Editing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (section)

===Wounds===
At the story's climax, Gawain is wounded superficially in the neck by the Green Knight's axe. During the medieval period, the body and the soul were believed to be so intimately connected that wounds were considered an outward sign of inward sin. The neck, specifically, was believed to correlate with the part of the soul related to [[Will (philosophy)|will]], connecting the reasoning part (the head) and the courageous part (the heart). Gawain's sin resulted from using his will to separate reasoning from courage. By accepting the girdle from the lady, he employs reason to do something less than courageous—evade death in a dishonest way. Gawain's wound is thus an outward sign of an internal wound. The Green Knight's series of tests shows Gawain the weakness that has been in him all along: the desire to use his will pridefully for personal gain, rather than submitting his will in humility to God. The Green Knight, by engaging with the greatest knight of Camelot, also reveals the moral weakness of pride in all of Camelot, and therefore all of humanity. However, the wounds of Christ, believed to offer healing to wounded souls and bodies, are mentioned throughout the poem in the hope that this sin of prideful "stiffneckedness" will be healed among fallen mortals.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.2307/462158|last=Reichardt|first=Paul F.|year=1984|title=Gawain and the Image of the Wound|journal=Publications of the Modern Language Association of America|volume=99|issue=2|pages=154–61|jstor=462158|s2cid=163648039 | issn = 0030-8129 }}</ref>{{sfn|Arthur|1987|p=121–123}}