Abstract
THE INGENIOUS SYMMETRY OF SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT is always a major point in appreciations of poem, and prominent among balanced pairs is symbolic polarity between pentangle painted on knight's shield (and perhaps embroidered on his surcoat as well)' and green girdle tempting Lady bestows on Gawain-the girdle which is supposed to save his life but which in fact costs him a nick on neck at her husband's hands. pentangle, knot, diagrams Gawain's virtuous perfection; girdle, employed first as a magical prop, becomes in final scene a token of knight's lapse from that perfection. Englehardt plots trajectory of action in terms of these two symbols: The endless knot has been superseded by knot of green silk (p. 225). For Gawain, says Ackerman, the girdle became symbol of his falling away, however momentarily, from pentangle,
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