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Notes
1. Bercovitch's essay is an excellent study of how the Gawain-Poet uses parody;
he mentions the "comic-realistic spirit" in the poem "which good-naturedly laughs at certain
artificial romance conventions and thereby vitalizes and enlarges its affirmation of romance
values" (30). This is the same spirit with which the poet uses the conventions of the
peregrinatio.
2. I use the edition by J.R.R. Tolkein and E.V. Gordon, revised by Norman Davis. The
modernizations are my own.
3. The frame story also focuses on treachery, failure, infidelity, internal strife, the loss of
a
kingdom, and the death of a race, an obvious parallel to and foreshadowing of the fall of the
Round Table.
4. This use of "a year and a day" as an indication of the completion of one cycle and the
beginning of another is mirrored in the poet's construction of the poem, with its 101 strophes (like
the 101 stanzas of Pearl.)
5. See Levy for a broad examination of the Feast of the Circumcision in Sir
Gawain. The Levy article is quite useful as a reading different from mine, for he sees Gawain's
progress as pure and perfectly spiritual. And while I disagree with his conclusion that "The whole
action of the poem follows the consistent pattern of the Christian knight on his spiritual journey in
an imitation of Christ" (105), his overall discussion about the nature of the spiritual
peregrinatio is provocative.
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6. For more on the "Feast of Fools" see Savage, 537-544.
7. See for example the scholarly debate raised by Moorman (330, ll. 691 ff., n.) and
Tolkien (97-98).
8. Note that some editors emend "lyfte" to "lyste," but Tolkien says "the form is clearly
lyfte," and yet he adopts the editorial change. In this instance I follow the manuscript
reading lyfte.
9. Here I disagree with Levy when he says, "In the development of his character in the
poem ... Gawain has completely reversed himself in his spiritual progress from pride to
humility and the cyclic nature of the poem may well be a reminder that such a journey is a
spiritual one" (76). Though Levy's reading may be sound in some ways, in too many instances the
poet 1) shows Gawain to fail, and 2) uses parody (of the romance genre) to indicate that ,we must
not take too seriously what he intended as game. And while I agree that "The whole action of the
poem follows the consistent pattern of the Christian knight on his spiritual journey in an imitation
of Christ" (105), I add that the poet varies from the pattern in many places, especially in the
conclusion, which shows Gawain not repentant for his sin of having kept the girdle, but ashamed
and humble that he got tricked by wily women and that he got cut for it. It is more a matter of
worldly pride than a matter of spiritual imperfection.
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10. This general discussion is brief but is the only book-length historical study of the
genre.