Get The Shield Worksheet - Edsitement

The story teaches a great lesson about dishonesty. Gawain realizes that honor requires all kinds of honesty. While he avoided the larger sin of sleeping with the lord's wife, he fell into the smaller sin of lying. Sin is sin, Gawain learns, and he admits his defeat.

There is great significance in the fact that the events in this poem occur in multiples of three. Three times Gawain is tempted by the lovely lady, and on the third time, he succumbs to her temptations, by accepting the green belt. The hunts take place on three different days.

Sir Gawain, a knight in King Arthur's court, undertakes a treacherous journey to fulfill a promise. The story is about integrity, knowing what is right and wrong, and making and meeting commitments—and the consequences of not doing so.

The stanza pattern used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one called the 'Bob and Wheel'. Think of this pattern as short followed by long. The Bob lines are short, typically only two syllables long. These lines are used to connect with the longer lines, the Wheels.

Entertainment value will be stressed not because Sir Gawain is exclusively entertainment, but because the primary purpose of the author was to entertain, as a sermon may be entertaining but is, nonetheless, primarily homiletic.

The poet runs through a veritable catalog of medieval symbolism for the number five; in fact, he gives Gawain a pentad of virtues, five for each one of the five points on the pentangle. Gawain is faultless in his five senses, indicating his moderation and purity.

The number 5 is significant to Gawain because it represents his faithfulness in five things, each in fivefold manner, found faultless in his five wits, five fingers never failed the night, all his trust on earth was in the five wounds, five joyful mysteries.

Poem Summary At Christmas, a knight who is completely green rides into King Arthur's hall. The Green Knight proposes a game: Any knight brave enough to strike off the Green Knight's head may keep the Green Knight's ax, but that man must accept a return stroke in one year.

It was also the number of time – past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end – it was the number of the divine. Three is often the magic number in fairy tales and this certainly rings true in our 'visually sumptuous' (Wales Arts Review) production of Mozart's beloved The Magic Flute.