The Green Knight | Movies based on Classic Literature

 The Green Knight | Movies based on Classic Literature

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The Old English Literature is making sweet sounds again with David Lorey’s directorial The Green Knight, an American movie. The plot is based on the epic poem Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire fame has played the role of Sir Gawain while Sarita Choudhary, the Queen of Kama Sutra: A Love Story, or Mina of Mississippi Masala has played the part of Morgan Le Fay, step-sister of King Arthur and Mother to Sir Gawain. Ralph Ineson has played the part of the Green Knight.

Movies Based on Classic Literature

Often filmmakers use classic literature to present the age-old stories suitably changed to present them with a modern look. Many Shakespearean dramas have been turned into movies and most of them proved to be enormously successful. Heath Ledger’s 10 Things I Hate About You was based on The Taming of the Shrew. It was released in 1999. While some minute changes and differences in the original and modern stories appear to be necessary, sometimes filmmakers introduce some bizarre changes in the original plot. One such bizarre change was made in the story of Romeo and Juliet, another romantic comedy by Shakespeare in 2013 when Nicholas Hault and Teressa Palmer's Warm Bodies was released. Warm Bodies tells the same classic story of Romeo and Juliet albeit the modern Romeo is a half-dead zombie and the modern Julliet is a living human who has vowed to kill as many zombies as she can. Unlike other zombie movies, Warm Bodies have a nice happy ending. She’s the Man (2006) was a nice depiction of The Twelfth Knight by Shakespeare.

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion inspired Audrey Hepburn’s My Fair Lady and Dev Anand’s Man Pasand. Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice has been filmed many times and the recent rendition was Bridget Jone’s Diary, released in 2001. Jane Austin’s Emma inspired the film Clueless which was released in 1995. As a surprise, Charle’s Dickinson’s A Tale of Two Cities has a big influence on the movie Batman The Dark Knight Rises which was released in 2012.

While Shakespearean Romance has remained the favorite of filmmakers around the globe, stories of the Old English and Middle English periods have also gained enough attention. In 2001, A Knight’s Tale was released which, as the title suggests, was based on the first story of Sir Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic The Canterbury Tales. Heath Ledger was again the star of The Knight’s Tale. Interestingly, the movie also had the character of Geoffrey Chaucer played by Paul Bettany. So Geoffrey Chaucer of 2001 observes the happenings in the movie and then decides to pen the story down for his collection The Canterbury Tales.

The Old English Stories

Sir J.R.R. Tolkein’s research and translation of old English literature brought a new life to the age-old marvelous mythical stories of Beowulf and Sir Gawain. He translated Beowulf, Pearl, Purity, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien was very much influenced by the Norse mythologies and old English epic poems and this influence are largely visible in his epic novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Filmmakers couldn’t keep away from these fantasy stories set in the age-old English period for long and in 2001, Peter Jackson began his tri-series The Lord of the Rings with the first installment titled The Fellowship of the Ring. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, both show the influences of Beowulf and Sir Gawain. The depiction of the dragon in The Hobbit is specifically influenced by the dragon encountered by Beowulf.

Sir Gawain’s chivalric romance has also been revised as feature films and television series several times. In 1984, Sword of the Valiant was released in which Miles O’Keefe played the role of Sir Gawain while Sean Connery played the part of the Green Knight. The recent addition to the list of adaptations is Dev Patel’s The Green Knight.

Gawain Poet’s Story

Sir Gawain and The Green Knight was written by an anonymous writer during the 14^th century. We do not know much about the writer except that he was a contemporary of Chaucer but unlike him, the Gawain poet or better known as the Pearl poet chose to write in West Saxon Dialect. Chaucer preferred the London dialect and always promoted it. The poem is a long epic with 25,00 lines written in alliterative style using internal rhyme. The poem follows the Bob and the Wheel metrical pattern where each stanza ends with a short half-line having only two syllables (Bob). This short half-line is followed by a mini-stanza of longer lines in internal rhyming (Wheel).

The poem tells an Arthurian tale and begins in Camelot on New Year’s Eve where King Arthur is enjoying a feast with his wife Queen Guinevere and his brave knights. The youngest knight in King Arthur’s court is Sir Gawain who is his nephew too. His mother is Morgan Le Fay, the step-sister of King Arthur who is a benevolent enchantress. Morgan is suspicious of Queen Guinevere and she decides to play a trick on her. While King Arthur and his knights are enjoying the feast, a mysterious strong personality appears in Camelot. This mysterious person is wearing all green cloth and his skin and hair are also green and he is riding a green horse. He greets everyone and introduces himself as the Green Knight. All the knights of Camelot get anxious as they have heard the rumors that the Green Knight is immortal, someone who cannot be killed. The green knight claims that he has no wrong intentions but he came to greet King Arthur and his brave knights and proposes a friendly game. The Green Knight wears no badge no armor but has an impressive strong ax in his one hand. He challenges the knights of Camelot to strike his head once with his ax on a condition that the green knight will return the strike after the completion of one year and one day. Nobody is ready to take the challenge as they know that the Green Knight cannot be killed. King Arthur rises and decides to take the challenge himself but Sir Gawain, the youngest of them all interrupts him and demands that this honor should be given to him. Sir Gawain takes the marvelous ax of Green Knight and strikes his neck with it. Green Knight’s head falls on the floor but he doesn’t die. His remaining body picks up the head and he departs from the court while reminding Sir Gawain that he will have to take the strike back, after one year and one day.

While everyone praises Sir Gawain for his bravery, he is a little pensive as he now knows that after one year and one day, he will have to take the strike back on his neck and unlike the Green Knight, he will surely die.

As the end of the year reaches near, Sir Gawain decides to seek the Green Knight to take the strike back. First, he is robbed by scavengers during the travel. Then he meets a beautiful lady whom he saves from the robbers. The voluptuous lady takes him to her husband Sir Bertilak’s castle. At the castle, Sir Gawain sees an old and ugly woman. Despite her ugliness, everyone in the castle treats her with the utmost respect. Sir Gawain feels that he knows that old ugly woman but he fails to remember anything about her. Sir Gawain meets the husband of that beautiful lady and informs him about his intentions to seek the Green Chapel where he may meet the Green Knight to take his strike back. Sir Bertilak praises Sir Gawain and his intention to fulfill his promise. He informs him that the Green Chapel is only two miles away from his castle.

Sir Bertilak greets Sir Gawain and offers a strange deal. Bertilak says that Sir Gawain can use his castle and enjoy his remaining time with all possible amenities. Furthermore, Bertilak will share whatever he gains from his hard work during the day with Sir Gawain but in return, Sir Gawain will also have to give half of whatever he gets during the day. Sir Gawain agrees.

The next day, when Bertilak goes out to hunt, his wife approaches Sir Gawain and tries to seduce him. She owns an extremely beautiful voluptuous body but Sir Gawain is determined not to fall prey. Yet, Gawain couldn’t afford to make her angry so he offers her a mere kiss. Her husband returns at night and offers a dead deer to Sir Gawain that he hunted. In return, Sir Gawain kisses him too because that was all he earned during the day. The next day, Bertilak’s wife again tries to seduce Sir Gawain and she fails again. She offers him a magical ring with a golden red stone. She says that Gawain should take that ring as it will keep him safe against any imminent danger. However, Sir Gawain refuses to take the ring but agreed to offer her two kisses.

Her husband returns at night and he offers a wild boar to Sir Gawain. Sir Gawain offers him two kisses that he earned during the day. Meanwhile, the end of the year is very near and Sir Gawain is too worried about the Green Knight’s strike and his imminent death. The next day, Bertilak’s wife again approaches Gawain and furiously tries to seduce him but fails again. At last, she says that she admires the character of Sir Gawain and doesn’t want any harm to him. She offers him a girdle and says that it will protect him against the Green Knight’s strike.

Sir Gawain is too much afraid of death and he falls this time. He takes the girdle. The lady says that he should hide that girdle from her husband otherwise he will have to give it to him. At night, when Bertilak returns, he offers Gawain a dead fox that he killed during the day. Gawain hides the girdle but offers him three kisses, suggesting that he earned all that he earned during the day.

The next day is the last for Gawain. He decides to go to the Green Chapel to encounter the Green Knight. When he reaches there, he bows his head to take the strike from the Green Knight. When the Green Knight strikes at his neck, Sir Gawain flinches away out of fear. The Green Knight laughs at him. Ashamed, Sir Gawain bows his head again and says he won't move away again. The Green Knights start to take the strike but don’t strike Sir Gawain for a while. When puzzled Sir Gawain questions him, he laughs again and says he was just testing him. The Green Knight strikes Sir Gawain's neck for the third time but his ax fails to behead him, leaving a mark of strike on his neck. The magical green girdle saved the life of Sir Gawain. The cloud thunders and the Green Knight changes his appearance at the same time. Sir Gawain comes to know that the Green Knight is none else but Bertilak, the lord of the castle where he took rest. Bertilak informs him that it was all a test to check his bravery. He informs him that this test was set by Sir Gawain’s own mother Morgan Le Fay. Sir Gawain then realizes that the old ugly lady he witnessed at Bertilak’s castle resembled his mother, though his mother is very beautiful but in disguise.

Sir Gawain is ashamed for the treachery he committed and informs Bertilak how his wife tried to seduce him and how she offered him the magical girdle that saved his life. Bertilak laughs at this revelation and informs Sir Gawain that he already knows all of it. He announces that Sir Gawain is still the most honest and bravest knight of King Arthur despite his weaknesses.

Sir Gawain is still not convinced and he decides to keep the girdle bound on his waist forever to keep reminding him about his weaknesses. He returns to Camelot and informs King Arthur about his experiences. King Arthur and the other knights praise him and all the knights decide to wear a green girdle on their waist just like Sir Gawain does.

As one can see, this epic poem is full of magic, awesome scenery, dreadful actions, and enchanting mysteries. The Indian film industry is also engaged in producing a depiction of epic Mahabharata in which Deepika Padukon is playing the part of Draupadi and Hrithik Roshan is set to play the role of Karna while Amir Khan is set to play the role of Shri Krishna. Let’s hope that this Bollywood project will do justice to the epic story of Mahabharata.

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