Numbers in Perfection in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

With this evaluation of the poem, Morton W. Bloomfield introduces the reader to his paper “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Appraisal” written in 1961, implying an unproblematic interpretation of the work as general perception. Nevertheless Bloomfield proceeds his essay by stating that the poem includes many complexities and puzzles which have, according to him, not been recognized by critics up until that point and for that reason he asserts: “criticism has not yet really come to grips with the romance.”2 Thus developing an idea also supported by John Halverson who states in “Template Criticism: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” written in 1969:



“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a difficult but splendid poem and one that has, therefore, quite naturally attracted a very considerable body of critical commentary. The poem is altogether extraordinary, especially in the brilliant architectonics of its composition and prosody so uncharacteristic of its genre. This complex and symmetrical structure seems to urge the critical reader to look for an overall meaning or intention as coherent as the form.”3



Hence Halverson suggests the search for an overall meaning, but does not comment on an easy or set interpretation which would legitimate this search, instead he alludes to the complexity of the poem.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as one of the most relevant canonical works in the history of English literature, is a very accomplished example of medieval chivalric romance and one of the “most skillfully made of the English romances … and the most complex in intention, exhibiting a subtlety of presentation and density of implication[.]”4 It has been the subject to excessive scholarly work and critical studies since its rediscovery in the mid-nineteenth century in the Cotton Nero A.x. alongside the three other pieces in the manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness and Patience which share similarities in form and content. Sir Gawain, for example, is a dialogic poem like Pearl and Patience, arranging different perspectives alongside each other within the narrative without comment. Thus the poem encourages the reader to develop his own conclusion, while the narrative, in its fundamental aspects and smallest details, functions by implication. Instead of offering one meaning Sir Gawain proposes several possible meanings and prompts questions, but fails to answer them.5 While it is only natural that the modern critic tries to understand the poem on the basis of medieval ideas about the meaning of certain symbols and smaller details such as color, appearance, numbers and salient objects, it is important to refrain from the extraction of one single meaning from the poem and its signs. Critiques such as the “Green Knight is Christ” or the “Green Knight is John the Baptist”, do not only oppose and constrain themselves, but also renounce the open character of the poem, while completely rejecting results of other scholars instead of furthering the scholarly process. These constricted critiques trivialize the complexity of the poem, while enforcing interpretations which comply with their assumptions and replacing the fascinating complexity of the poem by simplified patterns that are simultaneously less complicated and also less interesting.6

Although the reader should not pursue the hunt for one all-encompassing meaning of the text, the poem strongly implies various interpretations of symbols as representatives for other concepts. In this context Donald R. Howard states: “[It] is true, symbol-hunting is an easy game with no particular criteria of corrigibility. […] It is reassuring, therefore, to have at least one medieval work in which the symbols are identified as such by the author.”7 Howard primarily alludes to the pentangle shield and the girdle. Yet these symbols, which are obviously charged with various meanings, are only part of the symbolic structure. The form of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which is based on a deliberate numerological pattern system, is of great importance as well, since the numerological structure offers many different areas of interpretation as it relates to number symbolism it interacts with. While Sir Gawain and the Green Knight should be seen altogether as a work which permits a multitude of interpretations, these symbols should also be seen as agents of multiplemeanings and thus play their part in a work of controlled ambiguity, which due to its variable possible interpretations was considered in medieval times as “potentially productive of more (and more useful) knowledge.”8

Thus the reader of medieval literature should not ignore the strong antique interest in numerology and symbolism. Hence it is important to appreciate the poems’ exceptional depth of symmetry, symbolism and ambiguity instead of attributing each object, line, stanza or the poem as a whole with one definite meaning. The result should be a fuller appreciation of the sophisticated structure and numerous levels of interpretation of the poem, only perceivable through the application of diverse perspectives when dealing with the visible and the rather concealed symbols in the poem. Symbols such as the green girdle, the pentangle shield and the picture of the virgin can easily be recognized as signs within the poem and can be perceived in various ways, as the poem plays with the ambiguity of its symbols.9 Thus creating its own “endless knot” since the text cannot lead the reader to one finalized conclusion, but is a construct of complex meaning which can be analyzed endlessly, thus making a complete mastery of the work impossible, as some questions will always be in doubt and unanswered. Yet there is also the level of numerological analysis and number symbolism which is present in the narrative level as well as in the form of the poem. A form which, although concealed from the readers eye, makes a claim for perfection in it's subtle but complex constructed structural pattern.

Perfection is an important theme in Sir Gawain, as the poem sways between implications of perfection and imperfection, as well as everlastingness and finiteness. While the text plays with its symbols and simultaneously with ambiguity, it implies perfection on different levels, in its structural form as well as on the narrative level, while offering various meanings which partially exclude each other and thus challenge the concept of perfection as well as their own meaning.

This paper will analyze how Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a particularly complex and aesthetic piece of literature, challenges its own various possible interpretations of symbols and as it does, in contrast to Bloomfield's introductory statement, create an endless room for interpretation. Considering the various possible meanings of the symbols within the text, this paper concludes that perfection cannot be depicted through symbolism or numerology, because symbols can always be interpreted differently and given a new meaning. Hence an assigned signification is foregrounded at different points in the poem. Yet this basic concept of ambiguity and signification is not only suggested at the end of the work, but throughout the whole poem, as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight continuously challenges its own meaning and unfolds its narrative in a complex play of symbolism and a numerological structured form.







2. Form

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight numbers are of importance in the form and the content of the poem by means of number symbolism and a numerical structure, which are both of significance as they interact to strengthen their relevance to the literary piece.10 The poem is based upon a deliberate numerological patterning system, an element which must be considered and analyzed sincerely in a medieval piece of literature, since numerology and the mediation of meaning through number symbolism played an important role in past literature. Thus the poem employs a principle of order by which it implies and communicates a message by means of number symbolism, a method which is applied in Sir Gawain to an exceptionally subtle but nonetheless all-encompassing dimension. Hence the mathematical connotations and numbers all “convey in themselves something relevant to ... the meaning of the poetry [and] are not mere ornaments, however beautiful or clever, but are as much integral facets of the poetry as they are in the phenomena of nature.”11 This patterning device and the deeply rooted medieval believe in numbers - not only as an abstract idea, but also as a representative of symbolic significance of a concrete thing alive with meaning - lead to a level of interpretation of the poem which the reader has to consider while working with the text. This aspect of textual analysis is as old as Augustine, who encouraged scholars to analyze numbers and their relationship, which as a premise of analysis can be of eminent benefit when interpreting scripture.12 In relation to this premise of literary analysis and the belief in number symbolism Solomon Gandz formulated the following statement that emphasizes the medieval belief in numerology:



“It is interesting to observe how powerful and all-embracing the mystic tendencies of mankind are. If they are given a free hand, nothing is safe from their encroaching influence. Even numbers, these most abstract and rational ideas of the most abstract and rational science, of mathematics, are forced into the service of mysticism, are presented as possessing occult powers and alluding to mystic ideas and persons.”13

1Bloomfield, Morton. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Appraisal”, in: PMLA 76 Mar. 1961, p. 7.

 

2Bloomfield. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An Appraisal”, p. 7.

 

3Halverson, John. “Template Criticism: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, in: Modern Philology Nov. 1969, p. 133.

 

4Green, Richard. “Gawain's Shield and the Quest for Perfection”, in: ELH 29 Jun. 1962, p. 122.

 

5Anderson, J. Language and imagination in the Gawain-poems. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005, p. 161.

 

6Arthur, Ross. Medieval Sign Theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987, p. 4-7.

 

7Howard, Donald. “Structure and Symmetry in Sir Gawain”, in: Speculum 39 Jul 1964, p. 425.

 

8Arthur. Medieval Sign Theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. p. 8.

 

9Arthur. Medieval Sign Theory and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. p. 16.

 

10Metcalf, Alan. “Gawain's Number”, in: Essays in the Numerical Criticism of Medieval Literature, ed. by Caroline D. Eckhardt. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1980, p. 152.

 

11Callaghan, Mary. Number and Numerical Composition: Tradition and Practice in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. New York: Fordham University, 1982, p. 4.

 

12Metcalf. “Gawain's Number” p. 9.

 

13Gandz, Solomon. in: Isis 31 Nov. 1939, p. 102.