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From Manannán to Bercilak: The Green Knight and the Gaelic Otherworld-god-in-disguiseThe nature and origin of the Green Knight, from the Middle
English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, have been popular
subjects of scholarly speculation for centuries. Some scholars have tried
to identify him as a representation of one of a number of historical
fourteenth century individuals. [1]
Others have stressed his divine nature; he has been understood as a
tree-god by some scholars, a more general vegetation-god, a storm-god, a
sun-god, and even the devil himself. George Lyman Kittredge, for his part,
suggested that the Green Knight might be an example of the "Demon of
Vegetation" or the "wild man." These various interpretations are powerful,
exotic, and recurrent, veritable hydra’s heads of speculation (though they
multiply with or without decapitation). The pristine mythic significance
and/or historic identity of the Green Knight are subjects as irresistible
as they are inconclusive and irreconcilable. [2]
When scholars have linked SGGK and Celtic literature and then
extrapolated the mythological origins of the Green Knight, the results
have often been both bold and disconcertingly tenuous:
That the Green Knight has Celtic sources and analogues is a
long-standing, and still widely accepted theory. [4] But
the preceding interpretation, which is part of an analysis that connects
the Green Knight with Cu Roí, is just the kind that C. S. Lewis so
strongly and convincingly objected to in his paper "The Anthropological
Approach." As Lewis pointed out, the deep (and deeply speculative)
mythological or anthropological origins of the Green Knight as a "sky-god"
or "storm-god" give us little real insight into his role in the poem.
Lewis overstated his case, however, when he claimed that "there has been
nothing really like him in fiction before or since". [5]
Actually, there are a number of characters like the Green Knight in
medieval Celtic literature. They are "like" him on two levels: they have
similar characteristics, and they have similar functions in the tales,
though they are not, of course, identical with him. The closest analogues to, and possible archetypes for, the
Green Knight are found in medieval Irish and Scottish tales which are best
referred to as Gaelic rather than Celtic. These Gaelic Otherworld gods are
similar to the Green Knight in that they sometimes appear to be
aristocratic and at other times bizarre and even rude; they are often
associated with the colours green and gold. They manifest supernatural
power, including power over life and death, reanimation, and sometimes
even the ability to reattach severed human heads. They shift shapes, and
perform eerie tricks, and are associated (via their spouses) with sexual
temptation. But like the Green Knight, at the end of the stories they are
revealed to be very different from what they at first appeared; at the end
of these tales, when the Otherworld god is identified, it is also
discovered that he has tested the hero and instructed him in wisdom and
humility. The Otherworld god is a role or function, rather than an
identity, however. The closest parallel for "identity", as distinct from
"role", for the Green Knight in medieval Gaelic literature is Manannán mac
Lir, the sometime god of the Irish Sea and lord of the Otherworld, who
appears most often as a beneficent Otherworld-god-in-disguise. In some
tales, especially the earlier ones, Manannán appears disguised as a noble
mortal king, but in later tales, as in a number of 15th century
sources, he appears in bizarre, horrible, and even comical disguise. While the Gaelic Otherworld-god-in-disguise, generally, and
Manannán particularly are instructive analogues for the Green Knight, I
think that they are more than that. The correspondences can best be
explained as the result of direct influence of Early Irish tales on Middle
English tales. One possible line of transmission in this case is from
Ireland and Scotland into Lancashire and Cheshire (perhaps via the Isle of
Man). The answer to the riddle of the nature of the Green Knight,
however, is not easily solved from within the context of Arthurian
literature – at least not the Arthurian tradition of late medieval England
– the author of the poem didn’t even really know who or what the Green
Knight was. There is no precedent for him in English. But readers familiar
with medieval Gaelic stories can easily recognize the Green Knight in type
and identity. The Green Knight is clearly an
Otherworld-god-in-disguise. It is also clear from both SGGK itself,
and from the Gaelic analogues that the Green Knight is not a malevolent
figure, but rather a tester and benefactor, who teaches rather than harms
Gawain. The role of Otherworld-god-in-disguise in the Gaelic tradition is
most often played by Manannán mac Lir. In fact, what allows audiences to
solve this sort of identity riddle is that Manannán appears in similar
disguise relatively frequently. Readers and audiences learn to look out
for him. The characters that I am promoting as analogues for the
Green Knight are known as "Otherworld gods." I should draw an important
distinction here. When I use the term Otherworld god in this discussion, I
am referring not to a wispy pagan deity but to a particular literary
character, and by Otherworld-god-in-disguise I am referring to this
character in a specific role. [6] The
tale type in Irish literature to which the Otherworld god is most
essential is the echtra or "Otherworld adventure." The interaction
between the Otherworld god and the hero, which is a primary characteristic
of an echtra, is "the essential pattern underlying a wide and
varied selection of Irish tales and episodes". [7] As
Tomás O’Cathasaigh points out in his book The Heroic Biography of
Cormac mac Airt, there is a ‘two-fold typology’ in the relationship
between the hero and the Otherworld god. The Otherworld god can
function either as a villain or a benefactor in relationship to the hero.
[8]
Such is the pattern which also underlies SGGK. Bricriu’s Feast is one example of an echtra and
it is the most famous Celtic analogue for SGGK. Kittredge was one
of the first to discuss the important link between the beheading scene in
SGGK and those in Bricriu’s Feast. Later scholars, including
Loomis and Buchanan, gave more detailed studies of this connection and
posited Cu Roí as the Irish equivalent of the Green Knight. The parallels
between the beheading scene of Bricriu’s Feast and SGGK are
indeed striking, and Cu Roí’s function in that tale is remarkably similar
to that of the Green Knight. We should be aware, however, that within
medieval Irish literature Cu Roí is Cú Chulainn’s traditional enemy. While
in Bricriu’s Feast Cu Roí functions as the Otherworld god as
benefactor, first testing Cú Chulainn and then granting him the champion’s
portion, this is by no means his customary role. [9]
Previous scholarship has documented the parallels between
SGGK and Bricriu’s Feast, as well as those between the Green
Knight and Cu Roí, but has evidently overlooked other relevant
echtrae. The most important of these tales is Cuach Cormaic
("Cormac’s Cup"), which appears in two manuscripts from the early
fifteenth century: The Book of Ballymote (circa 1407), and The
Yellow Book of Lecan (circa 1414). [10]
Correspondences between SGGK and Cormac’s Cup
occur on a number of levels. Both stories are in essence about "trawthe"
("fidelity, truth"). In both stories the heroes are first tricked into an
Otherworld journey where they are tested and subsequently taught the
importance of truth and humility (both Gawain and Cormac also learn that
appearances can be deceptive). The heroes of both stories are given a
magical talisman, Gawain a green girdle and Cormac a cup. Both the Green
Knight and Manannán function as Otherworld-god’s-in-disguise; at first
they seem to be evil trickster figures but turn out to be benefactors.
There are many detailed correspondences between the two
stories, and their essential structures are nearly identical: the hero is
tricked into visiting the Otherworld where he is tested, taught a lesson,
and then given his freedom. Among their further similarities are the gifts
the hero receives which enable him to remember his journey and also
augment his ability to tell the truth. The "lack" that is a motivating
factor in both stories is implied in the lack of judgment used by the
protagonists in making rash bargains with noble looking but strange men.
Though Gawain, for his part, seems to agree to the pact with the stranger
in order to save Arthur, Cormac, who is both the King and the hero, and as
such combines the roles of Arthur and Gawain, has no excuse for his
mistake. [11]
The list of physical similarities between the characters is substantial.
In both stories the hero meets a strange warrior who is not armed for
battle. The one, the Green Knight, is "shoeless with gold spurs," and the
other, Manannán, wears golden sandals. Both of these characters carry an
unusual branch. In both tales the mysteries encountered in the Otherworld
are explained near the end by the trickster-turned-benefactor. In both
tales the hero meets the man he has met earlier but does not recognize
him. In both tales the Otherworld king is quite handsome and has a
beautiful wife. In both tales the hero passes through "an apparently magic
mist" into the Otherworld. [12]
While a beheading episode is not present in Cormac’s Cup, an axe
does appear in both tales, and severed heads are located in wells in a
later version of Cormac’s Cup. The immortal pig of Cormac’s
Cup which is inexhaustible in that it can be slaughtered one day and
yet reappear whole the next, is similar in this respect to the
indestructible, seemingly self-regenerating, Green Knight. The many similarities between SGGK and Cormac’s
Cup are not merely cosmetic; the plot and function of the main
characters are also parallel. These parallels allow us to understand the
underlying meaning of SGGK and the function of the Green Knight.
The Green Knight functions in SGGK, like Manannán in Cormac’s
Cup, as the Otherworld-god-as-benefactor. He is, according to this
interpretation, trying to do Gawain some good, to teach him about truth
and humility. [13]
This relationship between the hero and the Otherworld-god-in-disguise is
characteristically made clear only at the end of the story. The dénouement
of the type of tale we have in mind is marked by the revelation of the
purpose and name of the supernatural character who has been portrayed as
an antagonist but is, in reality, a benefactor. This character is the Otherworld god, and as Douglas
Hyde and Robin Flower have observed, his name in medieval Irish literature
is customarily Manannán. [14]
In SGGK, however, the revelation of the nature and name of the
Green Knight as Otherworld god makes little sense in an Arthurian context.
Who is Bercilak? The explanation that Morgan le Fay really hoped that
Guenevere would die of fright upon seeing the Green Knight is not
consistent with the theme, tone, or nature of the poem. The euhemerisation of the Green Knight is not, however,
inexplicable. In fact, it makes a certain amount of sense. Even in
medieval Celtic literature the function of the Otherworld god was subject
both to deliberate modification at the hands of the Christian monks who
recorded the early texts, and to various alterations and ramifications in
the folklore. Indeed, the Otherworld god underwent a number of distinctive
transformations in the Irish tradition. He was, for example, euhemerised,
demonised, and/or made comically absurd. The Green Knight, however,
retains much of his power and dignity; he is quite obviously supernatural,
though he is not a "devil", and although he is bizarre, he is not
primarily a comic figure, even though his laughter is one of the
distinctive features which link his two identities. The role of the Otherworld god, in this case the
Green Knight, also depends on the particular needs of the hero. One of
Gawain’s principal faults in SGGK is that he is overly coy. He is
afraid of making a bad impression, of damaging his courtly reputation and
of offending the lady, to such an extent that he does not even have the
gumption to ask her to leave his chamber. The Green Knight, on the other
hand, is less inhibited. Ironically, he makes a consciously bad impression
on Gawain and thus tests his courtly demeanour. In reality, as the poem
eventually reveals, the Green Knight is not a moss-coloured maniac but a
handsome and well mannered king. [15]
Part of the lesson Gawain learns is that he should not judge people or
events solely by their outward appearances, nor should he present himself
with such pious pretension. Notwithstanding the many important links between the two, it
must be admitted that the Green Knight is unlike the Manannán of
Cormac’s Cup in a number of important respects. One conspicuous
contrast is that in Cormac’s Cup Manannán is described minimally as
a "staid and noble" looking character; his disguise is a seemly one and
his strangeness, while mentioned, is not elaborated. While the Green
Knight is one of the most bizarre characters in English literature, the
Manannán of Cormac’s Cup is comparatively blasé. On the other hand,
the outlandish appearance of the Green Knight may be evidence of Celtic
derivation. [16]
In any event, the appearance of Otherworld gods in Irish literature, as
evidenced in the description of Cu Roí in Bricriu’s Feast and of
Manannán a number of other tales, is often quite outlandish. Manannán, in fact, undergoes a number of transformations in
Irish literature which may help us to resolve some of the most significant
differences between the depiction of him in Cormac’s Cup and that
of the Green Knight in SGGK. The two predominant processes which
affect Manannán’s role in Early Irish literature are euhemerisation and
caricature. He is, on the one hand, euhemerised into a brilliant and
somewhat prescient sea captain who is able to predict the weather, and, on
the other, caricatured as a clownish figure whose appearance and antics
dramatically belie his powerful supernatural identity. In the latter sort
of tales, however, the Otherworld god’s identity is usually revealed at
the end of the story. [17]
It is the second of these portrayals, the caricature of the
Otherworld god that is most pertinent to the role of the Green Knight in
SGGK. Manannán plays this role in four Middle Irish tales. In lay
61 from Duanaire Finn: The Book of the Lays of Fionn a collection
of Fenian poems recorded in seventeenth century manuscripts, but
linguistically dated to the fifteenth century, Manannán appears as a
gruagach, a "hairy man", "an enchanter", "a warrior of strange
appearance" – or in this case, a great big hairy-scary with a sword stuck
through his head:
Near the end of the tale, after the warrior has been
responsible for a good deal of mischief to Finn and his men, we discover
the name of the trickster and everything is set to rights:
Here again we see Manannán playing a role which is very
similar to that of the Green Knight. He appears mysteriously and seems at
first to be villainous and to cause distress and potential death to the
heroes, but in the end he serves to help the protagonists by teaching them
a lesson and restoring them to health. We also find a caricature of the
Otherworld god here; his appearance is grotesque and his behaviour
is outrageous. Manannán plays a similar part in other Irish tales such as
Eachtra [Imtheachta] An Cheithearnaigh Chaoilriabhaigh ("The
Adventure of the Kern in the Narrow Stripes") Tóraighecht in Ghilla
Dhecair ("The Pursuit of the Troublesome Churl"), and Bodach in
Chóta Lachtna ("The Churl in the Grey-Coloured Coat"). [20]
These tales are roughly contemporary with Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight. [21]
Manannán’s role in the first tale, Adventure of the Kern
in the Narrow Stripes, is central to the narrative, and suggestively
relevant to the role of the Green Knight in SGGK. A peculiar echo
of SGGK occurs in Adventure of the Kern in the Narrow
Stripes when a great number of men are killed with axes and later
restored to health by the kern. The basic scenario of the tale, which is
repeated with a number of variations in the course of the story, is that a
mischievous and foolish looking character appears from nowhere, wreaks
considerable havoc when he is mistreated, and, in the end, restores all
the wounded and dead men to health before he mysteriously disappears. A second tale, The Churl in the Grey-Coloured Coat,
also contains important comparative evidence for SGGK. In it the
Bodach is a large, lumbering, bad-mannered churl who, despite his
inauspicious appearance, turns out to be the powerful Manannán. [22]
As in the previous tale, he tests the hero’s generosity and his ability to
see through pretence and disguise. At the end of the tale the Bodach is
revealed to be a benefactor rather than a villain. Manannán has become
especially absurd in The Churl in the Grey-Coloured Coat. His
overriding characteristics are his flouting of conventional dress and
behaviour. He has an intense love of devouring blackberries by the bushel,
is a shabby dresser, and is generally impolite and unkempt (in the Manx
version he is actually described as being "yellow"). [23]
Nevertheless, at the conclusion Manannán demonstrates considerable
supernatural force and he is associated, as he is in other tales in Gaelic
literature, with sea and storm. Furthermore, The Churl in the
Grey-Coloured Coat shares a similar structure with both Cormac’s
Cup and Duanaire Finn 61, but it is closer to the latter tale
(and to SGGK) in that the disguise which the Otherworld god assumes
in this story is bizarre rather than dignified. What separates this
narrative from most others of this type is that in all the other tales
Manannán transforms himself back into a more seemly aspect at the end; in
The Churl in the Grey-Coloured Coat, however, he retains his
disguise as if it were his true shape. The Gilla Decair, the titular character of the third of
these tales, is an ugly and mischievous fellow who appears one day at
Finn’s court and proceeds to engage himself as a member of Finn’s troop,
and then, just as suddenly and unexpectedly as he arrived, to disappear.
While the riddle of the identity of the Kern and Bodach are
straightforwardly resolved for the reader, the identity of the Gilla
Decair in The Pursuit of the Troublesome Churl remains
controversial. He is not specifically revealed to be Manannán in the tale,
but Manannán’s name is mentioned portentously in one episode, and a number
of clues in the story point to him as the Gilla Decair’s ultimate
identity. We know from his earliest appearances in the literature that
Manannán is associated with shape-shifting, that he is king of the
Otherworld, and that he is often associated with sea imagery. We have seen
him in the role of Otherworld-god-in-disguise before, both as a handsome
noble in Cuach Cormaic, and as a grotesque caricature in
Duanaire Finn 61, Adventure of the Kern in the Narrow
Stripes, and The Churl in the Grey-Coloured Coat. From the
minute he appears in The Pursuit of the Troublesome Churl, we
suspect that the Gilla Decair may be Manannán - he is dingy, dirty, rude,
and strangely misshapen like the Bodach, and the name that he gives, like
those used by the Kern in Adventure of the Kern in the Narrow
Stripes, is clearly a pseudonym. When the Gilla Decair ("Troublesome
Churl") lifts his coat up over his haunches and prepares to rush out over
the sea like a windstorm, we can already guess with whom the Fenians are
dealing. Further details of the description of the Gilla Deacair reinforce
our educated guess that he is Manannán. Other hints to the Kern’s identity
include the long rod he carries, which may be a comic version of the magic
branch Manannán carries in Cuach Cormaic and a reflex of the one
the Green Knight carries in SGGK (a magic branch is mentioned later
in The Pursuit of the Troublesome Churl as well). Furthermore, his
approach is accompanied by the "noise of a mighty ocean wave," and his
manner of locomotion, which conveys a wave-like undulation or the tacking
of a sailing ship, also hints at his identity. Although, the final name which the character, who is
referred to as king of the land under wave, gives to the Fenians is
Ábhartach mac Ildathaig. The name Ábhartach reads here like one more
forainm or "soubriquet " for Manannán, rather than an actual
identity. The name may be a version of the noun abartach
"performer, trickster" and Ildathaig from il "many" + dathach
"colours." "The multi-coloured trickster" looks to be a description of
a particular role rather than an identification of a mythological
character. The name Ábhartach appears only rarely in Irish literature and
then almost always in close proximity to Manannán. [24] The Ábhartach from The Pursuit of the Troublesome
Churl, like the Bodach from The Churl in the Grey-Coloured Coat
may pertain obliquely to the scholarly debate surrounding the origin
of the name Bercilak which some scholars read as Bertilak and a few others
as Bernlak. [25]
Alice Buchanan postulated that the word bachlach, which is a
synonym for the later Irish word bodach, has been mutated into the
name Bercilak:
The relationship between the names gilla,
bodach, and bachlach implies some sort of corresponding
relationship between the gruagach, the gilla decair, the
bodach and Bercilak. Perhaps the words in the second set, like
those in the first, are essentially synonymous. [27]
The implication is that Bercilak, if it is indeed an Anglo-Norman
form of bachlach or even if it is simply a creative French
soubriquet intending "carl" (as in The Carl of Carlisle see note
31), is a name generally analogous and specifically relevant to the names
of the Irish Otherworld god; perhaps Bercilak too is fundamentally simply
an alias. [28]
The fact that soubriquets are used in the Irish sources may imply that the
true name of the Otherworld god had a somewhat taboo status in the
tradition. It is certainly also true that the aliases provide an added
element of suspense to the tales. One of the most interesting aspects of
the echtra is the riddle of the true identity of the mysterious but
uncannily familiar stranger who motivates the action of the tales. But in
order for the revelation to be fully effective, the traditional role of
the Otherworld god must be understood by the audience, and his identity
implied in his description and behaviour. But the Otherworld god function of the Green Knight in
SGGK is disguised not only by the fact that there is no precedent
for that role in English literature, but also because the Green Knight is
revealed at the end of the tale not to be a powerful supernatural
character, but rather a mere mortal whose apparent powers were the result
of someone else’s witch-craft. The second major process which affects
Manannán in Irish literature, and in turn reflects light upon the nature
of the Green Knight in SGGK is euhemerisation; the process by which
myths and/or mythical characters are interpreted as deriving from
historical mortals. Manannán is most clearly euhemerised in early Irish
texts called Cóir Anmann and Sanas Cormaic, where he is
described as a famous trader from the Isle of Man. [29]
The portrayal of Manannán as a mortal associated with the
Isle of Man is suggestive in respect to SGGK for two main reasons.
First of all, it demonstrates that the supernatural powers of Irish
Otherworld god characters could be effectively rationalized in the
literature; secondly it introduces a possible line of transmission of
Early Irish tales into Middle English via the Isle of Man. Certainly, both
Middle Irish and Middle English were spoken on Man (as they were in
Ireland) in the late fourteenth century. In fact, according to the
Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, the English dialect
spoken on the Isle of Man in the later Middle Ages was the same as that
spoken in the North West Midlands and in Cheshire -- the very dialect in
which SGGK is written. [30]
Dialect evidence must, of course, be used with extreme caution, and
unfortunately very little of the history of the Isle of Man at this period
is recorded in Gaelic or Middle English records. It is possible, however,
that both Middle English and Middle Irish speakers lived in relative
proximity on the island, and it seems safe to assume that a certain amount
of bilingualism would have been necessary in such an environment. We might
also assume that such bilingualism may have resulted in the transmission
of stories from Middle Irish into Middle English and vice versa. [31]
It is tempting to speculate, in fact, that the Isle of Man,
which is traditionally associated with Manannán in medieval Irish
literature, may be the very place where the various traditions, Celtic,
Norse, Middle English, and Norman French might have been synthesized into
the SGGK story. The Isle of Man and the king of the Isle of Man
play important roles in Middle English reflexes of SGGK such as
The Turke and Gowin. The Isle of Man might also have been
associated with the dangerous realm into which Gawain travels to fulfil
his contract, because the Island was used as a place of imprisonment and
execution by English monarchs in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
[32]
However, even if the transmission and/or synthesis of the tale did not
occur on the Isle Man, there are manifold, though tenuous, threads linking
SGGK with the Isle. [33]
These connections between the Isle of Man and versions of the SGGK
story, and those between Manannán and the Green Knight are mutually
reinforcing and yet ultimately more tantalizing than conclusive. The similarities between the characters in SGGK and
those in Gaelic literature, combined with the fact that there is no
obvious lineage for the Green Knight’s role in English literature, make it
more likely that the role of Otherworld-god-in-disguise was borrowed into
Middle English rather than Manannán and the Green Knight share a common
Indo-European ancestor. The facts which suggest direct influence, with a
plausible nexus at the Isle of Man, can be summarized as follows: the
Green Knight plays a role in SGGK which is very similar to that of
the Otherworld god in Early Irish literature; Manannán is the most
traditional identity for the Irish Otherworld god; he is particularly
associated with the Isle of Man in Early Irish tradition; echtrae
with Manannán in the role of Otherworld god may have been told in late
medieval Man; the English dialect of SGGK was spoken and written in
an area inclusive of the Isle of Man; speakers of Middle Irish and Middle
English may have been in relative proximity during the fourteenth century
on that island and may have had some level of intercourse; and, finally,
reflexes of the SGGK tale, such as The Turke and Gowin,
contain specific associations with the Isle of Man. While none of
these facts, either in isolation or even in combination, are sufficient to
prove contact, they, nevertheless, demonstrate the possibility of direct
influence and the certainty of association. The association between the Green Knight and Manannán is
also quite secure, and the possibility of direct influence is a real one.
Even the rationalization of the Green Knight as Bercilak is analogous to
one development in the portrayal of Manannán in Middle Irish literature.
Even as Manannán is euhemerized as a renowned chapman named Orbsen in
texts such as Sanas Cormaic and Cóir Anmann, [34]
so at the end of SGGK it is revealed that the Green Knight’s
apparently supernatural powers are in fact attributable to the
machinations of Morgan le Fay. [35]
This explanation of the Green Knight’s role is in many respects apposite,
despite the fact that it obscures the Otherworld-god-in-disguise function
of the Green Knight. While the Fisher King may be a distant literary
relative, and Merlin and a few other "enchanters" have a number of
otherworldly powers and characteristics, there is no room for a clearly
identified Otherworld god in the genre. The figure who is empowered by the
surprise ending is the "goddess" Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s half sister, and
the closest thing to such a character (especially in a malevolent guise)
in Arthurian literature. [36]
Morgan is, like the Otherworld god in Gaelic tradition, both a villain and
a benefactor. Her beneficent role is manifested in that she is fated to
take Arthur away to Avalon and help to heal his wounds after his battle
with Mordred. Her malevolent role, which is much more relevant in
SGGK, is evidenced in her hatred of Guenevere, and her keen desire
to destroy Camelot. Using Morgan as an explanation for the strange behaviours
and supernatural powers of the Otherworld god in SGGK is, of
course, not entirely satisfactory. [37]
This device in effect strips the Green Knight of his power and proper
dramatic function. It effectively explains the role of the Green Knight at
the level of "text as literature," but at the same time obscures his
function and the underlying structure of the "text as myth". [38]
The motivations of the Green Knight could not have been merely to frighten
Guenevere to death; his real purpose, as revealed in the actual events of
the tale, had to do with testing and teaching Gawain. Furthermore, the
revelation that the Green Knight is in fact Bercilak de Hautdesert, is,
for many readers, a peculiar anticlimax. After-all, who the devil is
Bercilak de Hautdesert? Though no little ink has been spilt in trying to
resolve this question, especially by identifying him with historical
figures, I think that the right answer is that he is nobody -- instead of
an answer to the question of the Green Knight’s ultimate identity we get a
tautology. The Medieval English audience probably had no better idea who
Bercilak de Hautdesert was than most modern critics seem to. They probably
recognized by his name that he was meant to be a nobleman (Norman French?)
from a distant land. Irrespective of the displeasure and frustration of
many modern readers and critics, such an ambiguous answer is actually the
only one appropriate in the Arthurian context. Any attempt to answer the
riddle of the Green Knight’s identity, by substituting the names of Celtic
otherworld gods such as Arawn, Angus, Bobh Derg, Cu Roí or even Manannán
for Bercilak, is even less satisfactory; for such names are essentially
incompatible with the Arthurian tradition and would have been either
meaningless or, if understood, possibly even heretical. [39]
While the Green Knight functions as an Otherworld god in the tale, he
cannot be identified as a pagan deity at the conclusion. The Gawain-poet
created a role consonant with the Arthurian milieu by identifying the
fabulous Green Knight with the otherwise unknown Bercilak (whose name
might have originally meant simply "churl"). The Green Knight’s
supernatural powers, however, and his mischievous, apparently malevolent
behaviour, are attributed to the magic of Morgan. On the literary level of the tale, the Green Knight is
Bercilak and his supernatural power is due to Morgan le Fay, but on the
mythic level the riddle of the Green Knight’s role in SGGK can best
be solved by recourse to Gaelic literature. While the poet made a valiant
effort to reconcile the demands of his genre with the deeper structural
elements of the tale-type, compelling questions about the nature of the
Green Knight remain. The results of this investigation into the nature of
the Green Knight reveal, then, that his role in SGGK is analogous
to that of the Gaelic Otherworld-god-in-disguise. Furthermore, while
Buchanan and others have previously noted this relationship, their choices
of Cu Roí and/or the Welsh Arawn, as the primary examples of the type do
not sufficiently exemplify the role of this character in the tradition. C.
S. Lewis may have been essentially correct in his assertion that there is
nothing really like the Green Knight, at least not in English literature;
nevertheless, it is clear that there are important analogues to, and
possible archetypes for, the Green Knight in the Gaelic Otherworld gods,
particularly in the role of the Otherworld-god-in-disguise, and
specifically as that role is filled by Manannán, the "dear little one from
the Isle of Man."
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