Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales , and: The Weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell ed. by Thomas Hahn (review)

Abstract

Il6ARTHURIANA future,' the immensity of his loss is nicely compressed into the symbol of a 'wren darting among blackthorns.' The final poem, 'Under the stone,' ends, as it must, with Merlin awaiting the fulfillment of a final prophecy. As the poetry evokes some of the oldest motifs of the Arthurian tradition, the design of the book itself is reminiscent of a work of the distant past, with hand-set type printed on heavy paper stock—each page beginning with a red-ink Roman numeral. The look ofold manuscripts easily comes to mind. A monoprint portrait of Merlin by John Gruenwald serves as frontispiece, and features ofthat face fade away in successive reproductions throughout the book even as the verbal portrait ofMerlin emerges. The book is an outstanding example ofthe craftsmanship one has come to expect from the Bullnettle Press, which has produced less ambitious editions of Arthurian material in the past. At a price of$165, the 70 copies being offered for sale are clearly intended for those who seek out fine press publications, but the poetry deserves a wider audience. DAN NASTALI Kansas City, Missouri Thomas Hahn, ed., Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales, teams Middle English Texts Series. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995. Pp. 439. isbn: 1879288 -59-1). $16. The Weddynge ofSir Gawen andDame Ragnell. Performed by Linda Marie Zaerr. The Chaucer Studio, Video Productions 1, 1999. 45 min. isbn: 0—8425-2458-4. $20 (Incl. shipping and handling). It's rare indeed that a volume can reenergize a field. Arguably the teams KnightOhlgren Robin Hood text did just that. This newest addition to teams Middle English Texts Series may well do the same for an important area ofArthuriana. As its title indicates, Hahn's volume contains eleven works in which Gawain is the central character: The WeddingofSir Gawain andDame Ragnelle, Sir Gawain andthe Carle of Carlisle, The Avowyng ofArthur, TheAwntyrs offArthur, The Knightly Tale ofGologras and Gawain, The Greene Knight, The Türke and Sir Gawain, The Marriage ofSir Gawain, The Carle ofCarlisle, The]easte ofSir Gawain, and King Arthur and King Cornwall. While this collection will, no doubt, lead to more being written about these eleven neglected works, this volume may well be a watershed in our understanding of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Following the successful format used in previous volumes, each work is introduced by a short essay, complete with bibliography, that lays out the tale's major themes and interpretive issues. Purely textual matters are referenced in the briefexplanatory notes which follow each tale. Containing a good deal ofuseful background material, the 35—page 'Introduction' presents Gawain as the 'embodiment' ofcourtesy. Yet Hahn notes, 'Gawain's perfect chivalry does not, however, endow him with a coherent identity; it serves as a touchstone, revealing the true or false chivalry of the various antagonists who test REVIEWS117 him' (17). In making these points, Hahn raises a central question for a collection such as this one: Do these tales have more in common than the name of their shared protagonist? Happily the answer is 'yes,' for it's the second part of the formulation, the touchstone nature of Gawain's chivalry, that Hahn uses to bring unity to the assembled texts. And it's a unity that reaches out to include these works' more famous and critically favored cousin, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by providing a new context in which we might view the Pearl-Poet's attitudes towards class, chivalry, and the courtly milieu in which that poem is cast. As the introductory essays make clear, the anthologized tales variously reinforce and/or subvert the position ofthe elite class that is at the center ofthe action. Many ofthe works here serve as 'endorsement[s] ofthe Tightness ofthings as they are' (25). Beginningwith the 'normative' Gawain's encounter with the monstrous or the alien— in short, the nonchivalric Carl of Carlisle, the Turk, or the 'Loathly Lady'—such tales consistently end with that unchivalric Other being 'brought into line with legitimate, idealized chivalric society' (41). Similarly, Hahn pays particular attention to locale and, with a briefnod to post-colonial theory, notes the 'fundamental pattern within the Gawain romances, whereby outlying Celtic...