The subject of this paper is the Gawain poet and his monumental poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The concern will not be with the poet's identity or social rank, but will instead be with his motives. In some places this paper will appear to work backwards, assuming that since a certain effect was achieved, it must have been intended, but that is not an uncommon assumption in literary criticism.
Entertainment value will be stressed not because Sir Gawain is exclusively entertainment, but because the primary purpose of the author was to entertain, as a sermon may be entertaining but is, nonetheless, primarily homiletic.
Byway of clarification, the primary text referred to in this paper will be Sir Gawain and the Green Knight edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, second edition revised by Norman Davis (1967). The divisions referred to in the paper, however, will be the nine original manuscript divisions, signified by large capital letters (see appendix), not the four usually accepted, arbitrary divisions of Sir Frederic Madden.
","abstract_html":"<p>The subject of this paper is the Gawain poet and his monumental poem <em>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</em>. The concern will not be with the poet's identity or social rank, but will instead be with his motives. In some places this paper will appear to work backwards, assuming that since a certain effect was achieved, it must have been intended, but that is not an uncommon assumption in literary criticism.</p> <p>Entertainment value will be stressed not because <em>Sir Gawain</em> is exclusively entertainment, but because the primary purpose of the author was to entertain, as a sermon may be entertaining but is, nonetheless, primarily homiletic.</p> <p>Byway of clarification, the primary text referred to in this paper will be S<em>ir Gawain and the Green Knight</em> edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, second edition revised by Norman Davis (1967). The divisions referred to in the paper, however, will be the nine original manuscript divisions, signified by large capital letters (see appendix), not the four usually accepted, arbitrary divisions of Sir Frederic Madden.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Kabanuk, Gregory"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Grosvenor R. Fattic","Richard B. Lewis","Robert P. Dunn"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1982,"date_issued":"1982-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"1982-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:52:52Z","subjects":["Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory","Other Classics","Poetry","Gawain and the Grene Knight."],"languages":["English"],"rights":["This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/1059","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Grosvenor R. Fattic","Richard B. Lewis","Robert P. Dunn"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Kabanuk, Gregory"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory","Other Classics","Poetry","Gawain and the Grene Knight."]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/1059"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The subject of this paper is the Gawain poet and his monumental poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The concern will not be with the poet's identity or social rank, but will instead be with his motives. In some places this paper will appear to work backwards, assuming that since a certain effect was achieved, it must have been intended, but that is not an uncommon assumption in literary criticism.
Entertainment value will be stressed not because Sir Gawain is exclusively entertainment, but because the primary purpose of the author was to entertain, as a sermon may be entertaining but is, nonetheless, primarily homiletic.
Byway of clarification, the primary text referred to in this paper will be Sir Gawain and the Green Knight edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, second edition revised by Norman Davis (1967). The divisions referred to in the paper, however, will be the nine original manuscript divisions, signified by large capital letters (see appendix), not the four usually accepted, arbitrary divisions of Sir Frederic Madden.
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Entertainment value will be stressed not because Sir Gawain is exclusively entertainment, but because the primary purpose of the author was to entertain, as a sermon may be entertaining but is, nonetheless, primarily homiletic.
Byway of clarification, the primary text referred to in this paper will be Sir Gawain and the Green Knight edited by J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, second edition revised by Norman Davis (1967). The divisions referred to in the paper, however, will be the nine original manuscript divisions, signified by large capital letters (see appendix), not the four usually accepted, arbitrary divisions of Sir Frederic Madden.
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