ONE OF THE MORE PERSISTENT AND evident themes in the tale told here, which has appeared ubiquitously throughout the history of human experience, is the dialectic between compassion and standards. The data of the Gawain anecdote are quite straightforward. Sir Gawain on his way to meet a challenge from the Green Knight, during which it seems inevitable that he will suffer death by decapitation, finds himself being seduced by his ravishing hostess, the wife of the Lord of the castle where he is a guest. The Lord, it turns out later, is none other than the axe-wielding Green Knight.