The Beheading Game in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Green Helmet

Abstract

Juxtaposing two different works, the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK) and the twentieth-century play The Green Helmet, this essay examines the functions of the folkloric beheading game. Expanding on J. A. Burrow's analysis of SGGK, the essay will focus on genre-specific idiosyncrasies of SGGK and The Green Helmet based on the five fictional modes developed by Northrop Frye in his Anatomy of Criticism. Complementing Frye's model with newer theoretical concepts, such as for example that of godgame, this paper will proceed to examine the artistic goals of the authors arising from the purposes and constraints of the two genres. It will then apply these purposes and constrains to the archetypal morphological functions united by the old Irish folktale. Its ultimate goal is to demonstrate the ways in which the folk motif helps create a chivalric, Christian, and meta-romantic text in the case of SGGK and a nationalistic, heroic myth-play in the case of W. B. Yeats's work.