The Medieval Mind in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"

CRITICISM THE MEDIEVAL MIND IN "SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT" Dean Locanbill It has been recognized for some time that primitive man's relationship to the world was somewhat different from our own. His relationship is usually referred to by us as one of "participation" since he apparently lacked the strong sense of personal identity which characterizes modem man, and saw himself as much more a part of the world around him. His sense of identity lay in his relationship to his gods as established through ritual, which is the essence of his religion and which is eventually systemized into what we recognize as myth. The importance of myth and ritual to the life of the primitive cannot be overstressed. Mircea Eliade states in Cosmos and History that, "among primitives, not only do rituals have their mythical model but any human act whatever acquires effectiveness to the extent to which it exactly repeats an act performed at the beginning of time by a god, a hero, or an ancestor."1 The primitive's sense of what is real and of his own identity were intimately associated with ritual. Eliade remarks that, "An object or an act becomes real only insofar as it imitates or repeats an archetype. Thus, reality is acquired solely through repetition or participation; everything which lacks an exemplary model is 'meaningless,' i.e., it lacks reality . . . he (the primitive) sees himself as real, i.e., as 'truly himself,' only, and precisely, insofar as he ceases to be so."2 The transitional nature of the medieval mind accounts at least in part for the peculiar mixture of myth, legend, and history in earlier English histories. Probably all of the romances as well as the histories have both mythical and modem elements since the very concepts of history and hterature as written expression require a degree of modem sensibility. One of the characteristics of the earliest hterature is a lack of interest in form as such. Since the myth is considered simply to be "true," to impose a form upon it would be, to the mind of the primitive, a violation of reality. It therefore follows that in primitive hterature there is much that we would 1MiTCCa Eliade, Cosmos and History (New York, 1959), p. 22. 2IoJd., p. 34. 119 120RMMLA BulletinWinter 1972 call "fantastic"; in other words, there is a lack of formal realism. One also finds a considerable stereotyping of story patterns because, as Mircea Eliade notes, "an act becomes real only insofar as it imitates or repeats an archetype." It is not difficult to see, then, why it is that as hterature becomes more modem the action becomes less external and more intemaL The important things to the primitive are the actions of his gods, and since his own sense of identity is dependent upon his imitation of those activities, psychology in the modem sense is to him irrelevant. These concepts provide a useful perspective from which to view the medieval English romance, since the romance represents the narrative sense of a people who are still in a transitional phase between primitive and modem modes of thought. It seems only natural that we are inclined to admire most, rightly or not, those medieval English romances which show the greatest number of modem elements, since it is easiest to understand and to appreciate the sensibihty most like our own. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a marvelous example of the blending of mythical and modem, an example which, when examined from a mythical as well as a modem point of view, serves to illustrate the transitional nature of the medieval mind. With such a point of view in mind, it may prove worthwhile to examine the probable mythical ancestry of the various elements which compose the romance. One of the most obvious things about Bercilak's castle is its supernatural nature, exemplified by its sudden appearance when Gawain is anxiously seeking shelter and prays for aid. " ? beseche Pe, lorde,/ And Mary, Pat is myldest moder so dere,/ Of sum herber Per hegly I myjtf here masse ... 1 Nade he sayned hymself, segge, bot Prye,/ Er he watz war in Pe wod of a won in...