Sir Gowther: Table Manners and Aristocratic Identity

The anomalous verse romance of Sir Gowther (ca. 1400) has long perplexed critics with its insistent anti-heroism and spectacular violence. Rather than seek resolution in penitential ideology, this article looks to the secular practices of aristocratic table manners as an important context of the romance's bizarre action. This context was immediately available to fifteenth-century readers of the romance in one of its manuscripts, the "Heege Manuscript," which links Sir Gowther to a conduct poem called the "Urbanitatis." The strictures of personal comportment provide a standard of normative behavior, which provides a foundation for Sir Gowther's imaginative, satirical exploration of romantic humanity.