Season 3 Podcast 72 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pt II "The Quest"

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II, “The Quest.”Welcome to Season Three of ‘A New Voice of Freedom.’  The Podcasts are taken from the four volumes ‘In Defense of Christianity’ written by Ronald Keith Messer. Podcast 72 is from a series called Poet’s Corner. The title is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 2Part I was entitled “The Pledge,” in which Sir Gawain makes a covenant with the Green Knight to come to his Green Chapel in a year’s time. Part II is entitled “The Quest,” in which Sir Gawain takes the long and treacherous journey through the wilderness to find the Green Chapel. Part III is entitled “The Three Temptations,” which forever determine the fate of Sir Gawain. Pt IV, the final podcast on the story of Sir Gawain, is entitled, “Justice,” in which Sir Gawain submits himself to the ax of the Green Knight. The journey into the unknown is a journey we all take. As with any Christian epic, the author strives to teach us how to prepare for that journey.It is Yuletide. It has been a year since Sir Gawain chopped off the Green Knight’s head with an ax.  Now Sir Gawain must decide whether he will forfeit his part of the covenant or whether he will seek out the Green Knight in his dubious Green Chapel.  Sir Gawain is under the Knight’s code.  At the top of the code is personal honor.  If Sir Gawain keeps his part of the bargain, it is certain death. If he doesn’t, he will forever live in shame and disgrace. However, our valiant knight is honorable by nature and does not even consider forfeiting his commitment. This podcast covers the long and treacherous journey Sir Gawain must make just to find the Green Chapel.     When the Michaelmas moon was come in with warnings of winter, Sir Gawain bethought him full oft of his perilous journey. Yet till All Hallows Day he lingered with Arthur, and on that day they made a great feast for the hero's sake, with much revel and richness of the Round Table. Courteous knights and comely ladies, all were in sorrow for the love of that knight, and though they spake no word of it, many were joyless for his sake.    It did not occur to Sir Gawain to break his covenant. To Sir Gawain, the treachery of the Green Knight was irrelevant.  It did not disannul the covenant he made.  In other words, his honor would not be compromised because of the dishonor of the Green Knight.In ancient times a covenant was more binding than the law. A person’s word was sacred. Today words are playthings for lawyers and judges to twist and turn and wrest into something other than their original intent. Nothing is settled by honor today.  Everything is settled by the courts.  Language, however, which by nature is ambiguous being based as it is on analogy and metaphor is slippery and can slide through a court like a slick octopus in slithering liquefaction pours his body through the smallest cracks. Well did the Savior, in the Sermon on the Mount, say, 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matthew 5:37)