Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

as the fords are not opposite the Holyhead side of Anglesey, and perhaps Holywell (which has been suggested) is the right reading. It looks as though the poet only knew Wales as he had seen it from the Wirral; Neston in the Wirral was an important medieval port, and there may have been a low-tide ferry from the Neston bank across the Dee. If Holyhead is right, he may have thought that there were other ferries or fords lower down. In that case the forelands would be the two at the mouth of the Dee estuary as seen from Neston, and might well be described by anyone at that point as “over at the Holyhead,” that port being a frequent destination from Neston. Note that the expression “till again he made shore” implies a passage which would take a considerable time. A knight who fought with dragons, giants, and supernatural enemies might be expected to ford even a considerable arm of the sea. ↩

Said No to him. ↩

Ford. ↩

Dragons. ↩

Swamp. ↩

Redeem. ↩

Crossed. ↩

Glade or open ground. ↩

Laund: not uncommon still in place-names in Pendle, Rossendale, and other old forests of Lancashire.

St. Julian was the patron saint of travellers. ↩

Draws reign. ↩

Decorated in hornworks.

Hornwork: described in N. E. D. as “a single-fronted outwork the head of which consists of two demi-bastions connected by a curtain and joined to the main work by two parallel wings.” ↩

Watchtowers. ↩

Man. ↩

Set him on foot: owing to the weight of his armour an armed knight required assistance to mount or dismount. At Crecy the unseated knights lay helpless on the ground. ↩

Stretched. ↩

A mantle of silk. ↩

Tablecloth. ↩

Saltcellar. ↩

Coals. ↩

A feast: the point of Gawain’s remark and the answer of his attendants is that Christmas-eve is a fast-day. ↩

Excellence. ↩

Without asking. ↩

In the older (and English) Arthurian tradition Gawain is the paragon of all the knightly virtues. The low esteem in which we find him held in the Arthurian poetry of Tennyson and Morris came through Malory from the French romancers, who had rivals (e.g. Lancelot) for his place.

“Nurture” means good-breeding. So in Malory, VIII 3, Tristram is sent to France “to learn the language and nurture.” ↩

Friendly. ↩

Embraced. ↩

Complexion. ↩

Neckerchief. ↩

Wimple. ↩

Chimney: i.e. fireplace. The private sitting-room with a fireplace was uncommon (even for the master of the house) till the fourteenth century. ↩

Apart. ↩

Out of town simply means from among men. We have the converse expression in the well-known lyric;

“Lenten is come with love to town.”

↩

Frankish fare: many refinements of behaviour in the relations between the sexes, which came in during the fourteenth century, were due to the influence of the amour courtois of the French. The expression occurs also in the Chester play, Noah 100, where Noah’s wife addresses him ironically:

“For all thy Frankish fare
I will not do thy rede.”

↩

Bags. ↩

Moot: as the horn has only one note, the calls are distinguished by the number and length of the notes. ↩

Scenting hounds. ↩

I.e. on a false scent. ↩

Greyhounds.

Note that the greyhounds at the stations were used for pulling down the deer. The animal in recent times has been bred for speed and the coursing of the hare, and the species here mentioned was probably more like the Scottish deerhound in build. The Book of St. Albans says, however, that a good greyhound should be “headed like the snake and necked like the swan,” which recalls the modern type. ↩

Close season. ↩

Commotion. ↩

Stations: the object of these was to hold the deer in and drive them towards the “lower stations” where the lord and his retainers were posted for the kill. The technical name for these lower stations was “the receipt.” ↩

Went. ↩

Stretched himself. ↩

Uttered. ↩

Wrap. ↩

Brave. ↩

Treasure. ↩

Knight (or lady). ↩

Speak. ↩

Severe. ↩

Entertainment. ↩

Decorous. ↩

A setting out of the kill.

Quarry: Fr. cuirée, a hide; originally, the offals with which the hounds were rewarded, so called because they were served to them on a hide. ↩

Assay: “to see the goodnesse of the flesh and howe thicke it is” (Turberville’s Noble Art of Venerie).

The arber was cleaned and filled with blood and grease, and then stitched up again. ↩

First stomach. ↩

Pipes in the throat. ↩

The fore offals. ↩

The hinder offals. ↩

Neck. ↩

Corbies’ fee or Raven’s Bone: a gristle from the brisket. ↩

Leather: i.e. the tripes. ↩

Season of winter: i.e. when hinds were hunted. The hunting of the hart took place in the late summer. ↩

Swamp overgrown with brush. ↩

Stagnant pool.