The Cipher of Chivalry: Violence as Courtly Play in the World of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The Cipher of Chivalry: Violence as Courtly Play in the World of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Carl Grey Martin, defends the violent games in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by explaining them in a chivalric sense. Martin begins by saying, “The dominant act of the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the grotesque physical breaking and disfigurement of one knight by another” (311). He goes on to explain how this act of violence goes against the Christmas festivities that are going on during the time of the Green Knight’s challenge. Martin says, “The Green Knight’s proposal to endure a decapitating stroke in return for the chance to deal one himself appears to subvert the tenets of courtly civility and of Christian fellowship” (311). Then he backs up the knight’s chivalry by saying, “Yet he pursues this contest with a true knight’s obligatory magnanimity and finesse” (311). I agree with Martin and his idea of violence as courtly play. It kind of goes against each other but they work together so well in this sense. The Green Knight issues the challenge of having someone take an axe to his neck and in a years time that person would have to seek out the Green Knight so that the Green Knight can return the blow back. The challenge contains honor and the risk of bodily harm to each person involved, much like any other “games” that knights would play, such as jousting and sword fighting. In fact, in the beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Arthur refuses to eat unless he would be entertained by a duel between two knights. So even the extreme act of violence of Sir Gawain lopping of the Green Knight’s head contains a certain chivalric aspect to it.

Martin also goes on to explain certain aspects of chivalry and honor in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Martin shows the humanity and also the courage of Sir Gawain: “He is prepared for death, but in the end declines to accelerate or ensure it. Like the Green Knight, Gawain has a trick up his sleeve. And just as the Green Knight arched his body to bare his neck to the ax, so Gawain, conquering his instinct to shrink or shun the blow” (320). He also compares and contrasts the Green Knight and Sir Gawain’s courage and honor to the game that they play. Martin viewed the Green Knight as not being honest to the rules of the game: “Beheaded yet alive, the Green Knight would instead evade restrictions, defy definition, and erode the difference that renders play meaningful—a privileged sphere of action” (325). Martin had a more favorable view of Sir Gawain, in terms of honoring the rules of the game: “Untouched by magic, he truly exhibits the warrior-noble’s vulnerability to courtly-chivalric mystification; he has rationalized his relation to physical suffering” (325).

Works Cited:
Martin, Carl Grey. "The Cipher Of Chivalry: Violence As Courtly Play In The World Of "Sir Gawain And The Green Knight.." Chaucer Review 43.3 (2009): 311-329. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Sept. 2012.