Abstract

Critical assessment of the Arthurian court in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has ranged from censure to exculpation, with the court’s origins, Arthur’s character, Gawain’s confession, and the court’s laughter variously taken to have great hermeneutical importance. I propose that Gawain’s transformation of the green girdle into a sign of shame, and the court’s reversal of that signification through adoption, compares well with Julian of Norwich’s heavenly vision of “tokyns of synne turnyd to worshyppe.” Approaching the poem by means of Julian’s contemporary, optimistic theology reveals the romance also to be optimistic, a story more of felix culpa than culpa mea.