Cooke, W.G., and D’A. J. D. Boulton. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A poem for Henry of Grosmont?.” Medium Aevum 68(1999): 42-55.
This article makes an effort to date “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” as closely as possible due to location, politics, and the person who possibly requested the poem. There is much debate as to whether the poem was created in the mid fourteenth century or the late fourteenth century. The evidence this article points towards shows the poem to be written sometime in the middle of the fourteenth century. It seems impossible to pinpoint a specific author, but we can try to date and place it by finding real life parallels.
One of the first helpful facts is from J.R. Hulbert who pointed out that there was a real-life Green Count, named Amadeus VI of Savoy. He had strong connections with the English Court, with a proposed marriage to the daughter of Edward III, and his niece married his third son. Some years earlier J.R.L. Highfield discovered a real-life Green Squire named Simon Newton. He had a kinsman serving in the household of Edward III’s distant cousin, who was a close companion to Henry of Grosmont, the first Duke of Lancaster. Around 1500, a Humphrey Newton was discovered to be familiar with the story of the Green Knight. Further connections lead them to likely be related. These coincidences show that “two real ‘green’ warriors with English royal connections in the middle of the fourteenth century, one of them with lands in the very part of England that Gawain traversed looking for the Green Knight, and a later man living in the same district bearing the same surname as the Green Squire and displaying an apparent acquaintance with the poem.”
In the 1940’s, Mabel May noticed that the scenery described resembled the country of Derbyshire. She proposed a cave in Wetton mill in Staffordshire as the Green Chapel. Ralph W.V. Elliot made another case, and identified the country around Dieulacres Abbey in northwestern Staffordshire as the location. Elliot’s choice usually wins because he can identify the chapel as a crevice called Ludchurch, which is under the Castle Cliff Rocks, and Bertilak’s castle, which is on Knight’s Low where the Earls of Chester once had a hunting lodge. Linguistically, the borderland of Cheshire and Staffordshire is where the poet likely originated. All of these facts point strongly to some correlation.
Further evidence that the poem could date from the middle of the fourteenth century is by reviewing the “language, and the portrayal of civil costume, armour, and architecture.” The Gawain poet would have to have been moving in very fashionable, modern circles for this to be possible though. When the illustrations for the poem were reviewed, they reflected the fashions of the late fourteenth century. This is not surprising, because the images were created after the text was already complete. In addition, the description of armour in the poem is completely consistent with the armour in the middle of the fourteenth century.
The next step was to try to discover the patron behind the poem. The best candidate would have “considerable interests in the north-west Midlands, known to have spent some time there, and having the right character and outlook to have relished such a poem. There is one outstanding candidate: Henry of Grosmont, first Duke of Lancaster.” Henry was born around 1310 and passed away in 1361. If the poem was written mid-century, Henry would have been alive and flourishing. His largest group of lands contained Staffordshire and Derbyshire, where the poet is likely from. For further evidence, “Henry tried to practice chivalry after the Arthurian pattern.”
There are two significant analogues that tie Henry and the Green Knight together. The first is that Otto of Brunswick challenged Henry for a joust at Christmastide in 1352. At the last moment, Otto decided not to go through with the challenge, “and Henry, like Gawain, returned unscathed to a hero’s welcome at his own king’s court.” The second analogue refers to the girdle Gawain accepts from Lady Bertilak. There are three devices that connect the girdle to Henry’s life. The first was the belt of his almost-sainted Uncle Thomas, which allegedly contained miraculous properties. Gawain’s belt also had held its own magic. The second device is that of the Castilian Order, which Henry could easily have been a member of. Its members wore a band of cloth around their waist, just as Gawain wore his girdle. The third device was a garter, which was worn by the order of Edward III. He most likely got this inspiration from the Castilian Order. Henry would have been the link between the Castilian Order and Edward. Both sexes of gentlefolk began to wear the belt. “Like Gawain’s girdle, then, it is an article of civil dress that became the badge of an order of knighthood; and if tradition is true, both were ladies’ favours either bestowed on or taken by a gentleman.”
There are many interesting connections in this article, such as the association with green in this period with “joy, beauty, youth, strength, and readiness to fight.” I could not include all of them, but the article was indeed interesting. I enjoyed reading an analysis of the article based almost purely on history instead of personal insight. Although the author will probably never be discovered, this article helps the reader better understand how the author would have possibly come to writing the poem.
Cassia Herndon 10/06
