The Green Knight Right

A particularly dull day this summer compelled me to sit in my room in complete darkness in front of my computer screen. Behind me lies my cat, purring softly, soothingly. I always envy the simpleness of her life. Her thinking is so primal, yet her love for my family seems to run deep. Far from the docile man of today, who knows very little of savageness and unconditional love. There was, of course, a time in human history where we must have been more similar to an outdoor cat. We must have left the camp and tribe daily to hunt for food. Much like our dear pets. By use of our senses, instinct and intellect we developed tactics in order to kill and consume what was around us. Our untamed nature aided us for thousands of years before civilization was ever on the map. This is forged into all of us, even if it is buried deep below something else, it hungers constantly. With time and in conjunction with the agricultural revolution and dawn of the first civilizations, this spirit slowly lost its use. It seems most human societies show a clear shift towards docility among its populace as comfort improves. Like a cat that becomes overfed and lazy. You can trace this in the history of Europe and in a way its medieval era is the perfect equilibrium in between ‘savage’ and ‘civilized’. Truly a middleage. This, I believe is mirrored in the stories, sagas and poems that stem from this time.

One example of this is the Arthurian legend: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The 14th-century chivalric romance tells of a New Year’s party. Just as the feasting is about to start, the Green Knight storms in. A towering figure, completely green in appearance with a bushy beard, wearing no armour, astride a green horse. In one hand he holds a great axe, in the other, a holly bough. This thing invites the knights of Camelot to a ‘friendly Christmas game’. In typical medieval fashion, the Green Knight challenges them to strike him once with his own axe on the condition that he is allowed to return the blow in a year and a day. The magnificent weapon will belong to whoever volunteers. Arthur is the first one from the table brave enough to accept the challenge, but at the request of Sir Gawain, Arthur's nephew, the honour is instead given to him. The monster bends down and allows Gawain to strike him, at which point he cuts off its head. However, the Green Knight does not fall. Instead, he picks up his head, remounts, flashes his bleeding wound to Queen Guinevere, reminds Sir Gawain of the challenge and disappears mysteriously. I will not walk through the rest of the story, surely you are completely intrigued at this point and I leave it up to you to find the rest online. Many people have been puzzled by the symbolism of the Green Knight. J.R.R. Tolkien called him ‘the most difficult character’ to interpret in Sir Gawain. What does this enigmatic creature represent and might something be learned from him?

Before I dive into this topic further, I would first like to highlight a phenomenon within our modern political system that I have come to notice as of late. Namely, the state of the modern Right-wing. Although there seem to be many political movements towards what is often called the ‘Extreme Right-wing’ in countries around the world, the majority of its constituency still reside within the comfortable ideological walls of ‘Conservatism’. These are the Republicans, Tories and everything right of the moderates in my home country of Sweden. Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and other similar characters. Their counterparts in daily life take the form of someone who often entertains the idea of the USA in the ‘80s as heaven on Earth and whose favourite philosopher is Jordan Peterson. It can also be your uncle and aunt, your father or your brother. It is the person who thoroughly enjoys PragerU, Ben Shapiro, Lauren Southern and other similar talking-head programs. It might even be you. What is it about this ideology and these people that have made them prime targets of ridicule from both the left and the right? They often throw around numbers about unemployment and GDP, all while ignoring the suffering of thousands of people in their countries. They often run on a platform of tougher immigration policy and yet when the time comes, they shirk. Cities burn, statues get torn down, people are beaten bloody on their streets and yet they call themselves the 'law and order' parties. Except for certain token propositions; forests, oceans, animals, rivers and fields are often reduced down to simple resources to be used and polluted. In Sweden, we like to call them sneaker moderates, named after their characteristic footwear.

They often seem to avoid discussions about culture in favour of more concrete and ‘real’ things. Much like the land itself, it can be merchandised, cut down and sold to the highest bidder if it ‘benefits the economy’. These are neither evil nor dumb people. The problem is that they have become so milquetoast and boring to many within the new generation of voters. Their policies are grey, metallic and leave a bitter taste in the mouth. They also constantly make concessions to the left, slowly but carefully moving towards the social policies of their supposed ideological enemies. 10 years ago, you would not see a ‘Conservative’ utter themselves on issues of ‘social justice’ and LGBTQ, today this is observable everywhere. This brand of ‘Conservative’ is not only losing hard against the left, but they are also continually alienating a large number of people that are supposed to be on their side. A large number on the Right belong within this ideology and they must change if the point is to beat the Left.

To get back to the point, what is the Green Knight? To answer this question, we need to understand what the point was of these strange Arthurian legends. They usually served the purpose of showing the virtue and chivalry of the Knights of the Round Table. Sir Gawain is no different. Throughout the story, his bravery, chastity and general ‘goodness’ are tested. I believe that the Green Knight serves a similar purpose, although exactly how is probably slightly obscure to us in the 21st century. I think it has to do with the honouring of the Christmas game. The Green Knight, surprisingly, survives the deadly blow to his neck and Sir Gawain accepts his fate, bravely going to meet the monster in the chapel one year later. He is willing to risk his life only because he had agreed upon the rules of that game. That is how much his word is worth. However, I believe that the mystery lies not in the actual purpose of the character but in something much more obvious. His appearance. Why is he green?

There has been much speculation regarding this aspect of the character. In English folktales, the colour green is most often associated with Nature and other related concepts such as life and fertility. These were important ideas for European Pagans both in England and in mainland Europe and were regularly celebrated. In many countries, this spirit still lives within its populace. However, as we come to see when we look anywhere in Nature, it is also a harsh and unpredictable force that is dangerous to humans. As human civilization rose to prominence, Nature became more 9 2

enemy than friend. Perhaps this is why Satan himself often bears the colour of green in medieval depictions of him. Yet it remains the same force that forged savagery into the minds and bodies of us. We cannot be separate from it, yet we fear it. If Nature could be a character it would truly be as ambiguous and mysterious as the Green Knight. He is neither friend nor foe it seems. The only one that tests the mettle of Arthur's men.

He has also been compared to the Green Man. A decorative motif that is found in many cultures around the world but most prominently in traditional English architecture. A legendary being, it is often depicted as having a humanoid face covered in or made of foliage. The character seems to represent life and rebirth akin to a vegetation deity. Despite its seemingly Pagan characteristics, it often appears in Christian churches. The unclear message of the Green Man resonates with the mysterious nature of the character of the Knight. Perhaps ‘Green’ is a simple reminder of the constant and inescapable presence of Nature within man. We have founded great cities and put walls around them to protect ourselves from it, we have taught our children that it is a danger and it must be kept out, we have created sciences and technologies in an attempt to master it and in some ways we have. In the end, however, the simple laws of Nature, life and death, always triumph.

The character of the modern Rightwing as I described earlier, is suffering from a great separation from Nature. The land is to be completely owned and used by whoever bids the highest and after that, it is no business of anyone else what happens to it. As a result of this, large swathes of the Earth have been misappropriated, misused and polluted. This is of course not the fault of a single party or ideology. In fact, this is seen in almost all modern political movements. Even the classic ‘environmentalist’ of today suffers from the same disease. The focus for these people is often to maintain or save resources instead of truly seeing the intrinsic value of it. They often fail to live up both to their lofty goals and policies as well as to the inescapable truth of Nature. If the Right-wing wishes to succeed, I believe this is the edge that we need to steal.

This is, of course, something that is hard for people on the Right to do. Mainly because of the infected wound of a debate that the Global Warming question has become. Many have chosen the discussion of whether we should continue to use fossil fuels or renewable energy as a hill to die on. Here I see once again, a discussion of numbers and statistics. No mention of Nature itself as something holy or at least good. If the Right wants to continue to be relevant, fully embracing this position might be an easy avenue for doing so. By living in tune with Nature, all the while not falling into complete savagery and providing it with the respect it demands, it is also possible to begin mending the land. The Right must become like the character of the Green Knight. We must go and once again commune with Nature. We must be a test of virtue. We must live according to the truths and not only rely on our intellect. We must be savage and noble. The most important part perhaps is that we must become spirited, not so easily conceded. We must be harsh to protect life and fertility. We must be clad in green, holding the holly bough in one hand the axe in the other.

Composed by,

Luke Litvinov, Undergraduate of Philosophy at West Virginia University