SIR GAWAIN AND THE CARLE OF CARLISLE: FOOTNOTES

1 "Now, Gawain," said the Carle, "do you hold yourself well paid (pleased)?"

2 "May He reward you," said the Carle, "who you dearly redeemed."

SIR GAWAIN AND THE CARLE OF CARLISLE: NOTES

I have normalized orthography (giving "th" for thorn; "gy," "g," or "y" for yogh as appropriate; "j" for "i", "u" for "v" and "w," "v" for "u" and "w," and "w" for "u" and "v") to accord with modern usage. I have expanded numerals and abbreviations ("wtt" as "wytt," "&" as "and," and so on). Punctuation (including capitalization) is editorial, and word division reflects current standard use ("undur stonde" is given as "undurstonde," for example). Some of the scribal abbreviations are ambiguous; I follow Kurvinen in rendering terminating flourishes as "us" (rather than "ys," as Ackerman represents them). I have also interpreted the ambiguous series of four minims (usually following "o") as "un" (following Kurvinen) rather than as "nn" (as Ackerman renders them). I have interpreted the ambiguous superior stroke at word endings as "e" in cases where rhyme or usage make it seem appropriate, though for the most part I have disregarded this sign.
Abbreviations: P = Porkington MS; M = Madden's edition; A = Ackerman's edition; K = Kurvinen's edition; S = Sands' edition. See Select Bibliography for these editions.


1 Lystonnyth. A reads lystenneth.

3 doughgty. P gives dou3gty, with 3 added above line.

20 At Cardyfe. Cardiff, just southwest of Caerleon at the mouth of the River Severn, has some Arthurian associations; its great distance from Carlisle, however, makes the geography of the poem impossible to imagine. In order to restore geographical coherence, K suggests changing Cardyfe to Carllyll, and Ynglonde to Ynleswode.

21 gentyll. M reads gentylle.

28 Byschope Bawdewyn. This Baldwin differs from the Bowdewynne of Bretan whose exploits are celebrated in Avowyng (line 74) in being an ordained clerk and a high church official; yet it seems likely that the popular romances meant "Bawdewyn" and "Bowdewynne" to name the same prominent companion of Arthur. In Malory, Arthur names as his "chieftains" before undertaking the campaign against Lucius "Sir Bauden of Bretayne" and "Sir Cadore," father of "Sir Constantyne that aftir was kynge, aftir Arthurs dayes" (Works, p. 195; see also Avowyng, line 914 and note); see below, line 44 and note. Malory also has Lancelot cured of a deadly wound by "the ermyte [hermit], sir Bawdewyn of Bretayne" (Works, p. 1086), who says of himself, "sometyme I was one of the felyship" of the Round Table (Works, p. 1075). That Malory takes these two Baldwins, knight and holy man, as identical seems clear in his further remark that "there were none ermytis in tho dayes but that they had bene men of worship and of prouesse, and tho ermytes hylde grete householdis and refreysshed people that were in distresse" (Works, p. 1076). In Avowyng Baldwin is distinguished for the great household he keeps and for his willingness to refresh all who come to him. In Turke (lines 152 ff.; see note at line 154), the King of Man scorns equally Gawain's "unckle King Arthur" and "that Bishopp Sir Bodwine," who by this title seems both church official and knight.

31 grece-tyme of the yeer. The hunting season for the buck or hart (or stag) - the male deer - ran from about midsummer (or perhaps a bit earlier) to the middle of September; its height seems to have come in August, when deer have fattened and can be hunted without danger to the herd. (The hind and doe - the female deer - were hunted from September through February, according to medieval hunting manuals.) In Ragnelle, after Arthur has taken his deer, he "dyd hym serve welle, / And after the grasse he taste" (lines 47-48; see note). Arthur's butchering of the deer (see Carle, line 20) and his assay of its fat is appropriate to the "grece tyme." Sir Gawain and the Green Knight contains similar references to the hunt and the woodsman's knowledge of the ritual of "breaking" the deer.

34 Syr Mewreke. Here begins a catalogue of Arthurian knights whose names are drawn from a variety of sources. Some of the most prominent companions of the Round Table - Gawain above, Kay, Lancelot, Percivale, Ywain, Lot, Mordred - are named. Many of these became the central figures in popular Middle English verse romances, as did Launfal, Libeaus Desconus (line 55), and Galerowne (line 43 and note). Some of the names mentioned here are not identifiable as Arthurian characters, and may be completely improvised for a performance of Carlisle, or legendary names garbled beyond recognition. Awntyrs mentions Marrake as one of the knights who rushes to the aid of Galeron and Gawain; see line 655, and note at lines 654 ff.

35 Caratocke. A reads cantocke.

43 Syr Gaytefer and Syr Galerowne. Gologras several times mentions Gaudifeir as a companion of Arthur; see line 545 and note. Sir Galeron of Galloway plays a major role as Gawain's opponent in the second episode of Awntyrs (see line 417 and note). In Malory, Galeron is numbered among the knights of Scotland affiliated with Gawain's kin and the other "wel willers" of his brothers Aggravayne and Mordred, who oppose Lancelot. These knights include Sir Petipace (line 58 and note), Sir Gromer Somyr Joure (see Ragnelle, line 62 and note, and Turke, line 320 and note), and Gawain's sons Gyngalyne, Florence and Lovell (the latter two also being nephews of Brandles, line 64 and note below). See Works, p. 1164.

44 Syr Costantyn. Perhaps the son of Sir Cador and king after Arthur's days; see above, line 28 and note, and Avowyng, line 914 and note.

48 bedenne. A reads bedene.

49 The Kyngus uncull, Syr Mordrete. A mistake for cosyn (K) or "nephew" (A), which potentially inverts the crucial relation of mothers' brother - sister's son between Arthur and Mordred. In some narratives, Mordred is not merely Arthur's nephew by his sister Morgawse, wife of King Lot of Orkney, but Arthur's own son through incest. Mordred causes the dissension that turns his brother Gawain against Lancelot, and begins the disintegration of the Round Table; he attempts to overthrow the rule of his uncle (in some versions taking Guenevere as his own wife), and fatally wounds Arthur in the combat that brings about his own death. Carlisle, in celebrating Gawain's chivalry, seems little concerned with the ultimate fall of the Round Table, and making Mordred Arthur's uncle (whether a mistake or a conscious change) further distances those dire events to which Awntyrs, for example, deliberately alludes (lines 286 ff.). Carle (line 31) groups Arthur with "his cozen Mordred," and Marriage (line 24) refers to Arthur's "cozen Sir Gawaine"; in both cases, cozen simply means kinsman, and might easily include the relation of a nephew.

55 Dyskonus. K reads dyskoniis. Libeaus Desconus (Old French "Li Biaus Descouneus," French "Le Bel Inconnu," English "The Fair Unknown") is Gawain's son Gyngalyne. Ragnelle makes the heroine of that poem his mother; see line 799 and note. His mysterious identity seems to have led to his being presented in Carlisle as two different knights, for he appears again at line 61 as "Syr Ferr Unkowthe." See line 43 above and note for his associates in Malory.

58 Syr Pettypas. Another of the knights identified by Malory (Works, p. 1164) as "of Scotlonde" or aligned with Gawain's brothers Aggravayne and Mordred. See lines 43 and 55 and notes.

64 Syr Blancheles. Though Carlisle provides no details, this is almost surely Sir Brandles, Gawain's chief opponent in Jeaste (see introduction to that poem, and line 320 and note). Malory names Sir Braundeles the uncle of Gawain's sons Florence and Lovell (Works, p. 1147), clearly drawing upon a version of the story that lies behind Jeaste. See also Ragnelle, line 799 and note. Madden (p. 347) noted this possible connection.

Ironsyde. In Malory, Sir Ironsyde is the last of the knights Gawain's brother Sir Gareth of Orkney encounters on his quest. He presents himself as the Rede Knyght of the Rede Laundis, but reveals his true identity at Arthur's court (Works, pp. 319, 336-37); he is the father (or brother) of the other knights in colored liveries, including the Grene Knyght, whom Gareth defeats. Carlisle, in making him the father of "the Knyght of Armus Grene" (lines 45, 68), perhaps relies upon a popular story, now lost, that Malory (whose source for the adventures of Gareth remains unknown) had read as well - a story that, among other things, connected Gawain's family with Green Knights. See also introduction to Greene Knight in the present volume.

79 Favele Honde. P gives Fabele Honde; the emendation is suggested by A.

80 ff. Sir Ironside's arms consist of a golden griffin on a field of blue, surrounded by fleurs-de-lis. Ironside bears arms that strongly resemble those traditionally associated with Gawain and his kin. In one album of arms, Gawain's device is said to have been three golden lions' heads on an azure field, or, alternatively, three golden griffins on a green field; Ironside's arms combine these elements. (See the details provided in the Introduction, note 21). It may be that Ironside's armorial bearings have been confused in the transmission of Carlisle with those of "Syr Ferr Unkowthe" (line 61), Gawain's son Libeaus Desconus or the Fair Unknown; see especially Carle lines 55 ff. and note, as well as Awntyrs, line 509 and note.

86 kyngus. M emends to knights.

99 Lystynn. M reads lystyne.

145 barnn. A reads barun ("baron").

154 thou. A reads thu, here and in lines 202, 277, 310, 329, 373, 374, 388, and 401.

160 Kay here uses a proverb meaning he'll get what he asks for, or, he'll take the consequences of his own actions. See B. J. Whiting and H. W. Whiting, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1968), B259.

162 thar. A reads thor; M reads there.

167 larde. M reads lorde

177 call. P gives callyd.

202 wolt. M reads wolle.

203 kyngus keyis. The meaning of this phrase remains a puzzle; the most convincing suggestion is that this is a popular, sarcastic idiom for the crowbars and other tools used by the king's agents in making a forcible entry while serving a warrant.

204 cleyn. M reads certeyn.

215 barnnus. M: barnuns; A: barunys.

218 beschope. A reads beschape.

222 thei. A reads thi, here and in lines 233, 301, 358, and 443.

233 slayn. A reads sleyn.

241 Hard yn! P gives hardyn as one word; a space is inserted by K. "Stay back!" or some similar command seems appropriate here, though this meaning is not attested. Another possibility would be Herd, in!

251 ful. P gives full. I follow the emendation K suggests in her note.

257 yardus a brede. P gives 3ardus brede; I follow K's emendation.

tayllors yardus. A tailor's yard is the common measure of three feet, making the Carle six feet across the shoulders and twenty-seven feet tall - a true giant, but a dwarf next to the hero of Carle, who is nine feet broad and seventy-five feet tall.

259 hyghtht. P gives hy3thent; emended by M.

261 The point of this line - literally, "Or else it would be a wonder" - seems to be that, given his bulk, if the Carle's limbs were any smaller, that would be still more astonishing.

263 I have glossed growand as past (rather than the present) participle of growen.

267 anny. M reads any.

271 Gawen. P gives only G; I have expanded to Gawen here and in lines 337, 344, 380, 394, 415, 442, 445, 457, 464, 465, 469, 479, 481, 501, 512, 526, 532, 538, 544, 553, 565.

290 syne. P: sethyn; I adopt syne (suggested in K's note) for the sake of rhyme.

314 The Carle's judgment on Bishop Baldwin here contrasts ironically with his own regulations (lines 193 ff.) and outright claim (lines 277 ff.) that he "can no corttessye."

315 trye. P: tryne. For this meaning of try, see OED,"try," v. 13.

337 ansswerd. A reads ansswered.

341 be bocke and belle. This proverbial phrase derives ultimately from the rite for excommunication; see Awntyrs, line 30 and note.

342 That. P gives The; emended by K.

349 Stond. P gives Sstond; A reads G[awain]: stond.

356 havfe. A reads hovfe.

374 That. M suggests emending to Thus.

377 This line is proverbial, as K points out, though Whiting, in his Proverbs, offers no medieval instances.

379 ff. The narrator makes a pointed contrast between Gawain's courteous refusal to sit at table before he is invited, and Baldwin's and Kay's impulsive indulgence of their hunger (lines 358 ff.).

385 passe. A form of pace, so that the phrase means, "make your way,""go to."

396 dentte. P gives dette; emended by M.

435 ff. The subject celebrated in the Carle's daughter's performance - the convergence of love and war in true courtesy - is typical of elite chivalric romance, as in the works of Chrétien de Troyes, in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal, or (with added tension) in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Popular chivalric romances typically present such idealized if improbable performances, simultaneously masking and making plain the contradictory impulses of the genre in this way. These tales almost never offer a detailed account of a performance event resembling the sort of production the romances themselves must have entailed; the closest one comes to such carnivalesque, interactive, kinetic events are the vague references to fest, game, myrthe, playe, and mynstrellis (lines 640 ff.).

465 Therof Gawen toke the Carle goode hede. K drops the scribe's abbreviation for Gawen (apparently taking it as a mistaken anticipation of the following line), and so emends to Therof toke the Carle goode hede.

hede. P gives hed; M reads hede.

466 far. Now illegible in P, but so read by M.

500 We. M reads Ne.

508 Maré, marcé. A reads Mare merci.

514 schall. M reads schalt.

517 ff. The Carle's "transformation" here consists in his confession to Gawain, and his vow to reform. Carlisle seems to omit at this point a scene of physical action - a beheading, like those in Carle, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Greene Knight, and Turke - that would account for the sudden change. In shedding a former evil identity that was perhaps imposed on him by sorcery, the Carle resembles Ragnelle; compare the remark of the lady in Marriage, that her wicked stepmother had "witched my brother to a carlish" shape (line 179).

518 maked. A reads make.

524 schulde. A reads schuld.

535 blody serke. Carlisle seems here to preserve a snatch of popular verse, familiar through some lost narrative of desperate love. The phrase survives only in two adaptations to religious contexts. The English translation of the Gesta Romanorum tells of a knight who asks that, if he should die in battle, his lady "sette out my blody serke on a perch afore," so that she will think of him always. The story is then allegorized, so that the knight is Christ, and the bloody sark the emblem of his sacrifice. (See Gesta Romanorum, ed. Sidney J. H. Herrtage, EETS e.s. 33 [London, 1879], pp. 23-26, at p. 24.) Robert Henryson tells a similar story, with strong ballad emphases, of a "lusty lady ying [young]" rescued by a "knycht"; dying from his effort, the knight asks that she take "my sark that is bludy / And hing it forrow [before] yow" as a momento. Henryson allegorizes the story identically to the Gesta, and concludes, "Think on the bludy serk." (See Robert Henryson: Poems, ed. Charles Elliott [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963], pp. 115-18.) In this passage Carlisle imposes a similar religious moralization upon this emblem of heroic devotion.

537 sene. P gives see; I follow K's emendation for the sake of rhyme.

552 Ikeverid. M reads koverid.

553 clere. M reads dere.

570 was non on molde. P gives was alle here molde. The reading makes little sense, desperate philological arguments notwithstanding. I adopt what seems an obvious emendation, suggested in K's notes. The previous two lines repeat the formulaic description of the Carle's wife, at lines 370-71.

595 ff. The first two items mentioned here are brass instruments, and the remaining six are stringed. A sawtry was an ancestor of the zither; a geteron was a kind of guitar. Except for the bowed fedylle, all these instruments were plucked. Menstrelcy here probably refers not to the players themselves, or their performance, but to a further group of instruments; compare Chaucer, Manciple's Tale, line 113: "Pleyen he kaude on every mynstralcie."

599 menstrelcy. P gives merely; K reads menstracy. I emend in accordance with scribal spelling (compare line 643).

600 fett. P gives sett; K emends to halle hem fett.

619 seyde. A reads sayde.

620 The Carle's understatement ironically reverses (and echoes) his earlier chastisements of Arthurian chivalry (see lines 193, 275 ff., 314 ff., and 329 ff.).

629 gafe. M reads gefe.

640 idyght. P gives idygh; M reads idyght, followed by K.

643 geftys. P gives yeftys.

650 rede. P gives redee; M reads rede, followed by K.

655 monkys gray. Monks of different orders were often referred to by the distinctive color of their habits; Benedictines were known as Black Monks, and Cistercians as White Monks or Gray Monks (as opposed to the Gray Friars, the title for the Franciscan mendicant order). The Cistercians, however, had no establishment in Carlisle, and the reference may be to the priory of Augustinian Canons (Black Canons), which became the site of the cathedral church after Carlisle was made a bishop's seat in 1133. K offers additional information in her notes.

659 Jesu. A reads Ihu.