Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - A Pagan Initiation? (British Folklore and Mythology) 

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On New Years Eve, amid the Christmas celebrations at Camelot,the Green Knight walked into King Arthur's Court offering a challenge.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a fourteenth century chivalric romance from an unknown author. Part of the tangled web of Arthurian Mythology known as 'The Matter of Britain'.
On the surface, this is a Christian tale, but beneath the surface lie pagan bones with many echoes from earlier Celtic folklore from Ireland and Wales.
The Green Knight himself seems a relic from an earlier time, a primordial being, related to the Green Man of medieval folklore and even Yama, the God of Death from India. As well as clearly the natural world itself and the regenerative force of nature.
There are contemporary parallels too, with a clear ecological theme to the myth, and humanist dimensions too.
I will tell the story, then go into a few of the associations.