title: Kiki Camarena

text: Many of Camarena's investigations involved the major marijuana plantations that sprang up beginning in the early 1980s. Earlier plantations were usually located in remote mountain areas where they were hard to spot and irrigation did not require drilling wells. Yields were relatively low, quality varied, and transportation was expensive.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: The new plantations used an improved production technique for marijuana, developed by American cultivators, called "sinsemilla" (seedless). This more powerful, higher-quality product brought much higher prices in North American markets. The plantations were located in remote desert areas, where transportation was much less expensive.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: The new plantations faced several problems. Desert production required well drilling for irrigation, and Mexico had strict laws governing well digging, a problem that was eventually solved by massive bribery. It was also easier to spot plantations in the barren deserts; the larger the farm, the easier to spot. With an end to solo American overflights as part of the eradication program, however, money and intimidation allowed farms to grow dramatically without coming to official notice.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Prohibited from solo overflights and undercover work, DEA agents in Mexico concentrated on cultivating informants, an often difficult task, especially as informing became more and more dangerous. Camarena, however, excelled at working with informants; Shannon writes that "Nobody else in the Guadalajara office could match Kiki's charisma with informants. He had a way of convincing a man to screw up his courage and venture where he never dreamed he would go."


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Camarena's work with an informant they called "Miguel Sanchez" led to the first discovery of one of the new style plantations in 1982. "Sanchez" became friends with the man running the plantation, who told "Miguel" it was outside a small, isolated town called Vanegas in the state of San Luis Potosi, just across the border from the state of Zacatecas. According to "Miguel"'s information, the main financier of the plantation was cartel member Juan José Esparragoza Moreno. Camarena and "Miguel" finally located the plantation in August 1982. Camarena arranged two surreptitious solo overflights to confirm that it was a major plantation. He then briefed Mexican authorities, who raided the plantation in September. Astonishingly, the plantation was over 200 acres, employing hundreds of growers. The Guadalajara DEA estimated over four thousand tons of sinsemilla marijuana were destroyed in the raid, making it the largest plantation discovered up to that time.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In 1984, acting on information from the DEA, 450 Mexican soldiers backed by helicopters destroyed a marijuana plantation in Allende (Chihuahua), known as "Rancho Búfalo", with an estimated annual production of $8 billion. Camarena, who was suspected of being the source of the information, was abducted in broad daylight on February 7, 1985, by corrupt Mexican officials working for the major drug traffickers in Mexico.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Camarena was taken to a residence located at 881 Lope de Vega in the "colonia" of Jardines del Bosque, in the western section of the city of Guadalajara, owned by Rafael Caro Quintero, where he was tortured over a 30-hour period and then murdered. His skull was punctured by a piece of rebar, and his ribs were broken. Camarena's body was found wrapped in plastic in a rural area outside the small town of La Angostura, in the state of Michoacán, on March 5, 1985.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Camarena's torture and murder prompted a swift reaction from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and launched Operation Leyenda (legend), the largest DEA homicide investigation ever undertaken. A special unit was dispatched to coordinate the investigation in Mexico, where government officials were implicated—including Manuel Ibarra Herrera, past director of Mexican Federal Judicial Police, and Miguel Aldana Ibarra, the former director of Interpol in Mexico.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Investigators soon identified Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo and his two close associates, Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo and Rafael Caro Quintero, as the primary suspects in the kidnapping and that under pressure from the U.S. government, Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid quickly apprehended Carillo and Quintero, but Félix Gallardo still enjoyed political protection.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: The United States government pursued a lengthy investigation of Camarena's murder. Due to the difficulty of extraditing Mexican citizens, the DEA went as far as to detain two suspects, Humberto Álvarez Machaín, the physician who allegedly prolonged Camarena's life so the torture could continue, and Javier Vásquez Velasco; both were taken by bounty hunters to the United States.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Despite vigorous protests from the Mexican government, Álvarez was brought to trial in Los Angeles, in 1992. After the government presented its case, the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict and ordered Álvarez's release. Álvarez subsequently initiated a civil suit against the U.S. government, charging that his arrest had breached the U.S.–Mexico extradition treaty. The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that Álvarez was not entitled to relief. The four other defendants, Vásquez Velasco, Juan Ramón Matta-Ballesteros, Juan José Bernabé Ramírez, and Rubén Zuno Arce (a brother-in-law of former President Luis Echeverría), were tried and found guilty of Camarena's kidnapping.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Zuno had known ties to corrupt Mexican officials, and Mexican officials were implicated in covering up the murder. Mexican police had destroyed evidence on Camarena's body.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In November 1988, "Time" magazine featured Camarena on the cover. Camarena received numerous awards while with the DEA, and he posthumously received the Administrator's Award of Honor, the highest award given by the organization. In Fresno, the California Narcotic Officers' Association (CNOA) hosts a yearly memorial golf tournament named after him and presents an annual scholarship to graduating high school seniors. A school, a library and a street in his home town of Calexico, California, are named after him. Enrique Camarena Junior High School of the Calexico Unified School District opened in 2006. Additionally Enrique Camarena Elementary School in Mission, Texas, of the La Joya Independent School District, is named after him and had its dedication ceremony in 2006. The nationwide annual Red Ribbon Week, which teaches school children and youths to avoid drug use, was established in his memory.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In 2004, the Enrique S. Camarena Foundation was established in Camarena's memory. Camarena's wife Mika and son Enrique Jr. serve on the all-volunteer board of directors together with former DEA agents, law enforcement personnel, family and friends of Camarena's, and others who share their commitment to alcohol, tobacco and other drug and violence prevention. As part of their ongoing Drug Awareness program, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks awards an annual Enrique Camarena Award at local, state and national levels to a member of law enforcement who carries out anti-drugs work.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In 2004, the Calexico Police Department erected a memorial dedicated to Camarena. The memorial is located in the halls of the department, where Camarena served.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: Several books have been written on the subject. Camarena is the subject of the book "¿O Plata o Plomo? The abduction and murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena" (2005), by retired DEA resident agent in charge James H. Kuykendall. Roberto Saviano's non-fiction book "Zero Zero Zero" (2015) deals in part with Camarena's undercover work and his eventual fate.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: "Heroes Under Fire: Righteous Vendetta" (2005) is a History Channel documentary that chronicles the events associated with and features interviews with family members, DEA agents, and others involved in the investigation.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: In the Netflix drama "Narcos", Camarena's death and its aftermath are recapped in news footage in the first-season episode "The Men of Always". The first season of the spin-off series "" is dedicated entirely to the Camarena story from his arrival to Mexico through his career there and the eventual murder. He is played by American actor Michael Peña.


title: Kiki Camarena

text: "The Last Narc", released in 2020 on Amazon Prime Video, is a miniseries which depicts the kidnapping of Camarena and the events leading up to it. On December 21, 2020, retired DEA agent James Kuykendall filed a lawsuit over the show's claims that he was involved in Camarena's murder.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace & Gromit is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric, cheese-loving inventor, and Gromit, his loyal and intelligent anthropomorphic beagle. The first short film, "A Grand Day Out", was finished and made public in 1989. Wallace was voiced by actors Peter Sallis and Ben Whitehead. Gromit is largely silent and has no dialogue, communicating through facial expressions and body language.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Because of their widespread popularity, the characters have been described as positive international cultural icons of both modern British culture and British people in general. BBC News called them "some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK". "Icons" has said they have done "more to improve the image of the English world-wide than any officially appointed ambassadors". Although not overtly set in any particular town, Park has hinted that it was inspired by 1950s Wigan in Northern England. Wallace's accent comes from the Holme Valley of West Yorkshire. Wallace is fond of Wensleydale cheese (from Wensleydale, North Yorkshire).


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Their films have received universal acclaim, with the first three short films, "A Grand Day Out" (1989), "The Wrong Trousers" (1993) and "A Close Shave" (1995) earning 100% on "Rotten Tomatoes"; the feature film "" (2005) has also received acclaim. The feature film is the second-highest-grossing stop-motion animated film, only outgrossed by "Chicken Run" (2000), another creation of Park's. A fourth short film, "A Matter of Loaf and Death", was released in 2008. The franchise has received numerous accolades, including five British Academy Film Awards, three Academy Awards and a Peabody Award.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The Wallace and Gromit characters spearhead the fundraising for two children's charities: Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation, which supports children's hospices and hospitals in the United Kingdom, and Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the charity for Bristol Children's Hospital in Bristol, England. In December 2010, Wallace and Gromit featured on a festive themed series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The first short film, "A Grand Day Out", was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1991, but lost to "Creature Comforts", another animated creation of Nick Park. The short films "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" followed. The full-length feature "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" was released in 2005. The latter three each earned Academy Awards.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In January 2007, a five-film deal with DreamWorks and Aardman fell through after only three films, due to creative differences, as well as the box office failure of "Flushed Away". Park said later that DreamWorks executives wanted to Americanise the very British Wallace and Gromit after test screenings, which would have tarnished some of the duo's nostalgic charm. The fourth Wallace and Gromit short, "A Matter of Loaf and Death", was Park's first production since the end of the DreamWorks deal. It was the most-watched television programme in the UK in 2008. "A Matter of Loaf and Death" won the 2008 BAFTA Award for Best Short Animation and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010. In 2013, Peter Lord stated that there were no plans at the moment for a new short film, and Park announced in the following year that the declining health of Wallace's voice actor, Peter Sallis, had the possibility of preventing any future films despite the availability of Ben Whitehead.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: On 4 May 2017, Lord stated that more projects with the characters are likely while speaking at an animation event in Stuttgart, Germany. He said, "When Nick [Park]'s not drawing cavemen, he's drawing Wallace & Gromit ... I absolutely assume he will do another, but not a feature. I think he found it was too much. I think he liked the half-hour format."


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Sallis died on 2 June 2017 at the age of 96. In 2018, Park said to "Radio Times": "[Sallis] was such a special one-off person with such unique qualities, it would be hard to fill his shoes but I think he'd want us to carry on and I've got more Wallace and Gromit ideas." In 2019, Park announced that a new Wallace and Gromit project is in development. "I can't give too much away because it would spoil it really, but it's Wallace & Gromit up to their old antics." In May 2020, Aardman announced the release of "The Big Fix Up", a Wallace & Gromit story in the form of an augmented reality (AR) mobile app. It features the voices of Miriam Margolyes, Isy Suttie and Jim Carter and was released on 18 January 2021.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In September 2021, a bronze bench statue of Wallace and Gromit was unveiled in Preston, Lancashire, Park's home town.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In January 2022, a new film was announced, which is due to release in 2024 on Netflix worldwide, except for the UK where it will premiere first on the BBC before also coming to Netflix at a later date.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace lives at 62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan, along with his pet dog Gromit. His surname is unknown. He usually wears a white shirt, brown wool trousers, a green knitted pullover, and a red tie. He is fond of cheese, especially Wensleydale, and crackers.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Nick Park, his creator, said: "He's a very self-contained figure. A very homely sort who doesn't mind the odd adventure." He is loosely based on Park's father.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace is an inveterate inventor, creating elaborate contraptions that often do not work as intended. Their appearance is similar to the illustrations of W. Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg, and Nick Park has said of Wallace that all his inventions are designed around the principle of using a "sledgehammer to crack a nut". Some of Wallace's contraptions are based on real-life inventions. For example, his method of waking up in the morning uses a bed that tips over to wake up its owner, an invention that was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 by Theophilus Carter.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace's official job varies; in "A Close Shave", he is a window cleaner. In "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", Wallace runs a humane pest-control service, keeping the captured creatures (nearly all of which are rabbits) in the basement of his house. In the most recent short, "A Matter of Loaf and Death", he is a baker. While he has shown himself to be skilled to some degree in the businesses he creates, an unexpected flaw in the inventions he uses to assist him in his latest venture or simple bad luck often ends up being his downfall.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In the first photo shown on "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", it was revealed that Wallace once had a full head of hair and a very thick moustache with muttonchops. On the photo that shows Gromit's graduation at Dogwarts, he had lost his beard, but still had a little hair, in the form of side burns just above his ears. In "The Wrong Trousers", he still uses a hair-dryer. In "A Matter of Loaf and Death", when Wallace is talking to Gromit, a picture is seen behind Gromit of Wallace with a brown beard and brown hair.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace has had three love interests. The first was Wendolene Ramsbottom, which ended quickly when Wendolene told Wallace that cheese gives her a rash. The second was Lady Tottington in "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", whom Wallace fondly calls "Totty". In "A Matter of Loaf and Death", Wallace becomes engaged to Piella Bakewell, who turns out to be a serial killer.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Gromit is a beagle who is Wallace's pet dog and best friend. He is very intelligent, having graduated from "Dogwarts University" ("Dogwarts" being a pun on "Hogwarts", the wizard school from the "Harry Potter" books) with a double first in Engineering for Dogs. He likes knitting, playing chess, reading the newspaper, tea and cooking. His prized possessions include his alarm clock, dog bone, brush, and a framed photo of himself with Wallace. He is very handy with electronic equipment and an excellent aeroplane pilot. He often threatens the plans of the villains he and Wallace encounter in their adventures. Sometimes, Gromit ignores Wallace's orders, such as in "A Close Shave" and "Shopper 13", where Wallace orders him to get rid of Shaun, but Gromit does not. Gromit's birthday is 12 February. In "The Wrong Trousers", he is seen circling the date on a calendar.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Gromit has no visible mouth and expresses himself through facial expressions and body language. Peter Hawkins originally intended to voice Gromit, but Park dropped the idea when he realised how Gromit's thoughts and feelings could be known through movement with some canine noises on rare occasions. Many critics believe that Gromit's silence makes him the perfect straight man, with a pantomime expressiveness that drew favourable comparisons to Buster Keaton. He does at times make dog-like noises, such as yelps and growling.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Generally speaking Gromit's tastes are more in vogue than those of Wallace; this being one of the many ways they contrast with each other as characters. Gromit seems to have a significant interest in encyclopaedic, classical and philosophical literature, and popular culture, including film and music. "Electronics for Dogs" has been a firm favourite since "A Grand Day Out", and in "The Wrong Trousers" Gromit's bookshelves feature titles such as "Kites", "Sticks", "Sheep", "Penguins", "Rockets", "Bones" and "Stars", while he is seen reading "The Republic", by Pluto (a nod to the Disney character of the same name and a pun on Plato) and "Crime and Punishment", by Fido Dogstoyevsky (a pun on Fyodor Dostoyevsky). Gromit's various possessions make extensive use of puns: "A Matter of Loaf and Death" features ""Pup Fiction"" ("Pulp Fiction"), ""The Dogfather"" ("The Godfather"), ""Where Beagles Dare"" ("Where Eagles Dare"), ""Bite Club"" ("Fight Club") and ""The Bone Identity"" ("The Bourne Identity") all as book titles, and ""Citizen Canine"" ("Citizen Kane") as a film poster. His taste in music has been shown to cover Bach, "Poochini" (a play on Puccini), "McFlea" (McFly), "The Beagles" (the Beatles) and "Red Hot Chili Puppies" (Red Hot Chili Peppers).


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Gromit gains his own love interest in "A Matter of Loaf and Death", when he becomes attached to Fluffles, a poodle. Fluffles reciprocates his affection and joins Wallace and Gromit delivering bread at the end of the film, and the three drive off into the sunset, making a delivery and listening to "Puppy Love" (performed, according to the record cover, by "Doggy Osmond").


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: NASA named one of its new prototype Mars explorer robots after Gromit in 2005. On 1 April 2007, HMV announced that Gromit would stand in for Nipper for a three-month period, promoting children's DVDs in its UK stores.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Although not overtly setting the series in any particular town, Nick Park had previously hinted that its milieu was inspired by thoughts of 1950s Wigan, reinforced by an "A–Z Wigan" being displayed on Wallace's Anti-Pesto van in "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit". In "The Wrong Trousers", Gromit picks up a letter at the Wallace and Gromit residence addressed to "62 West Wallaby Street, Wigan". The address includes a postcode of WG7 7FU, though this does not match any street in Wigan, whose postcodes begin with the letters WN. This address can be seen in the "Cracking Contraptions" episode "Shopper 13".


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In the "Cracking Contraptions" episode "The Soccamatic", Wallace says to Gromit, "How do you like my Preston North End soccamatic, Gromit?". The episode references famous English footballers of the 1950s and '60s, including Nobby Stiles, Tom Finney and Bill Shankly (all of whom played for Preston in their careers) as well as Geoff Hurst and Stanley Matthews.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The "Wallace and Gromit" films are shot using the stop motion animation technique. After detailed storyboarding, set and plasticine model construction, the films are shot one frame at a time, moving the models of the characters slightly to give the impression of movement in the final film. As is common with other animation techniques, the stop motion animation in Wallace and Gromit may duplicate frames if there is little motion, and in action scenes sometimes multiple exposures per frame are used to produce a faux motion blur. Because a second of film constitutes 24 separate frames, even a short half-hour film like "A Close Shave" takes a great deal of time to animate. General quotes on the speed of animation of a Wallace and Gromit film put the filming rate at typically around 30 frames per day per animator. The feature-length "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" took 15 months to make.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Some effects, particularly the fire, smoke and floating bunnies in "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", proved impossible to create in stop motion and were rendered by computer animation specialists, MPC film. MPC film studied the set for three months in order to create clay-like animation to match the stop-motion production. By paying close attention to detail, MPC was able to make the animated bunnies blend in with the clay bunnies. Adding imperfections such as fingerprints along with texture to the animated bunnies helped enhance the effect. MPC's collaboration resulted in over 700 effects to aid the film along with colouring to match the visuals.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Most models were destroyed in the 2005 Aardman studio fire, but a set from "A Matter of Loaf and Death" is presently on display at the At-Bristol science centre. The set and several props from the museum featured in "The Wrong Trousers" survived as well, as they were being kept at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, West Yorkshire, before the fire occurred.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The music featured in every film was written by British film composer Julian Nott. The theme song was used to wake up astronauts aboard space shuttle mission STS-132 in May 2010. It has been suggested on BBC Radio 4's "PM" that the theme should become the England football supporters' song, instead of the main title theme of "The Great Escape".


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: A Wallace and Gromit interactive CD-ROM game from 1996, named "Wallace & Gromit Fun Pack", was released for the PC, containing the "Crackin' Compendium" with three mini-games based on the three original animated shorts as well as brief video clips. The other program in the Fun Pack the "Customise-O-Matic" contained wallpapers, screen savers and sounds that could be assigned as system sounds. A sequel "Fun Pack 2" was released in 2000 featuring enhanced graphics and two new games as well as a remake of the Great Train Game.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The characters were associated with a 144-issue fortnightly digest called Techno Quest, published by Eaglemoss Publications starting in 1997. It was designed to get children interested in science and technology.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In 1997 an animated screensaver themed video game entitled "Wallace & Gromit Cracking Animator" was released. Screensaver games were made by Dibase. Players could create their own multimedia animations through the collation of things like sound effects, sets, characters and props. Players could manipulate the facial movements of characters in order to synchronise their expressions with dialogue. Players could choose to make their finished creation their screensaver, or choose one of the pre-made screensaver games. The manual can be found at the British Library. The "Boston Herald" offered a rating of 2.5 stars, noting that creativity is limited.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In September 2003, "Wallace & Gromit in Project Zoo" was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Windows. This separate story sees the duo take on Feathers McGraw (of "The Wrong Trousers") again. Still obsessed with diamonds, he escapes from the penguin enclosure of West Wallaby Zoo, where he was "imprisoned" at the end of "The Wrong Trousers", and takes over the entire zoo, kidnapping young animals and forcing their parents to work for him, helping him turn the zoo into a diamond mine. Wallace and Gromit, meanwhile, have adopted one of the zoo's baby polar bears, named Archie. As they go to visit the zoo to celebrate his birthday, they find it closed. A quick spot of inventing back at the house, and they prepare to embark on their latest adventure. Hiding inside a giant wooden penguin, they infiltrate the zoo, and set about rescuing the animals. In 2005, a video game of "" was released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, following the plot of the film as Wallace and Gromit work as vermin-catchers, protecting customers' vegetable gardens from rabbits, using a "BunGun". Gameplay for the Project Zoo involve players exclusively controlling Gromit, as Wallace functions as a helper non-player character, but in "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit", gameplay shifts between the two, and includes two-player cooperative play. Both games were developed by Frontier Developments with the assistance of Aardman, with Peter Sallis reprising his role as Wallace. "Project Zoo" was published by BAM! Entertainment, while "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" was published by Konami.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In July 2008, developer Telltale Games announced a new series of episodic video games based on the characters, called "Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures". The first episode in "Grand Adventures", "Fright of the Bumblebees", was released on 23 March 2009. The second episode, "The Last Resort", was released on 5 May 2009. Two more episodes, "Muzzled!" and "The Bogey Man", were released in later 2009. The four episodes have separately been released on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: British publisher Titan Magazines started producing a monthly Wallace and Gromit comic after the debut of "Curse of the Were-Rabbit". The characters still run Anti-Pesto, and both Shaun and Feathers McGraw have appeared in the comic.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The two characters appeared in the monthly "BeanoMAX" comic until its closure in June 2013, and now appear every four weeks in "The Beano". They are heavily featured in 'Aardmag', the free online magazine that is unofficial but supported by Aardman Animations. Nick Park guest-edited the 70th birthday issue of "The Beano" weekly, and so this issue contained numerous Wallace and Gromit references.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: On 17 May 2010, they began appearing daily in "The Sun". It is credited to Titan and Aardman, with scripts written by Richy Chandler, Robert Etherington, Mike Garley, Ned Hartley, Rik Hoskin, David Leach, Luke Paton, J.P. Rutter, Rona Simpson and Gordon Volke, art by Sylvia Bennion, Jay Clarke, Jimmy Hansen, Viv Heath, Mychailo Kazybrid and Brian Williamson. It replaced "George and Lynne". A graphic novel compiling all 311 daily strips was released on 8 October 2013, and a second volume followed on 4 November 2014. A third volume was released on 25 March 2015, and a fourth volume was released on 9 September 2015.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In November 1997 the characters appeared in a play called "Wallace And Gromit™ Alive on Stage in a Grand Night Out".


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: On 9 March 2011, Shaun the Sheep made its live theatre début in "Shaun's Big Show". The 100-minute-long musical/dance show features all the regular characters, including Bitzer, Shirley and Timmy.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In 2003, Aardman produced a cinematic commercial for the Renault Kangoo starring Wallace and Gromit. The ad played in front of several summer blockbusters in top British cinemas. The commercial, entitled "The Kangoo-matic", was Wallace and Gromit's first advertisement. Later Wallace and Gromit commercials were made for Jacob's Cream Crackers, energy supplier Npower and beverage PG Tips.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The duo were used to promote a Harvey Nichols store that opened in Bristol (where Aardman is based) in 2008. The pictures show them, and Lady Tottington from "", wearing designer clothes and items. They were used to prevent a Wensleydale cheese factory from shutting down because of financial difficulties after a member of staff came up with the idea of using Wallace and Gromit as mascots, as Wensleydale is one of Wallace's favourite cheeses.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: On 28 March 2009, The Science Museum in London opened an exhibition called "Wallace & Gromit present a World of Cracking Ideas". The family-oriented show, open until 1 November 2009, hoped to inspire children to be inventive. Wallace and Gromit were featured in many exhibition-exclusive videos, as well as one announcing the opening of the exhibition.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In December 2010, Wallace and Gromit featured on series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail for Christmas. The same month, Nick Park appeared on BBC Radio 4’s "Desert Island Discs" and announced that he was working with Pleasure Beach Blackpool to build a theme park ride based on the characters. The dark ride opened at Pleasure Beach Blackpool in 2013.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace and Gromit appeared in a one-minute special for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II called "Jubilee Bunt-a-thon". In 2012, Wallace and Gromit featured on an advert saying "Inventing For Britain" which was part of a poster campaign to promote British trade and business aboard in the year they hosted the Olympics.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In August 2012, they presented an edition of The BBC Proms, "Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels", as Prom 20 of the 2012 season. Because of its popularity, "Wallace & Gromit's Musical Marvels" became a full touring show in 2013. It premièred at The Plenary in Melbourne, Australia on 9 February 2013. It was performed at other venues throughout 2013, with "A Matter of Loaf and Death" screened at each performance.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In 2013 and 2014 the pair appeared in a nationwide TV, press and cinema campaign promoting the British government's "Holidays at Home are Great" directive, called "Wallace & Gromit's Great UK Adventure".


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In December 2019, they appeared in a DFS advert created by Krow to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Helena Bonham Carter reprised her role as Lady Tottington with new dialogue for this advert.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: Wallace and Gromit spearhead the fundraising for two children's charities, Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation, which supports children's hospices and hospitals in the United Kingdom, and Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children's Hospital Charity. In July 2013, 80 giant fibreglass decorated sculptures of Gromit were distributed around Bristol as part of a Nick Park-inspired project to raise funds for the charity. The project is named Gromit Unleashed and sculptures were decorated by a range of artists and celebrities, including Joanna Lumley, Sir Peter Blake, Trevor Baylis and Jools Holland. A similar project featuring Shaun the Sheep called Shaun in the City was in 2015. A third was placed in 2018 called Gromit Unleashed 2, also featuring Wallace & Shaun. In 2020 "Gromit Unleashed: The Grand Adventure" will be in The Mall, Cribbs Causeway featuring 15 sculptures of Wallace, Gromit, Shaun and Feathers.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: A theme park ride called "Wallace & Gromit's Thrill-O-Matic" opened at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on 29 April 2013 by creator Nick Park, Amanda Thompson, Nick Thompson, Nick Farmer and Merlin Crossingham.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: The ride, which cost £5.25 million to make, was created by Blackpool Pleasure Beach design in association with Aardman Animations. The cars on the ride are designed on one of Wallace's slippers, so that, when a rider is seated, it is as if they are sitting inside a large slipper. The ride lasts almost four minutes, and features scenes from "A Grand Day Out", "The Wrong Trousers", "A Close Shave", "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "A Matter of Loaf and Death" along with some archive audio and some newly recorded lines from Ben Whitehead as the voice of Wallace.


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In 2007, a spin-off series "Shaun the Sheep" was created for the character of Shaun, first introduced in 1995's "A Close Shave". In the series, Shaun lives with his flock at Mossy Bottom Farm, a traditional small northern English farm. In each episode, their latest attempt to add excitement to their dull mundane life as livestock somehow snowballs into a fantastic sitcom-style escapade, most often with the help of their fascination with human doings and devices. This usually brings them into conflict—and often into partnership—with the farm sheepdog Bitzer, while they all are simultaneously trying to avoid discovery by the Farmer. Following the success of the series, two series of 1-minute shorts were created – "Mossy Bottom Shorts" and "Championsheeps"—followed by a television special "" (2015) and two feature films, "Shaun the Sheep Movie" (2015) and "" (2019).


title: Wallace and Gromit

text: In 2009, a spin-off of "Shaun the Sheep", "Timmy Time", was created centring on the character of the same name. In the series, Timmy and his friends have to learn to share, make friends and accept their mistakes. They are supervised by two teachers, Harriet the Heron and Osbourne the Owl. The show is aimed at pre-school-aged children which the company described as "a natural step for Aardman".


title: Typhus

text: Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.


title: Typhus

text: The diseases are caused by specific types of bacterial infection. Epidemic typhus is due to "Rickettsia prowazekii" spread by body lice, scrub typhus is due to "Orientia tsutsugamushi" spread by chiggers, and murine typhus is due to "Rickettsia typhi" spread by fleas.


title: Typhus

text: Vaccines have been developed, but none are commercially available. Prevention is achieved by reducing exposure to the organisms that spread the disease. Treatment is with the antibiotic doxycycline. Epidemic typhus generally occurs in outbreaks when poor sanitary conditions and crowding are present. While once common, it is now rare. Scrub typhus occurs in Southeast Asia, Japan, and northern Australia. Murine typhus occurs in tropical and subtropical areas of the world.


title: Typhus

text: Typhus has been described since at least 1528. The name comes from the Greek "tûphos" () meaning fever or delusion, describing the state of mind of those infected. While "typhoid" means "typhus-like", typhus and typhoid fever are distinct diseases caused by different types of bacteria. Note, however, that in some languages such as German, "typhus" does mean "typhoid fever".


title: Typhus

text: These signs and symptoms refer to epidemic typhus, as it is the most important of the typhus group of diseases.


title: Typhus

text: Signs and symptoms begin with sudden onset of fever and other flu-like symptoms about one to two weeks after being infected. Five to nine days after the symptoms have started, a rash typically begins on the trunk and spreads to the extremities. This rash eventually spreads over most of the body, sparing the face, palms, and soles. Signs of meningoencephalitis begin with the rash and continue into the second or third weeks. Other signs of meningoencephalitis include sensitivity to light (photophobia), altered mental status (delirium), or coma. Untreated cases are often fatal.


title: Typhus

text: As of 2020, no vaccine is commercially available. A vaccine has been in development for scrub typhus known as the scrub typhus vaccine.


title: Typhus

text: The American Public Health Association recommends treatment based upon clinical findings and before culturing confirms the diagnosis. Without treatment, death may occur in 10% to 60% of people with epidemic typhus, with people over age 60 having the highest risk of death. In the antibiotic era, death is uncommon if doxycycline is given. In one study of 60 people hospitalized with epidemic typhus, no one died when given doxycycline or chloramphenicol.


title: Typhus

text: According to the World Health Organization, the current death rate from typhus is about one of every 5,000,000 people per year.


title: Typhus

text: Only a few areas of epidemic typhus exist today. Since the late 20th century, cases have been reported in Burundi, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Algeria, and a few areas in South and Central America.


title: Typhus

text: Except for two cases, all instances of epidemic typhus in the United States have occurred east of the Mississippi River. An examination of a cluster of cases in Pennsylvania concluded the source of the infection was flying squirrels. Sylvatic cycle (diseases transmitted from wild animals) epidemic typhus remains uncommon in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have documented only 47 cases from 1976 to 2010. An outbreak of flea-borne murine typhus was identified in downtown Los Angeles, California, in October 2018.


title: Typhus

text: The first reliable description of typhus appears in 1489 AD during the Spanish siege of Baza against the Moors during the War of Granada (1482–1492). These accounts include descriptions of fever; red spots over arms, back, and chest; attention deficit, progressing to delirium; and gangrenous sores and the associated smell of rotting flesh. During the siege, the Spaniards lost 3,000 men to enemy action, but an additional 17,000 died of typhus.


title: Typhus

text: In historical times, "jail fever" or "gaol fever" was common in English prisons, and is believed by modern authorities to have been typhus. It often occurred when prisoners were crowded together into dark, filthy rooms where lice spread easily. Thus, "imprisonment until the next term of court" was often equivalent to a death sentence. Prisoners brought before the court sometimes infected members of the court. The Black Assize of Exeter 1586 was another notable outbreak. During the Lent assizes court held at Taunton in 1730, gaol fever caused the death of the Lord Chief Baron, as well as the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds of others. During a time when persons were executed for capital offenses, more prisoners died from 'gaol fever' than were put to death by all the public executioners in the British realm. In 1759, an English authority estimated that each year, a quarter of the prisoners had died from gaol fever. In London, gaol fever frequently broke out among the ill-kept prisoners of Newgate Prison and then moved into the general city population. In May 1750, the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Samuel Pennant, and many court personnel were fatally infected in the courtroom of the Old Bailey, which adjoined Newgate Prison.


title: Typhus

text: Epidemics occurred routinely throughout Europe from the 16th to the 19th centuries, including during the English Civil War, the Thirty Years' War, and the Napoleonic Wars. Pestilence of several kinds raged among combatants and civilians in Germany and surrounding lands from 1618 to 1648. According to Joseph Patrick Byrne, "By war's end, typhus may have killed more than 10 percent of the total German population, and disease in general accounted for 90 percent of Europe's casualties."


title: Typhus

text: During Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812, more French soldiers died of typhus than were killed by the Russians.


title: Typhus

text: A major epidemic occurred in Ireland between 1816 and 1819, during the famine caused by a worldwide reduction in temperature known as the Year Without a Summer. An estimated 100,000 people perished. Typhus appeared again in the late 1830s, and yet another major typhus epidemic occurred during the Great Irish Famine between 1846 and 1849. The Irish typhus spread to England, where it was sometimes called "Irish fever" and was noted for its virulence. It killed people of all social classes, as lice were endemic and inescapable, but it hit particularly hard in the lower or "unwashed" social strata.


title: Typhus

text: In the United States, a typhus epidemic broke out in Philadelphia in 1837 and killed the son of Franklin Pierce (14th President of the United States) in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1843. Several epidemics occurred in Baltimore, Memphis, and Washington, DC, between 1865 and 1873. Typhus was also a significant killer during the US Civil War, although typhoid fever was the more prevalent cause of US Civil War "camp fever". Typhoid fever is caused by the bacterium "Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi".


title: Typhus

text: In Canada alone, the typhus epidemic of 1847 killed more than 20,000 people from 1847 to 1848, mainly Irish immigrants in fever sheds and other forms of quarantine, who had contracted the disease aboard the crowded coffin ships in fleeing the Great Irish Famine. Officials neither knew how to provide sufficient sanitation under conditions of the time nor understood how the disease spread.


title: Typhus

text: Typhus was endemic in Poland and several neighboring countries prior to World War I (1914–1918), but became epidemic during the war. Delousing stations were established for troops on the Western Front during World War I, but typhus ravaged the armies of the Eastern Front, where over 150,000 died in Serbia alone. Fatalities were generally between 10% and 40% of those infected and the disease was a major cause of death for those nursing the sick.


title: Typhus

text: In 1922, the typhus epidemic reached its peak in Soviet territory, with some 20 to 30 million cases in Russia. Although typhus had ravaged Poland with some 4 million cases reported, efforts to stem the spread of disease in that country had largely succeeded by 1921 through the efforts of public health pioneers such as Hélène Sparrow and Rudolf Weigl. In Russia during the civil war between the White and Red Armies, epidemic typhus killed 2–3 million people, many of whom were civilians. In 1937 and 1938 there was a typhus epidemic in Chile.


title: Typhus

text: During World War II, many German POWs after the loss at Stalingrad died of typhus. Typhus epidemics killed those confined to POW camps, ghettos, and Nazi concentration camps who were held in unhygienic conditions. Pictures of mass graves including people who died from typhus can be seen in footage shot at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Among thousands of prisoners in concentration camps such as Theresienstadt and Bergen-Belsen who died of typhus were Anne Frank, age 15, and her sister Margot, age 19 in the latter camp.


title: Typhus

text: The first typhus vaccine was developed by the Polish zoologist Rudolf Weigl in the interwar period; the vaccine did not prevent the disease but reduced its mortality.


title: Typhus

text: Beginning in 2018, a typhus outbreak spread through Los Angeles County primarily affecting homeless people. In 2019, city attorney Elizabeth Greenwood revealed that she, too, was infected with typhus as a result of a flea bite at her office in Los Angeles City Hall. Pasadena also experienced a sudden uptick in typhus with 22 cases in 2018 but, without being able to attribute this to one location, the Pasadena Public Health Department did not identify the cases as an "outbreak".


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel; it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The story describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him, at which point, the Green Knight stands, picks up his head, and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain, Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving the lord and the lady of the castle at which he is a guest. The poem survives in one manuscript, "Cotton Nero A.x.", which also includes three religious narrative poems: "Pearl", "Cleanness", and "Patience". All four are written in a North West Midlands dialect of Middle English, and are thought to have been written by the same author, dubbed the "Pearl Poet" or "Gawain Poet".


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In Camelot on New Year's Eve, King Arthur's court is exchanging gifts and waiting for the feasting to start, when the king asks to see or hear of an exciting adventure. A gigantic figure, entirely green in appearance and riding a green horse, rides unexpectedly into the hall. He wears no armour but bears an axe in one hand and a holly bough in the other. Refusing to fight anyone there on the grounds that they are all too weak, he insists he has come for a friendly Christmas game: someone is to strike him once with his axe, on the condition that the Green Knight may return the blow in a year and a day. The axe will belong to whoever accepts this deal. King Arthur is prepared to accept the challenge when it appears no other knight will dare, but Sir Gawain, youngest of Arthur's knights and his nephew, asks for the honour instead. The giant bends and bares his neck before him and Gawain neatly beheads him in one stroke. However, the Green Knight neither falls nor falters, but instead reaches out, picks up his severed head, and mounts his horse. The Green Knight shows his bleeding head to Queen Guinevere, while it reminds Gawain that the two must meet again at the Green Chapel in a year and a day, before the knight rides away. Gawain and Arthur admire the axe, hang it up as a trophy, and encourage Guinevere to treat the whole matter lightly.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: As the date approaches, Sir Gawain leaves to find the Green Chapel and keep his part of the bargain. Many adventures and battles are alluded to but not described, until Gawain comes across a splendid castle, where he meets the lord of the castle and his beautiful wife, who are pleased to have such a renowned guest. Also present is an old and ugly lady, unnamed but treated with great honour by all. Gawain tells them of his New Year's appointment at the Green Chapel, and that he has only a few days remaining. The lord laughs, explaining that there is a path that will take him to the chapel less than two miles away, and proposes that Gawain rest at the castle until then. Relieved and grateful, Gawain agrees.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The lord proposes a bargain to Gawain: he goes hunting every day, and he will give Gawain whatever he catches, on the condition that Gawain give him whatever he may gain during the day; Gawain accepts. After he leaves, his wife visits Gawain's bedroom and behaves seductively, but despite her best efforts he allows her nothing but a single kiss. When the lord returns and gives Gawain the deer he has killed, Gawain gives a kiss to him without divulging its source. The next day the lady returns to Gawain, who again courteously foils her advances, and later that day there is a similar exchange of a hunted boar for two kisses. She comes once more on the third morning, but once her advances are denied, she offers Gawain a gold ring as a keepsake. He gently but steadfastly refuses, but she pleads that he at least take her sash, a girdle of green and gold silk. The sash, the lady assures him, is charmed, and will keep him from all physical harm. Tempted, as he may otherwise die the next day, Gawain accepts it, and they exchange three kisses. The lady has Gawain swear that he will keep the gift secret from her husband. That evening, the lord returns with a fox, which he exchanges with Gawain for the three kisses; Gawain does not mention the sash.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The next day, Gawain binds the sash around his waist. Outside the Green Chapel – only an earthen mound containing a cavern – he finds the Green Knight sharpening an axe. As promised, Gawain bends his bared neck to receive his blow. At the first swing, Gawain flinches slightly and the Green Knight belittles him for it. Ashamed of himself, Gawain does not flinch with the second swing, but again, the Green Knight withholds the full force of his blow. The knight explains he was testing Gawain's nerve. Angrily, Gawain tells him to deliver his blow, and so the knight does, causing only a slight wound on Gawain's neck, and ending the game. Gawain seizes his sword, helmet, and shield, but the Green Knight, laughing, reveals himself to be none other than the lord of the castle, Bertilak de Hautdesert, transformed by magic. He explains that the entire adventure was a trick of the unnamed "elderly lady" Gawain saw at the castle, who is the sorceress Morgan le Fay, Arthur's stepsister, who intended to test Arthur's knights and frighten Guinevere to death. The nick Gawain suffered at the third stroke was because of his attempt to conceal the gift of the sash. Gawain is ashamed to have behaved deceitfully, but the Green Knight laughs and pronounces him the most blameless knight in all the land. The two part on cordial terms. Gawain returns to Camelot wearing the sash as a token of his failure to keep his promise. The Knights of the Round Table absolve him of the blame and decide that henceforth each will wear a green sash in recognition of Gawain's adventure and as a reminder to be honest.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Though the real name of the ""Gawain" Poet" (or poets) is unknown, some inferences about them can be drawn from an informed reading of their works. The manuscript of "Gawain" is known in academic circles as "Cotton Nero A.x.", following a naming system used by one of its owners, the 16th century Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, a collector of Medieval English texts. Before the "Gawain" manuscript came into Cotton's possession, it was in the library of Henry Savile in Yorkshire. Little is known about its previous ownership, and until 1824, when the manuscript was introduced to the academic community in a second edition of Thomas Warton's "History", edited by Richard Price, it was almost entirely unknown. Even then, the "Gawain" poem was not published in its entirety until 1839, which is when it was given its present title. Now held in the British Library, it has been dated to the late 14th century, meaning the poet was a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of "The Canterbury Tales", though it is unlikely that they ever met, and the Gawain poet's English is considerably different from Chaucer's. The three other works found in the same manuscript as "Gawain" (commonly known as "Pearl", "Patience", and "Cleanness" or "Purity") are often considered to be written by the same author. However, the manuscript containing these poems was transcribed by a copyist and not by the original poet. Although nothing explicitly suggests that all four poems are by the same poet, comparative analysis of dialect, verse form, and diction have pointed towards single authorship.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: What is known today about the poet is general. As J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, after reviewing the text's allusions, style, and themes, concluded in 1925:


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire. He is known to have lived in the dialect region of the Gawain Poet and is thought to have written the poem "St. Erkenwald", which some scholars argue bears stylistic similarities to "Gawain". "St. Erkenwald", however, has been dated by some scholars to a time outside the Gawain Poet's era. Thus, ascribing authorship to John Massey is still controversial and most critics consider the Gawain Poet an unknown.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The 2,530 lines and 101 stanzas that make up "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" are written in what linguists call the "Alliterative Revival" style typical of the 14th century. Instead of focusing on a metrical syllabic count and rhyme, the alliterative form of this period usually relied on the agreement of a pair of stressed syllables at the beginning of the line and another pair at the end. Each line always includes a pause, called a "caesura", at some point after the first two stresses, dividing it into two half-lines. Although he follows the form of his day, the Gawain Poet was freer with convention than his or her predecessors. The poet broke the alliterative lines into variable-length groups and ended these nominal stanzas with a rhyming section of five lines known as the "bob and wheel", in which the "bob" is a very short line, sometimes of only two syllables, followed by the "wheel," longer lines with internal rhyme.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The earliest known story to feature a beheading game is the 8th-century Middle Irish tale "Bricriu's Feast". This story parallels "Gawain" in that, like the Green Knight, Cú Chulainn's antagonist feints three blows with the axe before letting his target depart without injury. A beheading exchange also appears in the late 12th-century "Life of Caradoc", a Middle French narrative embedded in the anonymous First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' "Perceval, the Story of the Grail". A notable difference in this story is that Caradoc's challenger is his father in disguise, come to test his honour. Lancelot is given a beheading challenge in the early 13th-century "Perlesvaus", in which a knight begs him to chop off his head or else put his own in jeopardy. Lancelot reluctantly cuts it off, agreeing to come to the same place in a year to put his head in the same danger. When Lancelot arrives, the people of the town celebrate and announce that they have finally found a true knight, because many others had failed this test of chivalry.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The stories "The Girl with the Mule" (alternately titled "The Mule Without a Bridle") and "" feature Gawain in beheading game situations. In "Hunbaut," Gawain cuts off a man's head and, before he can replace it, removes the magic cloak keeping the man alive, thus killing him. Several stories tell of knights who struggle to stave off the advances of women sent by their lords as a test; these stories include "Yder", the Lancelot-Grail, "Hunbaut", and "The Knight with the Sword". The last two involve Gawain specifically. Usually, the temptress is the daughter or wife of a lord to whom the knight owes respect, and the knight is tested to see whether or not he will remain chaste in trying circumstances.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In the first branch of the medieval Welsh collection of tales known as The Four Branches of the Mabinogi, Pwyll exchanges places for a year with Arawn, the lord of Annwn (the Otherworld). Despite having his appearance changed to resemble Arawn exactly, Pwyll does not have sexual relations with Arawn's wife during this time, thus establishing a lasting friendship between the two men. This story may, then, provide a background to Gawain's attempts to resist the wife of the Green Knight; thus, the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight may be seen as a tale which combines elements of the Celtic beheading game and seduction test stories. Additionally, in both stories a year passes before the completion of the conclusion of the challenge or exchange. Some scholars disagree with this interpretation, however, as Arawn seems to have accepted the notion that Pwyll may reciprocate with his wife, making it less of a "seduction test" per se, as seduction tests typically involve a Lord and Lady conspiring to seduce a knight, seemingly "against" the wishes of the Lord.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: After the writing of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", several similar stories followed. "The Greene Knight" (15th–17th century) is a rhymed retelling of nearly the same tale. In it, the plot is simplified, motives are more fully explained, and some names are changed. Another story, "The Turke and Gowin" (15th century), begins with a Turk entering Arthur's court and asking, "Is there any will, as a brother, To give a buffett and take another?" At the end of this poem the Turk, rather than buffeting Gawain back, asks the knight to cut off his head, which Gawain does. The Turk then praises Gawain and showers him with gifts. "The Carle of Carlisle" (17th century) also resembles "Gawain" in a scene in which the Carle (Churl), a lord, takes Sir Gawain to a chamber where two swords are hanging and orders Gawain to cut off his head or suffer his own to be cut off. Gawain obliges and strikes, but the Carle rises, laughing and unharmed. Unlike the "Gawain" poem, no return blow is demanded or given.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: At the heart of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is the test of Gawain's adherence to the code of chivalry. The typical temptation fable of medieval literature presents a series of tribulations assembled as tests or "proofs" of moral virtue. The stories often describe several individuals' failures after which the main character is tested. Success in the proofs will often bring immunity or good fortune. Gawain's ability to pass the tests of his host are of utmost importance to his survival, though he does not know it. It is only by fortuity or "instinctive-courtesy" that Sir Gawain can pass his test. Gawain does not realise, however, that these tests are all orchestrated by the lord, Bertilak de Hautdesert.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In addition to the laws of chivalry, Gawain must respect another set of laws concerning courtly love. The knight's code of honour requires him to do whatever a damsel asks. Gawain must accept the girdle from the Lady, but he must also keep the promise he has made to his host that he will give whatever he gains that day. Gawain chooses to keep the girdle out of fear of death, thus breaking his promise to the host but honouring the lady. Upon learning that the Green Knight is actually his host (Bertilak), he realises that although he has completed his quest, he has failed to be virtuous. This test demonstrates the conflict between honour and knightly duties. In breaking his promise, Gawain believes he has lost his honour and failed in his duties.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Scholars have frequently noted the parallels between the three hunting scenes and the three seduction scenes in "Gawain". They are generally agreed that the fox chase has significant parallels to the third seduction scene, in which Gawain accepts the girdle from Bertilak's wife. Gawain, like the fox, fears for his life and is looking for a way to avoid death from the Green Knight's axe. Like his counterpart, he resorts to trickery to save his skin. The fox uses tactics so unlike the first two animals, and so unexpectedly, that Bertilak has the hardest time hunting it. Similarly, Gawain finds the Lady's advances in the third seduction scene more unpredictable and challenging to resist than her previous attempts. She changes her evasive language, typical of courtly love relationships, to a more assertive style. Her dress, modest in earlier scenes, is suddenly voluptuous and revealing.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The deer- and boar-hunting scenes are less clearly connected, although scholars have attempted to link each animal to Gawain's reactions in the parallel seduction scene. Attempts to connect the deer hunt with the first seduction scene have unearthed a few parallels. Deer hunts of the time, like courtship, had to be done according to established rules. Women often favoured suitors who hunted well and skinned their animals, sometimes even watching while a deer was cleaned. The sequence describing the deer hunt is unspecific and nonviolent, with an air of relaxation and exhilaration. The first seduction scene follows in a similar vein, with no overt physical advances and no apparent danger; the entire exchange is humorously portrayed.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The boar-hunting scene is, in contrast, laden with detail. Boars were (and are) much more difficult to hunt than deer; approaching one with only a sword was akin to challenging a knight to single combat. In the hunting sequence, the boar flees but is cornered before a ravine. He turns to face Bertilak with his back to the ravine, prepared to fight. Bertilak dismounts and in the ensuing fight kills the boar. He removes its head and displays it on a pike. In the seduction scene, Bertilak's wife, like the boar, is more forward, insisting that Gawain has a romantic reputation and that he must not disappoint her. Gawain, however, is successful in parrying her attacks, saying that surely, she knows more than he about love. Both the boar hunt and the seduction scene can be seen as depictions of a moral victory: both Gawain and Bertilak face struggles alone and emerge triumphant.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Masculinity has also been associated with hunting. The theme of masculinity is present throughout. In an article by Vern L. Bullough, "Being a Male in the Middle Ages," he discusses Sir Gawain and how normally, masculinity is often viewed in terms of being sexually active. He notes that Sir Gawain is not part of this normalcy.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Some argue that nature represents a chaotic, lawless order which is in direct confrontation with the civilisation of Camelot throughout "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". The green horse and rider that first invade Arthur's peaceful halls are iconic representations of nature's disturbance. Nature is presented throughout the poem as rough and indifferent, constantly threatening the order of men and courtly life. Nature invades and disrupts order in the major events of the narrative, both symbolically and through the inner nature of humanity. This element appears first with the disruption caused by the Green Knight, later when Gawain must fight off his natural lust for Bertilak's wife, and again when Gawain breaks his vow to Bertilak by choosing to keep the green girdle, valuing survival over virtue. Represented by the sin-stained girdle, nature is an underlying force, forever within man and keeping him imperfect (in a chivalric sense). In this view, Gawain is part of a wider conflict between nature and chivalry, an examination of the ability of man's order to overcome the chaos of nature.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Several critics have made exactly the opposite interpretation, reading the poem as a comic critique of the Christianity of the time, particularly as embodied in the Christian chivalry of Arthur's court. In its zeal to extirpate all traces of paganism, Christianity had cut itself off from the sources of life in nature and the female. The green girdle represents all the pentangle lacks. The Arthurian enterprise is doomed unless it can acknowledge the unattainability of the ideals of the Round Table, and, for the sake of realism and wholeness, recognise and incorporate the pagan values represented by the Green Knight.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The chivalry that is represented within "Gawain" is one which was constructed by court nobility. The violence that is part of this chivalry is steeply contrasted by the fact that King Arthur's court is Christian, and the initial beheading event takes place while celebrating Christmas. The violence of an act of beheading seems to be counterintuitive to chivalric and Christian ideals, and yet it is seen as part of knighthood.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The question of politeness and chivalry is a main theme during Gawain's interactions with Bertilak's wife. He cannot accept her advances or else lose his honour, and yet he cannot utterly refuse her advances or else risk upsetting his hostess. Gawain plays a very fine line and the only part where he appears to fail is when he conceals the green girdle from Bertilak.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The word (game) is found 18 times in "Gawain". Its similarity to the word (man), which appears 21 times, has led some scholars to see men and games as centrally linked. Games at this time were seen as tests of worthiness, as when the Green Knight challenges the court's right to its good name in a "Christmas game". The "game" of exchanging gifts was common in Germanic cultures. If a man received a gift, he was obliged to provide the giver with a better gift or risk losing his honour, almost like an exchange of blows in a fight (or in a "beheading game"). The poem revolves around two games: an exchange of beheading and an exchange of winnings. These appear at first to be unconnected. However, a victory in the first game will lead to a victory in the second. Elements of both games appear in other stories; however, the linkage of outcomes is unique to "Gawain".


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Times, dates, seasons, and cycles within "Gawain" are often noted by scholars because of their symbolic nature. The story starts on New Year's Eve with a beheading and culminates one year later on the next New Year's Day. Gawain leaves Camelot on All Saints Day and arrives at Bertilak's castle on Christmas Eve. Furthermore, the Green Knight tells Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in "a year and a day"—in other words, the next New Year's Day. Some scholars interpret the yearly cycles, each beginning and ending in winter, as the poet's attempt to convey the inevitable fall of all things good and noble in the world. Such a theme is strengthened by the image of Troy, a powerful nation once thought to be invincible which, according to the "Aeneid", fell to the Greeks due to pride and ignorance. The Trojan connection shows itself in the presence of two nearly identical descriptions of Troy's destruction. The poem's first line reads: "Since the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy" and the final stanzaic line (before the bob and wheel) is "After the siege and the assault were ceased at Troy".


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Scholars have puzzled over the Green Knight's symbolism since the discovery of the poem. British medievalist C. S. Lewis said the character was "as vivid and concrete as any image in literature" and J. R. R. Tolkien said he was the "most difficult character" to interpret in "Sir Gawain". His major role in Arthurian literature is that of a judge and tester of knights, thus he is at once terrifying, friendly, and mysterious. He appears in only two other poems: "The Greene Knight" and "King Arthur and King Cornwall". Scholars have attempted to connect him to other mythical characters, such as Jack in the green of English tradition and to Al-Khidr, but no definitive connection has yet been established.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: He represents a mix of two traditional figures in romance and other medieval narratives: "the literary green man" and "the literary wild man." The Green Knight challenges Gawain to rise to the ideals of honour and religious practices. His name, the Green Knight, shows his opposition to nature: the colour green represents forces of nature, and the word "knight" connects him to society and civilisation. While the Green Knight represents the primitive, and uncivilised side of man's nature, he also opposes nature as well. The description of the Green Knight, which he shares with his green horse, shows the central idea of human nature's potential.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Given the varied and even contradictory interpretations of the colour green, its precise meaning in the poem remains ambiguous. In English folklore and literature, green was traditionally used to symbolise nature and its associated attributes: fertility and rebirth. Stories of the medieval period also used it to allude to love and the base desires of man. Because of its connection with faeries and spirits in early English folklore, green also signified witchcraft, devilry and evil. It can also represent decay and toxicity. When combined with gold, as with the Green Knight and the girdle, green was often seen as representing youth's passing. In Celtic mythology, green was associated with misfortune and death, and therefore avoided in clothing. The green girdle, originally worn for protection, became a symbol of shame and cowardice; it is finally adopted as a symbol of honour by the knights of Camelot, signifying a transformation from good to evil and back again; this displays both the spoiling and regenerative connotations of the colour green.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: There is a possibility, as Alice Buchanan has argued, that the colour green is erroneously attributed to the Green Knight due to the poet's mistranslation or misunderstanding of the Irish word , which could either mean grey or green, or the identical word in Cornish. has been used to denote a range of colours: light blues, greys, and greens of the sea and grass.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In the Death of Curoi (one of the Irish stories from "Bricriu's Feast"), Curoi stands in for Bertilak, and is often called "the man of the grey mantle" which corresponds to Welsh Brenin Llywd or Gwynn ap Nudd. Though the words usually used for grey in the Death of Curoi are or , roughly meaning milk-coloured and shadowy respectively, in later works featuring a green knight, the word is used and may have been the basis of misunderstanding.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The girdle's symbolic meaning, in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", has been construed in a variety of ways. Interpretations range from sexual to spiritual. Those who argue for the sexual inference view the girdle as a "trophy". It is not entirely clear if the "winner" is Sir Gawain or the Lady, Bertilak's wife. The girdle is given to Gawain by the Lady to keep him safe when he confronts the Green Knight. When Bertilak comes home from his hunting trip, Gawain does not reveal the girdle to his host; instead, he hides it. This introduces a spiritual interpretation, that Gawain's acceptance of the girdle is a sign of his faltering faith in God, at least in the face of death. To some, the Green Knight is Christ, who overcomes death, while Gawain is the Every Christian, who in his struggles to follow Christ faithfully, chooses the easier path. In Sir Gawain, the easier choice is the girdle, which promises what Gawain most desires. Faith in God, alternatively, requires one's acceptance that what one most desires does not always coincide with what God has planned. It is arguably best to view the girdle not as an either–or situation, but as a complex, multi-faceted symbol that acts to test Gawain in many ways. While Gawain can resist Bertilak's wife's sexual advances, he is unable to resist the powers of the girdle. Gawain is operating under the laws of chivalry which, evidently, have rules that can contradict each other. In the story of Sir Gawain, Gawain finds himself torn between doing what a damsel asks (accepting the girdle) and keeping his promise (returning anything given to him while his host is away).


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The poem contains the first recorded use of the word "pentangle" in English. It contains the only representation of such a symbol on Gawain's shield in the Gawain literature. What is more, the poet uses a total of 46 lines to describe the meaning of the pentangle; no other symbol in the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail. The poem describes the pentangle as a symbol of faithfulness and an (endless knot). From lines 640 to 654, the five points of the pentangle relate directly to Gawain in five ways: five senses, his five fingers, his faith found in the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary (whose face was on the inside of the shield) and finally friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness, and pity (traits that Gawain possessed around others). In line 625, it is described as (a sign set by Solomon). Solomon, the third king of Israel, in the 10th century BC, was said to have the mark of the pentagram on his ring, which he received from the archangel Michael. The pentagram seal on this ring was said to give Solomon power over demons.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Along these lines, some academics link the Gawain pentangle to magical traditions. In Germany, the symbol was called a (nightmare spirit's foot) and was placed on household objects to keep out evil. The symbol was also associated with magical charms that, if recited or written on a weapon, would call forth magical forces. However, concrete evidence tying the magical pentagram to Gawain's pentangle is scarce.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Gawain's pentangle also symbolises the "phenomenon of physically endless objects signifying a temporally endless quality." Many poets use the symbol of the circle to show infinity or endlessness, but Gawain's poet insisted on using something more complex. In medieval number theory, the number five is considered a "circular number", since it "reproduces itself in its last digit when raised to its powers". Furthermore, it replicates itself geometrically; that is, every pentangle has a smaller pentagon that allows a pentangle to be embedded in it and this "process may be repeated forever with decreasing pentangles". Thus, by reproducing the number five, which in medieval number symbolism signified incorruptibility, Gawain's pentangle represents his eternal incorruptibility.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Gawain's refusal of the Lady's ring has major implications for the remainder of the story. While the modern student may tend to pay more attention to the girdle as the eminent object offered by her, readers in the time of Gawain would have noticed the significance of the offer of the ring as they believed that rings, and especially the embedded gems, had talismanic properties similarly done by the Gawain-poet in "Pearl". This is especially true of the Lady's ring, as scholars believe it to be a ruby or carbuncle, indicated when the Gawain-Poet describes it as a (fiery sun). This red colour can be seen as symbolising royalty, divinity, and the Passion of the Christ, something that Gawain as a knight of the Round Table would strive for, but this colour could also represent the negative qualities of temptation and covetousness. Given the importance of magic rings in Arthurian romance, this remarkable ring would also have been believed to protect the wearer from harm just as the Lady claims the girdle will.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The poet highlights number symbolism to add symmetry and meaning to the poem. For example, three kisses are exchanged between Gawain and Bertilak's wife; Gawain is tempted by her on three separate days; Bertilak goes hunting three times, and the Green Knight swings at Gawain three times with his axe. The number two also appears repeatedly, as in the two beheading scenes, two confession scenes, and two castles. The five points of the pentangle, the poet adds, represent Gawain's virtues, for he is (faithful in five and many times five). The poet goes on to list the ways in which Gawain is virtuous: all five of his senses are without fault; his five fingers never fail him, and he always remembers the five wounds of Christ, as well as the five joys of the Virgin Mary. The fifth five is Gawain himself, who embodies the five moral virtues of the code of chivalry: "friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety". All of these virtues reside, as the poet says, in (the endless knot) of the pentangle, which forever interlinks and is never broken. This intimate relationship between symbol and faith allows for rigorous allegorical interpretation, especially in the physical role that the shield plays in Gawain's quest. Thus, the poet makes Gawain the epitome of perfection in knighthood through number symbolism.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The number five is also found in the structure of the poem itself. "Sir Gawain" is 101 stanzas long, traditionally organised into four 'fitts' of 21, 24, 34, and 22 stanzas. These divisions, however, have since been disputed; scholars have begun to believe that they are the work of the copyist and not of the poet. The surviving manuscript features a series of capital letters added after the fact by another scribe, and some scholars argue that these additions were an attempt to restore the original divisions. These letters divide the manuscript into nine parts. The first and last parts are 22 stanzas long. The second and second-to-last parts are only one stanza long, and the middle five parts are eleven stanzas long. The number eleven is associated with transgression in other medieval literature (being one more than ten, a number associated with the Ten Commandments). Thus, this set of five elevens (55 stanzas) creates the perfect mix of transgression and incorruption, suggesting that Gawain is faultless in his faults.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: At the story's climax, Gawain is wounded superficially in the neck by the Green Knight's axe. During the medieval period, the body and the soul were believed to be so intimately connected that wounds were considered an outward sign of inward sin. The neck, specifically, was believed to correlate with the part of the soul related to will, connecting the reasoning part (the head) and the courageous part (the heart). Gawain's sin resulted from using his will to separate reasoning from courage. By accepting the girdle from the lady, he employs reason to do something less than courageous—evade death in a dishonest way. Gawain's wound is thus an outward sign of an internal wound. The Green Knight's series of tests shows Gawain the weakness that has been in him all along: the desire to use his will pridefully for personal gain, rather than submitting his will in humility to God. The Green Knight, by engaging with the greatest knight of Camelot, also reveals the moral weakness of pride in all of Camelot, and therefore all of humanity. However, the wounds of Christ, believed to offer healing to wounded souls and bodies, are mentioned throughout the poem in the hope that this sin of prideful "stiffneckedness" will be healed among fallen mortals.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Many critics argue that "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" should be viewed as a romance. Medieval romances typically recount the marvellous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight, often of super-human ability, who abides by chivalry's strict codes of honour and demeanour, embarks upon a quest and defeats monsters, thereby winning the favour of a lady. Thus, medieval romances focus not on love and sentiment (as the term "romance" implies today), but on adventure.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Gawain's function, as medieval scholar Alan Markman says, "is the function of the romance hero … to stand as the champion of the human race, and by submitting to strange and severe tests, to demonstrate human capabilities for good or bad action." Through Gawain's adventure, it becomes clear that he is merely human. The reader becomes attached to this human view amidst the poem's romanticism, relating to Gawain's humanity while respecting his knightly qualities. Gawain "shows us what moral conduct is. We shall probably not equal his behaviour, but we admire him for pointing out the way."


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In viewing the poem as a medieval romance, many scholars see it as intertwining chivalric and courtly love laws under the English Order of the Garter. A slightly altered version of the Order's motto, "Honi soit qui mal y pense", or "Shamed be he who finds evil here," has been added, in a different hand, at the end of the poem. Some critics describe Gawain's peers wearing girdles of their own as linked to the origin of the Order of the Garter. However, in the parallel poem "The Greene Knight", the lace is white, not green, and is considered the origin of the collar worn by the Knights of the Bath, not the Order of the Garter. Still, a possible connection to the Order is not beyond the realm of possibility.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: The poem is in many ways deeply Christian, with frequent references to the fall of Adam and Eve and to Jesus Christ. Scholars have debated the depth of the Christian elements within the poem by looking at it in the context of the age in which it was written, coming up with varying views as to what represents a Christian element of the poem and what does not. For example, some critics compare "Sir Gawain" to the other three poems of the "Gawain" manuscript. Each has a heavily Christian theme, causing scholars to interpret "Gawain" similarly. Comparing it to the poem "Cleanness" (also known as "Purity"), for example, they see it as a story of the apocalyptic fall of a civilisation, in "Gawain's" case, Camelot. In this interpretation, Sir Gawain is like Noah, separated from his society and warned by the Green Knight (who is seen as God's representative) of the coming doom of Camelot. Gawain, judged worthy through his test, is spared the doom of the rest of Camelot. King Arthur and his knights, however, misunderstand Gawain's experience and wear garters themselves. In "Cleanness" the men who are saved are similarly helpless in warning their society of impending destruction.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: One of the key points stressed in this interpretation is that salvation is an individual experience difficult to communicate to outsiders. In his depiction of Camelot, the poet reveals a concern for his society, whose inevitable fall will bring about the ultimate destruction intended by God. "Gawain" was written around the time of the Black Death and Peasants' Revolt, events which convinced many people that their world was coming to an apocalyptic end and this belief was reflected in literature and culture. However, other critics see weaknesses in this view, since the Green Knight is ultimately under the control of Morgan le Fay, often viewed as a figure of evil in Camelot tales. This makes the knight's presence as a representative of God problematic.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: While the character of the Green Knight is usually not viewed as a representation of Christ in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", critics do acknowledge a parallel. Lawrence Besserman, a specialist in medieval literature, explains that "the Green Knight is not a figurative representative of Christ. But the idea of Christ's divine/human nature provides a medieval conceptual framework that supports the poet's serious/comic account of the Green Knight's supernatural/human qualities and actions." This duality exemplifies the influence and importance of Christian teachings and views of Christ in the era of the Gawain Poet.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Furthermore, critics note the Christian reference to Christ's crown of thorns at the conclusion of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". After Gawain returns to Camelot and tells his story regarding the newly acquired green sash, the poem concludes with a brief prayer and a reference to "the thorn-crowned God". Besserman theorises that "with these final words the poet redirects our attention from the circular girdle-turned-sash (a double image of Gawain's "": untruth/renown) to the circular Crown of Thorns (a double image of Christ's humiliation turned triumph)."


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Throughout the poem, Gawain encounters numerous trials testing his devotion and faith in Christianity. When Gawain sets out on his journey to find the Green Chapel, he finds himself lost, and only after praying to the Virgin Mary does he find his way. As he continues his journey, Gawain once again faces anguish regarding his inevitable encounter with the Green Knight. Instead of praying to Mary, as before, Gawain places his faith in the girdle given to him by Bertilak's wife. From the Christian perspective, this leads to disastrous and embarrassing consequences for Gawain as he is forced to re-evaluate his faith when the Green Knight points out his betrayal. Another interpretation sees the work in terms of the perfection of virtue, with the pentangle representing the moral perfection of the connected virtues, the Green Knight as Christ exhibiting perfect fortitude, and Gawain as slightly imperfect in fortitude by virtue of flinching when under the threat of death.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: An analogy is also made between Gawain's trial and the Biblical test that Adam encounters in the Garden of Eden. Adam succumbs to Eve just as Gawain surrenders to Bertilak's wife by accepting the girdle. Although Gawain sins by putting his faith in the girdle and not confessing when he is caught, the Green Knight pardons him, thereby allowing him to become a better Christian by learning from his mistakes. Through the various games played and hardships endured, Gawain finds his place within the Christian world.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Feminist literary critics see the poem as portraying women's ultimate power over men. Morgan le Fay and Bertilak's wife, for example, are the most powerful characters in the poem—Morgan especially, as she begins the game by enchanting the Green Knight. The girdle and Gawain's scar can be seen as symbols of feminine power, each of them diminishing Gawain's masculinity. Gawain's misogynist passage, in which he blames all his troubles on women and lists the many men who have fallen prey to women's wiles, further supports the feminist view of ultimate female power in the poem.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In contrast, others argue that the poem focuses mostly on the opinions, actions, and abilities of men. For example, on the surface, it appears that Bertilak's wife is a strong leading character. By adopting the masculine role, she appears to be an empowered individual, particularly in the bedroom scene. This is not entirely the case, however. While the Lady is being forward and outgoing, Gawain's feelings and emotions are the focus of the story, and Gawain stands to gain or lose the most. The Lady "makes the first move", so to speak, but Gawain decides what is to become of those actions. He, therefore, is in charge of the situation and even the relationship.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In the bedroom scene, both the negative and positive actions of the Lady are motivated by her desire. Her feelings cause her to step out of the typical female role and into that of the male, thus becoming more empowered. At the same time, those same actions make the Lady appear adulterous; some scholars compare her with Eve in the Bible. By convincing Gawain to take her girdle, i.e., the apple, the pact made with Bertilak—and therefore the Green Knight—is broken. Based on this, Gawain portrays himself, in what is often called his "antifeminist diatribe" later on, as a "good man seduced".


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: From 1350 to 1400—the period in which the poem is thought to have been written—Wales experienced several raids at the hands of the English, who were attempting to colonise the area. The Gawain poet uses a North West Midlands dialect common on the Welsh–English border, potentially placing him in the midst of this conflict. Patricia Clare Ingham is credited with first viewing the poem through the lens of postcolonialism, and since then a great deal of dispute has emerged over the extent to which colonial differences play a role in the poem. Most critics agree that gender plays a role but differ about whether gender supports the colonial ideals or replaces them as English and Welsh cultures interact in the poem.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: A large amount of critical debate also surrounds the poem as it relates to the bi-cultural political landscape of the time. Some argue that Bertilak is an example of the hybrid Anglo-Welsh culture found on the Welsh–English border. They therefore view the poem as a reflection of a hybrid culture that plays strong cultures off one another to create a new set of cultural rules and traditions. Other scholars, however, argue that historically much Welsh blood was shed well into the 14th century, creating a situation far removed from the more friendly hybridisation suggested by Ingham. To support this argument further, it is suggested that the poem creates an "us versus them" scenario contrasting the knowledgeable civilised English with the uncivilised borderlands that are home to Bertilak and the other monsters that Gawain encounters.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: In contrast to this perception of the colonial lands, others argue that the land of Hautdesert, Bertilak's territory, has been misrepresented or ignored in modern criticism. They suggest that it is a land with its own moral agency, one that plays a central role in the story. Bonnie Lander, for example, argues that the denizens of Hautdesert are "intelligently immoral", choosing to follow certain codes and rejecting others, a position which creates a "distinction … of moral insight versus moral faith". Lander thinks that the border dwellers are more sophisticated because they do not unthinkingly embrace the chivalric codes but challenge them in a philosophical, and—in the case of Bertilak's appearance at Arthur's court—literal sense. Lander's argument about the superiority of the denizens of Hautdesert hinges on the lack of self-awareness present in Camelot, which leads to an unthinking populace that frowns on individualism. In this view, it is not Bertilak and his people, but Arthur and his court, who are the monsters.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Several scholars have attempted to find a real-world correspondence for Gawain's journey to the Green Chapel. The Anglesey islands, for example, are mentioned in the poem. They exist today as a single island off the coast of Wales. In line 700, Gawain is said to pass the (Holy Head), believed by many scholars to be either Holywell or the Cistercian abbey of Poulton in Pulford. Holywell is associated with the beheading of Saint Winifred. As the story goes, Winifred was a virgin who was beheaded by a local leader after she refused his sexual advances. Her uncle, another saint, put her head back in place and healed the wound, leaving only a white scar. The parallels between this story and Gawain's make this area a likely candidate for the journey.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Gawain's trek leads him directly into the centre of the Pearl Poet's dialect region, where the candidates for the locations of the Castle at Hautdesert and the Green Chapel stand. Hautdesert is thought to be in the area of Swythamley in northwest Midland, as it lies in the writer's dialect area and matches the topographical features described in the poem. The area is also known to have housed all of the animals hunted by Bertilak (deer, boar, fox) in the 14th century. The Green Chapel is thought to be in either Lud's Church or Wetton Mill, as these areas closely match the descriptions given by the author. Ralph Elliott located the chapel (two miles hence) from the old manor house at Swythamley Park at (the bottom of a valley) on a hillside ("loke a littel on þe launde on þi lyfte honde") in an enormous fissure (). Several have tried to replicate this expedition and others such as Michael W. Twomey have created a virtual tour of Gawain's journey entitled 'Travels with Sir Gawain' that include photographs of landscapes mentioned and particular views mentioned in the text.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: According to Queer scholar Richard Zeikowitz, the Green Knight represents a threat to homosocial friendship in his medieval world. Zeikowitz argues that the narrator of the poem seems entranced by the Knight's beauty, homoeroticising him in poetic form. The Green Knight's attractiveness challenges the homosocial rules of King Arthur's court and poses a threat to their way of life. Zeikowitz also states that Gawain seems to find Bertilak as attractive as the narrator finds the Green Knight. Bertilak, however, follows the homosocial code and develops a friendship with Gawain. Gawain's embracing and kissing Bertilak in several scenes thus represents not a homosexual but a homosocial expression. Men of the time often embraced and kissed, and this was acceptable under the chivalric code. Nonetheless, Zeikowitz claims the Green Knight blurs the lines between homosociality and homosexuality, representing the difficulty medieval writers sometimes had in separating the two.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Queer scholar Carolyn Dinshaw argues that the poem may have been a response to accusations that Richard II had a male lover—an attempt to re-establish the idea that heterosexuality was the Christian norm. Around the time the poem was written, the Catholic Church was beginning to express concerns about kissing between males. Many religious figures were trying to make the distinction between strong trust and friendship between males and homosexuality. She asserts that the Pearl Poet seems to have been simultaneously entranced and repulsed by homosexual desire. According to Dinshaw, in his other poem "Cleanness", he points out several grievous sins, but spends lengthy passages describing them in minute detail, and she sees this alleged' obsession' as carrying over to "Gawain" in his descriptions of the Green Knight.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Beyond this, Dinshaw proposes that Gawain can be read as a woman-like figure. In her view, he is the passive one in the advances of Bertilak's wife, as well as in his encounters with Bertilak himself, where he acts the part of a woman in kissing the man. However, while the poem does have homosexual elements, these elements are brought up by the poet to establish heterosexuality as the normal lifestyle of Gawain's world. The poem does this by making the kisses between the Lady and Gawain sexual in nature but rendering the kisses between Gawain and Bertilak "unintelligible" to the medieval reader. In other words, the poet portrays kisses between a man and a woman as having the possibility of leading to sex, while in a heterosexual world, kisses between a man and a man are portrayed as having no such possibility.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Though the surviving manuscript dates from the fourteenth century, the first published version of the poem did not appear until as late as 1839, when Sir Frederic Madden of the British Museum recognised the poem as worth reading. Madden's scholarly, Middle English edition of the poem was followed in 1898 by the first Modern English translation – a prose version by literary scholar Jessie Weston. In 1925, J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon published a scholarly edition of the Middle English text of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"; a revised edition of this text was prepared by Norman Davis and published in 1967. The book, featuring a text in Middle English with extensive scholarly notes, is frequently confused with the translation into Modern English that Tolkien prepared, along with translations of "Pearl" and "Sir Orfeo", late in his life. Many editions of the latter work, first published in 1975, shortly after his death, list Tolkien on the cover as author rather than translator.


title: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

text: Many translations into Modern English are available. Notable translators include Jessie Weston, whose 1898 prose translation and 1907 poetic translation took many liberties with the original; Theodore Banks, whose 1929 translation was praised for its adaptation of the language to modern usage; and Marie Borroff, whose imitative translation was first published in 1967 and "entered the academic canon" in 1968, in the second edition of the "Norton Anthology of English Literature". In 2010, her (slightly revised) translation was published as a Norton Critical Edition, with a foreword by Laura Howes. In 2007, Simon Armitage, who grew up near the Gawain poet's purported residence, published a translation which attracted attention in the US and the United Kingdom, and was published in the United States by Norton.