ENGL 330 Exam 2

paratactic story

"and...and....and...." nothing is less important than another, seen in Mallory

Merlin

(Arthurian legend) the sorcerer and profit who acted as King Arthur's advisor and confidant

beheading game

A motif from Celtic literature that appears in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, "in which an unknown challenger proposes that one of a group of warriors volunteer to cut off his head, the stroke to be repaid in kind at some future date" in the green knight, the mystical green knight magically survives (later known to have been aided by Morgan Le Faye) and Gawain goes on a quest to find him

Green Knight (Bertilak)

A mysterious visitor to Camelot. The Green Knight's huge stature, wild appearance, and green complexion set him apart from the beardless knights and beautiful ladies of Arthur's Camelot. He is an ambiguous figure: he says that he comes in friendship, not wanting to fight, but the friendly game he proposes is quite deadly. He attaches great importance to verbal contracts, expecting Sir Gawain to go to great lengths to hold up his end of their bargain. The Green Knight shows himself to be a supernatural being when he picks up his own severed head and rides out of Arthur's court, still speaking. At the same time, he seems to symbolize the natural world, in that he is killed and reborn as part of a cycle. At the poem's end, we discover that the Green Knight is also Bertilak, Gawain's host, and one of Morgan le Faye's minions.

round table

A wedding gift from Arthur's father-in-law; provided seats for 150 knights

Uther

Arthur's father

Sir Ector

Arthur's foster father

Mordred

Arthur's illegitimate son

Lady Igrayne

Arthur's mother

Guinevere

Arthur's wife; given several roles in court in making decisions and handling issues involving "the ladies"

May Day babies

Arthur, in trying to avoid his fated demise by Mordred gathers all the babies born on May Day to be sent out on a rutterless boat to see in hopes of killing them and avoiding his fate; Mordred ends up being the only one to survive thus showing that you can't cheat fate

Wife off Bath's Tale

Geoffrey Chaucer-- frame story that goes into a quest a knight is sent on by Guinevere and her ladies to discover "what all women really want" in response to his being on trial for raping a peasant woman (Guinevere begs Arthur to have mercy and not execute him)-- he goes and talks to many people but no one seems to agree on one things, so he starts heading back having failed his quest--on his way he sees a fairy ring and approaches it upon which the fairies disappear and only a loathly lady remains who says she has the answer and will help him so long as he promises to do as she asks afterward (Rash promise)--they return to court and she tells the knight who tells the court that what women want is sovereignty over their men in both dating and marriage, Guinevere sees this as correct so he is exonerated--the loathly lady then asks the knight to marry her, he is distraught b/c he knows he has too but she's soooooo ugly --> curtain lecture calling him out--they end up having a happy marriage

Leodogrance

Guinevere's father who Uther had given the round table to

Torre and Pellinore

Story in Mallory's book-- Arthur and Guinevere's wedding, yes he loves her but he also wants the round table his father gave to Guinevere's father (Leodogrance), Merlin warns him that Guinevere and Lancelot will love each other but he doesn't care so they are wed-- shit goes down at the court that results in three quests that Gawain, Torre, and Pellinore are sent on, both Gawain and Pellinore make errors (Gawain kills a lady by accident and doesn't give mercy, Pellinore fails to render aid)--through these lessons we see the beginning or Arthur's rules that he makes his knights swear by

Sir Gawain

The story's protagonist, Arthur's nephew and one of his most loyal knights. Although he modestly disclaims it, Gawain has the reputation of being a great knight and courtly lover. He prides himself on his observance of the five points of chivalry in every aspect of his life. Gawain is a pinnacle of humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty. His only flaw proves to be that he loves his own life so much that he will lie in order to protect himself. Gawain leaves the Green Chapel penitent and changed.

Morgan Le Faye

This character used magic to disguise Bertilak de Hautdesert, and orchestrated the magical events and trickery in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Igraynes youngest sister who could not be married off at the time that the others werw

Ayres the Cowherd

Torre's (step father?) who comes to Arthur's court at his wedding festivities to ask a favor, to knight his son Torre; annoys Gawain b/c Arthur had promised he would be the first knighted on that day

King Pellinore

Torre's father by the rape of his mother

Hellinore

Torre's mother

rash promise

a promise that is made too quickly and has not been thought about carefully; motif seen often throughout Arthurian literature

frame story

a story within a story; wife of bath's tale

curtain lecture

an instance of a wife reprimanding her husband in private

Gaheris

brother of Gawain, who is the logical one on Gawain's quest for the White deer in Mallory's Torre and Pellinore

sword in the stone

comes about in Malory, Craxton's preface--the sword can only be removed by the true king (Arthur); Malory does not indicate who put it there

green sash

emblem of human imperfection

interlace structure

flipping back and forth between two contrasting scenes; ex. the hunt and Gawain with the lady of the castle

morgause

half sister of arthur--comes as a spy in Torre and Pellinore and sleeps with Arthur to produce Mordred

fairy ring

indication that something magical has been there; like fairies

quest of a hero

motif in which the story protagonist is sent on some sort of adventure with a task to complete

exchange of winnings game

motif seen in the Green Knight in which two characters go on about their days and must exchange whatever they have gained at the end of the night; ex. Sir Gawain exchanging kisses for all the animals the lord hunted that day

loathly lady

motif that involves the ugly woman

Kidnapped lady (Nynve) quest

quest that Pellinore is sent on in Mallory's Torre and Pellinore-- goal is to rescue the kidnapped lady (Nyanve, who annoyed Arthur); during the quest Pellinore fails to stop and help a woman and a knight who later die (she kills herself), and he is forced to fight with knights (the kidnapper and the woman's cousin who ends up backing down) to retrieve her

White Deer quest

quest that Sir Gawain is sent on in Mallory's Torre and Pellinore-- during this quest, Gawain refuses to give mercy to a knight he is fighting and accidentally kills a lady in the process-- he is sent to Guinevere and her ladies who say that he shall fight for woman and their causes, and never harm one again, and also always grant mercy

White Brachet (dog) quest

quest that Sir Torre is sent on in Mallory's Torre and Pellinore-- includes a test of character for Torre that parallels Lancelot's in which he has to find out who to trust when a lady asks him to behead the knight he is fighting despite him asking for mercy

Rapist Knight

seen in the "Wife of Bath's Tale"

alliterative poetry

seen in the Green Knight--old english poetic technique; not rhyming but linking initial consonants across the line--ex. within the siege and the assault was seized...

Torre

son of King Pellinore by the rape of his mother; first to be knighted by King Arthur at his wedding celebrations; "don't shame my mother"

William Craxton's Preface

story of Arthur's origin and coming to be King--follows Merlin as he advices Uther (father) in his attempts to marry Igrayne who is already married to a duke, gives Merlin a rash promise to foster Arthur in exchange for Merlin helping Uther lay with Igrayne--Arthur is born and given to Sir Ector who raises him with his brother Sir Kay-- the sword in the stone appears after Uther's death and only the rightful king (Arthur) can remove it--Kay leaves his sword at the church and Arthur rushes back to get it for him but can't fins it so he just takes the one in the stone--upon his return Kay tries to take credit, Ector makes him swear on a bible where he got and it is revealed that Arthur got it, so he asks Arthur to put it back and show him again, determines Arthur is the late King's son, Arthur's is upset that Ector isn't his real father, Ector gets a rash promise from Arthur to make Kay his seneschal when he is king--Arthur is not coronated until the commoners demand it

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

unknown author-- mysterious, amazing green knight shows up in Camelot and taunts Arthur and his knights into participating in a beheading game, Gawain talks Arthur into letting him take his place "I am unimportant," Gawain then chops the knights head off, but the knight simply picks it up and says that he will see him at the "green chapel" a year from then-- Gawain goes on this quest and finds refuge at a castle w/ his host Bertilak and they participate in a game of the exchange of winnings during with we see and interlaced structure between Bertilak's hunt and Gawain's adventures at the castle with the lady who gives him a green sash that will supposedly protect him from the beheading game that Gawain does not give to Bertilak for the exchange of winnings--when Gawain arrives at the Green Chapel, the knight misses his beheading attempt (on purpose?) and revealed himself to be Bertilak

rutterless boats

way of killing people where you can basically say it wasn't your fault because you didn't kill them just sent them out to the ocean...to die...

William Craxton

wrote the preface in Malory of La Morte D'Arthur aka Merlin

Nynve

Merlin's apprentice in sorcery--woman that is kidnapped in Mallory's Torre and Pellinore that Pellinore's quest is to save her