But the is
many centuries older than
pentangle
the hexagram. Itwas firsr seen on ancienr Sumerian pottery.17The pentangle
is not found in the Bible, nor is it associated with Solomon inmedieval art
or literature, but it is found in the latemedieval books of
magic associated
with his name that were known and occasionally described as idolatrous
books of necromancy.18 However, most of these books, such as the Table
or to Solomon, coincide with
of Solomon and the Clavicula Salomonis Key
the composition of the poem or appear after itwas written. According ro
historian Richard Kieckhefer, 'almost all surviving sources for such magic
date from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries/19 The poets use of the
an
pentangle reflecrs accepred tradition of itsmagical properties sinceGawain
relies on it,with the Virgin Mary, to protect him from harm. Dante uses
a pentagon in the Convivio to illustrate man s natural perfection, and the
so
pentagon is associated in biblical tradirion wirh Solomon,20 perhaps the
is rhe same a similar
Gawain-poet merely drawing parallels using geometric
symbol. But the pentangle goes beyond the geometric significance of the
pentagon. Early-twentieth-century critic J.R. Hulbert says the ideas attached
to itderive from two sources?Semiric legend and Greek philosophy.21 The
star is the mans
five-pointed Pythagorean symbol for perfection and health,
and it has associations with hermetic tradition, though it is not one of its
as an amulet.22 It appears
primary symbols. The Gnosrics used the symbol
in conjunction with a runic inscriprion of themystical SATOR-acrostic on a
fourteenth-century cup found inGotland,23 which suggests that the symbol

was as a Middle
widely known and used magical device throughout the
in Christian terms, including the
Ages. The acrostic has been interpreted
five wounds of Christ, and appears in the margins of multiple medieval
manuscriprs like the early-rhirreenrh-century Oxford MS Bodleian Digby
53. In rhe same way, rhe poet adds a layer of Christian meaning to the
and infuses it
with a grearer that
pentangle significance suggesting, perhaps,
be inrerconnected and interrwined, and rhar one should
religious ideologies
nor flourish ar rhe expense of other, older traditions.
first texts
Among these older traditions is themystical JewishKabbalah, the
of which were written circa 1200 and were rransmirted throughout Europe
well into the Renaissance, when various scholars and occult philosophers
on was used
adopted it in their discourses religion and magic. The pentangle
as a kabbalistic talisman of all of Earth, of Air, of
protection 'against perils
Water, and of Fire*24 among others. Sign theorist Ross Arthur writes that the
pentangle inSGGKsharcs the essential features of'the speculative geometers'
endless figures. It too iswithout beginning or end, and it is simultaneously
unified and composite, and it is a contradiction in terms.'25It is also associated
with earlier magical traditions as the symbol of natural perfection, and, at
some orAshtoreth,
point, itbecame the symbol of the pagan goddess Astarte
the Palestinian fertilitygoddess worshipped by Solomon. Itmay have entered
intoCeltic pagan tradition through Roman influence. The Graeco-Roman
writers Caesar and Pomponius remarked on the similarities between Celtic
were reborn
theology and 'theGreek doctrine of Pythagoras, whereby souls
into new bodies.'26 It was also associated with the Druids.27 Through
a
religious synthesis, this symbol of magic rooted in the worship of both
divine feminine and divine masculine, the balanced Binah and Chokhmah
of the sefirotic Tree of Life in Jewish mysticism,28 becomes the symbol of
Christian perfection for themost Christian of medieval knights in SGGK.
In the same way, a symbol associated with natural and practical magic of
Celtic paganism became the symbol of Christian truth. Just as the lines of
thepentangleVmbelappe3and louke3inofcer'[linkedand lockedwith the
next] (628), so too do the various applications and religious interpretations.
The applied Christian significance of the pentangle cannot be untangled
from all its other associations. However, the poet was not merely blending
different traditions that had become sedimented into the poem's various
to combine traditions which seem
symbols. He appears deliberately opposed
to one other, and with which he may have been familiar vast
through the
corpus of texts the cohesion of
circulating throughout Europe, illustrating
ideas and beliefs in an almost mystical fashion.
religious
However the pentangle entered intoWestern symbolism, the enduring
use of the in is a
image magical tradition product of the twelfth century
that put the pentangle at the center 'of its interplay between scripture,
divine harmony, and mathematics,'29 the same way the poet makes it the
central symbol of Gawain's protective armor. Both Honorius ofAutun and
Hildegard of Bingen asserted 'that the human body is constructed upon the
basis of the number five' which 'made the five-pointed star the symbol of
the microcosmos, the earthly reflection of the divine plan and the divine
an assertion that is
image,'30 perhaps supported by the reference to one of
Gawain's five virtues?that he is faultless in his five fingers. Intertwined with
the residual elements of Celtic paganism, inwhich there are many figures
of feminine divinity, the pentacle may have become a symbol of the pagan
goddess, who occasionally appears inmedieval literature asMorgan le Fay.
36 ARTHURIANA
Historian Anne Ross suggests, 'in the case of the [Celtic] goddesses.. .there is
an so that
overlapping of the various culrs and symbols, complete segregation
becomes impossible.'31 Scholars also argue that theworship of divine female
figures inChristian theology,like thatof theVirginMary which peaked
in rhe rwelfth century, influenced rhe femininity of the shekhinah in the
Kabbalah, especially inProvence and northern Spain.32 The pentangle retains
itsmagical associations with a
goddess figure inmodern folklore and pagan
an association also made, it can be
religions, argued, by rhe Gawain-poety
who weaves into his narrative not one, but three worn byGawain
pentangles,
as his device,33 and who his tale with women?Guinevere, the
popul?res
Virgin Mary, Lady Bercilak?to whom Gawain offers service and devotion,
integrating the forms of female divinity from the pagan mythology, the
Kabbalah, and Chrisrian tradition and illustrating how, at their center, these
traditions share the same 'mother.'
As Arthur writes, 'we all know that the
pentangle, whatever its origin
and whatever its characteristics, means something about Gawain...But
medieval sign theorywas much less rigid and exclusive in some senses than
modern notions about meaning.'34 Symbolism, pagan or orherwise, was
the medium par excellence of religious and ritual expression and was the
preserve of initiates: historian Ludo Milis writes, '[Symbolism] is rarely
recorded in writing and itsmeaning is cerrainly never explicitly stated.'35
But the association of the pentangle with Christian symbolism would be a
natural evolution, as Hildegard of Bingen suggests, because of the common
property of the number five:36 rhe five wounds of Christ, the five senses,
rhe five joys, the five virrues, and the five
fingers. But the poet may have
a
intentionally taken symbol known for itsmagical properties and invented a
Chrisrian inrerpreration, focusing on the parallels and connecrions between
an effort to lessen the
religious traditions. This may have been tendency of
the medieval Church to view these ideas as heretical as the movement of
Chrisrian mysticism gained momentum, or as a subtle criricism of
religious
persecution carried out against Jews,Muslims, and other non-Christians or
branded heretics, like the Knights Templar, many of whom
sought refuge
in England after rhe general arresr in France in 1307. The works of John
Wyclif were officiallycondemnedby thePope in 1377.It is possible that
SGGK\s anotherlinkin thechainof religiousadaptation
markedby therise
of English mysticism, the Lollards, and theWycliffites of themid- to late
fourteenth century, within the twenty-five years allotted to the composition
of the poem. This is not to suggest that the poem is a Lollard text,
only that
the poet may have been influenced by rhe same rhreads of
religious thought
as the Lollards and Julian ofNorwich, who saw the divine as feminine and
Jesus as mother.
In his description of the the poet blends Pythagorean,

pentangle,
kabbalistic, Hermetic, Gnostic, Celtic pagan, and Christian ideology, and
in doing so presents Gawain not only as the ultimate Christian knight but
as a sense of theword.
knight of perfection in every
Fyrst,he wat3 funden fautle3 in his fyue wytte3,
And efte fayledneuer \>tfrcke in his fyuefyngrcs,
And alle his afyaunce vpon foldewat3 in \>cfyue wounde3
fjatCryst ka3t on J>ccroys, as \>cCrede telle3;
And queresoeuer \>ys mon inmelly wat3 stad,
His j^ro |3o3twat3 infcat,fcur?alle oJ>erbvnge3>
t>atalle his forsneshe fong at \>efyue joye3
f>att>ehende HeuenQuenc had of hir Chylde.
[And first,he was faultless in his five senses,

Nor found ever to fail in his five fingers,
And all his fealrywas fixed upon the fivewounds
That Christ got on the cross, as the creed tells;
And wherever thisman inmelee took part,
His one thoughtwas of this,past all things else,
That all his forcewas founded on the five joys
That the highQueen of heaven had in her child.] (640-47)
Gawain becomes a synthesis of all existing traditions of the medieval

an
period, amalgamation of these ideas of perfection and humanity. The
symbols and motifs ofCeltic paganism were firmly rooted inEnglish tradition
by the fourteenth century; the philosophy of theGreeks, including Aristotle,
had been translated and incorporated intoChristian theology and natural law
by numerous theologians and philosophers likeAquinas; and the influence
of theKabbalah and theZohar spread slowly in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries.37 As early as the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries,
out the similarities between Judaism
theologians in northern Spain pointed
and Christianity. In his Pugio fidei, Raymundus Martini (1194-^.1270),
maintained that both theTalmudic haggadah and midrash already bore signs
of Christianity and could be given Christian interpretation/38Even though
Martini was unaware of the Kabbalah that 'burgeoned before his eyes/39
later philosophers such as Count Pico della Mirandola fully intertwined the
The originsofChristianKabbalah can be
Kabbalah andChristian theology.
traced toMirandola s 900 conclusiones, or theses, on a 'Christian
synthesis of
all religions and sciences/ 40Even thoughMirandola was writing in i486, the
core of his work circulated
religious ideology that forms the freely throughout
one hundred years earlier.
Europe Bilingual Hebrew-Latin manuscripts,
present in England prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1209, continued to
be studied throughout the lateMiddle Ages, a practice that permitted 'both
an access to Hebrew
understanding of Hebrew grammar and consequent
38 ARTHURIANA
the
religious texts.*41English mystic Julian of Norwich may have adopted
kabbalistic ideasof thedivine feminineintoher Shewings(1373).42In the
tradition of religious mystics, theGawain-poet employs symbols 'to describe
his own experience and to formulate his interpretation of it...setting out
to confirm The definition of the
religious authority by reinterpreting it.*43
in Christian terms could be read simply as a reaffirmation of firmly
pentangle
held Christian beliefs; however, rhis could also signal the poets innovation in
to a
applying Christian and chivalric values symbol traditionally associated
with pagan superstition and older religious traditions. It is not beyond the
realm of possibility that the Gawain-poet had access to these texts and
those of earlier religious philosophies thatwere being transmitted and hotly
debated among the universities of Europe. While theCeltic meaning of the
and the have been sedimented into the symbols
pentangle goddess-figure may
of SGGK, the poet goes beyond mere interpretation. He adapts meanings for
these symbols from other traditions and adds another layer of significance to
them, deliberately synthesizing a Christian meaning for the pentangle where
one did not exist before. He
applies theChristian interpretation and alludes
to the others, from a
creating seemingly opposing ideas unified form.
In order to develop fully this reading of the poem, it is necessary to
reexamine modern assumptions about the nature of Christianity and pagan
suppression in theMiddle Ages. Most early medievalists, such as Hulbert,
on rhe
operared premise that Christianity cancelled out paganism and
destroyed it
wherever itwas found. But recent scholars have shown that not
did continue to exist in theMiddle
only paganism Ages, but that magic
was an of medieval life and beliefs. Thus it is possible to look
integral part
at the and the of the Green le Fay
pentangle figures Knight and Morgan
as but not malevolent motifs, of a that embraced
magical, products sociery
elements of a pagan past and reinterpreted them along its own religious
lines. Though Gawain thinks of the Green Knight as a fiend forwhom it
is fitting to 'Dele here his deuocioun on ê deuele3 wyse' [Hold here his
orisons, in hells own style!] (2192), neither he norMorgan are described in
devilish terms, and both attend mass and Christian rituals frequently and
faithfully throughout the text.The pagan supernatural elements in SGGK
coexist with Christianity. Historian Annick Waegeman writes: 'In theMiddle
were taken as amatter of course and
Ages.. .supernatural experiences helped
define reality.*44In her detailed study on magic inmedieval romance, literary
scholar Michelle Sweeney provides evidence for a world inwhich magic and
Christian traditions are intertwined, challenging the assumption thatmagical
motifs were associated with demonic practices:
a prior
The interdependent nature of many of the romances indicates
widespread appreciation for a conclusion enabled by their authors'
magic,
obvious assumptions. The place ofmagic in the text is rarelyexplained; the
audience is assumed to be familiar with characters.. .If the romance

magical
is to achieve maximum the audience must be conversant
impact, already
with magical motifs.45
The magical past of the pentangle has been difficult formany modern
critics to reconcile, especially in light of the concurrent Christian symbolism.
Arthurian scholars Albert Friedman and Richard Osberg acknowledge that
the Christian significance of the pentangle was invented by the poet, but
would have
they also suggest that the magical properties of the pentangle
been unknown to the poets audience in any form:
The poet has taken a dubious necromancers or, more correctly, nigromancers
a
sign and Christianized it, elaborating it ingeniously into comprehensive
pattern of his hero's perfection.The symbolism of the pentangle is artificial,
fabricared ad hoc for this poem, and has to be explained explicitly and
to
meticulously because the hearers have little in their culture that goes
meet it.
This reading directly contradicts H?lbens interpretation, which asserts that

the pentangle would have been well known to a medieval audience and its
As early as 1916,Hulbert made the connection
magical properties obvious.
between the pentangle and itsmagical properties, arguing that 'itwould
be clear enough to the people of the court that Gawayne had to deal with
some maleficent force, and they may have had this device painted on his
shield because itwas awell-known and powerful charm against evil forces.147
These perspectives represent two sides of the continuing debate about
one side which sees any as 'evil' that
religion in SGGK: magical association
is confronted and conquered by Christianity's best knight, and the other
which reads the poem as homage to Celtic paganism, infused with magic
and superstition. Both sides have built a valuable foundation for evaluating
the religious content of the poem. The Christian meaning is clear and the
Celtic influence has been well established, but neither interpretation is
exclusive. The poem has too many parallel elements to ignore some in favor
of elevating the others. There is no need to read SGGKzs a poem of
religious
conversion or doctrinal absolutism. The pentangle provides shades of beliefs
and endless possibilities.
It is not the pentangle that needs explanation, but the Christian
of it. For Hulbert, the use of the is perfectly
interpretation pentangle
natural. He accepts its presence, and the poet's failure to explain it, at face
value: 'the poet regarded the charm-properties of the device so obvious that
itwould be stupid to recount them, and so, expecting the reader to see at
once the fundamental meaning, gave the secondary interpretations.*48The
audience would have been familiar with itspagan and magical significance,
so the author, in an effort to demonstrate themulti-religious properties of
40 ARTHURIANA
the symbol and perhaps the confluence of religious tradition, invents the
of the relationship of
Christian reading. The poet takes 'full advantage
to
magic to philosophicaland religiousissuesof theday in order explore
the spiritual growth of a character.**9Gawain's spiritual growth is therefore
tied to the pentangle and the multi-layered piety it represents, enhancing
the acts of devotion and religious observance in the poem.
The synthesis of traditions is imbedded in the fabric of the poem, not
is no coincidence thatGawain receives
just in its symbols and characters. It
the challenge during the Christmas festivities, but does not announce his
intention to leave forhis quest in search of theGreen Chapel until Samhain,
All Hallows'Eve:
?et, quyl Al Hal day wythArjjer he lenges,
And he made a fareon Jsatfestfor \>cfreke3sake,
Wyth much reuel and rycheof pc Rounde Table
[TillAll-Hallows' Day with Arthur he dwells,

And he held a high feast to honor thatknight,
With great revels and rich,of theRound Table]. (536-38)
constructs a
Lynn Staley Johnson compelling discussion of the liturgical
progress of the poem and the association of the narrative events with the
out that the autumn 'as a
Christian calendar, pointing description of warning'
that reflects a sense of impending judgment' signifies 'time as a process of
context of the
decay.*50The validity of tracing theChristian feast days in the
poem cannot be ignored, but neither can the underlying pagan traditions
that served as the basis formany of those 'holy days.* All Hallows* Eve is a
on theChristian calendar, but, as the
significant day beginning of theCeltic
New Year, it is also the holiest day in pagan observance. It is the time 'atwhich
humans were most to divine and supernatural interference.*51
susceptible
Samhain is the Celtic god of the dead, and All Hallows' continues to be
as a so it is court prepares
celebrated feast of the dead, fitting thatArthur's
Gawain forwhat they believe will be his last journey on that day. Rather
thana joyouscelebrationof a knightfulfilling his quest, theAll Hallows'
feastismarked by courriersand ladies 'Alforlufoffcatlede in longyngeJây
were' [With sorrow for Sir Gawain were sore at heart] (540), who nevertheless
maintain a brave face for the knight they think isdoomed. The melancholic
feast is his funeral, and the dead the courtiers lament is their companion
and kinsman Gawain. The next day, the Feast ofAll Souls, Gawain asks for
his arms, decorated with his emblematic pentangle, and takes his leave. It
is his departure on this day, and the feast of the dead preformed for him on
All Hallows', rather than Pentecost, the holy day most commonly associated
with Arrhur's court, that tiesGawain to the supernarural realm over which
Morgan le Fay reigns.
as a for the challenge and the

Morgan, goddess, is ultimately responsible
text seems to as
quest. Her appearance in this be problematic for scholars
as the use and exposition of the pentangle. Early twentieth-century literary
scholar G.L. Kittredge says themotivation given for theGreen Knight s visit
toArthur's court, scaring Guinevere to death and testing the renown of the
Round Table, is 'the one weak spot in the superb English romance.^2 He
does refer toMorgan as the moving cause.. .of the entire plot,*53but he later
describes her as an intrusion, an idea upon which Friedman expands in his
i960 article where he analyzes Morgan as a purely malevolent character and
an indication of her evil
suggests that her ugliness in the poem be taken 'as
nature and sinful For many scholars she becomes the accident,
purposed4
the flaw in an otherwise flawless plot, the evil interloper who desires to
destroy the Round Table.
However, the poet does not describe her in those terms; rather she is *fc>at
wat3 alder \>cnho, an auncian, hit semed, /And he3ly honowred wyth hat>ele3
aboute' [That was older than she?an ancient, it seemed, /And held in high
honor by all men about] (948-49). She is compared with the younger woman,
but the poet is not harsh, and he specifies that she is 'Amensk lady on molde
mon may hircalle,forGode' [Abeldame,byGod, shemaywell be deemed]
(964-65). If shewere the evil sorceress Friedman insists that she is, then the
poet would not have taken such pains to portray her as an honorable figure,
worthy of veneration, and the pentangle, a recognized amulet against evil
spirits, would have been invoked to protect Gawain from her, her minion
the Green Knight, and her evil plots. As an old woman, Morgan takes the
of the crone, one of themanifestations of the Irish
place goddess M?rrfgan.
In Irish sagas, theM?rrfgan influences the outcome in battle by
striking fear
into the hearts ofwarriors, 'appearing at one moment as
terror-inspiring hags,
at the next as beautiful women.*55 Lorraine Stock furthers this connection,
stone set inwalls and churches, Sheela-na
arguing that the carved figures
gigs, could be iconographie analogues for the Gawain-poets construction
ofMorgan leFay:
Support for the identification between Morgan in SGGK and the Sheela
na-gig figures includes the poem s debt to itsCeltic sources/analogues, the
affinitybetween theSheelas and Celtic goddess figures and theirconnections
toMorgan 1cFay, and the location of several
Sheela-na-gigs, which the poet
himself may have seen, in the environs of the storys geographic locale in
North Wales.56
The association ofMorgan with theM?rrfgan has provoked heated debate,

but the fact remains that theGreen to as the
Knight refers her goddess and
serves her as a to his own Gawain's final
priest, according testimony, hearing
confession and absolving him of his sin of self-preservation. the
Throughout
42 ARTHURIANA
interior game sequences in the castle, Gawain pays tribute to and entertains
both ladies after his earlymorning encounters wirh Lady Bercilak:
pc alder he haylses, heldande ful lowe;

pc loueloker he lappe3 a lyttel in arme3,
He kysses hir comlyly, and knyjtly he mele3.
Jâykallen hym of aquoyntaunce, and he hit quyk aske3
To be her seruaunr sothly, ifhemself lyked.
(Daytan hym bytwene hem, wyth talkynghym leden.
[To the elder in homage he humbly bows;

The lovelierhe saluteswith a lightembrace.
He claims a comely kiss, and courteously he speaks;
They welcome him warmly, and straighrawayhe asks
To be received as their servant, if they so desire.
They rake him between them] (972-77).
to serve them both, nor only to
Gawain pledges himself binding his trawfce
Lord Bercilak/Green Knighr bur to thewomen of his household, one ofwhom
a reason for Gawain s
happens to be goddess in disguise and the primary
quest from rhe As a Gawain now serves rhe
beginning. knighr, goddess
as much as he serves his theVirgin Mary. The
Morgan original prorectress,
female figures are not in opposition; instead they both seek to protect and
means him no harm, and rhe
enlighten Gawain. Morgan Virgin Mary will
make sure none comes ro him.
Ar the end of the poem, theGreen Knighr revealsMorgan s identity and

hit is hir name; /
her intentions toGawain: 'Morgne pc goddes, / perfore,
non so / ho ne con make ful tame' [Morgan the
Welde3 hy3e hawtesse pat
Goddess, she, /So styledby titletrue;/None holds so high degree /Thar
her arts cannot subdue] (2452-55). He explains that his primary task was
Tor ro assay pe surquidr?, 3k hit soth were / pat rennes of pc grete renoun
of pe Rounde Table' [To assay, if such itwere, the surfeir of pride /That is
rumored of the retinue of the Round Table] (2457-58). Scaring Guinevere
to death is secondary ro resring rhe pride of theRound Table, and yetmany
scholars focus only on that purpose. Friedman says the poet draws on the
same traditional hatred of Guinevere thatMalory would later attribute to
Morgan and says: 'By speaking of her as a goddess, rhe poet deepens the
sinister gloom abour her: a pagan goddess becomes automatically a Christian
demon/57 Nowhere in the text does the poet refer toMorgan or the Green
as evil, despite the disguise and the entire test, nor does he artempt
Knight
to demonize her. They mass and receive communion, which
regularly artend
would be impossible for demon a or a devil but not necessarily for a pagan
who has accepted certain Christian beliefs and pracrices and forwhom the
lines of devotion may be blurred. Friedman, however, goes even further to
suggest thatMorgan is not really the driving force behind the plot, that
'the old woman functions solely as a foil to enhance the beauty of Gawain s
temptress/ and that the primary author of the challenge isLord Bercilak.58
In the Celtic tradition, supernatural women accompanied by a male of
inferior status are a common motif of powerful war-like goddesses.59 Literary
theoristEdith Whitehurst Williams, in her Jungian interpretation ofMorgan,
argues that she is a trickster in the ancient sense of theword, rather than a
malevolent being. She writes,
When we deal with Morgan as a mythic figure and trace her evolution from
a primitive we discover that
mythology, slight though her role is in this
poem, it contains the essential elements of the tricksterarchetype with all
itscontradictions, and that however malevolent her initial intentmay have
been, ithas an ultimately salutary effecton Gawain because itpresses him
into the discovery of his own humanity.60
Because Morgan is such a well-known figure in Arthurian romance,

perhaps the poet added her as a recognizable motif of theArthurian tales as
Kittredge suggests, but the poet leaves out somany other 'notorious*motifs of
Arthurian tradition well established by the fourteenth century?the romance
of Lancelot and Guinevere and the Holy Grail?that s
Morgan position
as a of the challenge must be as deliberate an
goddess and the instigator 1
invention as the pentangle. IfMorgan were not to be viewed as a goddess,
Bercilak would not refer to her as one, and perhaps the final battle would
end in a more decisive defeat of evil/Morgan s role as the instigator of the
challenge forces Gawain, if not Arthur s court, to re-evaluate his chivalric
virtues and his piety. However, feminist critic Sheila Fisher writes that the
poet 'deliberately leaves Morgan aside, positioning her at the end of the
narrative when she is, in fact, itsmeans: the agent of Gawain s
testing.*62
She also argues thatMorgan has to be marginalized because
'Morgan and
her marginalization are the means to the poems end, because women are
centrallyimplicatedin thecollapseof theRound Table and theend of the
Arthurian Age. Ifwomen could be placed on the periphery, as is in
Morgan
this poem, then theRound Table might not have fallen.*63However, women
in general are not centrally implicated* in the fall of theRound Table,
only
Guinevere is, and this is not the Round Table of the continental Arthurian
stories, shaken to its foundations by betrayal and adultery. The Gawain-poci
separates his story from the circulating Arthurian narratives that centered
on the
adultery of Lancelot and Guinevere and the dissolution of theRound
Table, choosing rather to focus his storyon the earlier tradition established by
Geoffrey ofMonmouth, Wace, and La3amon, and perpetuated by Chr?ti?n
de Troyes, inwhich Gawain is the stalwart companion, the best ofArthur's
knights. This decision also reflects the poet's use of older religious symbolism,
where religion appears in its purest form, untainted by Church corruption
44 ARTHURIANA
and clerical excess criricized by so many contemporary poets like Chaucer

and Langland. Rarher rhan replacing the traditional values, beliefs, and
superstitions with newer, Chrisrian ones, the Gawain-pott adapts them,
them without criticism or condemnation.
synthesizing Staley Johnson argues
rhat this poem is a warning to fourteenth century society, as 'adultery and
rreason were rhe obvious causes for [theRound Table's] fall, bur rhe luxury,
worldliness, and laxity of Camelot were constant components of descriptions
ofArrhur s court fromGeoffrey ofMonmouth onward.'64 However, the poet
does not dwell on these flaws, even if rhey are embedded in rhe original
story,but instead constructs a narrative of redemption where Morgan tries to
halt the fall before irbegins by testingArthur s best
knight. The continued
veneration ofMorgan as a goddess who, by her arr, challenges rhe chivalry and
virtues of these knights is not an anomaly inmedieval lore, and her role fits
within the earlier tradition thatmay have inspired the Gawain-poet. Rather
than being an and-Christian figure, orworse, amalevolent demon, Morgan
acrs with the best interesrs of the Round Table inmind: self revelation and
evaluation. In this respect, she is an ally, or perhaps another aspect, of the
towhom Gawain looks for prorecrion.
Virgin Mary
But modern scholars continue to insist on relegating Morgan, goddess
or not, to the a
margins and arguing that her role is veiled criticism of all
women. criric Ruben Valdes conrends rhar rhe poem
Literary Miyares
embodies a 'conciliatory rendition of themeeting between a male poet and
the image of female sovereignty' suggesting an approach to reading chivalric
romance wherein rhe
patriarchal co-exists in dialogic dynamics with the
matriarchal.'65 However, he also asserrs that the agenda of SGGKis 'nor just
masculine, but anti-feminist.'66 seems to agree
maybe purposefully Miyares
wirh Fisher who wrires in her arricle on revisionism in SGGK: 'To deny rhe
female would be ro save the kingdom, and, in its revisionary agenda, rhat is
to do.*67The idea
precisely what Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight attempts
thatMorgan is peripheral because the revelarion of her idenrity comes at the
end, and she appears ro rake no direcr or dynamic acrion in the poem until
its conclusion, is problematic because it denies her agency in creating the
illusion of theGreen Knighr and serring rhe test ofArrhur's young courr, as
yer untainted by the scandals of adultery and betrayal which are rhe subjecr
ofmosr Arthurian romances. She works behind the scenes, covertly driving
the action of the narrarive so the audience does not focus on her throughout
the poem. Morgan is a prominent figure as both sorceress and hag, so it is
a
plausible that fourteenth-century audience would have recognized her
handiwork as soon as the Green Knight entersArrhur's court. If not then,
her presence would have been obvious ar the firsr descriprion of rhe lady's
even ifGawain does not see
elderly companion, through his aunt's disguise.
Morgan attempts to preserve the puriry of Arrhur's court, the same way
the poet attempts to portray the simple purity of religion in the pentangle,
to other traditions and the idea of
emphasizing its relationship perfection.
The identification ofMorgan at the end of the poem juxtaposes her against
Gawains other protectoress, theVirgin Mary, whose image is emblazoned
on the inside of Gawains shield. She is the ultimate Christian goddess
figure and throughout the poem Gawain evokes her name for protection.
Stock writes, 'In her role as "goddes" in SGGK, Morgan competes with the
for sacral and power over Gawain and perhaps even
Virgin Mary authority
shares culpability with her for bringing Gawain to a castle and a
chapel.168
The image on the shield is not mentioned again, a fact that is extremely
toHulbert who assumes the poet erred and 'did not understand
troubling
that themore important figure in the shield was the image ofMary and not
9
the [pentangle] for he devotes nearly all his attention to the latter. But the
no
image of theVirgin Mary needs explanation; she is universally recognized
inmedieval tradition, as areMorgan le Fay and the pagan pentangle, and
so there is no need to revisit the image. Associating theVirgin Mary with
the pentangle would have been an obvious divine signifier to a fourteenth
century audience,70 and the implications of that signifierwould have meant
many different things tomany different people. Gawain s shield ismentioned
three times in the poem: when he first receives it (619),when he relinquishes
it at theCastle ofHautedesert (860), and when he arms himself tomeet the
Green Knight inwhat he believes will be his final encounter (2014). But there
is no reason tomention themystical significance of his talismans after the
first time. Their meaning has not changed, nor has their power to represent
the virtues ofman, both in Judeo-Christian terms and pagan ones, though
Helen Cooper argues that the pentangle isnot actually magic: 'itdoes nothing
within the poem thatGawain himself does not do in his own person.*71 But
literary historian Phillippa Hardman points out that the magic would be
in the perception of and belief in the of the pentangle.
magical properties
She writes, 'If the pentangle was understood by the poets contemporaries
to be a symbol with magical associations outside the poem, itmight indeed
have been meant to be seen as having the potential for double meaning on
Gawain s shield/72Hardman to recover the
aptly points out that it isdifficult
accepted meaning of the pentangle in fourteenth-century England.73 But it
is not to draw together the threads ofmeaning and interpretation
impossible
associated with the pentangle that are also tied to the presence ofMorgan
the goddess and her Christian counterpart, the Virgin Mary, who both
signify the divine feminine of the Kabbalah. Through his journey and the
mostly successful completion ofMorgans test,Gawain is forced to reconcile
his own humanity with the requirements of perfection and knighthood.74
Laura Hibbard Loomis argues that 'themight ofMorgan le Fay (vs. 2446)
was, forGawain himself, a sufficient explanation and exculpation for all that
46 ARTHURIANA
he had endured and made him able to part from theGreen Knight on most
not
friendly terms.'75Gawain, though ashamed of his perceived failure, does
blame Morgan orMary, despite his tirade against other women. He accepts
his penance and imposes further restrictions on himself by not indulging in
the hospitality of Castle Hautdesert, but he never questions the agency of
or the validity of her test.
Morgan
Thus, inSGGKthcrc isno reason to doubt theGreen Knight's explanation
of his service toMorgan, nor to believe that her 'ugliness' is anything more
used as partof
thanamagical illusionlikethattheGreenKnight justifiably
an elaborate game to testGawain and the court. In serving
knights ofArthur's
and the and to the virtues of the pentangle,
Morgan Virgin Mary, aspiring
Gawain embodies themultiple religious traditions woven into the narrative
and endeavors to uphold them all, despite his human fallibility.
But this notion of religious complexity has troubled critics for a hundred
years. In the nineteenth and early- tomid-twentieth centuries therewas a
concerred effort among scholars to associate romances and medieval heroes
with a Celtic or pagan mythology, but to do so in a purely Christian context/6
In other words, critics made the ancient associations without the pagan
a trend which
implications, by rhe 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s reduced
the mythological elements to 'evil.' Morgan is no longer a fairymistress
(Hulbert, 1916), she is a 'Christian demon' (Friedman, i960), a 'malignant
Hibbard Loomis, 1959), and an evil sorceress bent on the
goddess' (Laura
destruction of theRound Table whose machinations are rhwarted byGawain's
Christian virtues and righteousness. These representations are grounded in
were
early assumptions that theMiddle Ages wholly Christian and that the
only traces of were those thatwould become the target
paganism remaining
of Christian persecution. What scholars have found in the last fifty years
is a persistence of pagan symbolism and a synthesis of
religious ideologies
where earlier scholars originally found Christian dominance grounded in
their own perceptions of history. No one has mentioned the Kabbalah in
conjunction with SGGK, though the could have been known to
philosophy
the poet. Few ifany critics have suggested that SGG^fcould be a product of
diverse religious synthesis or syncretism, or in fact a vehicle for ir.Medieval
were a varied tapestry of belief and
religious traditions superstition, and
while theChurch exerted great pressure for continuity and conformity, local
rraditions and new learning seeped into the fabric of Chrisrian practice. In a
time of religious persecution and sustained national conflict during theOne
Hundred Years War, the poet creates a common ground where seemingly
disparate ideologies coexist and intertwine.
Gawain scholars, too many to enumerate here, have made invaluable
contriburions ro the discussion and interpreration of the pentangle on
Gawain's shield. But most have done so exclusively from the premise of
the 'artificial' meaning

Christianity, suggesting that the symbol has only
to it by the poet in an attempt to replace pagan significance with a
given
Christian one or to invent awhole new interpretation for an obscure symbol.77
since Christianity
Literary scholar Derek Pearsall convincingly argues that,
dominated the 'vernacular language of ethics,' any 'attempt to talk seriously
about human behaviour in late fourteenth-century English poetry is bound
to take on a Christian colouring' but that the resemblance is 'superficial.'78
Hardman addresses Pearsall's interpretation in her examination ofGawain's
be
practice of piety, asserting that, in Pearsall's terms, 'the poet would
Gawain in this respect as neither nor
presenting exemplary blameworthy,
but merely typical.79 His religious devotions, confessions, even shame are
as such, the confluence of symbols can be explained
perfectly natural, and,
by chivalric and secular piety.
Hardman a foundation essential for understanding the medieval
lays
response to and acceptance of the pentangle and the parallel religious
themagical
symbolism that proliferates throughout the poem by establishing
understanding and superstition associated with the pentangle, Gawain's
devotion to theVirgin Mary, and the girdle. She writes: 'Gawain's religious
belief,as signifiedby his faith inChrist's FiveWounds and his reliance
on Mary's Five Joys but symbolized in the pentangle with its reminder of
as shown in his inclusive use
apotropaic magic, and his devotional practice,
of both standard and possibly suspect prayers, point to a complex but by
?
no means untypical representation of latemedieval pious consciousness.'
But Hardman also contends that the magical elements and the details of
Gawain's 'traditional practice of piety' are red herrings 'raising various false
romance
expectations of how the development of the plot might involve
outcomes less to both hero and reader than the eventual
"magical" challenging
resolution.'81 If the pentangle is nothing more than a red herring, the p?et
would not feel the need to halt the progress of his tale with its exposition: T
am intent yow to telle, Jôftary hytme schulde' [I intend now to tell,
though
detain me itmust] (624). If the poet wished to construct a purely Christian
allegory?even in a romance?then the magical and kabbalistic elements
would not be necessary, or significant. But they are, despite the attempts of
several critics to discount it. If the symbol is,as Friedman and Osberg suggest,
a 'dubious' to the use itat all rather than
sign unknown poet's audience, why
amore conventional and of theChristian Knight,
widely recognized symbol
such as a cross?Arthur argues that the pentangle is a pure sign of transcendent
and timeless truth. He writes, 'The Gawain poet brings the concept [the
a so
pentangle] signifies into human and historical world, and provokes an
examination not only of the absolute truth it signifies but also of the complex
relationship between that absolute and the relative, temporal world of human
values.'82 That 'truth' is the same in all these traditions?the Kabbalah,
48 ARTHURIANA
paganism, classical thought, and Christianity: human frailty and the quest
was fairly
forknowledge.The infusionof Jewishand kabbalistictheology
complere by the middle of the fourteenth century. Christian theologians,
like Aquinas, adopted certain ideas and beliefs from Jewish texts; mystics
patterned their belief in rhe divine feminine from rheZohar and other Jewish
traditions. So it isnot surprising rhat theGawain-poet, seeing the similarities
in these apparently divergent traditions, would choose ro construct a new
sense of cultural
undersranding by synrhesizing rhese elements in his poem,
embedded as it iswith so many religious meanings. Despite its accepted
in themedieval world, in this poem the seems to take
symbolism pentangle
on a new life and interpretation for rhe firsr rime?irs well-known function
as a or mystical device is
magical given Christian meaning and folded into
the ethos of Christian chivalry.
Ar the end of the poem, Gawain accepts Morgans role, just as he
as
accepts the pentangle and theVirgin Mary amulets against harm. If it is
sufficient forGawain, rhenwhy have scholars had such difficulty over rhe
years ascribing rhe action of the poem to a pagan goddess or rhe origins of
the pentangle to paganism or Jewish mysticism? The answer may be that
an on
early medievalists believed that Christianity had unwavering hold
the minds and spirits of in the Middle and as such, any non
people Ages,
Christian elements, whether taken from Jewish mysticism, Gnosticism,
Hermeticism, or earlier pagan traditions had to be reconfigured as demonic
elements or purely Chrisrian ones. Recenr scholars have found rhat 'the
church s hold was less complere than is generally assumed* and it is possible
as a time over a
to
'regard theMiddle Ages during which, long period and
the introduction of the new faith/83
mainly passively, paganism resisted
Nicholas Watson makes a for the as
compelling argument Gawain-pott
a vernacular of in rhe
rheologian, 'a communicator religious reaching
vernacular to an audience of lay (and perhaps primarily male) aristocraties:
an audience which saw itself flatteringly embodied, I suggest in the figure
of Gawain himself/84 The poet acts as theologian, instructing his audience
in chivalric Christianity. But the poet also seems intent on instrucring them
in the parallel traditions circularing freely rhroughout the medieval world,
includingthepaganCeltic loredeeply imbeddedin theEnglishpsycheand
the divine feminine of themystical Kabbalah, and challenging theChurch's
attempts to quash rival theologies. If the four poems of the Gawain-poct
are intertwining reflect the religious concerns of
religious allegories that
the fourteenth century, then itmakes sense that SGGK, as the last thread
in the Pearl manuscript, weaves traditions into
seemingly contradictory
modes of Christian interpretation. Lynn Staley Johnson writes, 'men of the
Middle Ages were also aware that theirworld was perhaps less grand than
formerworlds and saw time as a diminishing spiral.Medieval thinkerswere
therefore able to apply the study of history to themselves by measuring the

present against the past.'85 For British authors, especially those engaged
with the national narrative of Arthur, that past was distinctly pagan and
a
product of religious synthesis. But the elements of Jewish mysticism and
classical perfection were gaining momentum inmedieval Europe, so much
so that numerous late-medieval and modern authors would develop
early
them further. Renaissance has been described as a confluence of
thought
medieval with some schools of of antiquity,' including
theology thought
Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticism, which were
adopted, at least partially, 'because of their concordance with Jewish and
Christian theologies.'86 But this trend did not emerge from a vacuum: these
elements were integrated into medieval literature and philosophical texts.
It is possible to examine the more problematic elements of poems such as
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and recognize the persistence of certain
superstitions, beliefs, and traditions thatwere not opposed toChristianity, but
quite the contrary.Applying an exclusively Christian interpretation to SGGK
limits the diverse and multi-faceted meaning of one of the greatest English
poems. In regards to the pentangle, the preeminence ofMorgan le Fay, and
the simultaneous worship of theVirgin Mary, it is plausible to suggest that
Gawain is not only a right and true knight of the Christian God, but also a
knight of the older, natural goddess, the divine feminine, who survived in
Britain long past the infusion of Christianity.
LONGWOOD UNIVERSITY
Larissa Tracy received her doctorate from Trinity Dublin and is an
College,
Assistant Professor at She is the author of Women
Longwood University. of the
Middle EnglishSaints'Lives, and iswriting a study
Gilte Legende:A Selectionof
of torture and brutality inmedieval narratives. She has published articles in The
Journal oftheEarlyBook Society,and has articlesforthcominginFlorilegiumand

Traditio.
NOTES
I would like to thank Lorraine Stock, Jean Jost, and Carolyn Craft for their
helpful suggestions, and Arthuriana's anonymous readers for their insightful
and extremelyuseful comments. I am also grateful toRachel Frier for
sharing her
research on theKabbalah and JewishMysticism.
1 Gerald
Morgan, Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight and theIdeal ofRighteousness
(Dublin: IrishAcademic Press, 1990).
2 Robert W. Ackerman, 'Gawains Shield: Penitential Doctrine in Gawain and
theGreen Knight, Anglia j6 (1958): 254-65.
3 Albert B. Friedman, 'Morgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
Speculum 35. 2 (April i960): 260-74.
50 ARTHURIANA
4 Denver E. Baughan, 'The Role ofMorgan le Fay in Sir Gawain and theGreen
Knight,' EHL 17 (1950): 241-251.
5 Some of these srudies include but are not limited to:Ludo Milis, ed., The Pagan
Middle Ages, trans,byTanis Guest (Suffolk,UK: The Boydell Press, 1998); and
JohnDarrah, Paganism inArthurian Romance (Cambridge, UK:D.S. Brewer,
1997).Milis argues that it is wrong to presentmatters as though one religion,
embodied in one church with one trurh,had simply swept over and crushed
paganism and superstition, liberatinghumanity from thepolytheistic darkness,'
p. 6.
6 Paul E. Sigmund, rrans.and ed., St. Thomas
Aquinas onPolitics and Ethics (New
York:W.W. Norton and Company, 1988), p. xiii.
7 M.H. Abrams, 'SirGawain and theGreen Knight,' in TheNorton Anthology of
British Literature, 7th ed., vol. 1,ed.M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt (New
York:W.W. Norton, 2000), p. 156 [156-58].
8 Albert B. Friedman and Richard H.
Osberg, 'Gawain's Girdle as Traditional
Symbol,' The Journal of American Folklore 90.357 (July-Sept., 1977): 301-302.
Elizabeth D. Kirk argues thatwhat a 'fourteenth-centuryaudience would have
recognized in the traditional folkloreelements inSGGKs material and how they
would have responded to its role in rhedynamics of rhe poem must inevitably
be largely indirect, since, as in the case of so many medieval customs and art
forms that involvestrongfolkloricelements,written recordsaremostly laterthan
SGGKand theirevidencemust be extrapolatedbackwards' (102).Kirk aptlypoints
out the we tryto correlate themwith specific and
ambiguity of traditions 'once
explicitmeaning' (103) but she also writes that thepentangle 'embodies a notion
of knighthood as the reconciliation of all thenorms embodied in the arisrocraric
ideal intoone seamless unifiedwhole' (120). Elizabeth D. Kirk, '"Wei bycommes
such craft upon Crisrmasse": The Festival and theHermeneutic in Sir Gawain
and theGreen Knight,' Arthuriana 4.2 (Summer 1994): 93-137.
9 All textual citations are taken fromSir Gawain and theGreenKnight, trans,and
ed. byWilliam Vantuono (Notre Dame IN: University ofNotre Dame Press,
1999).All modern English translations are taken fromSir Gawain and theGreen
Knight, Patience, and Pearl. Verse Translations, ed. and trans,byMarie Borroff
(London: W.W. Norton, 2001).
10 Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight, ed. J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, rev.
Norman Davis (Oxford: Clarendon Press,Oxford University Press, 1967), pp.
92-93.
11 R.S. Loomis, 'MoreCeltic Elements inGawain and theGreenKnight,' inStudies
inMedieval Literature:AMemorial Collection ofEssays (New York: Burt Franklin,
1970), p. 176 [157-94]. Originally published in 1943.
12MS 226, fol. 4v from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg, Longboat Key,
Florida, and repr.on the cover of Speculum 80.4 (October 2005).
13 R.H. Green, 'Gawain's Shield and theQuest forPerfection,' in Sir Gawain and
Pearl: Critical Essays, ed. Robert J. Blanch (Bloomington: Indiana Universiry
Press, 1966), p. 185 [176-94], originally published in ELH 29.2 (June 1962):
12.1-39
14 Laura Hodges convincingly argues that the 'deuys' wrought in diamonds on
Gawains helmet is to be taken as 'device' and thereforeas another pentangle
like the one on his shield and the one on his surcoat. Laura Hodges, '"Syngne,"
"Conyasaunce," "Deuys": Three Pentangles inSir Gawain and theGreenKnight!
Arthuriana 5.4 (Winter 1995): 22-31.
15 R.S. Loomis, The Development ofArthurian Romance (New York:W.W. Norton,
Inc., 1963), p. 9. Professor Loomis spent so much time repudiaring his own
rheories of Celtic mythology inArthurian romance that near the end of his
career, he essentially discounted the possibility altogether. He was criticized
into a stalemate: his critics forced him to abandon a line of interpretation that
at least opened the door fordifferentexplorations of the text.
16The association of the pentangle with Solomon and thuswith theKnights of
theTemple of Solomon, evidenced by the presence of pentangles on Templar
tombstones in the Claustro da Lavagem in the twelfth-centuryConvento de
Cristo atTomar, Portugal, has raised some interestingquestions about a possible
link between SGGK and the remnants of theTemplar order believed to have
sought refuge inEngland after theorders persecution and dissolution in the early
fourteenth century,but thatdiscussion isbeyond the scope of this article.
17 Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Talismans (New York: University Books,
1968), p. 433.
18Green, 'Gawains Shield and theQuest forPerfection/ in SirGawain and Pearl,
p. 186.
19 Richard Kiekhefer,Magic in theMiddle Ages (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

University Press, 1989), p. 92.
20 Green, 'Gawains Shield and theQuest forPerfection/ inSSir Gawain and Pearl,
p. 187.
21 J.R.Hulbert, 'SyrGawayn and theGrene
Knyzt*?(concluded), Modern Philology
13.12 (April 1916): 689-730, 721.
22 Hulbert, 'SyrGawayn and theGrene Knyzt/ 722-723.
23 J.M.McBryde, 'The Sator-Acrosric/ Modern Language Notes 22. 8 (Dec. 1907):
245-49, 246.
24 McBryde, 'The Sator-Acrostic/ 248.
25 Ross G. Arthur,Medieval Sign Theory and Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight
(Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1987), p. 45.
26 Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of theAncient British Isles: TheirNature and
Legacy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991),p. 183.
27 Rudolf Koch, The Book ofSigns (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1955),p. 6.
28 Perle Besserman, The Shamhhala Guide toKabbalah andJewish Mysticism (Boston:
Shambhala, 1997), p. 20.
29 Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of theMoon: A History ofModern Pagan Witchcraft
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 67. Edward Condren, in his book
on numerical structure in the four books of the takes a
G^tt^/w-manuscript,
5* ARTHURIANA
mathematical approach and develops a compelling and inrricateportrait of the

poems as a mathematical whole, basing his argument on a detailed analysis
of complex geometric figures he believes are embedded within the fourworks
which ultimately reveal an elaborate three-dimensional figure containing both a
a cross.Condren takeshis
pentangle and proportions largelyfromNeoplantonist
number rheory,geometry, and Pythagorean harmony thatwould have been
available to theGawain-poet. In his stunningmathematical discussion, Condren
provides furtherevidence of the confluence between ancient thought and the
religious symbolism of SGGK He argues that the pentangle is tied to the
eternal of man, not as nature resurrecrs the same seasons' but
regeneration only
as man s a
regeneration replaces the physical realmwith spirirual eterniry,like
themathematics of theDivine Proporrion that expands a pentangle through
ever a
largerdimensions towards spatial infinity' (p. 129). Edward I. Condren,
The Numerical Universe of theGawain-Pearl Poet: Beyond Phi (Gainesville, Fl:
Universiry of Florida Press, 2002).
30 Hurron, The Triumph of the Moon, p. 67.
31 Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconographyand Tradition (London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967), p. 206.
32 JosephDan, Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford; Oxford University
Press, 2006), p. 48.
33 Hodges, '"Syngne," "Conyasaunce," "Deuys,"' 22?31.
34 Arthur,Medieval Sign Theory, p. 47.

35 Ludo Milis, ed., The Pagan Middle Ages, trans, by Tanis Guest (Suffolk,UK:
The Boydell Press, 1998), p. 8.
36 Loomis, More Celtic Elements,'m Studies inMedieval Literature, pp. 175-76.
37 Dan, Kabbalah, p. 34.
38 Gershom Scholem, 'The Beginnings of theChristian Kabbalah,' inThe Christian
Kabbalah: JewishMystical Books and Their Christian Interpreters,ed. JosephDan
18 [17-51].
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 1997), p.
39 Scholem, 'The Beginnings of theChristian Kabbalah,' p. 18.
40 Scholem, 'The Beginnings of theChristian Kabbalah,' p. 17.
41 JudithOlszowy-Schlanger, 'The knowledge and practice ofHebrew grammar
among Christian scholars inpre-expulsion England: The evidence of'bilingual'
Hebrew-Latin manuscripts,' inHebrew Scholarship and the Medieval World, ed.
Nicholas de Lange (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Universiry Press, 2001), p. 128
[107-30].
42 Rachel E. Frier, '"Botte for I am aWoman:" Julian of Norwich, Medieval
JewishMysticism, and theEvolution of theDivine Feminine,'Mystics Quarterly,
forthcoming 2007.
43 Gershom G. Scholem, On theKabbalah and itsSymbolism (NewYork: Schocken
Books, 1965), p. 22.
44 Annick Waegeman, 'The Medieval Sybil,' in The Pagan Middle Ages, ed.
Ludo Milis, trans.Tanis Guest (Suffolk,UK: The Boydell Press, 1998), p. 83
[83-107].
45 Michelle Sweeney,Magic in Medieval Romancefrom Chr?tiende Troyes toGeoffrey

Chaucer (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000), p. 47.
46 Friedman and Osberg, 'Gawain's Girdle as Traditional Symbol/ 315.
47 Hulbert, 'SyrGawayn and theGrene Knyzt/ 729.
48 Hulbert, 'SyrGawayn and theGrene Knyzt/ 729-30.
49 Sweeney,Magic inMedieval Romance, p. 120.
50 Lynn Staley Johnson, The Voice of theGawain-Poet (Madison,WI: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1984), pp. 50-51, 58.Kirk connects motifs inSGGK through
'contemporaryconnotations/ specifically theirassociation with theTwelve Days
of Christmas. '"Wei bycommes such craftupon Cristmassc/,, 103.
51Hutton, The Triumph of theMoon, p. 177. Kirk discusses the association of
Christmastide with death and the supernatural, 'when the barriers berween
human beings and the a-human forces that surround them break down and
when the spiritsof the dead and the realities of the future come close enough
for fear and knowledge/ "'Wei bycommes such craftupon Cristmasse/" 111.
52 G.L. Kittredge, A Study 0/SirGawain and theGreen Knight (Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1916), p. 136.
53 Kittredge, A Study ofSir Gawain and theGreen Knight, p. 131.
54 Friedman, 'Morgan le Fay inSir Gawain and theGreen Knight? i6j.
55 Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, p. 219.
56 Lorraine Kochanske Stock, 'The Hag ofCastle Hautdesert: The Celtic Sheela
na-gig and theAuncian in Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight? inOn Arthurian
Women: Essays inMemory ofMaureen Fries, ed. Bonnie Wheeler and Fiona
Tolhurst (Dallas: Scriptorium Press, 2001), p. 140 [121-48].Michael W. Twomey
also discusses rhe narure ofMorgan le Fay in his article in the same volume,
'Morgan le Fay atHautdesert' (pp. 103-119), but, while he argues thatMorgan
should be considered 'empress of the desert' to explain her relationship to
Bertilak, he says thatMorgan cannot be considered the 'only begetter of the
whole adventure' but that she and Bertilak should be seen as collaborators,
'while in another sense his is the social power as owner of the castle, and in yet
another sense hers is the underlying power as magician and moral force that sets
the adventure inmotion' (114). I am indebted toLorraine Stock forher generous
comments and helpful suggestions on this arricle.
57 Friedman, 'Morgan le Fay inSir Gawain and theGreen Knight? i6j.
58 Friedman, 'Morgan le Fay inSir Gawain and theGreen Knight,' 274.
59 Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain, pp. 222-23.
60 EdithWhitehurst Williams, 'Morgan La Fee asTrickster inSir Gawain and the
Green Knight? Folklore 96.1 (1985): 38-56, 39.
61 Sheila Fisher argues for a trend in SGGK through which the poet 'tries to
revise Arthurian in order to make it come out demonstrate
history right...to
how the Round Table might have averted itsown destruction by adhering to
the expectations ofmasculine behavior inherent inChristian chivalry/ Sheila
Fisher, 'LeavingMorgan Aside:Women, History, and Revisionism inSir Gawain
54 ARTHURIANA
and theGreen Knight? inArthurian Women, ed. Thelma S. Fenster (New York:
Routledge, 1996), p. 77 [77-95].
62 Fisher, 'LeavingMorgan Aside,' inArthurian Women, p. 78.
64 Staley Johnson, The Voice of theGawain-Poet, p. 45.
65 Ruben Valdes Miyares, 'SirGawain and theGreat Goddess,' English Studies 83.3
as a Celtic
(June 2002): 185-207.Miyares reinforcesthe interpretationofMorgan
and her central role in the poem, pointing out the
goddess figure acknowledges
ways inwhich theGreen Knight acts as her representative,and arguing that the
is 'related to an old Irish tradition about women's However,
story sovereignty.'
he also writes that itmay not be possible to 'interpretthe femalemyrhology of
SGGK'm any unilateral way.We cannot even decide whether theold lady in the
castle is or nor'
Morgan (193,195).
66
Miyares, 'Sir Gawain and the Great Goddess,' 187, note 14.

68 Stock, 'The Hag ofCastle Hautdesert,' inOn Arthurian Women, p. 121.
69 Hulbert, 'SyrGawayn and theGrene Knyzt,' 727.
71 Helen Cooper, 'The Supernarural,' inA Companion to theGawain-poet, ed.
Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson (Cambridge, UK: D.S.Brewer, 1997), p.
279 [277-297].
72 Phillipa Hardman, 'Gawain's Practice of Piety in Sir Gawain and theGreen
Knight?Medium Aevum 68.2 (Fall 1999): 247-262, 247.
73 Hardman, 'Gawain's Practice of 247.
Piety,'
74 Charles Moorman counters many of his predecessors by challenging the
a
assumption thatMorgan le Fay is an afterthoughtand that shemust be later
addition because she doesn't fit into any archetype: 'This...is to underestimate
worse than
gravely the skill, the understanding, and the intentof the poet and,
this, to ignore completely the literaryqualities and the integrityof the text
itself Charles Moorman, 'Myth andMediaeval Literarure: Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight,' in Sir Gawain and Pearl. Critical Essays, ed. Robert J. Blanch
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), p. 213 [209-253].
75 Laura Hibbard Loomis, 'SirGawain and theGreenKnight? inArthurian Literature
Middle Ages-.A CollaborativeHistory, ed. Roger Sherman Loomis (Oxford:
in the
Clarendon Press, 1959),p. 535 [528-540].
76 These scholars include: R.S. Loomis, J.R. Hulbert, and Arthur C.L. Brown,
Iwain: Origins ofArthurian Romance (New York: Haskell House Publishers,
1968, firstprinted 1903), among others already cited.
77 R.E. Kaske firmly establishes the pentangle as a symbol of trawpe and also
discusses the replacementof thepentanglewith thegirdle at the end of thepoem.
He goes farther in interpretingtheChristian significance of the symbol and its
relation toNatura and Fortuna, stressing that the resulrof the test 'is to show
man his limitations asman in thepresence of these two great controlling forces,'
R.E. Kaske, 'SirGawain and theGreen Knight? inMedieval and Renaissance
Studies, cd. George Mallary Masters (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina
Press, 1984), pp. 39-40 [24-44]. Kaske offersa clear and plausible explanation
for the pentangle, but itpresupposes a solelyChristian meaning thatonly draws
motifs from theCeltic pagan tradition rather than applying themeaning to a
pagan symbol in an effortto synthesize the two.
78 Derek Pearsall, 'Courtesy and Chivalry in Sir Gawain and theGreen Knight:
theOrder of Shame and the Invention of Embarrassment/ inA Companion to
theGawain-poet, ed. Derek Brewer and JonathanGibson (Cambridge UK: D.S.
Brewer, 1997), p. 352 [351-362].
79 Hardman, 'Gawain s Practice of Piety/ 247.
83Milis, The Pagan Middle Ages, p. 6.
84 Nicholas Watson, 'TheGawain-poet as aVernacular Theologian/ m A Companion
to theGawain-poet, ed. Derek Brewer
(Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer, 1997), p.
294 [293-313].
85 Stalcy Johnson, The Voice of theGawain-Poet, p. 46.
86Moshe Idel, 'Hermcticism and Judaism* inHermeticism and theRenaissance:
IntellectualHistory and theOccult inEarlyModern Europe, ed. IngridMerkel
and Allen G, Debus, Folger Books (Washington, D.C.: The Folger Shakespeare
Library, 1988), p. 59 [59-76]

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A Knight of God or the Goddess?

: Rethinking Religious Syncretism in "Sir Gawain and the

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conversion, but a of inwhich and

intertwine forming an endless knotte of religious synthesiswhere Christian

'In bytoknyng of traw^e, bi tytle^at hit habbe3,

Oucral, as I here, \>zendcles knot*

to thepentangleas a signthat 'inEnglychhit callen/ thepoet

traces of was interested in

fourteenth-century cup found inGotland,23 which suggests that the symbol

In his description of the the poet blends Pythagorean,

[And first,he was faultless in his five senses,

Gawain becomes a synthesis of all existing traditions of the medieval

audience is assumed to be familiar with characters.. .If the romance

This reading directly contradicts H?lbens interpretation, which asserts that

[TillAll-Hallows' Day with Arthur he dwells,

as a for the challenge and the

The association ofMorgan with theM?rrfgan has provoked heated debate,

pc alder he haylses, heldande ful lowe;

[To the elder in homage he humbly bows;

Ar the end of the poem, theGreen Knighr revealsMorgan s identity and

Because Morgan is such a well-known figure in Arthurian romance,

and clerical excess criricized by so many contemporary poets like Chaucer

the 'artificial' meaning

therefore able to apply the study of history to themselves by measuring the

Journal oftheEarlyBook Society,and has articlesforthcominginFlorilegiumand

19 Richard Kiekhefer,Magic in theMiddle Ages (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge

mathematical approach and develops a compelling and inrricateportrait of the

34 Arthur,Medieval Sign Theory, p. 47.

45 Michelle Sweeney,Magic in Medieval Romancefrom Chr?tiende Troyes toGeoffrey

67 Fisher, 'LeavingMorgan Aside,' inArthurian Women, p. 78.

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