Our week with The Camelot Oracle ends today, with Bercilak, the Green Knight. I read 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' in Middle English back when I was in university, but alas, my Middle English ain't what it used to be, so I was glad to find a lovely Modern English translation online here:
I hope you do click through on the link and read the full story. As you read, imagine yourself in a medieval hall in candlelight, and read it slowly, hearing the clear, loud voice of an eloquent and expressive storyteller reciting it in measured cadences, and be sure to include the appreciative noises made by the audience around you.
The story itself is an odd one, in which a completely green knight (green skin, green hair, green armour, green horse and a great big axe) rides into Arthur's hall during the Camelot Christmas shindig and dares the court to exchange blows of the axe with him. The winner gets to keep the axe. This sounds like a good deal to Gawain, who promptly chops off the green guy's head, only for the Green Knight to pick up his head, turn its face to the crowd and say thanks a lot, and I will expect you at my place this time next year where I get to take a swing at you. Everyone is pretty freaking amazed. The next Christmas a complicated series of events ensues; Gawain goes searching for the Green Knight and ends up lodging with a mysterious host called Bercilak, who goes out hunting each day, leaving his wife alone with Gawain. She does her best Mata Hari routine, but Gawain keeps his honour, apart from accepting a green sash that the wife says will spare his life. But the Green Knight (who turns out to be the enchanted version of the mysterious host) spares Gawain's life because he was brave enough to turn up to take his chop, revealing that Morgan le Fay had enchanted him and sent him to Arthur's court, mainly to freak out Guinevere, who she has no love for.
After the fact, many scholars have attached all sorts of meaning to the Green Knight, that he is a pagan remnant, that he represents the Holly King or some sort of winter deity, that he is vegetation god, and all sorts. In any case, Matthews suggests that Bercilak represents 'transformation and connection to the green world' (p. 24).
The story itself is an odd one, in which a completely green knight (green skin, green hair, green armour, green horse and a great big axe) rides into Arthur's hall during the Camelot Christmas shindig and dares the court to exchange blows of the axe with him. The winner gets to keep the axe. This sounds like a good deal to Gawain, who promptly chops off the green guy's head, only for the Green Knight to pick up his head, turn its face to the crowd and say thanks a lot, and I will expect you at my place this time next year where I get to take a swing at you. Everyone is pretty freaking amazed. The next Christmas a complicated series of events ensues; Gawain goes searching for the Green Knight and ends up lodging with a mysterious host called Bercilak, who goes out hunting each day, leaving his wife alone with Gawain. She does her best Mata Hari routine, but Gawain keeps his honour, apart from accepting a green sash that the wife says will spare his life. But the Green Knight (who turns out to be the enchanted version of the mysterious host) spares Gawain's life because he was brave enough to turn up to take his chop, revealing that Morgan le Fay had enchanted him and sent him to Arthur's court, mainly to freak out Guinevere, who she has no love for.
After the fact, many scholars have attached all sorts of meaning to the Green Knight, that he is a pagan remnant, that he represents the Holly King or some sort of winter deity, that he is vegetation god, and all sorts. In any case, Matthews suggests that Bercilak represents 'transformation and connection to the green world' (p. 24).
Whoever he is, he is damned interesting and, in this card, reminds me an awful lot of Brian Blessed. I expect him to lean toward me and bellow, 'Gordon's alive!!'
Whenever you need larger than life energies, Bercilak is your guy.
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