The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

... The Meaning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [It is] somewhat surprising to discover that the bulk of Arthurian criticism which has been directed to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has largely overlooked the real source of its extraordinary appeal. Early and late scholars have sought to establish Gawain's origin among the ranks of primitive Celtic gods and to suggest, it would seem, that Gawain's success might perhaps be best accounted for because he is not to be taken for the representation of an ordinary human being, but because he is, on the contrary, either a superhuman or supernatural being. Some critics have been concerned with the Green Knight himself, finding him to be, according to [a 1949 article in Scrutiny by John Speirs], an unmistakable relation to the Green Manthe Jack in the Green or the wild man of the village festivals of England and Europe, or,

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