Read lines 1178-end of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. If you don’t have the book, you can find a copy here.

1. Why, do you think, the Green Knight feigns sleep when the “lady” appears at his bedside? (line 1187)?

2. What is the “truce” that the lady proposes to Gawain? (1210-1240)

3. What are Gawain’s three reasons for not accepting the lady’s advances? (1266, 1276, 1283)

4. Part III tells the story of the three hunts on which Gawain’s host goes; each is accompanied by a visit of the “lady” to Gawain’s bedchamber. What do you think is the symbolic significance of the deer, the boar, and the fox–each of which is killed by Gawain’s host, respectively? Is there any correspondence between each of the animals’ symbolic significance and the behavior of knight and lady during each visit? (1208, 1471, 1746)

5. Why is it said that Gawain decides to keep the girdle the lady had given him? Is such a reason truly chivalric? (2040)

6. How does Gawain’s host describe the Green Knight? (2097-2117)

7. Do you think it is “for the love of Christ” that Gawain’s host advises him to avoid the forest where the Green Knight lurks? Which is the more Christian alternative–to reciprocate the bargain with the Knight when one knows one is not immortal, or to flee it? Support your answer with a passage from either Deuteronomy 30: 18-20, 2 Kings 18: 31-33, or Joshua 21: 44-46 and 23: 13-15. (1220)

8. Describe the Green Chapel, in your own words. (2180 ff. [and following])

7. “God love you!” says the Green Knight when he spies Gawain. What might the significance of this casual aside be, in the long run? (2239)

8. How does Gawain react to the axe’s blow? (2265-2267) What is the Green Knight’s response? Is it reasonable? (2269-2279) How does Gawain qualify his request to the Knight for a second chance? Who seems more reasonable, then? (2282)

9. Why does the Knight excuse Gawain’s enjoyment of the Knight’s wife? (2366-68)

10. What is Gawain’s angry response to the Knight’s story? Do you think it is warranted? (2378-2388)

11. How does Gawain’s attitude toward the green girdle mirror his attitude toward the ordeal he has endured? (2329-2437)

12. We learn that the Green Knight is really Bercilak de Hautdesert, who owes his power to sinister Morgan le Faye, Gawain’s aunt! The Knight tells Gawain he has “tested” him because his aunt wanted to reveal the “surfeit of pride” in Arthur’s Court as well as to scare Arthur’s wife, Guenevere, with the mock beheading. What is Gawain’s reaction to these revelations? (2445)

13. What is Gawain’s filial relationship, then, to King Arthur, the Green Knight, and the Knight’s wife? (2464-2467)

14. Finally, what do Gawain’s neck scar and the green girdle he wears symbolize, for him? What are their parallels in the Bible? (2506-2512)