Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Oedipal Temptation*

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, at once the greatest and most psychological of Middle English romances, commands admiration for the unequalled elegance and economy of its plot. The anonymous fourteenth-century author is generally agreed to have been the first to combine the three separate motifs from folklore that make up the action of the poem. The first of the poem's four parts turns on the story of the “Beheading Game,” in which an unknown challenger demands that one member of a group of warriors volunteer to cut off his head, and agree to accept a retaliatory stroke at some future date; the hero, who undergoes this ordeal, is miraculously spared and hailed for his bravery upon returning to the court. Subsequent action interweaves the “Temptation Story,” where the protagonist is obliged to resist the attempts at seduction by a beautiful woman, and the “Exchange of Winnings,” in which two men make an agreement to give to the other what each has received during a given period of time. These three stories are intimately linked in Sir Gawain, since Gawain, having represented King Arthur's court in the Beheading Game with the Green Knight, is unable at first to find the Green Chapel where he is to meet his opponent. Instead, he comes upon a magnificent castle, belonging to Bertilak de Hautdesert, who induces Gawain to pledge to exchange winnings on three consecutive days, during which Bertilak goes out hunting while Gawain is visited in his bedchamber by Bertilak's alluring wife. On the first two days, Gawain faithfully returns to Bertilak the kisses bestowed on him by the latter's wife, but on the third day he conceals from his host a green and gold