English Literature -.-"

Alright... Sorry to bring this up on the guild website. I'm really sorry for soiling school work on this precious website But I need some help.

For English we have English Literature, and we're having all kinds of diffrent stories we have to know for the big test. But there's one story I don't get: Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.

I don't know if you all know some old fashioned literature but I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me where the fuck this story is about.

The start of this vid has a brief summary of the plot, gawain is the black night btw.



okay but seriously just read this and put it in your own words

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight#Synopsis


I have nothing better to do these days so I'll look up some info if you need more.

actually **** wikipedia use this taken directly from spark notes... where would we be without it =P

source Sir Gawain and the green night OF DOOOOOOOM!!!

During a New Year’s Eve feast at King Arthur’s court, a strange figure, referred to only as the Green Knight, pays the court an unexpected visit. He challenges the group’s leader or any other brave representative to a game. The Green Knight says that he will allow whomever accepts the challenge to strike him with his own axe, on the condition that the challenger find him in exactly one year to receive a blow in return.

Stunned, Arthur hesitates to respond, but when the Green Knight mocks Arthur’s silence, the king steps forward to take the challenge. As soon as Arthur grips the Green Knight’s axe, Sir Gawain leaps up and asks to take the challenge himself. He takes hold of the axe and, in one deadly blow, cuts off the knight’s head. To the amazement of the court, the now-headless Green Knight picks up his severed head. Before riding away, the head reiterates the terms of the pact, reminding the young Gawain to seek him in a year and a day at the Green Chapel. After the Green Knight leaves, the company goes back to its festival, but Gawain is uneasy.

Time passes, and autumn arrives. On the Day of All Saints, Gawain prepares to leave Camelot and find the Green Knight. He puts on his best armor, mounts his horse, Gringolet, and starts off toward North Wales, traveling through the wilderness of northwest Britain. Gawain encounters all sorts of beasts, suffers from hunger and cold, and grows more desperate as the days pass. On Christmas Day, he prays to find a place to hear Mass, then looks up to see a castle shimmering in the distance. The lord of the castle welcomes Gawain warmly, introducing him to his lady and to the old woman who sits beside her. For sport, the host (whose name is later revealed to be Bertilak) strikes a deal with Gawain: the host will go out hunting with his men every day, and when he returns in the evening, he will exchange his winnings for anything Gawain has managed to acquire by staying behind at the castle. Gawain happily agrees to the pact, and goes to bed.

The first day, the lord hunts a herd of does, while Gawain sleeps late in his bedchambers. On the morning of the first day, the lord’s wife sneaks into Gawain’s chambers and attempts to seduce him. Gawain puts her off, but before she leaves she steals one kiss from him. That evening, when the host gives Gawain the venison he has captured, Gawain kisses him, since he has won one kiss from the lady. The second day, the lord hunts a wild boar. The lady again enters Gawain’s chambers, and this time she kisses Gawain twice. That evening Gawain gives the host the two kisses in exchange for the boar’s head.

The third day, the lord hunts a fox, and the lady kisses Gawain three times. She also asks him for a love token, such as a ring or a glove. Gawain refuses to give her anything and refuses to take anything from her, until the lady mentions her girdle. The green silk girdle she wears around her waist is no ordinary piece of cloth, the lady claims, but possesses the magical ability to protect the person who wears it from death. Intrigued, Gawain accepts the cloth, but when it comes time to exchange his winnings with the host, Gawain gives the three kisses but does not mention the lady’s green girdle. The host gives Gawain the fox skin he won that day, and they all go to bed happy, but weighed down with the fact that Gawain must leave for the Green Chapel the following morning to find the Green Knight.

New Year’s Day arrives, and Gawain dons his armor, including the girdle, then sets off with Gringolet to seek the Green Knight. A guide accompanies him out of the estate grounds. When they reach the border of the forest, the guide promises not to tell anyone if Gawain decides to give up the quest. Gawain refuses, determined to meet his fate head-on. Eventually, he comes to a kind of crevice in a rock, visible through the tall grasses. He hears the whirring of a grindstone, confirming his suspicion that this strange cavern is in fact the Green Chapel. Gawain calls out, and the Green Knight emerges to greet him. Intent on fulfilling the terms of the contract, Gawain presents his neck to the Green Knight, who proceeds to feign two blows. On the third feint, the Green Knight nicks Gawain’s neck, barely drawing blood. Angered, Gawain shouts that their contract has been met, but the Green Knight merely laughs.

The Green Knight reveals his name, Bertilak, and explains that he is the lord of the castle where Gawain recently stayed. Because Gawain did not honestly exchange all of his winnings on the third day, Bertilak drew blood on his third blow. Nevertheless, Gawain has proven himself a worthy knight, without equal in all the land. When Gawain questions Bertilak further, Bertilak explains that the old woman at the castle is really Morgan le Faye, Gawain’s aunt and King Arthur’s half sister. She sent the Green Knight on his original errand and used her magic to change Bertilak’s appearance. Relieved to be alive but extremely guilty about his sinful failure to tell the whole truth, Gawain wears the girdle on his arm as a reminder of his own failure. He returns to Arthur’s court, where all the knights join Gawain, wearing girdles on their arms to show their support.

See above.

Mozillo wrote:See above.

Thank you for your marvellous contribution chris.

Always here to help (I didn't even read any of it xP)

I advise against doing just that, it's the worst story I've ever read!

Whillikers wrote:I advise against doing just that, it's the worst story I've ever read!

Well it's probably not the worst story i have ever read but it is pretty crappy, then again this is a summary the actual poem is like 2000 lines long and written in old english.

WindDrake wrote:

Whillikers wrote:I advise against doing just that, it's the worst story I've ever read!

Well it's probably not the worst story i have ever read but it is pretty crappy, then again this is a summary the actual poem is like 2000 lines long and written in old english.

Well what do you expect it's English Literature XD? Some English Literature is okay, but not really.

Depends what you mean by English Literature....
Any book originally written in English could be considered English Literature... but then the course in schools called "English Literature" normally indicates some of the more "Classics" of books, from like the early 1990s or earlier, Of Mice and Men for example. In which a lot of the material studied is pretty boring, but then that will mostly be due to the constant going over and over of each chapter or paragraph and over thinking the story of it, slowing down the story and not making it flow well.

And that is why I don't like English Literature.... I can't BS enough....

I think poetry is the worst for finding false meaning...

I mean, maybe someone really just did get lost in a wood and didn't know which path to take.

It doesn't have to be an allegory!!

Yeah, that's why I hated it... We had to do about 16 Poems and remember all the pretentious drivel that came with it. For the majority of them all I could think was "Maybe they thought it was gonna be a pretty poem..."

Yeah we had like 24ish poems to learn off and we needed to know details about each of the poets lives so we could relate some of the themes and shit like that. I was pretty good at bullshitting by the final year so i got like 75-80% =D

We didn't have to go that far, cause it was only crummy GCSEs, I still hate English courses... the worst part is when someone has a PhD in English lit... It's like, that's not a real PhD... I can't stand people who think it's a proper subject GRAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWR!

I don't know how someone can get a PhD in something as boring as English, including all of it's sub-categories.