Sir Gawain part 2 and 3

This past week we had to read Sir Gawain part 2 and 3. In part 2, it is almost Christmas and almost the time for Gawain to meet up with the Green Knight to complete their covenant. Gawain sets off to find the Green Knight and encounters many enemies like wolves, dragons and bulls. This part of the story reminded me of Beowulf because Beowulf also fought a dragon and other "stronger" enemies. Unlike Gawain, Beowulf died while defeating the dragon which can be contrasted to Gawain because he survived. I think that Gawain has to be more than average strong because you need to be very strong and courageous to fight a dragon. I think that Gawain is strong like Beowulf, but unlike Beowulf, he doesn't brag about his awesomeness and it could have something to do with Gawain's culture and values. I think of knights as being modest and humble men that would be frowned upon if they acted inappropriately. I like the fact that Gawain doesn't boast about his awesomeness when the Green Knight rode into the Camelot the previous year and I think that many of my classmates also liked that he didn't brag about himself because we had a discussion at the beginning of the semester about Beowulf and how some students didn't classify him as a superhero because he was cocky. I find it weird how Gawain prays in the wilderness for a place to pray because it is Christmas eve and when he looks up there is a castle and he ends up going inside of it, which I think is unreasonable because I don't know who would go into a castle that appeared out of thin air. It seems as if Gawain was under a spell or blinded somehow because castles don't appear out of nowhere, maybe the cold had impacted his ability to think clear because in the story they say that he almost froze to death.I don't know why Gawain keeps playing "games" with people he doesn't know because he is going to play a game with the host of the castle and it seems very strange because it involves exchanging things that they received throughout the day while Gawain is at the castle with the host's wife and while the host is out hunting. I think that the covenants are tests to see if Gawain is a true knight and truthful because the covenants test his five knightly virtues; friendship, generosity, courtesy, chastity, and piety.

In part 3 Gawain spends three days with the hosts wife at the castle and the host spends three days hunting animals and exchanging them with Gawain for whatever he received at the castle. The host's wife continuously tries to persuade Gawain to sleep with her, thus testing his knightly virtues, chastity and generosity because Gawain can't really say no to a woman of higher rank to her and he also doesn't want to commit adultery. That is another reason why i think that both of Gawain's covenants or games are really tests being done by someone that he knows and is trying to make him a better person by doing so.  I also found it interesting that Gawain doesn't mention to the host on the third day the girdle that the host's wife gave him and after she does Gawain goes and confesses his sins because he wasn't truthful to the host about everything he received that day as an effort to avoid being killed by the Green Knight the next day because the girdle supposedly protects him from danger.

word count: 597