Our sun god turned mortal, our dashing feminist paragon turned asshole, let’s talk about the nephew of King Arthur, Sir Gawain of Orkney, and what went wrong.
Sir Gawain is one of the oldest characters in the Arthurian Universe. He began life as Gwalchmai a mysterious hero who was only a hop-skip-and-a-jump away from being a god. He, along with Sir Kay, were the main muscle behind Arthur’s early escapades. But just like Kay, something went terribly wrong in the later centuries.
When Christianity entered the picture, the god became mortal and Gwalchmai became the man we know as Sir Gawain. His solar-based strength was explained away as the blessing of a holy man and he resumed work as Arthur’s right-hand man.
Other than one major boo-boo involving accidental maiden decapitation, Gawain had a pretty good career.
Following the accidental decapitation, Gawain became the maiden’s knight in penance, swearing to aid any maiden who should ask for his help. (This got a little awkward during jousts when he was de-horsing random knight #49 for a lady, only to have random knight #49’s damsel demand he help her as well) Gawain was an all-around nice guy who tried to keep the peace and help Arthur as best he could.
In one legend he married a woman so ugly(her personality matched her looks btw) she made everyone sick by looking at her. In return she gave him the key to saving Arthur’s life. That legend also teaches the importance of respecting women, because the ugly chick turns out to be the most beautiful woman in the Britain, but can only stay that way during either the day or the night. When she tells her new husband to chose when she’ll be ugly, Gawain gallantly leaves the decision up to her, telling her that it’s her life to deal with as she sees fit. This graceful response breaks the spell and Gawain is left with a wife who’s gorgeous 24/7. (score one for Gawain!)
The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight deals with just how awesomely awkward Gawain is.
Gawain is loyal to a fault and honest (almost) till death, in this story. His one fault is that he doesn’t follow the rules of the game his host is playing with him and doesn’t return a magical sash that will save his life in the beheading appointment with the Green Knight the next day. Gawain still lives, but he receives a slight nick on his neck for not returning the sash. The Green Knight himself tells Gawain that it wasn’t a bad thing, and that he isn’t lesser for having wanted to live. Gawain is too guilty to hear it, and returns home convinced he is a horrible person.
What is there to go wrong with this character? He was created to be Arthur’s humble best knight and cool-headed right-hand man, so what happened?
In the 13th century, a pretty face called Lancelot came into the picture. To start with, Gawain is a gracious older knight who Lancelot acknowledges as stronger. The story rolls around as usual for some time, until a certain Lancelot-fanboy came into the scene. Sir Thomas Mallory had a thing for Lancelot and decided it was his mission in life to kick every other character to the curb. In order for Lancelot to supplant the rest of the male cast, he had to start by being the best knight.
In short, for Lancelot to be the best, Gawain had to go.
Mallory is where we really see the change in Sir Gawain’s character. Gawain becomes an angry, boorish, boastful, and almost vulgar character that you want out of the scene as soon as possible. What a change! We go from Gwalchmai the golden-tongued (that’s right, he was so smooth silver-tongue wouldn’t do) to this insane Scottish brute nobody can handle for more than ten seconds. I like Lancelot, but give Gawain a break!
Since Gawain is just a character and not the incarnation of kingship like Arthur, he had a hard time bouncing back from the rough treatment. After Mallory, he was drop-kicked him into a vicious spiral of deterioration from incarnation to incarnation. Gawain hit rock bottom in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where he’s mentioned as one of the knights to have died to the infamous rabbit.
Life’s turned around some for our poor Orkney lad, now he’s receiving some tender treatment from the new generation of Arthurian creators. He has become the symbol of muscle-headed power, but sometimes he’s a good muscle-headed power. Gawain is far from being a god, but his character is slowly being put through post-medieval rehab.
So what happened to Gawain? Gawain shares the sad fate as many cannon characters when a fanfiction OC is inserted to take their place.
Madness and Arthuriana 