Chivalry: You're Doing It Wrong (Series, Part 9)

Part 9: Piety and Courage

Warning: Spoilers

That piety is one of the pentangle virtues in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was a bit of a mystery to me because Sir Gawain is a pretty secular dude.  J. J. Anderson even referred to his obsession with chivalry as a kind of “secular religion”.  Beyond the religious imagery presented with the pentangle at the beginning, the only other event that involves Sir Gawain’s religion is when he prayed for a place to stay on Christmas, and was shown the way to Hautdesert.

Yet Sir Gawain’s chivalry is not separate from religion, but fused with it.  More than anything, Sir Gawain relies on his religion to protect him and give him courage.  We are shown this through the parallel between the five wounds of Christ, the five knightly virtues, and the five joys of Mary.  The five joys of Mary, especially, are the source of Sir Gawain’s courage, so much so that he puts a picture of Mary on his shield to give him courage.

If Sir Gawain’s piety is interpreted as synonymous with his courage, then once again it is a virtue in which he falls short.  His main fault was fear of getting beheaded.  This moved him to betray Lord Bertilak by keeping the green girdle, and caused him to flinch the first time the ax came down.  On the other hand, as Gerald Morgan put it “it would be gross to suggest that Gawain lacks courage”.

Despite his fear leading him to keep the green girdle, in all of the other events of the poem Gawain displays immense courage. He protects his king, goes on a long and difficult quest to seek out his own death, and doesn’t flinch from the ax after being reprimanded the first time. 

For this reason, the Green Knight says he lacks only a little. Also, in the final scene, Sir Gawain refuses to run away from his oath.  During this scene, Sir Gawain twice invokes God as the only source of comfort or aid he may receive in the coming struggle. Piety thus both uplifts and fails Sir Gawain in respect to courage.