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So I've gathered that, thankfully, a lot of Arthuriana fans are aware of that one time in the Vulgate that Gawain wished he(?) was a beautiful lady and Lancelot's wife.
Well I just finished reading the entire cycle and did you know that's actually just one of three times this happens?
The famous one, of course:
Then Sir Gawain thought a little, like a man who believed he would never be well again. “If God were to grant me my health,” he said, “I’d immediately wish to be the most beautiful maiden in the world, happy and healthy, on condition that he would love me above all others, all his life and mine."
- Vulgate Lancelot
(the "he" who Gawain wishes would love her is, of course, Lancelot)
But then there's also:
"Sir," said the woman, "what arms were carried by the knight who won the tournament?"
Gawain answered, "They were solid red, and on his helmet he had the sleeve of some lady or maiden--I don't know who whe is--and I tell you truly that if I were a woman, I would want the sleeve to be mine, provided that he who wore it really loved me, for I have never in my life seen a sleeve better honoured than that one."
- Vulgate Death of Arthur
(the mystery knight is...of course...Lancelot...)
And furthermore, there's:
Then Sir Gawain said, "So help me God, sir knight, you have surpassed in nobility all the knights I've ever heard about in my life. If I were the highest born lady in the world and I knew truly that you loved me as faithfully as you have loved this lady, may God never help me if I failed to take you because of my high birth, if it pleased you, for you are the truest knight I ever heard of."
- Post-Vulgate Merlin Continuation
The knight in question this time is not Lancelot (it's Pellias), but it does seem like it's overly-devoted courtly lovers that spur these thoughts in Gawain, of being doted on in that same manner. And it's very notable to me that no other characters do this specific kind of fantasising, let alone so consistently. The Knight of Maidens, indeed...
I actually do have a whole thesis on how transgender Gawain fits perfectly with his/her entire character, and even functions as the key to making all the wildly different characterisations from different texts fit together. That's for another time, but the point is: I really do believe that estrogen would have saved her.
Hello! I wrote a story about this, and about Gawain's many problems:
cool girl says words online
It is mostly standalone and should be comprehensible with only a passing familiarity with the idea of Arthuriana; it does draw on several parts of the medieval corpus, but I wouldn't consider them required reading (but you can find them online and they are good!)
It takes place some time after Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, immediately after (a slight alteration to) The Knight of the Cart, and at least some elements of the Vulgate are in the background (e.g. Galehaut is mentioned)
On the 8th of June 2022, Giants Foundry and it's quest, Sleeping Giants, was released which means that today is it and Kovac's third anniversary!
To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to redraw/recreate the wonderful promotional image by Terence Abbott (tezmobot.com)
I'm really proud of how this came out and I hope you all like it too!
