Colors In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

Colors are very important markers in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. When the figure of the Green Knight first intrudes upon Arthur’s court, his green complexion immediately marks him as a supernatural character, and his magical ability to survive beheading thus seems to somehow come from or be connected to his greenness. But green also is a traditional reminder of the natural world. As the poet describes the seasons, the weather, and images of hunting, the color green reappears as a symbol of nature, unbound by the rules of the court but with its own order of death and regeneration, predator and prey. With this double meaning of green as a symbol of both the supernatural and the natural in place, the poet plants a lot of green symbols into