Gawain as the Epitome of Arthurian Knighthood: Lexico-Semantic Differences in the Depiction of Gawain in Middle English and Middle High German
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Textbook
79 Pages
Summary
Gawain was often seen as the perfect Arthurian knight in Middle English and Middle High German literature and yet, the way he is perceived differs in both cultures. While a lot of research literature approaches the topic from a literary angle, this book reveals the differences in the depiction of the hero from a linguistic point of view. The semantic features of nouns and adjectives used to describe the protagonist in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" by the Gawain-Poet and "Parzival" by Wolfram von Eschenbach are analyzed and discussed.<br>It is investigated whether the authors focus on different aspects of Gawain's personality. Furthermore, the question arises if some expressions only occur for a distinct user like the hero, the narrator or minor characters and whether there are expressions linked to a certain event in the story. The findings of this study will thus offer further insights into the characterization of Gawain.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
9
While the works mentioned above deal with Gawain in only one particular
language, Gawain: A Casebook or The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and
Legend consider his figure in different cultures, especially in English, French,
German and Dutch literature. As their focus is on one language at a time, cross
linguistic comparisons of Gawain could not be found.
In order to fill this gap, this study will examine the nouns and adjectives
used by the Gawain-Poet and Eschenbach to characterize their protagonists. It
is the aim to determine the differences and similarities in the depiction of
Gawain and to discuss possible reasons for certain word choices. The following
chapter will therefore describe how the works for this analysis were chosen, why
the focus is on nouns and attributive adjectives as well as how and which data
was collected. The first half of the main part will start with an overview of the
different expressions that were used in the text Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight. The next part will deal with references Gawain uses for himself, followed
by how other characters address and talk about the knight. After that, the
narrators' ways to describe the protagonists will be analyzed. The second half of
the main part will then be about the same aspects for Parzival, followed by a
discussion of the differences and similarities of both works. Moreover, it will be
dealt with the question whether a lexico-semantic approach offers further
insights into the characterization of Gawain. In the conclusion, the findings of
this study will be summarized.
10
2. Method
2.1 Choice of Works
In order to be well comparable, the sources for Middle English and Middle High
German should have as many characteristics in common as possible. For the
English text, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight offers not only the advantage of
Gawain being the main character it is also written in verse. Due to the German
sources being all poems, choosing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight allows to
look for the best possible counterpart in Middle High German literature.
Although Diu Crône by Heinrich von dem Türlin also has Gawain as the
main hero, he "undergoes neither evolution nor crisis" (Thompson/Busby 2006:
10) and is, in contrast to Gawain in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, already a
fixed character. For this reason, Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival was
preferred to Diu Crône, despite the fact that Gawain is only the second main
character there. Parzival and Gâwân, as he is called in Middle High German, go
on different adventures and therefore have their own episodes. This allows
seeing Gâwân as the main character in his parts of the story, making Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight and Parzival comparable.
Another important aspect in regard to comparability is the time in which
both works occurred. For the manuscript of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it
seems certain that it was created around 1400 (Brewer D. 1997:1 & Bennet
1997:71). However, the manuscript is a transcription of the original poem and it
is unknown in which year the actual work was written. While Bennet suggests
that it might have been produced "as early as the 1360s or as late as the
manuscript itself" (1997:71), Edwards argues that the poem surely existed
before the manuscript. Furthermore, he concludes from the inscription "HONY
SOYT QUI MAL PENCE" (SGGK, 69) that the year 1348 "provides the earliest
possible date for the transcription of the manuscript itself" (1997:198). However,
he comments that the inscription might not have been "copied at the same time
as the text or by the same scribe" (1997:198) and Barron adds that "there is no
evidence that the poet himself intended any reference" (1994: 181) to the Garter
motto. Moreover, he writes that because of the armor and equipment described
in the story it is concluded that the work was written "in the last ten or fifteen
years of the fourteenth century" (1994: 25).
11
In contrast to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the dating of Parzival
seems less complicated. In the seventh book of his work, Eschenbach writes
about the still bad condition of Erfurt's wine gardens, which were trampled down
by horses (Eschenbach 1961: 379,18
4
). According to Bumke, this refers to the
siege of Erfurt in the spring of 1203 and he concludes that the smaller part of
Parzival was written before 1203/1204 (1970: 11). On the other hand, he takes
into account that the work might have been edited several times which opens up
the possibility that comments like this have been included at a later time. As a
result, he dates the poem between 1200 and 1210 (Bumke 1970: 12).
Even if, in conclusion, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Parzival are
up to 200 years apart, the two works share a connecting feature. Both of them
are influenced by the French writer Chrétien de Troyes. Though Eschenbach's
indication of sources is rather unclear, comparisons with Chrétien's Conte du
Graal showed that his Perceval can be seen as Parzival's main source (Bumke
1970: 33).
In her article "The Sources of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", Elizabeth
Brewer writes that it would be almost "virtually certain" (1997: 245) that the
Gawain-Poet was familiar with the episode of the Beheading-game in the First
Continuation of Perceval.
In summary, the aspects of verse, date, source and Gawain being a main
character led to the decision that Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Parzival
were suitable works in order to answer the research question of how the figures'
character is presented in Middle English and Middle High German literature.
2.2 Choice of Word Classes
There are four word classes which allow characterizing Gawain: nouns,
adjectives, verbs and adverbs. The nouns can be split into two groups. On the
one hand, there are nouns which replace the name 'Gawain', like "kni t" (SGGK,
11) 'knight' or "degen" (Eschenbach 1961: 299,30) 'warrior'. On the other hand,
nouns that in some way describe his manner can be found. While it is a rather
easy choice to include "kraft" (Eschenbach 1961: 558,22) 'strength' or "honour"
(SGGK, 34) 'honor', it is difficult to decide what to do with "Your [Gawain's]
worde" (SGGK, 42). As Gawain's talent for speeches is regularly mentioned, it
seems important to be included. Yet, the noun worde itself does not transport
4
All quotes from Parzival are indicated with 'stanza,verse line' to make them searchable
on the TITUS website.
12
the information that his talks were outstanding or much appreciated by others.
Due to this problematic differentiation, only those types of nouns which replace
Gawain's name were taken into account. Consequently, only the attributive
adjectives that refer to Gawain or the according replacement expressions were
collected for the data.
For verbs, it would be necessary to find rules by which expressions are
accepted into the corpus. Otherwise, the amount of verbs like say or go and
their conjugated forms that are used to describe basic actions but do not have a
greater meaning for Gawain's character would be too high. However, as
Gawain's talent for speech is a characteristic of him, verbs that express the idea
of saying something are important to be added. Here, the problem arises to
decide which verbs have more meaning for the protagonist's character than
others.
To limit the amount of verbs accepted into the corpus, it would also be
possible, for example, to distinguish between verbs that describe an activity or a
state. At first glance, one might decide to collect only activity verbs as people
can be well characterized by their actions. On the other hand, for Gawain and
the Green Knight, the significance of Gawain staying in bed all day while his
host is on a hunt cannot be denied. Consequently, one can conclude that state
verbs can also be important for analysis. Again, the question arises on how to
determine verbs that are significant for the depiction of Gawain's character and,
thus, need to be added to the corpus. For this reason, the focus will be on
adjectives and on nouns as described above.
2.3 Collection of Data
In a first approach, both texts were read in order to collect a basis of nouns and
adjectives as well as declined forms which are used to refer to Gawain.
Especially for the Middle English text, attention was paid to alternative forms of
spelling. In a second approach, search functions were used to assure a
complete collection of data.
Nouns like the Middle English sir and the Middle High German her, which
are used by the narrator and in direct speech to address Gawain, were not
taken into account as they only stress the protagonist's nobility or are a formal
form of politeness and respect, but do not add further characteristics to the
concept of Gawain.
13
Plural forms were included when a direct reference to Gawain existed. In
"There gode Gawan watz grayþed Gwenore bisyde,/And Agrauayn a la dure
mayn on þat oþer syde sittes,/Boþe þe kynges sistersunes and ful siker kni tes"
(SGGK, 4) 'There, good Gawain was seated next to Guinevere, and Agravain
with the hard hand sits on the other side both the king's sister's sons and very
doughty knights', for example, it is clear that sistersunes and kni tes refer to
'Gawain and Agravain' due to their mentioning two verse lines before and were
thus added to the data. General references to knights or else, however, where
Gawain might possibly but not for sure be part of, were omitted. This, of
course, accounts for the Middle High German text as well.
Nouns and adjectives used in sentences with a conjunctive verb form
were only taken into account, when the conjunctive's function was to indicate
indirect speech. If, however, it was used to signalize a possibility for Gawain to
be or become, for example, a coward due to his actions, it was not included as it
did not express a fact in the present of the story. The same accounts for nouns
and adjectives that occurred in a negated sentence.
All collected terms were extended by user information. Those which were
mentioned by the narrator were marked with 'N', those used by Gawain to refer
to himself were labeled with 'G' and those which were brought up by minor
characters were marked with 'O' for 'others', together with the character's name
if available. Being able to sort nouns and adjectives by those parameters offers
the possibility to discover if certain expressions are limited to particular users
only.
The indication of verse lines enables to determine whether nouns or
adjectives are connected to distinct events in the story and do only appear
before or after them.
All expressions were assigned to three different groups: Adjectives, Nouns
and Appositions. As the two categories 'Nouns' and 'Appositions' overlap, the
differences between them will be explained in the following.
An apposition is seen as "a noun phrase immediately after another noun
phrase that refers to the same person" (OAAD) and in the context of this study,
to Gawain. Though it is not restrictive, the apposition is not separated with a
comma. All expressions categorized as an apposition follow the scheme
'Gawain' + 'article' + 'nominalized adjective/noun', e.g. "Gawayn þe gode"
(SGGK, 31) 'Gawain the Good' or "Gâwân der wirt" (Eschenbach 1961: 764,08)
'Gawain the Host'. An exception to this rule is the Middle High German "von
14
Norwæge Gâwân" (Eschenbach 1961: 651,10), where the apposition precedes
the name due to the less strict syntax. Relative clauses like "Gâwân der
ellenthafte degen" (Eschenbach 1961: 418,03) 'Gawain, the brave warrior' were
split up into adjective and noun.
2.4 Evaluation of Data
To find out which characteristics of Gawain were especially important for the
authors and to make these findings comparable, one has to take a look at the
semantic features of the expressions. For this, dictionaries were consulted and
the definitions given were used to determine the semantic features. As nouns
can have different meanings according to their use, the context of each
expression was considered to ensure a thorough evaluation. In case of the
Middle High German gast, for example, a differentiation was made between its
meanings 'guest' and 'stranger'.
In the next step, every semantic feature of a noun or adjective was
multiplied by the word's number of occurrences in the text. The result allows to
determine which aspects of Gawain are predominant in the work examined. To
contrast Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with Parzival, the results' percentage
for the total of semantic features was calculated respectively
5
.
Redundant semantic features like [
HUMAN
], [
MALE
], [
ADULT
] were not added
to concentrate on the more defining aspects of the protagonist. This, in turn,
automatically leads to words like man having no relevant semantic features. To
avoid that such words drop out of the analysis, they will be discussed
independently and added to statistics as neutral expressions.
The term reference is used to describe the way characters express their
thoughts about the protagonist and is not used with its pragmatic meaning.
5
See appendix 'Figure 5 - Distribution of Semantic Features in Percent', page 77.
15
3. Summaries for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and
Parzival
In order to understand the differences in regard to the characterization of
Gawain in both works, it is important to know the context in which both interact.
Therefore, the following abstracts will provide a brief overview of the two plots.
3.1 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Celebrating Christmas at Arthur's court, the court society is interrupted by the
Green Knight, who demands a Christmas game: a member of the Knights of the
Round Table shall hit him with his axe but will receive a blow in return after one
year. It is Gawain, who in the end accepts the challenge and beheads the Green
Knight. Still alive, the stranger demands Gawain to keep his word and to meet
him at the Green Chapel in a year's time.
When the set date comes near, Gawain leaves Arthur's court to look for
the Green Chapel. On his way, he comes to Bertilak's castle and is welcomed
as a guest. The lord and the knight agree to exchange every evening what the
host achieves during a hunt while Gawain will give him everything he receives at
the castle.
Three days in a row, Bertilak's wife comes to Gawain's chamber and
kisses him, but on the third day also gives him a green girdle, which has the
power to protect from death. While the protagonist exchanges the kisses for the
hunting trophies, he keeps the green girdle to protect himself because he has to
face the fight against the Green Knight the next day.
When arriving at the Green Chapel, the Green Knight fakes two blows but
cuts Gawain's neck with a third. He then reveals that he is Bertilak and that
Gawain has received the cut for keeping the girdle, which was against their
agreement. Full of shame, Gawain returns to Arthur's court, wearing the girdle
as a visible sign for his fault.
16
3.2 Parzival
In Parzival, Gawain occurs rather late in the story. In the presence of Arthur's
court, he is accused by Kingrimursel of killing someone without reason and is
thus asked to come to Schampfanzun to solve the matter by a fight.
On his way, Gawain passes a castle, which is under attack because the
daughter of the castle's lord rejected King Meljanz' love. Gawain is able to settle
the dispute between the couple and moves on.
In Schampfanzun, he is seen kissing King Vergulaht's sister which results
in a fight between him and the king's men. The knight is supported by
Kingrimursel, who had guaranteed Gawain would be safe before their fight. The
matter can be settled when the protagonist agrees to take over Vergulaht's task
to search for the Holy Grail.
Travelling further, he meets the lady Orgelûse and instantly falls in love
with her. She rejects him, but Gawain does not give up. Thus, she grabs the
opportunity when she gets the chance to leave him behind, but allows him to
see her again if he wins a fight against a certain knight. In the course of this
task, Gawain learns about an enchanted castle where noble ladies are held
captive. He is the first to survive the adventures in the castle and as a result
becomes lord of it. Orgelûse meets Gawain again and gets healed from her
bitterness when the hero declares to fight King Gramoflanz, the murderer of
Orgelûse's husband. The twist here is that Gramoflanz is the love of Gawain's
sister and in case of a fight, Itonjê would either lose her beloved or her brother.
Artus thus intervenes and both couples get married.
17
4. Gawain in Middle English
In the following chapters, the different findings of the analysis will be presented
and discussed. There will be a detailed look onto the users of certain
expressions and terms related to a distinct event, but for a start, a general
overview of the expressions for the Middle English work will be given.
4.1 Overview of Expressions in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight
In total, 210 expressions were found referring to the hero in Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight.
6
The biggest group is formed by nouns, making up 173 words,
followed by 32 adjectives and 5 appositions.
For nouns, 24 different terms can be found referring to Gawain. The most
frequent ones, which occur more than 10 times, are represented in Figure 1
below.
Figure 1 - Most Frequent Nouns for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Freke is followed by haþel 'warrior' (6 times), prynce 'prince' (6), renk
'soldier' (4), hende 'courtly' (3), dere 'dear' (2) and one time respectively by
comly 'handsome', cosyn 'cousin', feble '(mentally) weak', gome 'warrior', ientyle
'gentle', noble 'noble', schalk 'warrior', stalworth 'strong', tulk 'soldier', wlonk
'noble', wok 'weak' and sistersun 'sister's son'.
While there is quite a variety of different terms, their frequency is quickly
descending. This is similar for the group of adjectives. Here, gode 'good' is the
most frequent expression with 7 occurrences, followed by bolde 'brave' and
comli 'handsome' with 3. The adjectives fre 'noble', gentyle 'gentle', hende
'courtly', luflych 'lovely', and stif 'strong' can be found two times each, while derf
6
See appendix 'I. Complete Data for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', page 48.
44
22
19
16
14
13
12
0
10
20
30
40
50
kny t
'knight'
wy e
'man'
mon
'man'
burne
'knight'
le(u)de
'man'
segge
'man'
freke
'warrior'
18
'brave', fautles 'faultless', gay 'cheerful', myry 'cheerful', noble 'noble', siker
'doughty', trwe 'loyal', welcome 'welcome' and vnworþy 'unworthy' occur only
once. For appositions, the phrases þe gode 'the good' (2 times), þe hende 'the
courtly' (1), þe noble 'the noble' (1) and þe blyþe 'the joyful' (1) could be found.
When semantic features are assigned to these expressions
7
, it becomes
apparent that his noble descent and being a fighter are the most important
aspects of Gawain's character and define him most (see Table 1). They set the
basis for a further enhancement of qualities: the features of bravery and
strength add more detail to his knighthood and his power corresponds with his
aristocratic and royal status in society.
Table 1 - Distribution of Semantic Features in SGGK
Nouns Adjectives
Appositions Total
[
NOBLE
]
80
11
2
93
[
WARRIOR
]
91 0 0 91
[
BRAVE
]
19
8
2
29
[
POWERFUL
]
9 5 1 15
[
HANDSOME
]
4
9
0
13
[
POLITE
]
4 4 1 9
[
GOOD
]
0
7
2
9
[
STRONG
]
1 3 0 4
[
CHEERFUL
]
0
2
1
3
[
KIND
]
1 2 0 3
[
RELATIVE
]
2
0
0
2
[
DEAR
]
2 0 0 2
[
WEAK
]
2
0
0
2
[
LOYAL
]
0 1 0 1
[
WELCOME
]
0
1
0
1
[
UNWORTHY
]
0 1 0 1
[
FAULTLESS
]
0
1
0
1
Another important feature is Gawain's goodness, indicated by the
adjective gode. It occurs frequently in combination with the protagonist's name:
gode Gawain. The alliteration strengthens this aspect in such a way that Borroff
claims it becomes almost redundant (1996: 125). The goodness of Gawain
'goes without saying' [and] can be 'taken for granted' (Borroff 1996: 125) as
she describes it. It is strengthened even more by the protagonist's impeccable
manners, a semantic component expressed by the adjective fautles.
7
See appendix 'II. Semantic Features in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', page 53.
19
In regard to his relationship with others, the hero is ascribed the semantic
features of politeness, kindness and loyalty. He seems to be a rather cheerful
man and the fact that he is good looking is also expressed several times. Being
such a pleasant person, minor characters welcome Gawain and hold him dear.
Though the most frequent features deal to a large extend with the hero's
social position as a warrior and nobleman and focus less on his contact with
others, in general, these entire features picture a protagonist with ideal knightly
qualities. It is thus striking to also find the semantic features [
WEAK
] and
[
UNWORTHY
] which seem to completely stand in contrast to the other
characteristics. They are even more noteworthy because it is Gawain himself
who uses the corresponding expressions the wakkest and vnworþy to refer
to himself. The following chapter will therefore deal with the analysis of
expressions the hero uses for himself.
4.2 Expressions Used by Gawain
When the Green Knight enters Arthur's court and asks for someone to challenge
him in a Christmas game, no one volunteers and the king is so embarrassed
that he offers to strike the blow demanded himself. It is Gawain then, who
decides to stand in Arthur's place and reasons it with: I am þe wakkest, I wot,
and of wyt feblest,/ [...] Bot for as much as e ar myn em I am only to prayse
[emphasis mine] (SGGK, 10) 'I know, I am the weakest and have the weakest
mind. I am only praised because you are my uncle.' He stresses both his
physical and mental lack of strength and argues that the only reason for being
regarded as a respectable person is due to his kinship with Arthur. The way the
narrator describes Gawain, however, is totally different: Gawan watz for gode
knawen, and as golde pured,/Voyded of vche vylany, wyth vertuez ennourned/in
mote (SGGK, 18) 'Gawain was known to be good and to be like purified gold,
free from all imperfection, equipped with values in heart'. This is not a
description suitable for any ordinary Knight of the Round Table but an
outstanding member. Yet, the hero does not regard himself as such a man but
sees himself as quite the contrary. Being told otherwise, he even actively
refuses to accept the ascribed features, as the following example shows.
When Bertilak's wife tells him Þat alle þe worlde worchipez quere-so e
ride;/Your honour, your hendelayk is hendely praysed/ With lordez, wyth ladyes,
with alle þat lyf bere. (SGGK, 34) 'that the whole world worships you wherever
you ride; your honor, your courtliness are nobly praised by the lords, the ladies
20
and everyone who lives there', he vehemently denies being the man she talks
about and even adds: To reche to such reuerence as e reherce here/I am
wy e vnworþy [emphasis mine] (SGGK, 35) ('I am unworthy to receive such
respect as you describe here'). Again, the image Gawain has of himself is
strangely at odds with the way others perceive him. Regarding the nouns he
uses to refer to himself, he also seems to have no interest in stressing his
nobility and takes a rather neutral stance towards his social status.
8
In contrast to the previous examples, the protagonist nevertheless uses a
positively connoted adjective as well. When Gawain reaches the Green Chapel
and finds no one there, he shouts: Who sti tlez in þis sted me steuen to
holde?/For now is gode Gawayn goande ry t here. [emphasis mine] (SGGK,
62) 'Who rules this place to hold a meeting with me? Because now, good
Gawain has come right here'. It can be doubted that Gawain mentioned the
adjective because he actually regards himself as being good and wants to add
this aspect when introducing himself. Gode is also not used to distinct himself
from another, probably bad, Gawain, as his name alone is enough to make
unmistakably clear who he is (cp. SGGK, 11). Moreover, the Green Knight
expects only one person called Gawain to show up at the chapel that day.
Therefore, gode is when regarded as an official enhancement of his name
superfluous in this scene. When translating Gawain's words, Barron
encountered the same problem and chose to change it to Gawain, true to his
word (1994: 149). While it is very well possible that gode is meant in that way, it
would mean a rather ironic twist for the protagonist's character. Though Gawain
might be good in the sense of 'keeping his word', he is nevertheless cheating in
a game that was meant to be equal for both participants: he is wearing the
green girdle in order to protect himself from death. Accordingly, Gawain would
use his excellent reputation to knowingly cover his unfair action. Judging from
how downcast and ashamed he is, when the Green Knight reveals to him that
he got only cut because of his cheating, it seems rather unlikely that Gawain
wanted to put special emphasis on how good he is while knowing he actually is
not. That is why it is argued here that gode is not used in the sense suggested
by Barron, but is rather a redundant addition to his name. This claim is also
supported by Gawain's distinctive habit to understate himself, as seen in the
analysis of wakkest, feblest and vnworþy.
8
Compare appendix 'Table 3 - Collection of Nouns for Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight', page 48 (User 'G') and 'Table 6 - Semantic Features of Nouns in Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight', page 53.
21
4.3 Expressions Used by Other Characters
The self-image and the way other people perceive a person often differ. This is
also the case for Gawain. The analysis of the expressions he used for himself
has shown that the hero tends to understate himself and the evidence that other
figures do not share his view could also be found. In the following abstract, it will
be looked into how minor characters express this different stance and what
features they convey with the nouns and adjectives they use. However, for the
Middle English work, only few references could be found.
The usage of the nominalized adjective hende is especially characteristic
of Lord Bertilak's wife. It contains the semantic features [
NOBLE
], [
POWERFUL
],
[
BRAVE
] and [
HANDSOME
] and is used as a polite form of address (cp. SGGK,
35). One time, is even enhanced with of hy e honours (SGGk, 50) 'of high
honors'. While hende implies not only nobility and bravery, it also contains the
meaning of handsomeness, which offers an explanation why this expression is
so predominant for the lady. Gawain's attractiveness is of great significance to
her which becomes especially apparent when she refers to him with the
superlative form of the adjective comly. She calls him the 'most handsome
knight' of his time (cp. SGGK, 42). This is not only her subjective view, as will
become clear when analyzing the expressions the narrator uses.
For the lady's husband, other features of the protagonist are of
importance. What the hero says about himself clearly shows a downgrading of
his person even before Lord Bertilak reveals that he knows about Gawain
keeping the girdle. This aberration, however, does not keep Bertilak from
addressing the protagonist as [b]olde burne (SGGK, 64) 'brave warrior', though
not everyone might consider using a girdle to stay alive to be a brave action.
Therefore, one might think this to be mere politeness but the Green Knight
proofs this thought to be wrong: he tells Gawain that he was the þe fautlest
freke þat euer on fote ede [emphasis mine] (SGGK, 65) 'most faultless warrior
who ever walked on earth', though he admitted he had cut the knight for not
exchanging the girdle and hence, for not being without fault. The status he
ascribes to Gawain is thus a fixed fact. This feature cannot be changed by any
event or action and is similar to the protagonist's goodness.
For King Arthur, the usage of cosyn, here 'nephew', could be found (cp.
SGGK, 11). It is the only time this term occurs and the sole occasion in which
22
another character mentions the relationship between the hero and himself. It
can thus be concluded, that kinship is not that important for Gawain's image.
4.4 Expressions Used by the Narrator
While minor characters and the protagonist have only little influence on the
general image of the hero due to the rather few occasions for their direct
speeches in the story, the narrator takes over a major part in shaping the
concept of his main figure.
The most frequent terms referring to Gawain mirror the distribution of
nouns in general with slight changes in their order (see Figure 2). They are also
used by Gawain and the other characters and especially focus on the features
[
WARRIOR
], [
NOBLE
] and [
BRAVE
]: kny t, burne, freke and haþel. It becomes
apparent here that it is especially the narrator's credit that being a fighter and
nobility are such predominant features of Gawain's character. These aspects
are further stressed by the according semantic features of the adjectives fre,
gentyle, hende, derf, noble and stif. Nevertheless, the narrator completes his
vocabulary with neutral expressions like mon, wy e, segge and lede as well.
Figure 2 Distribution of Nouns Used by the Narrator in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
9
Expressions which are exclusively used by the narrator might offer further
characteristics. Those are prynce 'prince', noble 'noble', sistersun 'sister's son',
the nominalized adjectives ientyle 'gentle', wlonk 'noble', stalworth 'strong' and
those nouns which denote 'warrior': renk, gome, schalk, and tulk. For the
biggest part, they simply strengthen the already established features described
9
Expressions exclusively used by the narrator are marked with gray.
38
15 14
13 12
10 10
6
4
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
23
above. However, they also contribute to a more detailed portray of the
protagonist as they ascribe him the features of strength and power.
Sistersun, moreover, is the second mentioning of a noun which refers to
the relationship between the main hero and a minor character. Concluding from
such rare occurrences, kinship is not only of little importance in the world of the
story but also in the world of the reader. Contrary to Gawain's claim that he was
only a respected member of the Round Table because of Arthur being his uncle
(cp. SGGK, 10), family relations are not a major aspect which defines a person.
The protagonist's attractiveness, which was already mentioned by Lord
Bertilak's wife, is expressed by the narrator as well. Hende occurs both as
adjective and nominalized adjective and is even used as an apposition. Its
feature [
HANDSOME
] is further supported by the adjective comly. This time, it is
the narrator who refers to the hero's good looks, which adds objectivity to the
lady's statement.
Another important aspect is Gawain's goodness, which is almost entirely
conveyed by the narrator through the adjective gode. That this characteristic is
not to be doubted becomes obvious when taking the corresponding apposition
into account. When talking about Sir Gawayn þe gode (SGGK, 53) 'Sir Gawain
the Good', the feature [
GOOD
] is emphasized in a very particular way: it is
inseparably linked with the protagonist's name.
The narrator also extends Gawain's characteristics with social skills like
politeness and kindness with sporadically occurring adjectives and displays him
as a cheerful man, which is also stressed by the apposition þe blyþe 'the
happy/joyful'.
In conclusion, the Middle English Gawain is to a large extent defined by
nobility, fighting skills and knightly manners. For the narrator and minor
characters, his goodness and faultlessness are a matter of fact and though it is
unknown how the hero accomplished this status, it seems impossible for him to
lose it. Interestingly, the protagonist rejects this unique role others assign to him
and downgrades himself.
24
5. Gawain in Middle High German
After the adjectives and nouns for the Middle English Gawain have been
analyzed, the focus will now be on the protagonist of the Middle High German
work. For a start, there will like in the previous section be an overview of the
expressions that could be found before taking a closer look onto terms of
Gawain, minor characters and the narrator. Afterwards, the findings of this study
will be compared to characterizations of Gawain deriving from a less specific
approach.
5.1 Overview of Expressions in Parzival
For Eschenbach's Parzival, 267 expressions were found in total.
10
Here as well,
the biggest group is formed by nouns with 180 words, followed by 74 adjectives
and 13 appositions. At first glance, in regard to nouns, it seems surprising to find
only a slightly higher number in Parzival compared to Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight (172 expressions), though the work is significantly longer. The reason for
this is that Eschenbach makes greater use of Gawain's name. While the higher
numbers of adjectives can be ascribed to the greater length of the work, the
higher amount of appositions might just be a preference of style.
Another difference in regard to both works can be found in the variety of
expressions. In Parzival, there are 35 different nouns, 27 adjectives and 8
appositions, compared to 23 nouns, 17 adjectives and only 4 different
appositions in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Interestingly, the most frequently used expression for Gawain is the
neutral man 'man' (see Figure 3), followed by gast (11 times with the meaning
'guest'; 9 times with the meaning 'stranger') Lôtes sun/ Lôtes kint 'Lôt's son/Lôt's
child' and neve 'nephew'. The terms ritter 'knight', helt 'hero' and degen 'warrior',
which describe the protagonist's nobility and knighthood, occur rather late.
Then, the focus is again on relationships to others which are expressed by
bruoder 'brother', swester sun 'sister's sun' (8 times) and geselle ('beloved' 4
times, 'friend' 1 time).
10
See appendix 'III. Complete Data for Parzival', page 57.
25
Figure 3 - Most Frequent Nouns for Parzival
The other nouns used to describe Gawain are wirt (5) 'host', wîgant
'warrior' (3), vriunt 'friend' (2), bote 'messenger' (2), amîs 'beloved' (1), stolze
'proud' (1), werde 'noble' (1), bruodersun 'brother's son'(1), minne gernde 'love
longing' (1), manlîche 'brave' (1), prîs 'glory' (1), meister 'teacher' (1), zil 'aim'
(1), ellens rîche 'rich in courage' (1) êren rîche 'rich in honors' (1) and lasters
arm 'poor in shame' (1). Of these, only wîgant carries the semantic feature
[warrior]
11
. It therefore becomes already apparent that in Parzival, the
protagonist is depicted from a different perspective as in the Middle English
counterpart. Moreover, Gawain is accused of being a trügenære 'defrauder' (1),
a valschære 'forger' (2) and a wehselære 'money lender' (1). He is insulted as a
gans 'goose' (2) and a tumbe 'dumb man' (1) and with the same intention
referred to as koufman 'trader' (2), garzun 'squire' (1) and arzet 'Barber-surgeon'
(3).
In regard to adjectives, however, only respectable aspects are stressed
again with the exception of tumm 'dumb' occurring once. What gode Gawain is
in Middle English, werde Gâwân is in Middle High German. Wert 'noble' is the
most frequently used adjective with a number of 30 occurrences, followed with
a huge gap by balt 'brave' und wol geborn 'of noble birth', which could be
found 4 times each. Hövesch 'courtly' and vremd 'strange (in the sense of 'not
familiar to someone)' occur 3 times, while ellens rich 'rich in strengh', manlîch
'brave', snel 'quick', stolz 'proud', unverzaget 'undismayed', werlîch 'able to
defend oneself', (ge)triuwe 'loyal' and minne gernde 'love longing' can be found
only twice. There is also a large number of adjectives which exist only once:
ahtbære 'respected', edel 'noble', ellenthaft 'couragous', kamphbære 'having the
11
See appendix 'Table 13 - Semantic Features of Adjectives in Parzival', page 70.
24
20
17
16
14
14
14
12
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
man
gast
Lôtes
sun/kint
neve
ritter
helt
degen
brouder
Details
- Pages
- Type of Edition
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- Publication Year
- 2015
- ISBN (eBook)
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- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9783954893614
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- English
- Publication date
- 2015 (February)
- Keywords
- gawain epitome arthurian knighthood lexico-semantic differences depiction middle english high german
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