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Nicholas’s first review of the year
really liked it
After like four or five years, I have finally read the sequel to Cinder!
After the events of the previous book--which ended with Cinder having a ruckus of a time at a party, getting captured, being revealed as the lost Princess Selene--Scarlet opens with Scarlet Benoit in France. Her grandmother has been missing and the police are useless. No one is taking her seriously, just asking her to deliver goods from her and her grandmother's farm. But the After like four or five years, I have finally read the sequel to Cinder!
After the events of the previous book--which ended with Cinder having a ruckus of a time at a party, getting captured, being revealed as the lost Princess Selene--Scarlet opens with Scarlet Benoit in France. Her grandmother has been missing and the police are useless. No one is taking her seriously, just asking her to deliver goods from her and her grandmother's farm. But then a mysterious young man crosses her path, a man who calls himself Wolf. Meanwhile, Cinder, with her new cyborg attachments, attempts to break out of prison and encounters the charming but grating Carswell Thorne. Together they make a run for it to find Michelle Benoit, whom Cinder was last told was the one who brought her to Earth as a baby. And Emperor Kai is at a crossroads. Queen Levana is getting angrier and wants Cinder found, but he doesn't want to hurt her and can't risk the lives of his people. An adventure of trials awaits our cast.
Whew! I am really glad Marissa Meyer went over things that happened in Cinder because it had been too long for me. I have to admit, I was curious about long this book would last and flow because, although it's been a hot minute, the first book was a little bit slow in a few places from what I remember. To my surprise, Scarlet was very fast paced and I didn't lose any information along the way. The prose is very accessible so I don't think its target teenage audience would have a problem with reading it. What I think this book did best was a good balance between light-heartedness and more serious subject matter, because in terms of the latter this book, to my surprise, did get dark. And violent! Nothing over-the-top, but I certainly wasn't expecting it.
Of the three plots going through this book, I think the strongest was Cinder and Carswell, then Scarlet and Wolf, and then Kai. Kai's wasn't boring or bad, but his perspective only showed up so much. This is primarily Cinder and Scarlet's story, naturally, but Kai's perspective was necessary to show the political fallout of what was happening with Cinder and Earth's relationship to the Moon. He is not at all a flat character, his internal struggle with what he hopes for with Cinder and the pressure from Levana are definitely the focus of his perspective.
Cinder and Carswell was the strongest to me because of their interactions with each other and what was driving Cinder. Cinder is much more serious than Carswell who is rather devil may care. He annoys her sometimes and he acts haughty, but it is kind of scardy cat at points. It's quite funny. What also interests me about their plotline is just how much we learn about Cinder's past and what Cinder thinks about herself during the course of it. She doesn't want to be the princess, but she sure as Hell doesn't want Kai marrying Levana and a Lunar takeover. Despite the revelation that she is the long lost princess, a fairly common trope in YA, Cinder is unmoored. She isn't sure how to accept that she is Lunar (whether fully or partly is not yet known) for fear that it will end in people's disgust and rejection of her. I will add that I was mostly satisfied with how Meyer detailed Cinder acclimating her Lunar abilities. At first, it felt like she got it immediately and I was disappointed, but as the story progressed, it showed she didn't have a full grasp on it. So, she isn't a Mary Sue who gets her powers right in the first place. Meyer subverted my expectations.
At the end of the book, Cinder is determined to learn her powers and rescue Kai, though she knows that goal is still far off. Also, in general her and Carswell's plotline was fun too. Especially with Iko.
At first, Scarlet and Wolf's plotline did interest me, but after the initially setting off it plateaued for a bit. Not a boring or uninteresting plateau, mind you. Just not too much happened to them aside from Wolf getting into fights with other Lunar, well, wolf guys and Scarlet ruminating about who her grandmother truly was. Also, I did not like that they were already romantically involved like a day after they met. They weren't, like, lovey-dovey, but they were kissing each other. I know the both of them acknowledge how shortly they've known each other, but still that's no excuse. After they got to Paris, their plotline got more interesting and so did they as characters, especially Wolf. I think this was because of the trials and tribulations they were put through, it made them grow as characters. Scarlet grew mostly because of this whereas Wolf's struggle was mostly internal, him figuring his feelings for Scarlet, his loyalty to the pack and the Moon, and him trying to fight his animal nature. The highlight of their plotline was when Scarlet reunited with her grandmother. God, was it sad. And it ended rather violently...before more violence started.
Scarlet takes a dark turn that genuinely made my jaw drop. Like, I did not expect massacre on a global scale. Holy shit! I know a movie of at least Cinder is in development, so I wonder if they do Scarlet as well how the heck are they going to animate this scene.
I really do like the action sequences in this book. They're fun and quick and scratch that itch I've wanted out of sci-fi action sequences.
Another criticism I'll briefly discuss is the political world-building. So, Meyer somehow predicted Brexit and England has it's own representative, it's queen. However, there's one prime minister for all of Europe and one for all of Africa and then for the Americas only the U.S.A. is represented. What is this make up and what does this imply about the set up of these continents and the countries within them? It's a head scratcher.
That aside, Scarlet is just fun. Fun! Besides the massacre scene. Makes me kind of regret I missed on YA back when during the time period when this came out. ...more
After the events of the previous book--which ended with Cinder having a ruckus of a time at a party, getting captured, being revealed as the lost Princess Selene--Scarlet opens with Scarlet Benoit in France. Her grandmother has been missing and the police are useless. No one is taking her seriously, just asking her to deliver goods from her and her grandmother's farm. But the After like four or five years, I have finally read the sequel to Cinder!
After the events of the previous book--which ended with Cinder having a ruckus of a time at a party, getting captured, being revealed as the lost Princess Selene--Scarlet opens with Scarlet Benoit in France. Her grandmother has been missing and the police are useless. No one is taking her seriously, just asking her to deliver goods from her and her grandmother's farm. But then a mysterious young man crosses her path, a man who calls himself Wolf. Meanwhile, Cinder, with her new cyborg attachments, attempts to break out of prison and encounters the charming but grating Carswell Thorne. Together they make a run for it to find Michelle Benoit, whom Cinder was last told was the one who brought her to Earth as a baby. And Emperor Kai is at a crossroads. Queen Levana is getting angrier and wants Cinder found, but he doesn't want to hurt her and can't risk the lives of his people. An adventure of trials awaits our cast.
Whew! I am really glad Marissa Meyer went over things that happened in Cinder because it had been too long for me. I have to admit, I was curious about long this book would last and flow because, although it's been a hot minute, the first book was a little bit slow in a few places from what I remember. To my surprise, Scarlet was very fast paced and I didn't lose any information along the way. The prose is very accessible so I don't think its target teenage audience would have a problem with reading it. What I think this book did best was a good balance between light-heartedness and more serious subject matter, because in terms of the latter this book, to my surprise, did get dark. And violent! Nothing over-the-top, but I certainly wasn't expecting it.
Of the three plots going through this book, I think the strongest was Cinder and Carswell, then Scarlet and Wolf, and then Kai. Kai's wasn't boring or bad, but his perspective only showed up so much. This is primarily Cinder and Scarlet's story, naturally, but Kai's perspective was necessary to show the political fallout of what was happening with Cinder and Earth's relationship to the Moon. He is not at all a flat character, his internal struggle with what he hopes for with Cinder and the pressure from Levana are definitely the focus of his perspective.
Cinder and Carswell was the strongest to me because of their interactions with each other and what was driving Cinder. Cinder is much more serious than Carswell who is rather devil may care. He annoys her sometimes and he acts haughty, but it is kind of scardy cat at points. It's quite funny. What also interests me about their plotline is just how much we learn about Cinder's past and what Cinder thinks about herself during the course of it. She doesn't want to be the princess, but she sure as Hell doesn't want Kai marrying Levana and a Lunar takeover. Despite the revelation that she is the long lost princess, a fairly common trope in YA, Cinder is unmoored. She isn't sure how to accept that she is Lunar (whether fully or partly is not yet known) for fear that it will end in people's disgust and rejection of her. I will add that I was mostly satisfied with how Meyer detailed Cinder acclimating her Lunar abilities. At first, it felt like she got it immediately and I was disappointed, but as the story progressed, it showed she didn't have a full grasp on it. So, she isn't a Mary Sue who gets her powers right in the first place. Meyer subverted my expectations.
At the end of the book, Cinder is determined to learn her powers and rescue Kai, though she knows that goal is still far off. Also, in general her and Carswell's plotline was fun too. Especially with Iko.
At first, Scarlet and Wolf's plotline did interest me, but after the initially setting off it plateaued for a bit. Not a boring or uninteresting plateau, mind you. Just not too much happened to them aside from Wolf getting into fights with other Lunar, well, wolf guys and Scarlet ruminating about who her grandmother truly was. Also, I did not like that they were already romantically involved like a day after they met. They weren't, like, lovey-dovey, but they were kissing each other. I know the both of them acknowledge how shortly they've known each other, but still that's no excuse. After they got to Paris, their plotline got more interesting and so did they as characters, especially Wolf. I think this was because of the trials and tribulations they were put through, it made them grow as characters. Scarlet grew mostly because of this whereas Wolf's struggle was mostly internal, him figuring his feelings for Scarlet, his loyalty to the pack and the Moon, and him trying to fight his animal nature. The highlight of their plotline was when Scarlet reunited with her grandmother. God, was it sad. And it ended rather violently...before more violence started.
Scarlet takes a dark turn that genuinely made my jaw drop. Like, I did not expect massacre on a global scale. Holy shit! I know a movie of at least Cinder is in development, so I wonder if they do Scarlet as well how the heck are they going to animate this scene.
I really do like the action sequences in this book. They're fun and quick and scratch that itch I've wanted out of sci-fi action sequences.
Another criticism I'll briefly discuss is the political world-building. So, Meyer somehow predicted Brexit and England has it's own representative, it's queen. However, there's one prime minister for all of Europe and one for all of Africa and then for the Americas only the U.S.A. is represented. What is this make up and what does this imply about the set up of these continents and the countries within them? It's a head scratcher.
That aside, Scarlet is just fun. Fun! Besides the massacre scene. Makes me kind of regret I missed on YA back when during the time period when this came out. ...more
NICHOLAS’S
2025
BOOKS
it was amazing
it was amazing
really liked it
it was amazing
it was amazing
Nicholas’s last review of the year
it was amazing
Splendid!
Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur's knights. On a Christmas celebration, the Green Knight, a man who, true to his name, is entirely green, interrupts looking for someone to participate in a game. Whoever is strong enough can strike him and in a year's time he can return the motion upon the knight who did so. Gawain volunteers and he chops the green knight's head off with one strike. The green knight, clearly fae or something close to it, Splendid!
Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur's knights. On a Christmas celebration, the Green Knight, a man who, true to his name, is entirely green, interrupts looking for someone to participate in a game. Whoever is strong enough can strike him and in a year's time he can return the motion upon the knight who did so. Gawain volunteers and he chops the green knight's head off with one strike. The green knight, clearly fae or something close to it, picks his head back up and tells Gawain he will see him in a year at the Green Chapel to behead him as well. A year later, Gawain sets out on his journey, but is he really going to do it?
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the oldest and well-known Arthurian stories besides the general central story. You've probably heard it in some form at some point across different media. I remember seeing a play about as a child in school. Side note: I remember they showed the fleshy stump of where the green knight's neck after he was beheaded. It wasn't greatly gory, but I only now realizing I saw a fleshy stump as a child for (if I remember correctly) a children's play. Also, I remember the green knight in that rendition being very aggressive, but upon reading the original poem here he doesn't appear to act like that at all. In fact, he seems quite jovial and happy-go-lucky.
This poem is about a knight, sworn to the ideals of chivalry and bravery (and you could argue manhood) and who is deep down afraid and mad at himself for not embodying those ideals. In the beginning, Gawain is determined to find the Green Chapel and to offer his neck to the green knight, but you can feel a little bit of reluctance in the man. He soon comes upon the manor of Lord Bertilak de Hautdesert--we learn his name at the end of the poem, but it's not big deal to share it early--and his wife. Although Gawain insists that he must journey to the Green Chapel, Bertilak and his wife tell him to stay at their place for the next three days. Gawain refuses a little bit at first, but then accepts.
It is within the manor that real bulk of the story occurs and we get a magnifying glass up to Gawain. He enters another pact, this time with Bertilak who invites him to a game where, for the next three days, whatever he gets while hunting he will give to Gawain and in return Gawain must give whatever he gets to Bertilak. Easy peasy!
We get some descriptions of Bertilak's hunts with his men and I did not expect them to be so gory, but one thing that did stuck out to me was how much more difficult they got with each new day. I'll come back to that in a bit. So, Gawain isn't sure what he can give to Bertilak in return until the lady of the house, in a brief moment where she is away from her attending crone, lavishes him with her love. Being true to chivalry, Gawain doesn't want to commit adultery to her, but he doesn't wish to upset her so he settles on a single kiss which he gives to Bertilak. When Bertilak asks where he got it from, Gawain outright says it wasn't the terms of the pact. Hmmm....
You basically can guess where this goes.
With each new day, Bertilak's hunts get more and more difficult. The first hunt ends with the hounds attacking the deer they're chasing, but then for the last two Bertilak himself has throw himself into the fray. I saw this increasing difficulty as paralleling Gawain's growing anxiety about delaying his arrival to the Green Chapel and his continued fraternization with the lady of the house. No idea if that poet intended that, I could be overthinking it, but it was an interesting thing to observe. With the final kiss, the lady of the house offers Gawain her girdle which he secretly wears beneath his armor to hopefully shield him from the green knight's axe. Here, we see Gawain once again give into fear and he knows how cowardly he's being.
Side note: when Gawain is dressing himself after the last hunt and kiss, the poet briefly says he has shapely hips. Earlier in the book, it is mentioned that Gawain has thicc thighs.
I know what you are, narrator.
Eventually, Gawain finally journeys to the Green Chapel where he encounters the green knight. Nervous, but willingly, Gawain offers his neck out. The green knight and intentionally misses. Then he swings again and gives Gawain the tiniest cut.
Our hero is flummoxed. The green knight reveals that he is Lord Bertilak and he knows about the girdle. Gawain tearfully breaks down and admits his fear, but Bertilak consoles him saying that because of his confession there is nothing to be punished for and nothing to be ashamed off. With one final kiss, they depart. Gawain returns to Camelot, wearing the girdle as a mark of sin and confessing his cowardice, but soon Arthur and all the other knights start wearing such a girdle in honor of Gawain.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight reveals that the true ideals of knighthood and chivalry (and again, perhaps manhood too) can be very difficult to attain, if at all. Gawain is a good person, but he is flawed and recognizes his flaws. If you cannot truly be the best, it still counts that you are trying, and being honest and true while you try is noble. Gawain admits he is weak and attempted to circumnavigate the rules of the pact when the green knight calls him out about the girdle. Yes, he is ashamed of his fear, but he is honest. Would rather have a knight who is fearful, but honest, or a knight who is brave, but full of lies (side eyes Lancelot)?
And that seems to have been the point of all this. The green knight reveals that his wife's crone is actually Morgan le Fay in disguise. She apparently sent the green knight to Camelot to frighten Arthur's wife Guinevere--it didn't work out, it seems--but also to test the loyalty of Arthur's knights.
Okay, here comes another side note about Morgan le Fay here.
In this translation by Simon Armitage, the green knight says Morgan "learned magic from Merlin...for in earlier times she intimately entwined with that knowledgeable man..."
Excuse me...WHAT!?
Morgan...and Merlin...might have actually been lovers in early Arthurian mythos!? I saw crumbs of this when looking through some of the Lancelot-Vulgate texts, but here it is a bit more direct! So I checked out other translations.
Here's Keith Harrison's translation:
"She has mastered magic skills once kept by Merlin,
For it is well known that long ago she fell in love
With that wise wizard..."
Jessie L. Weston's translation:
"T is she, Morgan la Faye, who dwelleth in mine hall,
(Who knoweth many a craft, well versed in cunning wile,
Mistress of Merlin erst..."
James Winny's translation:
"Through the power of Morgan le Fay, who lives under my roof,
And her skill in learning, well taught in magic arts,
She acquired many of Merlin's occult powers--
For she had love-dealings at an earlier time
With that accomplished scholar, as all your knights know
at home."
And, of course,J . R. R. Tolkien's translation:
"by the the might of Morgan le Fay that in my mansion dwelleth,
and by cunning of lore and crafts well learned.
The magic arts of Merlin she many hath mastered;
for deeply in dear love she dealt on a time
with that accomplished clerk..."
Yes, I know this poem isn't about Morgan and Merlin, but hot damn! What a find!
I think it's safe to say why, out all the other knights, Gawain remains so popular in modern popular culture. It's very tough, if at all possible, to be a perfect knight, especially when we as human beings are so flawed. And this seems to be a key theme with the Christian elements of the story.
While journey through the wilds and residing at the manor, it is almost as if Gawain himself has entered another world, a Pagan reversal of the Christian Camelot. What I say here next is mostly drawn from John Gardner's reading of the poem and I think it underscores much of the tone and themes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Gawain's wondering through the forest and staying at the manor mirrors Christ's time in the desert in the Gospel of Luke 4:3-12, the only exception is that Gawain is no savior. And unlike Christ, he falls to sin. In fact, this world is such a reversal of Camelot, that Morgan le Fay is referred to as a goddess by the green knight near the end of the story. She possibly rules over the manor and its denizens--perhaps all of this strange Pagan land--, including the green knight given she commanded him to initially appear at the Christmas celebration, on the day of Christ's celebrated birth no less. Morgan le Fay changed a lot as more Arthurian literature was produced and developed, but in the nascent works she wasn't at at evil or mischievous. But here, Morgan's implied dominion over this Pagan world cements that it is a perversion of the Christian one Gawain came from. A woman who is a goddess, sorceress (or witch or whatever you prefer), and technically a queen rules here is behind the machinations of everything. Kind of like Velka from Dark Souls; if you know, you know.
This revelation of Morgan's plot by the green knight makes Gawain deliver a speech about how women, citing Biblical examples, are the cause of the downfall of men. The speech is misogynistic, certainly, however it always reveals something else about Gawain himself. In his own way, he is kind of admitting he is a failure of a man and a knight. In another metaphysical twist, he is this Pagan world's Eve; he allowed himself to be tempted by the green knight's wife (and perhaps the knight himself, nudge nudge wink wink) and be driven and ruled over by her influence. In the worldview of the medieval times that produced this poem, one could argue that Gawain is a failure of a man or, in a way, has become womanly. Femininity and womanhood were seen as being inferior to masculinity and manhood in those days, especially physically--sadly, this mentality still permeates our world--and if a man so much as showed any sign of vulnerability he could be accused of falling beneath his own sex. Gawain never openly admits he feels this way in the poem, but he does confess his lack of faith to both the green knight and to Arthur's court and feels the shame of it.
However, this again plays into the poem's theme about the lack of perfection and the ideals of chivalry. Gawain is not perfect, though his story and role as a knight imitates Christ who was, he does not reach those heights himself. He has every right to feel ashamed, but he doesn't need to worry as shown by the lords and ladies of the court who celebrate with their own green girdles. He can dust himself off and try again. Confession, not specifically the Catholic sacrament (though it is briefly mentioned) but the act of revealing one's faults, is another common theme in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. One cannot get past their faults if they do not acknowledge them; not necessarily to others, but to also themselves as they might be denying their own faults.
It is appropriate that the poem opens and ends at Christmas, a sign that salvation will be brought to the world once more. Maybe that's why the poet ends with stating that the "Lord, thorn-crowned, brings us perfect peace."
How interesting I finished this a week before Christmas 2025. I hope everyone has a good one and to remember that whether they're an average Joe/Jane/Jay, a knight, a green man, a husband, a wife, a sorceress, or whatever they are, that if you fall you can always get back up and try again.
I hope you all enjoy perfect peace.
Side note: No, I don't remember if the children's play I saw when I was young had Gawain and the green knight kiss. Stop asking me. ...more
Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur's knights. On a Christmas celebration, the Green Knight, a man who, true to his name, is entirely green, interrupts looking for someone to participate in a game. Whoever is strong enough can strike him and in a year's time he can return the motion upon the knight who did so. Gawain volunteers and he chops the green knight's head off with one strike. The green knight, clearly fae or something close to it, Splendid!
Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur's knights. On a Christmas celebration, the Green Knight, a man who, true to his name, is entirely green, interrupts looking for someone to participate in a game. Whoever is strong enough can strike him and in a year's time he can return the motion upon the knight who did so. Gawain volunteers and he chops the green knight's head off with one strike. The green knight, clearly fae or something close to it, picks his head back up and tells Gawain he will see him in a year at the Green Chapel to behead him as well. A year later, Gawain sets out on his journey, but is he really going to do it?
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is one of the oldest and well-known Arthurian stories besides the general central story. You've probably heard it in some form at some point across different media. I remember seeing a play about as a child in school. Side note: I remember they showed the fleshy stump of where the green knight's neck after he was beheaded. It wasn't greatly gory, but I only now realizing I saw a fleshy stump as a child for (if I remember correctly) a children's play. Also, I remember the green knight in that rendition being very aggressive, but upon reading the original poem here he doesn't appear to act like that at all. In fact, he seems quite jovial and happy-go-lucky.
This poem is about a knight, sworn to the ideals of chivalry and bravery (and you could argue manhood) and who is deep down afraid and mad at himself for not embodying those ideals. In the beginning, Gawain is determined to find the Green Chapel and to offer his neck to the green knight, but you can feel a little bit of reluctance in the man. He soon comes upon the manor of Lord Bertilak de Hautdesert--we learn his name at the end of the poem, but it's not big deal to share it early--and his wife. Although Gawain insists that he must journey to the Green Chapel, Bertilak and his wife tell him to stay at their place for the next three days. Gawain refuses a little bit at first, but then accepts.
It is within the manor that real bulk of the story occurs and we get a magnifying glass up to Gawain. He enters another pact, this time with Bertilak who invites him to a game where, for the next three days, whatever he gets while hunting he will give to Gawain and in return Gawain must give whatever he gets to Bertilak. Easy peasy!
We get some descriptions of Bertilak's hunts with his men and I did not expect them to be so gory, but one thing that did stuck out to me was how much more difficult they got with each new day. I'll come back to that in a bit. So, Gawain isn't sure what he can give to Bertilak in return until the lady of the house, in a brief moment where she is away from her attending crone, lavishes him with her love. Being true to chivalry, Gawain doesn't want to commit adultery to her, but he doesn't wish to upset her so he settles on a single kiss which he gives to Bertilak. When Bertilak asks where he got it from, Gawain outright says it wasn't the terms of the pact. Hmmm....
You basically can guess where this goes.
With each new day, Bertilak's hunts get more and more difficult. The first hunt ends with the hounds attacking the deer they're chasing, but then for the last two Bertilak himself has throw himself into the fray. I saw this increasing difficulty as paralleling Gawain's growing anxiety about delaying his arrival to the Green Chapel and his continued fraternization with the lady of the house. No idea if that poet intended that, I could be overthinking it, but it was an interesting thing to observe. With the final kiss, the lady of the house offers Gawain her girdle which he secretly wears beneath his armor to hopefully shield him from the green knight's axe. Here, we see Gawain once again give into fear and he knows how cowardly he's being.
Side note: when Gawain is dressing himself after the last hunt and kiss, the poet briefly says he has shapely hips. Earlier in the book, it is mentioned that Gawain has thicc thighs.
I know what you are, narrator.
Eventually, Gawain finally journeys to the Green Chapel where he encounters the green knight. Nervous, but willingly, Gawain offers his neck out. The green knight and intentionally misses. Then he swings again and gives Gawain the tiniest cut.
Our hero is flummoxed. The green knight reveals that he is Lord Bertilak and he knows about the girdle. Gawain tearfully breaks down and admits his fear, but Bertilak consoles him saying that because of his confession there is nothing to be punished for and nothing to be ashamed off. With one final kiss, they depart. Gawain returns to Camelot, wearing the girdle as a mark of sin and confessing his cowardice, but soon Arthur and all the other knights start wearing such a girdle in honor of Gawain.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight reveals that the true ideals of knighthood and chivalry (and again, perhaps manhood too) can be very difficult to attain, if at all. Gawain is a good person, but he is flawed and recognizes his flaws. If you cannot truly be the best, it still counts that you are trying, and being honest and true while you try is noble. Gawain admits he is weak and attempted to circumnavigate the rules of the pact when the green knight calls him out about the girdle. Yes, he is ashamed of his fear, but he is honest. Would rather have a knight who is fearful, but honest, or a knight who is brave, but full of lies (side eyes Lancelot)?
And that seems to have been the point of all this. The green knight reveals that his wife's crone is actually Morgan le Fay in disguise. She apparently sent the green knight to Camelot to frighten Arthur's wife Guinevere--it didn't work out, it seems--but also to test the loyalty of Arthur's knights.
Okay, here comes another side note about Morgan le Fay here.
In this translation by Simon Armitage, the green knight says Morgan "learned magic from Merlin...for in earlier times she intimately entwined with that knowledgeable man..."
Excuse me...WHAT!?
Morgan...and Merlin...might have actually been lovers in early Arthurian mythos!? I saw crumbs of this when looking through some of the Lancelot-Vulgate texts, but here it is a bit more direct! So I checked out other translations.
Here's Keith Harrison's translation:
"She has mastered magic skills once kept by Merlin,
For it is well known that long ago she fell in love
With that wise wizard..."
Jessie L. Weston's translation:
"T is she, Morgan la Faye, who dwelleth in mine hall,
(Who knoweth many a craft, well versed in cunning wile,
Mistress of Merlin erst..."
James Winny's translation:
"Through the power of Morgan le Fay, who lives under my roof,
And her skill in learning, well taught in magic arts,
She acquired many of Merlin's occult powers--
For she had love-dealings at an earlier time
With that accomplished scholar, as all your knights know
at home."
And, of course,J . R. R. Tolkien's translation:
"by the the might of Morgan le Fay that in my mansion dwelleth,
and by cunning of lore and crafts well learned.
The magic arts of Merlin she many hath mastered;
for deeply in dear love she dealt on a time
with that accomplished clerk..."
Yes, I know this poem isn't about Morgan and Merlin, but hot damn! What a find!
I think it's safe to say why, out all the other knights, Gawain remains so popular in modern popular culture. It's very tough, if at all possible, to be a perfect knight, especially when we as human beings are so flawed. And this seems to be a key theme with the Christian elements of the story.
While journey through the wilds and residing at the manor, it is almost as if Gawain himself has entered another world, a Pagan reversal of the Christian Camelot. What I say here next is mostly drawn from John Gardner's reading of the poem and I think it underscores much of the tone and themes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Gawain's wondering through the forest and staying at the manor mirrors Christ's time in the desert in the Gospel of Luke 4:3-12, the only exception is that Gawain is no savior. And unlike Christ, he falls to sin. In fact, this world is such a reversal of Camelot, that Morgan le Fay is referred to as a goddess by the green knight near the end of the story. She possibly rules over the manor and its denizens--perhaps all of this strange Pagan land--, including the green knight given she commanded him to initially appear at the Christmas celebration, on the day of Christ's celebrated birth no less. Morgan le Fay changed a lot as more Arthurian literature was produced and developed, but in the nascent works she wasn't at at evil or mischievous. But here, Morgan's implied dominion over this Pagan world cements that it is a perversion of the Christian one Gawain came from. A woman who is a goddess, sorceress (or witch or whatever you prefer), and technically a queen rules here is behind the machinations of everything. Kind of like Velka from Dark Souls; if you know, you know.
This revelation of Morgan's plot by the green knight makes Gawain deliver a speech about how women, citing Biblical examples, are the cause of the downfall of men. The speech is misogynistic, certainly, however it always reveals something else about Gawain himself. In his own way, he is kind of admitting he is a failure of a man and a knight. In another metaphysical twist, he is this Pagan world's Eve; he allowed himself to be tempted by the green knight's wife (and perhaps the knight himself, nudge nudge wink wink) and be driven and ruled over by her influence. In the worldview of the medieval times that produced this poem, one could argue that Gawain is a failure of a man or, in a way, has become womanly. Femininity and womanhood were seen as being inferior to masculinity and manhood in those days, especially physically--sadly, this mentality still permeates our world--and if a man so much as showed any sign of vulnerability he could be accused of falling beneath his own sex. Gawain never openly admits he feels this way in the poem, but he does confess his lack of faith to both the green knight and to Arthur's court and feels the shame of it.
However, this again plays into the poem's theme about the lack of perfection and the ideals of chivalry. Gawain is not perfect, though his story and role as a knight imitates Christ who was, he does not reach those heights himself. He has every right to feel ashamed, but he doesn't need to worry as shown by the lords and ladies of the court who celebrate with their own green girdles. He can dust himself off and try again. Confession, not specifically the Catholic sacrament (though it is briefly mentioned) but the act of revealing one's faults, is another common theme in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. One cannot get past their faults if they do not acknowledge them; not necessarily to others, but to also themselves as they might be denying their own faults.
It is appropriate that the poem opens and ends at Christmas, a sign that salvation will be brought to the world once more. Maybe that's why the poet ends with stating that the "Lord, thorn-crowned, brings us perfect peace."
How interesting I finished this a week before Christmas 2025. I hope everyone has a good one and to remember that whether they're an average Joe/Jane/Jay, a knight, a green man, a husband, a wife, a sorceress, or whatever they are, that if you fall you can always get back up and try again.
I hope you all enjoy perfect peace.
Side note: No, I don't remember if the children's play I saw when I was young had Gawain and the green knight kiss. Stop asking me. ...more
What did you read this year?