The Knots of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s Boar Chase (Lines 1431–7)

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Knots of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s Boar Chase (Lines 1431–7)

AU - Warner, Lawrence

N1 - © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2024/12/16

Y1 - 2024/12/16

N2 - Editors have struggled to reconcile the two appearances of the term knot in the boar chase of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 1431 and 1434) with the competing demands of intelligible syntax and etymological sense. Most opt for the sense “rocky hill” for both, but this forces other terms in the passage, namely umbekesten and even hem (“them”) into the status as very unlikely hapaxes. This essay advocates acceptance of the necessity of emendation at line 1434 as by far the least intrusive solution, and proposes the new possibility of covert, “hiding place, thicket.”

AB - Editors have struggled to reconcile the two appearances of the term knot in the boar chase of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (lines 1431 and 1434) with the competing demands of intelligible syntax and etymological sense. Most opt for the sense “rocky hill” for both, but this forces other terms in the passage, namely umbekesten and even hem (“them”) into the status as very unlikely hapaxes. This essay advocates acceptance of the necessity of emendation at line 1434 as by far the least intrusive solution, and proposes the new possibility of covert, “hiding place, thicket.”

KW - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

KW - editing

KW - Middle English

KW - lexicography

KW - hunting

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189502321&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/0013838X.2024.2330811

DO - 10.1080/0013838X.2024.2330811

M3 - Article

SN - 0013-838X

VL - 105

SP - 1006

EP - 1015

JO - ENGLISH STUDIES

JF - ENGLISH STUDIES

IS - 7

ER -