For Thursday: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Parts I-II (pp.23-66)

* Why do you think the poem begins with a brief historical narrative connecting Britain to ancient Rome? Specifically, it claims that Aeneas, who escaped the Trojan War and founded Rome, one of his men, Brutus, extended the empire north. Why begin the poem like this? What is the poet trying to accomplish? 

* How is the court of Camelot described/characterized by the poet? What kind of place is it? How might it compare to Hrothgar's hall in Beowulf? Is the Green Knight sent there as a punishment for their 'sins'? Or a test? Can we tell? 

* Each stanza ends in a "bob and wheel," which is a poetic device that begins with a two-syllable "bob," and then features four lines (in different rhythms) that function as a kind of refrain or poetic echo of the stanza. What is the effect of using this at the end of every single stanza? How does this change the poem from a more narrative work like Beowulf that doesn't call attention to itself as poetry? 

* Look closely at Stanzas 7-10: why does the poet spend so much time—almost two entire pages—just describing him? What might he want us to see/understand about his appearance in the hall? What kind of 'man' is he? Is he like Grendel, a monster "in the shape of a man," or a man who merely resembles a monster? 

* According to the poem, why does the Green Knight come to challenge Arthur and his court? By barging in like this (and on a horse, no less), he’s breaking the laws of chivalry and being quite disrespectful. What would make him act so flagrantly toward the greatest king in the land?

* Unlike Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is very conscious of nature: we always know what season it is, and the poem indulges in poetic descriptions of Gawain's travels. Why is this? What effect does this have on the poem, that it has a "place" rather than just a "setting"?