What to give... A Girdle!

Throughout most of section three, I was suspicious of why Sir Gawain was staying so long at the castle. Obviously it had to have a huge impact on the story, whatever the reason was. It wasn’t until part three section 28 that I realized the importance of this part of the story. At first section three was annoyingly long and repetitive, until the lady wanted to give Sir Gawain a gift. At first she wanted to give him a ring “made of reddish gold, with a sparkling stone…” (section 28, lines 1817, 1818.) Gawain did not want the gift so the lady tried to give him another, “[her] girdle -- a much humbler gift.” (section 28, line 1829.) After looking up what a girdle was it made sense. A girdle is not the same thing as a corset, it is more like a belt and was worn by both men and women. For men it was a symbol of power and strength and for women it was a symbol of protection. Now adding on the fact that the girdle is green, the gift makes sense. Somehow the lady and the castle are related to the Green Knight, we learn later that the lord is the Green Knight. The green girdle seems to have been given to protect Sir Gawain from the ax because he passed the test given by the lady and the Green Knight at the castle.