The Green Knight's poem?
Anybody remember how the Green Knight's riddle went?
"When life is...?"
"Whenever life's getting you down, Mrs. Brown, and things seem hard or tough..."
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MovieChat Forums > Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1984) Discussion > The Green Knight's poem?
One of the down points of the film for me was that it isn't so much of a riddle as it is just a summary of what happens.
shareBut it makes sense when you think about it. The entire reason why the Green Knight didn't kill Gawain right away was because he was a "beardless boy" - ie, he hadn't yet experienced life. So, "I'll give you a year to grow your beard" was his way of saying "Go out and experience life."
In the process of trying to figure out the riddle, he rides forth as a knight, fights multiple battles, makes friends and enemies, finds love and loses it again, knows both hope and despair, and generally has a ton of pretty intense life experiences in a very short time. But it's the idea of having to "solve" the riddle that drives him on from place to place.
In the end, yes, the riddle is less of a riddle and more a summary of what Gawain has seen and done along the way - but that was the entire point. Not to ANSWER the riddle, but to EXPERIENCE it.
And to make the connection between the events that he experiences and the lines of the riddle.
shareAh but he had to experience the events in order to properly understand the riddle. He then had to make connections between the lines of the riddle and the events.
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