Editing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (section)

=== ''Gawain'' as medieval romance ===
{{Further|Chivalric romance}}
[[Image:John Pettie (1839-1893) - The Vigil - N01582 - National Gallery.jpg|thumb|right|Gawain represented the perfect knight, as a fighter, a lover, and a religious devotee. (''The Vigil'' by [[John Pettie]], 1884).]]
Many critics argue that ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' should be viewed as a [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]]. Medieval romances typically recount the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, [[hero]]ic knight, often of super-human ability, who abides by chivalry's strict codes of honour and demeanour, embarks upon a [[quest]] and defeats monsters, thereby winning the favour of a [[princesse lointaine|lady]]. Thus, medieval romances focus not on love and sentiment (as the term "romance" implies today), but on [[adventure novel|adventure]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frye |first1=Northrop |title=[[Anatomy of criticism]] |date=1957 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |isbn=0-691-01298-9 |page=186 |oclc=230039 |publisher= Princeton University Press }}</ref>

Gawain's function, as medieval scholar Alan Markman says, "is the function of the romance hero&nbsp;… to stand as the champion of the human race, and by submitting to strange and severe tests, to demonstrate human capabilities for good or bad action."<ref name = markman/> Through Gawain's adventure, it becomes clear that he is merely human. The reader becomes attached to this human view amidst the poem's romanticism, relating to Gawain's humanity while respecting his knightly qualities. Gawain "shows us what moral conduct is. We shall probably not equal his behaviour, but we admire him for pointing out the way."<ref name = markman>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.2307/460169| issn = 0030-8129 | volume = 72| issue = 4–Part–1| pages = 574–586| last = Markman| first = Alan M.| title = The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight| journal = Publications of the Modern Language Association of America| date = 1957| jstor = 460169 | s2cid = 163657925 | url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/meaning-of-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/9D558B989902A1A9923ADE16D8990199}}</ref>

In viewing the poem as a medieval romance, many scholars see it as intertwining chivalric and courtly love laws under the English [[Order of the Garter]]. A slightly altered version of the Order's motto, "[[Honi soit qui mal y pense]]", or "Shamed be he who finds evil here," has been added, in a different hand, at the end of the poem. Some critics describe Gawain's peers wearing girdles of their own as linked to the origin of the Order of the Garter. However, in the parallel poem ''The Greene Knight'', the lace is white, not green, and is considered the origin of the collar worn by the Knights of the Bath, not the Order of the Garter.<ref>{{cite book | editor1-last=Tolkien | editor1-first=J. R. R. | editor2-last=Gordon | editor2-first=E. V. | editor3-last=Davis | editor3-first=Norman | edition=2 | title=Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | at=note to lines 2514 and following | publisher=Clarendon Press | publication-place=Oxford | year=1967 | isbn=978-0-19-811486-4 | oclc=352281}}</ref> Still, a possible connection to the Order is not beyond the realm of possibility.<ref>{{cite book
|title=The Norton Anthology of English Literature
|edition=8
|volume=B: The Sixteenth Century/The Early Seventeenth Century
|date=2006
|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company
|location=New York
|isbn=9780393927184
|editor-last=Greenblatt
|editor-first=Stephen
|page=213 (footnote)}}</ref>