Chivalry: You're Doing It Wrong (Series, Part 4)

Part 4: Friendship and Loyalty in King Arthur’s Court

Warning: Spoilers

The value of friendship in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight needs to be broken down into two parts.  This, the first part, will deal with friendship in King Arthur’s Court.

First, a clarification: since Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in Middle English, some of the words in it don’t exactly translate to modern English.  I talked about two of these words, troth and comitatus (although comitatus is really more of an Old English word), in Part 3: Generosity.  Felaȝschyp is one of these words.  It doesn’t really have a perfect translation.  It is most often translated as “fellowship” or “friendship”, though Tolkien translate it “friendliness”.  However, Gerald Morgan of Jesus College Oxford insists that it should be defined more like “loyalty”, so that’s the definition that I’m going to use. 

Really, the only examples of loyalty we see in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are comitatus relationships, either between King Arthur and his Knights, here, or between Lord Bertilak and his retainers and guests, which I will discuss in Part 5: Friendship and Loyalty in Hautdesert.  Remember, comitatus is the reciprocal relationship between a superior and his charges.  If you want more information, see Part 3: Generosity.

The unknown author of the poem obviously has great respect for loyalty, but takes great care to show how loyalty to a superior can be problematic if that superior is not a good role model.  This is very true for King Arthur.  King Arthur should have been the one setting an example of prudence for his knights.  Instead, he rashly puts himself at risk by accepting the Green Knight’s challenge, and Sir Gawain is honor-bound to step in to protect his king. 

He does not reciprocate the honor, respect, and loyalty that Sir Gawain shows him. Not only that, but the king doesn’t even really thank Sir Gawain for sacrificing himself on his behalf.  In King Arthur’s court, Sir Gawain is betrayed by his own loyalty to an insufficiently virtuous superior.