Editing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (section)

===Times and seasons===
Times, dates, seasons, and cycles within ''Gawain'' are often noted by scholars because of their symbolic nature. The story starts on New Year's Eve with a beheading and culminates one year later on the next New Year's Day. Gawain leaves Camelot on [[All Saints Day]] and arrives at Bertilak's castle on Christmas Eve. Furthermore, the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in "a year and a day"—in other words, the next New Year's Day. Some scholars interpret the yearly cycles, each beginning and ending in winter, as the poet's attempt to convey the inevitable fall of all things good and noble in the world. Such a theme is strengthened by the image of [[Trojan War|Troy]], a powerful nation once thought to be invincible which, according to the ''[[Aeneid]]'', fell to the Greeks because of pride and ignorance. The Trojan connection shows itself in the presence of two nearly identical descriptions of Troy's destruction. The poem's first line reads: "Since the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy" and the final stanzaic line (before the bob and wheel) is "After the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy".<ref name = christian>{{cite journal| last1 = Clark| first1 = S. L.| last2 = Wasserman| first2 = Julian N.|author2-link= Julian N. Wasserman | year = 1986| title = The Passing of the Seasons and the Apocalyptic in ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''| journal = South Central Review| volume = 3| issue = 1| pages = 5–22| doi=10.2307/3189122| jstor = 3189122}}</ref>