A re-reading of Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table: ‘Drad was he never’

Lines 105 – 130: 

 

Bare was the body  and blak to the bone                                                  105 

Al biclagged in clay uncomly cladde. 

Hit waried, hit wayment as a woman , 

But on hide ne on huwe no heling hit hadde. 

Hit stemered, hit stonayde, hit stode as a stone, 

Hit marred, hit memered, hit mused for madde.8                                     110 

Agayn the grisly goost Sir Gawayn is gone; 

He rayked oute at a res, for he was never drad. 

Drad was he never, ho so right redes. 

On the chef of the cholle , 

A pade pikes on the polle,                                                                        115 

With eighen holked ful holle 

That gloed as the gledes . 

 

Al glowed as a glede the goste there ho glides, 

Umbeclipped in a cloude of clethyng unclere, 

Serkeled with serpentes all aboute the sides -                                          120 

To tell the todes theron my tonge wer full tere. 

The burne braides oute the bronde , and the body bides ; 

Therefor the chevalrous knight changed no chere . 

The houndes highen to the holtes, and her hede hides, 

For the grisly goost made a grym bere      125 

The grete greundes wer agast of the grym bere. 

The birdes in the bowes, 

That on the goost glowes, 

Thei skryke in the skowes 

That hatheles  may here.                                                                           130 

These two stanzas describe the interplay between Sir Gawain, the knight of the round table, and the ‘grisly goost’, later revealed to be Lady Guinevere’s departed mother.  The passage is littered with graphic supernatural imagery: corpses rising out of the water, a body ‘blak to the bone’, toads with glowing eyes, and a ghost ‘described with ghastly clarity’ (Turville-Petre, 65). Yet, the line that most commands the reader’s attention speaks not of ‘grisly goost’, but Gawain’s lack of fear: ‘Drad was he never, ho so right redes’. The prominence of this line is partially due to repetition of the preceding line: ‘he was never drad./ Drad was he never’. Then, there is the direct address of poet to reader, to ‘ho so right redes’. As line nine of the thirteen line stanza, it is the transition between two rhyme patterns, creating a break in the ABABABAB pattern and beginning the CDDDC rhyme that characterises the four line wheel at the end of each stanza. It participates in the rhyme scheme of the four line wheel, but is not a part of it, highlighting its singularity. Furthermore, it contains a single alliteration, ‘right redes’, in stark contrast to the average four alliterative instances in surrounding lines. These devices work together to give this line significance; thus, Gawain’s lack of ‘drad’ is the focal point of the two stanzas. Why is this so important? I propose that it is the underlying meaning that is significant, for the line is not addressed to just any reader, but to he who ‘right redes’ i.e. he who correctly reads and understands.                     

‘Redes’ in the Middle English Dictionary (MED) does not equate to reading written matter but ‘Advice, counsel…To follow counsel’. Therefore, I suggest the poet is teaching a lesson through the character of Gawain and his actions, his lack of ‘drad’, that a ‘right’ reader might heed. The significance of the afore-mentioned line and the accompanying two stanzas is rooted in whatever this ‘counsel’ or ‘advice’ may be. Narratives surrounding Sir Gawain throughout literature portray him ‘almost always [as] the faultless hero’ (Melle, 117). Indeed, Alan Markman identifies him as the ‘perfect knight’, suggesting that the ‘primary purpose of [Sir Gawain and the Green Knight] is to show what a splendid man Gawain is’ (575). Considering this, a credible assumption is that the lesson of the poem lies, like many other Arthurian narratives, in an exemplary figure of humanity, whose ‘courage, humility, courtesy and loyalty’ (Markman, 577) the reader should seek to emulate.                          

                               

Courage appears the main theme of these two stanzas; there is the focus on ‘he was never drad’ and we are told Gawain ‘rayked oute at a res’, charging the ‘grisly goost’ to defend Guinevere. However, upon closer inspection of Gawain’s foe, I argue his attack was an act of cowardice, distinctly lacking in knightly qualities. The ‘grisly goost’ is identified almost immediately ‘as a woman’, who ‘waried’ and ‘wayment’. The MED definition of wayment [waiment] is ‘lamenation; a cry of sorrow’. Thus, whilst the corpse may appear ‘uncomly’ the prevailing imagery is of a woman in distress. This should evoke pity and, in Arthurian tradition, be the subject of a rescue, not an attack. The intended portrayal of the corpse as victim rather than villain is supported by the poet’s physical description: ‘Hit stemered … hit stode as a stone’; to stammer and freeze as though ‘a stone’ indicates fear. The imagery of ‘biclagged in clay’, suggests a restriction in movement making the ‘goost’ physically vulnerable, whilst ‘hit mused for madde’ suggests mental vulnerability. So, whilst Turville-Petre observes the ghost is described in ‘ghastly clarity’ (65), I would claim the ‘clarity’ is only ‘ghastly’ because it is not perceived by Gawain, who proceeds to charge at the stammering vulnerable ghost.                                                            SSS 

Sir Gawain might ‘never [be] drad’ but, as Hanna notes, ‘one is tempted to ask whether a rational sense of fear is not a desirable part of the character of a fighting man’ (292). This absence of a ‘rational sense of fear’ (292) is exemplified in Gawain’s inability to recognise or appreciate fear in others, in turn suggesting he lacks judgement and reason. This is an observation Hanna supports: ‘one may surmise that knightly qualities do not necessarily have to include intelligence’ (291). The first stanza demonstrates Gawain’s lack of judgement, his rash show of “courage” when it is transparent he has the upper hand and his victim poses no threat. But what if Gawain’s actions were not a mistaken consequence of poor judgement, but a calculated show? In the second half of the poem (lines 508 – 520), when facing his equal, an enemy that is unafraid, Gawain is not so quick to attack, ‘rayked oute at a res’, as he is here. Instead he rears up on horse, ‘on a startand stede’(511), and yet does not hit a target, ‘strikes on stray’(511), displaying a propensity for flair but little of the knightly courage he is famed for. This indicates Gawain does have ‘a rational sense of fear’ but uses it shrewdly, to his advantage. Either way, it seems possible that ‘ho so right redes’ is counselling the reader to examine Gawain’s lack of ‘drad’ and not necessarily equate it with true courage.                                                                                                                            

The second stanza presents an alternate, but equally plausible, counsel, for it foreshadows Gawain’s inability to heed the corpse later in the poem. Gawain’s entire focus is on the physical, the bodily: ‘The burne braides oute the bronde and the body bides’ is the only dynamic he can understand, believing that because his ‘bronde’ can ‘bide’ the body, i.e. make the corpse stand still, he holds power over it. The alliterative ‘b’ sounds make the line mechanical and cold, lacking human feeling, and the shortness of the statement ‘and the body bides’ suggests inevitability, a complacency, that perhaps mirrors Gawain’s feelings. His triumph in bodily dominance obscures judgement once again, as he is unable to see past the physical. His expression ‘chere’ does not change when he holds the corpse at swordpoint, though it ‘made a grim bere’. Gawain remains composed, even as ‘The grete greundes’ run away and ‘the birdes … skryke’ (screech) in the woods. Is this bravery or stupidity? The wheel at the end of the stanza points to the latter. Birds ‘are usually used to represent prophetic knowledge’ in pagan and Celtic religion (Davidson, 91) and therefore Gawain’s deafness to their warning screeches could foreshadow his later deafness to the corpse’s warnings. Significantly, the poet declares the ‘hatheles may here’ where Sir Gawain does not. The definition of ‘hatheles’ in the MED is ‘Noble, great, worthy’; medieval variations on ‘noble’ include ‘wise’. Surely this is a parallel to earlier, where only ‘ho so right redes’ would understand Sir Gawain’s flaws, so too would only the ‘hatheles’ hear and heed the warning of the screeching birds, the advice of the corpse, or the counsel of the poet.                                                                                                                

In conclusion, I propose that the poet uses these two stanzas to make a lesson of Gawain, highlighting what his lack of fear reveals about his character, and bringing the reader’s attention to the possible consequences of both his character flaws and his blindness to the warning signs around him. Contrary to the prevailing notion of Sir Gawain as the embodiment of the perfect knight, the poet is deliberately pointing out his meanness, his cowardice, his lack of judgement and his blindness. This helps to fore-shadow the later event, where Gawain ignores the counsel of the corpse. 

PLEASE NOTE:   A re-reading of Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table: ‘Drad was he never’ by Annabelle May Hawkes is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0