Green Knight’s Lessons on Death & Dying

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Originally I had planned to spend this past summer finding an idea for, and beginning work on, my next book. Instead, I spent it helping my mother take care of my father and listening to him tell stories about his World War II days, his involvement in the Civil Rights movement, and his poetry. It was the wisest decision I’ve ever made since he passed away unexpectedly two and a half weeks ago.

And I did find a book topic after all: What Sir Gawain and the Green Knight teaches us about death and dying.

I acknowledge that it’s not bestseller material, but it has become a topic very close to my heart. The 14th century romance provides deep wisdom about the subject, perhaps in part because the author witnessed, either first hand or at least one generation removed, one of the greatest epidemics in human history: the 1458-50 Black Plague. The fact that the author is able to be good humored as he writes about death indicates that he has something worthwhile to teach us.

I’m using this post to begin initial brainstorming on the project. Early in the story, we are given a knight who knows that, in a year’s time, he has “a rendezvous with death” (to quote World War I poet Alan Seeger). Death in this case is the Green Knight, who functions as a representative of nature. When I teach the romance, I tell my students to think of the Green Knight as news from your doctor that you have a terminal illness.

How does one respond after getting such a diagnosis? Sir Gawain lives according to two intertwined codes that appear to assert that death shouldn’t matter. One code is his Christian faith, which assures him that there is life after the grave. The other is his knightly code, which informs him that there is no greater glory than dying for one’s king. He thinks he shouldn’t care for his life and he believes that he can stoically shrug off grief over his pending death. I see him, however, as being in denial, as not knowing himself. He can rationalize his death because he’s stuck inside his head. The Green Knight, however, knows that the head cannot be separated from the body. That’s the point of his beheading game.

As I interpret the story, in the months leading up to his rendezvous at the chopping block Gawain becomes increasingly depressed, which is captured in his becoming lost in an ancient forest. He is granted special insight, however, in the castle that magically appears in the wood. The castle functions as a metaphor for the self–we are sometimes granted self-knowledge when we are in dire circumstances–and the lessons taught in the castle are insights that we all need as we confront issues of death and dying.

There are two mystical guides within this castle. One is the Lord of Death, who shows us, in grisly hunting scenes, the fate that awaits us all. We may think that we can minimize death’s impact by turning our minds from it, but the poem shoves the reality of death in our faces. Nor only does it only show us our promised end. We also receive a demonstration of the ways we will try deal with death: we will behave like deer, like boars, likes foxes, or like all three at different times. The animals are archetypes for different forms of grief and resistance.

The Lady of Life, by contrast, shows us how to live our lives in the face of death, how to revel in the world’s sensuality. Through Gawain’s response to her, we also see how we turn our backs on this life. We are afraid that, if we commit to the things of this world, our hearts will break when we must let them go, so we hold back from living life to the fullest. To counteract our reticence, the Lady offers us her green sash, the promise of life.

Gawain’s quest, in other words, is to learn how to deal with death and how to live life in the face of death. While Gawain doesn’t entirely pass the tests that are set for him, he gets some glimpses into a different way to live. Frighted Camelot and Christian self denial are no way to engage with the world.

If Gawain doesn’t learn the Green Knight’s lessons, at least we, the readers, can learn from Gawain’s journey. My book will lay out the lessons to be learned in a way (so I hope) that captures their urgency.

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