The hunter treks stealthily through the brush, in pursuit of his prey. All around him are the noises of the forest: birds chirping the soundtrack of life, the wind slowly flowing between mixed greens and more importantly, the footsteps of his prey. And all of the sudden, the forest is alive in the glory of the chase.
Of course, Gawain is human prey. His hunter? A lady fair. Which is quite ironic, considering we last left Gawain in a kingdom where women were depicted as frail, static characters. We are now faced with an ongoing pursuit. Gawain: the deer, the boar and the fox, faced with the task of evading his female predator.
The First Encounter:
Like a frail deer, Gawain is put into a submissive position. The lady fair (or lady persistent, whichever way you choose to perceive her character), plants the final kiss upon our helpless knight (how ironic, but pleasantly chivalrous). The prey's method of evasion here is blissful submission ("I don't care, I'll look as feminine as can be as long as I'm maintaining my chivalry!"). The predator's response to such behavior: She takes the bait (If we are Gawain, this is the moment we say, "Phew!"). He's escaped the clutches of the crafty seductress...for now.
Meanwhile, kingy has his own prey to catch (and bludgeon and decapitate and chop up). His prey, like Gawain, is submissive, goes down without a fight. Easy squeazy. Bye bye Bambi. Gawain, congratulations, you've done what many other men would fail at: resist the temptation of a beautiful maiden fair.
The Second Encounter:
Tusks, muscle, brawn and snout: the boar. A mighty adversary, worthy of careful strategic planning. This time, m'lady's aggressive Gawain. She's not going to go down easily this time, and neither is Gawain. Our hero is now being tempted further, and must use his mind's muscle to resist his, ahem, male urges. The lady is persistent, and the conversation goes back and forth ("You know what I want!", "Yes, but as I am of a gentlemanly stature, I cannot oblige your needs, ma'am."). Gawain must be like the boar: strong, poised and physically prepared to take damage (the second kiss being the damage).
Here comes the cavalry! The king and his men are hard at work (just like the lady fair) attempting to bring down their prey. We get this image of the men scrambling through bushes after their prey (It is safe to say that the seductress would chase Gawain through a thicket of thorns). The pig is leading the men on a wild GOOSE chase, a back and forth battle. There is finally an end to the chase (but poor piggy must suffer death, not a kiss on his snout). Good battle, Mr. boar, you've done well and stayed true to your cause (you too Gawain, but you got a kiss out of it).
The Third Encounter:
The fox: the cunning bandit. Gawain: the cunning liar. Ultimately, Gawain must now step out of his chivalric manner and lie his way out of dishonor (ironically to maintain his chivalry). Will he stand up to the challenge of keeping away from temptation? Short answer: yes. He ultimately will take the girdle and leave (to face his ultimate task). Gawain here uses his sense of cunning speech to evade the crafty seductress. His gift in return for the lady's kisses? The king receives a few knightly smooches (come on, it's only the decent thing to do after hanging out with your wife....talking).
The king is obviously on the hunt again. The fox is ever-evasive, but in the end, it is the fox's sly intent that works to his demise. Good job Gawain, you've out-done the clever fox!
On a more serious note, we have a much deeper inner struggle here for our hero. He is faced with the task of resisting nature by way of.....well nature. He uses tools akin to those of a wild animal. It is what he must do to maintain his knightly chivalry! He had to submit in order to escape. He had to fight in order to survive. He had to lie to uphold truth. In the end, it was all an illusion, a clever test (and ultimately, a testament to just how much of a gentleman Gawain truly is). He girded himself with the armor of faith, and ultimately he prevailed over temptation (though he had to stoop to some levels to make it happen).
I don't know about you, but I find this inspiring. Even the most meek of us can evade those things that harm our spirit. We may have to jump through some hoops in order to do so, but we all have a natural inner power to be reckoned with.
*The photo here is my own work of photography.
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