A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
On 23rd October 1731, fire broke out in Westminster at the home of the greatest collection of
manuscripts in Britain. The terrified librarian Dr Bentley fled into the street clutching the most
precious of the many irreplaceable manuscripts. This library had been amassed by Sir Robert
Cotton in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and contained a wealth of books, many of which
had originally been owned by the great English monasteries before their dissolution. A bust of a
Roman emperor surmounted each bookcase in the Cotton Library and it was with reference to
these busts that the manuscripts were catalogued. Many priceless manuscripts were lost in the
fire, but those that survived became part of the founding collection of the British Library.
One of the manuscripts that narrowly escaped the fire is known to scholars as Cotton Nero A.x.
It was the tenth manuscript on shelf ‘A’ of the bookcase in Cotton’s library beneath the bust of
Nero. It contains four poems written in a northern Middle English dialect. The survival of the
manuscript was extremely fortuitous, as two of the four poems that it contains are acknowledged
jewels of late medieval literature. All four poems are known solely from this single manuscript,
so their survival was very close run.
The four poems are not named in the manuscript, but they are known today as: Pearl, Cleanness,
Patience and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. All four poems are written in the same dialect,
and there are other similarities as well, so most commentators believe that they were the work of
a single anonymous northern poet who wrote during the second half of the 14th century. There
was a resurgence of English literature at this time, partly because English had become the native
language of the aristocracy. Since the Norman Conquest the aristocratic overlords of England
had spoken Norman French, but in the 1360s English became the official language of the courts
and parliament. The new-found status of the language led to a patronage of verse in the
vernacular and a flowering of English literature in the later years of the century. The greatest
English poetry of this era was produced by William Langland, author of Piers Plowman, John
Gower, author of Confessio Amantis and Geoffrey Chaucer, author of Troilus and Crysede and
The Canterbury Tales. But the poems of the manuscript Cotton Nero A.x are considered to be
on a par with the greatest works of these authors. Pearl and Sir Gawain, certainly rank amongst
the most outstanding works of Middle English literature and Sir Gawain is arguably the greatest
English poem of the age. In this one document we have the work of one of the nation’s greatest
poets, but the identity of this author is completely unknown.
A new analysis of Sir Gawain has enabled the present author to identify the patron of the poem
and the site where the drama of the poem unfolds. The name of the poet remains a mystery, but a
solution may be within reach if the argument presented here is correct.
Sir Gawain – the language
Sir Gawain is a truly remarkable piece of literature that deserves to be far better known. It is a
very polished composition and clearly the work of a mature and accomplished poet. The tale
blends the chivalry of the Arthurian court with folk elements that suggest pre-Christian fertility
rites. Like all good poetry, the verse has many layers of meaning and the poetry is rich and
evocative. The story is also captivating from start to finish, every line has been chosen with care.
The poem is enthralling and in places it is also humorous. The poetry of the Gawain-poet is as
sophisticated as Chaucer’s, but the style is very different. Most of the lines of Sir Gawain are
alliterative. This means that in each line there is a repetition of the stressed consonants, which
usually occur as the first letters of the most significant words in the line. For instance, the
following is a typical line of the poem, with modernized spelling:
After the season of summer, with the soft winds
Alliterative poetry may at first sound unfamiliar to the modern reader, but it had a long tradition
dating back to Anglo-Saxon verse and beyond to the oral tradition of the northern European
bards. Epics, such as Beowulf, were written in alliterative verse many centuries before the time
of the Gawain-poet. The onomatopaeic potential of alliteration is used to great effect in Sir
Gawain, bringing a vivid colour to each scene, as in the line above which evokes a calm
summer’s day with a gently billowing breeze. It is clear that the poem was written to be recited.
A dramatic auditory performance would reveal the full power of the poetry. But this was normal
in the Middle Ages. There exists a painting of Chaucer reading to the court including Richard II.
Solitary reading to oneself in private would have been unusual.
The poetry of the Gawain-poet is not as well known as Chaucer and there is no denying that it
takes more effort on the part of a modern reader. The main reason for this is that, whereas
Chaucer’s dialect was that of the capital and has evolved into modern English, the Gawain-poet
wrote in a regional dialect. Long ago experts in Middle English, such as J. R. R. Tolkien, located
this dialect to the northwest Midlands of England, the area of Cheshire, Staffordshire and
Derbyshire. One of the charms of reading the poem is that it is a bit like deciphering a huge
cryptic puzzle. Most of the words have modern equivalents, but with an unusual pronunciation
and often with a strange and inconsistent spelling. Some words, including gradely, fettle, nobut
(nothing but), are now unknown outside northern dialects. Other words survive as features in the
landscape, such as scout, meaning mountain, which is preserved in the name of the highest hill in
the Peak District, Kinder Scout, frith, meaning wood, is still found in many names, such as the
town Chapel-en-le-Frith, lawe or low, which means mound is still used in many places, such as
the stone circle Arbor Low in Derbyshire. Other words are well known from Old English,
Middle English or Shakespearean literature, such as welkin – sky, worm – dragon. And yet others
have survived in modern German, but not modern English. For instance, frayn, which in German
is fragen, “to ask”, and hals, which is German for “neck”. And there are yet other words, such as
the technical terms describing Gawain’s armour, or the hunting scenes that require a glossary or
commentary from an expert in Middle English.
To read a line of Sir Gawain, we must proceed in several steps. First, the manuscript contains a
number of shorthand abbreviations that must be expanded. It also uses three letters that no longer
exist in modern English. These are the letters thorn, þ, yogh, ʒ, and ash, æ. For instance, the first
line, as transcribed by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, is:
The letters can be modernized to give the following line:
Sithen the sege and the assaut watz sesed at Troye
We can then modernize the spelling to give:
Sithen the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
2
And then translate any obsolete or dialect words into modern English and we finally arrive at:
Since the siege and the assault was ceased at Troy
Simon Armitage in his alliterative modern translation gives the opening line as:
Once the siege and assault of Troy had ceased
Before seeking the origin of the poem, a quick run through the plot will set the scene.
Outline of the Story
It is New Year and the court at Camelot is in the middle of their fifteen-day Yuletide
celebrations. King Arthur and his knights are about to tuck in to their New Year’s feast when
Arthur declares that he will not eat until he has heard a fabulous tale or seen a strange marvel.
Right on cue a knight enters Arthur’s hall. The mysterious knight has long green hair that flows
into his great green beard and down to his belt. He is clothed in green and sits on a handsome
green horse. The huge knight holds a branch of holly in one hand and a mighty axe in the other.
He proceeds to issue a challenge to the knights of Arthur’s court. He will allow one of them to
strike off his head with the axe and in exchange he will return a similar blow to them. The
knights remain seated, reluctant to take up the strange request. Arthur, himself, is about to
perform the feat when Gawain gallantly steps forward to take the king’s place. He raises the axe
and severs the green knight’s head from his body. The green knight then retrieves his head from
the floor and, holding it by the hair, he issues his challenge to Sir Gawain that he will be waiting
for him at the Green Chapel in a year’s time, and that Gawain must find the Green Chapel and
receive his return blow. The green knight then leaves, and the astonished knights hang up the axe
on the wall and carry on with their New Year’s banquet.
The year passes and as the winter arrives Gawain anxiously prepares for his journey in search of
the Green Chapel. He travels through North Wales and into England and in the depths of winter
arrives in a rugged snow covered landscape. Just as he is wearying of his journey, on Christmas
Eve he arrives at a beautiful castle. He is welcomed inside and joins in the Christmas festivities.
For four days the partying continues; then the guests leave. Gawain is about to take his leave, but
the Lord of the Castle asks him to stay. Gawain explains that he must find the Green Chapel by
New Year’s Day, if he is to keep his word. The Lord of the Castle replies that it is less than two
miles away and that he will send a guide with Gawain, so he can safely stay for another three
days. Gawain agrees, and then the Lord suggests that they should make a bargain. They should
exchange what they win each day and, while the Lord goes out hunting with his men, Gawain
should stay at the castle and lie in late, as he must be exhausted with all his travels and the
Christmas revelry. Gawain agrees and goes off to bed.
In the morning the Lord rises early and goes off hunting deer in the rough icy terrain around the
castle. Meanwhile, the Lady of the Castle creeps into Gawain’s room and while Gawain is still in
bed she banters with him seductively and offers herself to him. Gawain resists all temptations,
but agrees to kiss her, as she persuades him that it is the chivalrous thing to do. In the evening
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
3
when the Lord returns he gives Gawain all the venison that he has caught during the day and
Gawain gives him the kiss in return. The following day, the same bargain is struck. Gawain
receives two kisses from the Lady and the Lord succeeds in killing a wild boar, which he
exchanges with Gawain when he returns to the castle. On the third day, while the Lord is out
hunting a fox, the Lady wants to exchange a love token with Gawain. She offers Gawain a ring,
but he declines it because it is valuable. Then she offers him her green girdle. Gawain again
refuses it, but she tells him that it has magical powers. Whoever wears it cannot come to any
harm if someone tries to kill him. Gawain realises that this may come in handy when he faces the
Green Knight, so he accepts and agrees not to mention it to the Lord. The Lady also kisses
Gawain three times during her visit to his bedroom. When the Lord returns, Gawain gives him
three kisses and in exchange the Lord gives him the coat of the fox that he has captured.
The following morning, after wrapping the green girdle around his waist under his armour,
Gawain sets off with his guide for the Green Chapel. He is taken through the rugged cliffs in the
neighbourhood until his guide tries to persuade him to turn back. Gawain says that he must go on
and proceeds alone. Eventually, Gawain finds a cave in a gorge that is overgrown with grass and
realises that this devilish place must be the Green Chapel. He hears the noise of an axe being
sharpened in the undergrowth on the other side of the gorge. Then the Green Knight appears,
hops over a fast-running stream and confronts Gawain. Gawain bares his neck to receive the
chop and the Green Knight swings his axe. But Gawain shrinks away and the Green Knight halts
his stroke. Gawain steadies himself and says that this time he won’t flinch. The Green Knight
takes a second stroke, but again stops before hitting Gawain’s neck. He says that as Gawain is
now ready, he will finally deliver the blow. The third stroke of the axe just nicks Gawain’s neck
and as the blood falls from the cut, he jumps up, thrusts his shield in front of him and tells the
Green Knight that he has now accepted the return blow and if he attempts another, then Gawain
will certainly defend himself. The Green Knight now explains that he is the Lord of the Castle
and because Gawain was honest on the first two days when they had made their agreement, he
had left him unscathed with his first two blows, but because on the third day Gawain kept the
present of the green girdle secret he nicked him with his third blow. However, he didn’t remove
Gawain’s head because Gawain’s dishonesty was not due to greed or lust, but simply because he
wanted to save his life, which is understandable and much less of an offence.
Gawain returns to the court of King Arthur to tell his tale and the knights agree that in future
they will all wear green girdles swathed across their chests in honour of Gawain’s adventure.
What brings the story to life is that a great deal of attention is paid to the fine details creating
memorable images such as the Green Knight nonchalantly stroking his beard as he awaits one of
Arthur’s knights who might accept his challenge or towards the end of the poem, where the
Green Knight can be heard sharpening his axe before using it to hop across the stream and
confront Gawain. In another vivid line the poet likens the brilliant white towers and crenellations
of the castle to a paper cut-out decoration that would have been used to adorn the plates of a
grand banquet.
The Order of the Garter
Sir Gawain makes definite references to the Order of the Garter and this is the starting point for
our investigation into the origin of the poem. The Lady of the Castle gives Gawain a green
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
4
girdle, which is also referred to as a belt. Gawain describes the girdle as a baldrick and ties it
over his right shoulder and knots it under his left arm. At the end of the poem, Gawain returns to
Arthur’s court and tells his tale to the other knights. In Gawain’s honour, they decide that
henceforth they will all wear the green girdle. At the very end of the manuscript are written the
words: Honi Soit Qui Mal Pense. This is clearly a variant of the motto of the Order of the Garter:
Hony Soyt Qui Mal Y Pence, which roughly translates from Old French as ‘Shame on anyone
who thinks bad of this’. This line was not written by the scribe who wrote out the poems in the
manuscript, but it is in a contemporary hand. Presumably by someone who recognised the
relationship between the poem and the order. These connections strongly suggest that the patron
of the poet was a Knight of the Garter.
The Most Noble Order of the Garter remains the pinnacle of the British honours system. Its
origin is well documented. In 1330, King Alfonso XI of Castile instituted the Order of the Band
in imitation of the Knights of the Round Table. The insignia of the order was a band worn over
the shoulder in the same manner as Gawain’s green girdle. This was the first order of knighthood
to be established in medieval Europe and was widely emulated by other European monarchs.
Alfonso and his knights went on aggressive campaigns to expand the borders of Castile. In 1343,
the English knight Henry of Grosmont fought for Castile in these campaigns. The following year
Henry returned to England and the court of King Edward III with tales of the chivalrous exploits
of the Castilian knights. Inspired by the example of Alfonso of Castile, Edward III announced
that he intended to set up his own order of knighthood, the Order of the Garter. In 1348, the
order was established. There were originally 26 knights including the king. Each knight was
assigned to his own stall in St George’s Chapel at Windsor. In these wooden stalls, beneath their
pennants and coats of arms they would hear mass and take communion. The king held stall 1.
This stall is still reserved for the monarch today. In the original investiture of the knights,
Edward III’s eldest son Edward, who became known as the Black Prince, held stall number 2
and Henry of Grosmont, later the Duke of Lancaster, held stall number 3.
If we refine our quest for the patron of Sir Gawain to a Knight of the Garter with strong
connections in northern England who flourished in the second half of the 14th century, this pares
down the number of candidates considerably. One man stands out.
John of Gaunt
John of Gaunt was born on 24th June 1340. He was the third surviving son of King Edward III.
His nickname is a reference to his birthplace - Ghent. But during his lifetime it would have been
more usual to refer to him by one of his titles. John of Gaunt was invested into the Order of the
Garter in 1361, in stall 14, when he was 21 years old. He later transferred to stall 2 in 1377 after
the death of his brother Edward the Black Prince. The most famous portrait of John of Gaunt
includes at the top left the knotted belt of the order with its inscription: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y
Pense surrounding his coat of arms. There are many clues that suggest that Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight was probably written in his honour.
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
5
[Portrait of John of Gaunt]
John of Gaunt married Blanche, daughter of Henry of Grosmont in 1359. When Henry died two
years later, John was invested as the new Duke of Lancaster and through his wife’s inheritance
became the greatest landowner in northern England, with extensive estates throughout
Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire.
In 1369, John’s beloved wife Blanche of Lancaster died of the plague and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. Thirty years later, John would be buried by her side. Blanche was lovingly
commemorated in Geoffrey Chaucer’s first major literary work The Book of the Duchess, which
was written for John after her early death. Geoffrey Chaucer had been in royal service since the
age of 14, as page to Lionel, Duke of Clarence, elder brother of John of Gaunt. In The Book of
the Duchess Chaucer makes numerous references to the colour white, which is taken to refer to
Blanche herself and at the end of the poem there are also cryptic references to two of the titles of
John of Gaunt as ‘long castel’ i.e. Lancaster (line 1318) and ‘ryche hil’ i.e. Richmond (line 1319)
and the narrator swears by St John, which is John of Gaunt’s saint’s name. Chaucer remained
close to John of Gaunt throughout his life. After Blanche’s death, John appointed Catherine de
Roet, the sister of Chaucer’s wife, to be the governess of his children. It wasn’t long before they
became lovers and she eventually became his third wife.
Much of John of Gaunt’s early adult years were spent campaigning in France and Spain. In 1370,
during these campaigns he was given the title Lord Bergerac and Roche-sur-Yon. He fought for
Pedro the Cruel, the King of Castile and on 21st September 1371 he took Pedro’s daughter
Constance as his second wife. When Pedro was deposed by his brother, John of Gaunt fought to
have him re-instated. After Pedro’s death, John unsuccessfully claimed the title of King of
Castile. (From 1372 he styled himself King of Castile and Leon.) If John of Gaunt is identified
with the Lord of the Castle in Sir Gawain, then his wife Constance of Castile as the Lady of the
Castle would be ideally suited to hand out the green girdle and introduce Gawain and Arthur’s
knights to the Castilian Order of the Band.
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
6
John of Gaunt was a leading member of the Order of the Garter who offered his patronage to his
friend the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, but, as a member of the royal court, would he also have
offered his patronage to a poet writing in a northern dialect? There are good reasons to suppose
that he might. One of John of Gaunt’s favourite castles was Tutbury in Staffordshire. This castle
had been the home of John’s first wife Blanche and her father Henry of Grosmont. This suggests
that the dialect of the Gawain-poet may well have been familiar to John of Gaunt’s circle. He is
also known to have supported the minstrels in Staffordshire. John set up a gild for the northern
minstrels and established an annual festival at Tutbury Castle, at which minstrels competed to be
King of the Minstrels for a year. This festival continued until the 18th century. No doubt the
Gawain-poet was a more sophisticated author than these minstrels, but it seems reasonable to
suppose that John of Gaunt would not have been averse to hearing a good tale well told in his
court.
But there are other reasons to believe that the poem might have been written in his honour. John
of Gaunt’s birthday, the 24th June, was an important feast day on which the nativity of John the
Baptist was celebrated. This was a popular summer festival in the Middle Ages and the
preparations for the celebration of this festival are recorded in John of Gaunt’s register. John the
Baptist’s head was famously served up on a silver platter to Herod’s daughter Salome. A
whimsical beheading story might have appealed to John who shared his birthday with the
Baptist.
It might also be significant that the Christmas festivities in the poem are centred around St
John’s Day – 27th December.
Gawain’s Travels and the Tale’s Topography
Sir Gawain offers the modern reader a number of mysteries. The action takes place in the castle
inhabited by the lord who later reveals himself to be the Green Knight and at the Green Chapel
where the dramatic climax of the poem is reached. The poem appears to describe a real
landscape. It would be in keeping with medieval literary practice if the action took place in the
domain of the patron of the poem. There are no convincing theories about the identity of the
poet, but we are confident that we can now ascertain the identity of the patron and the sites
where the drama takes place – the castle and the Green Chapel. It is the identification of these
places that tie the poem firmly to John of Gaunt.
In the poem, when Gawain sets off from Arthur’s court he holds Anglesey on his left (which,
incidentally, could mean that Arthur’s Camelot is to be identified with Caernarfon Castle) then
proceeds to Holy Hede, which is usually identified with Holywell. St Winifred’s well at
Holywell was an important pilgrimage site. The Life of St Winifred tells how she was decapited,
but with the help of St Beuno her head was restored. This beheading tale fits the theme of the
poem and is generally considered to be the motivation for its inclusion. Holywell is in the east of
North Wales close to the estuary of the River Dee. Gawain crosses the Dee near Holy Hede and
enters the wilderness of the Wirral, which was a royal forest. Gawain then travels on to a rocky
and desolate region in his search for the Green Chapel. Most commentators agree that Gawain is
continuing on his eastwards journey until he reaches the Pennines and the region where the
dialect of the poem has been located. This seems natural, as the rugged nature of the Pennines
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
7
fits the scenery of the poem much better than any other region of northern England.
Eventually, Gawain reaches a castle. Later we learn that the castle, which is surrounded by harsh
and precipitous scenery, is in a great area for hunting. Peveril Castle in Castleton, Derbyshire, or
Peak Castle as it used to be known, fits the bill very well. Peak Castle was the grand hunting
lodge for the Royal Forest of High Peak. The royal forests were not simply wooded areas, they
had their own legal system and were governed by strict laws designed to prevent any cultivation
of the land and to maintain the areas as undeveloped wildernesses teeming with game. Strict
laws punished poaching. High Peak was one of the favourite hunting grounds for the medieval
English kings. The forests were filled with deer, as well as wolves and wild boar. Henry II
boasted in a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Emmanuel that in High Peak “the deer were so
plentiful that when they were hunted they helped by their numbers to their own destruction”.
This chimes well with the words of the Gawain-poet:
And the lord of the land still led the hunt,
driving hinds to their death through holts and heaths,
and by the setting of the sun had slaughtered so many
of the does and other deer that it beggared belief.
Peak Castle
The geography and purpose of Peak Castle fit the description of the castle in the poem, but what
about its architecture?
[Peak Castle – The main entrance to the castle would have been across a drawbridge that
spanned the gorge to the left of the keep in the photograph.]
Today Peak Castle is a ruin. The keep shines like a broken tooth standing proud against the
skyline above the town of Castleton. It would have looked even brighter when its millstone grit
facing was intact. The main castle is situated at the top of a steep triangular crag. On one side
there is a precipitous drop into Cavedale. On the other is a steep narrow gorge. The castle walls
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
8
surround the triangular top of the crag.
In the poem, Gawain finds the castle by chance and, as luck would have it, stumbles on the main
entrance. He is confronted by the barbican on a mound surrounded by wooden palisades. The
castle is enclosed by a double-ditch and there is a deep moat. Beyond the barbican Gawain sees
the keep and other towers of the castle shining brightly through the trees. It is:
The most commanding castle a knight ever kept,
Then Gawain passes through the gate and across the drawbridge, where he is greeted by squires
who stable his horse and welcome him into the castle.
Looking at Peak Castle as it appears today it is not obvious that it conforms to the description
given in the poem. However, to a visitor in its heyday it would have looked quite different. This
is not simply because the castle is now a ruin, but also because the entrance by which tourists
approach the castle today is up a steep path that zig-zags directly from the town below. In the
Middle Ages, this was not the main entrance to the castle. A reconstruction of the castle in the
14th century is shown in the following picture:
[Peak Castle Reconstruction – the model is shown from the opposite direction to the photograph
shown above of the castle as it looks today.]
When the castle was in use, the main entrance, as shown in the reconstruction, was across the
drawbridge that spanned the precipitous gorge next to the keep of the castle. Over the
drawbridge from the castle were outbuildings enclosed by a wooden palisade with a gateway
defended by a barbican tower. This area was protected by a ditch which is still clearly visible on
the hillside. Also still visible is the track that led away from this outer ditch up the hill and
beyond to the south. This would have been the route by which Gawain approached the castle if
our analysis is correct.
In fact, within the poem there seem to be veiled references to the main administrative sites in the
area: Wormhill, Tideswell and Hazelbadge and these allusions occur in the correct order if
Gawain were approaching Castleton from the south.
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee
9
sumwhile wyth wormes her werres and with wolves als (line 721)
Wormhill is a small village that was one of the judicial centres of the High Peak and according to
a Wikipedia article about Wormhill:
“There was a tradition of wolf hunting in Wormhill in the fourteenth century. It was said that a
living was made by some and that an annual tribute of wolfheads was shown. It has been
reported that the last wolf killed in England was at Wormhill Hall in the 15th century.”
Towards the end of the same stanza in Sir Gawain is the line:
The knight wel that tyde (line 736)
This could be a reference to Tideswell, which was the main administrative centre of the Royal
Forest of the High Peak. It is a small town ten miles south of Castleton, where each year two
Great Courts were heard. A few lines later:
The hasel and the hawthorn were harled al samen,
with rough ragged mosse rayled aywhere, (line 744)
which might be an allusion to the Manor of Hazelbadge, which is situated by Moss Rake on the
road between Tideswell and Castleton. Hazelbadge Hall was owned by the High Steward of the
Royal Forest of High Peak. Continuing along this route would bring Gawain northwards over the
hills to the main entrance of Peak Castle, which he first sights twenty lines later at the start of the
next stanza. These veiled allusions to the places that Gawain passes as he nears the end of his
journey are perhaps not strong enough to be accepted as independent evidence for the
identification of Peak Castle as the castle of the poem. But they are the sort of references that we
might expect to find in the poem if it was written for an audience who might attend a banquet in
the castle. These three named places were the homes of the local gentry who administered the
royal forest. The patron of the poem would have been an altogether grander person. If Peak
Castle can be positively identified with the castle in the poem, then the owner of the castle must
be the prime candidate for the patron. So, who owned Peak Castle in the second half of the 14th
century?
King Edward III’s wife was Philippa of Hainault. On 14th August 1369, Phillipa succumbed to
the plague and her titles and estates reverted to the king. These estates included the Royal Forest
of the High Peak. When John of Gaunt returned from his overseas campaigns, he ceded the
earldom of Richmond in Yorkshire to his father in exchange for the lordship of High Peak. The
transaction was completed on 5th June 1372, when he took over the lordship of High Peak and
with it Peak Castle. No doubt John of Gaunt could see the attractions of hunting in this unspoilt
wilderness. We can be sure that the royal family made use of their northern hunting lodge in the
following years. In 1374, a visit to Tideswell is recorded of John of Gaunt’s 18 year old son, the
future Henry IV. Whilst he was in Tideswell, Henry bought a greyhound from Benedick Tatton
for 10d, probably for the purpose of hunting in the Royal Forest.
To summarise, Peak Castle fits the poem in the following respects: it is in the area of the country
identified with the dialect of the poem; it is situated in rugged countryside that matches the
description in the poem; it was a grandiose hunting lodge, which fits with the hunting that takes
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee 10
place in the poem and it was owned by a senior member of the Order of the Garter who
patronised poets and minstrels. Furthermore, the archaeological reconstruction of the castle
seems to fit the poem’s description very well. But if we are to take this identification seriously,
then we must also find the site of the Green Chapel.
The Green Chapel
The Gawain-poet describes the Green Chapel as:
nobut an old cave or a crevasse of an old crag
This suggests that the Green Chapel should be identified with an overgrown cave. A number of
contenders for the site of the Green Chapel have been suggested over the years. One candidate is
Wetton Mill Cave in the Manifold Valley in Staffordshire. But the most popular suggestion is
Lud’s Church, an overgrown crevasse in the rugged hills known as the Roaches on the
Staffordshire-Derbyshire border. Lud’s Church is a very interesting and evocative place that is
thought to have been used as an open-air chapel by the Lollards in the late 14th century.
However, there are serious obstacles to identifying either of these sites with the Green Chapel.
For instance, neither is close to a castle, whereas in the poem the Lord of the Castle tells Gawain
that the site of the Green Chapel is less than two miles from the castle.
A guide will get you there
at dawn on New Year’s Day.
The place you need is near,
two miles at most away.
Both Wetton Mill Cave and Lud’s Church must therefore be dismissed as unsatisfactory
locations for the Green Chapel.
By complete contrast, we do not have to look very far to find a significant cave that is associated
with Peak Castle. Close by the castle there is a cave that, like the castle, still belongs to the
Duchy of Lancaster. This cave is Peak Cavern and it is situated at the bottom of the steep narrow
gorge that would have been spanned by the castle’s drawbridge. The cave entrance has a high
domed roof, like the nave of a church. It is reputed to be the largest cave entrance in Britain.
With the dimensions of a chapel and with the entrance overgrown with grass, trees and bushes, it
answers very well to the description of a green chapel. At the bottom of the gorge a fast-running
stream passes the entrance to the cave.
This is how a Victorian tour guide to the Peak District describes the cave:
“The Peak cavern, called by some the Devil's Hole, is close to the village of Castleton, and not
five hundred yards from the parish church; it is under the hill on which the castle stands. The
approach to Peak’s Hole is beautiful. The trickling stream issuing from the cavern, the
perpendicular rocks on either side; the rookery among the elms, are all charmingly picturesque.
The entrance to it is by a dark and gloomy recess, formed by a chasm in the rocks which rise
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee 11
perpendicularly on each side to a great height, and it is a steep ascent to an opening in the hillside which resembles a Gothic arch, and is 120 feet wide and 42 high.”
[Picture of the entrance to Peak Cavern]
In the poem, Gawain describes the Green Chapel as an ugly oratory, an evil place and the most
accursed church that he has ever seen. He thinks that it looks like the sort of place where the
Green Knight would say his devilish devotions. And he goes on to say that the fiend i.e. the
devil, had tricked him into agreeing to this meeting in order to destroy him. For many centuries
Peak Cavern has been associated with the devil. It is referred to as the Devil’s Hole or Devil’s
Cave and is now marketed to tourists as the ‘Devil’s Arsehole’. (The association of Derbyshire
caves with the devil is not simply a standard convention. Many are associated with hermits,
saints, elves and Viking gods, for instance.)
As Gawain approaches the Green Chapel he hears a rasping sound from the other side of the
ravine. The Green Knight then appears out of the undergrowth, vaults the fast-running stream
with his axe and confronts Gawain. Just in front of Peak Cavern is a small clearing next to the
stream that precisely matches the description and would have been a great site for the Green
Knight to wield his axe and behead Gawain. Of course, Gawain only receives a nick on his neck
and lives to tell his tale. But before he departs for Arthur’s court, he asks the Green Knight to
reveal his name.
The Green Knight replies as follows:
‘That I shall tell thee truly,’ quoth that other then,
‘Bercilak de Hautdesert I hat in this land.’
He then admits to being the Lord of the Castle. It would be in keeping with the conventions of
late medieval literature if the name Bercilak de Hautdesert were a veiled reference to the patron
of the poem, just as we have seen with Chaucer’s allusions in The Book of the Duchess. I think
that this cryptic puzzle can be cracked. Hautdesert means ‘High Wilderness’. It is probably also a
pun as it could be interpreted to mean ‘highly deserving’. In John of Gaunt’s register, which is
written in Norman French, High Peak is actually referred to as ‘Haut Peek’, an example of which
is shown in the following illustration.
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee 12
[Item 1740 in John of Gaunt’s registry which refers to the chief forester of ‘Haut Peek’.]
Furthermore, ‘desert’ was a term that was used for the royal forests. Within another royal forest,
Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, there is still a place called Beau Desert i.e. ‘beautiful
wilderness’. Hautdesert or High Wilderness would certainly be an apt name for the Royal Forest
of the High Peak. Could Bercilak de Hautdesert be a cryptic reference to two of John of Gaunt’s
titles: Lord Bergerac of High Peak?
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight would have been a great piece of medieval entertainment. It is
divided into four fits, each of a suitable length to be read to the diners between the courses of a
long meal. It would be appropriate if the poet intended to recite his gripping poem for his patron
during a New Year’s banquet. It is our contention that this banquet would have been held in Peak
Castle in honour of John of Gaunt. But who was the poet?
Nicholas Mee
London
November 2010
A New Location for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Nicholas Mee 13