Michelle Feddema
ENG 4U
Mr. Nielsen
Friday November 19, 2010
A Comparison of Arthurian Legend in Various Stories

Arthurian legend was a genre many writers used in Chaucer’s day. It is a story made of romances, heroism, and ballads mostly about Arthur’s chief knight Sir Gawain who was mainly a man of social and ethical virtue. Often time’s Arthurian legend is a story of a knight who fights the bad guy, learns a lesson, saves the day and get’s the girl. Although sometimes the knight may start off as the bad guy as he did in one of Chaucer’s famous tales “The Wife of Bath.” Although Arthurian legend was used in many stories of that time, often the details were changed around to make the story unique but all in all kept the same idea …show more content…

It gets the audience hooked to the story and makes their imagination jump to a whole new level. Both stories include these magical stories to get the audience interested and involved by being fascinated by something they don’t experience on a regular day basis. Another comparison can be made between the two very different knights in the stories. In The Green Knight, Sir Gawain in described as a chaste and heroic figure. In the beginning of the story he saves his king from certain death by accepting the challenge himself from the Green Knight. On his journey to meet the Green Knight he is tempted by a king’s wife while staying at their castle. Sir Gawain falls into sin when he affiliates himself with the queen while the king is out hunting for Sir Gawain. The night before he must go and meet the Green Knight the queen gives him a green belt to wear which will protect him from any fatal wound. When he finally meets the Green Knight, he is surprised to discover that the king from the castle he stayed at was the Green Knight all along and that the woman he committed adulterous acts with was the Green Knight’s wife. He finds out that it was a trick all along and that he told his wife to do all the things she did with him to test him. In the end he doesn’t get the girl, but his life is saved and he learns a very valuable lesson. In The Wife of