Many people will probably feel confused after watching "The Green Knight". Although the story is a knight's trial, the giant, the witch, the fox, the green knight, the earl of the castle, etc. will inevitably make people feel Doubt, in fact, if you understand the background behind the story, you will understand the setting of some of the plots better when you watch the movie. In fact, the story itself is quite interesting and can be made better.
Spoiler alert
1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The film "The Green Knight" is actually adapted from a famous fourteenth-century British alliteration poem " Sir Gawain and the Green Knight " ( Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ). romantic poetry.
I will briefly outline this long poem below, and if you are interested, you can compare it with the plot of the movie.
On Christmas Eve, King Arthur and his knights were gathered in the main hall when a knight in green clothes, riding a green horse and holding a green holly branch suddenly broke in, he asked for a friendly game, he took out He gave his own axe and said that a person with courage can use this axe to chop him, and this axe was also given to the brave man, but today, one year later, the green knight will return the wounds he suffered today.
All the knights were terrified. Just when the old King Arthur was about to go into battle in person, his nephew, the youngest Sir Gawain (King Arthur had no children, so Gawain was the first heir) stood up, and the Green Knight put With his neck exposed, Gawain slashed it with an axe, and the green knight lost his head on the spot, but the green knight picked up his head, reminding Gawain to meet in the Green Palace a year later, and then rode away.
A year later, Sir Gawain was ready to start his search for the Green Palace, and he passed five levels and defeated six generals, which was considered unparalleled all the way, until he came to a castle. The owner of the castle is Betty Lac, and there are Betty Lac's beautiful wife and an ugly old woman in the castle. Betty Lac said that there are two days before the New Year, and the Green Palace is very close, so just stay with me for a few days, When the time was up to go to the appointment, Sir Gawain thought it made sense and agreed.
During the three days of waiting, Betty Lak proposed a deal to Gawain: I will give you the prey you hunt every day, and you will give me what you get every day. When Betty Lack went out on the first day, Betty Lack's wife came to Gawain. Gawain was very moral, so his wife kissed Gawain. When Betty Lack came back from hunting in the evening, Gawain gave Betty Lack a kiss, but he didn't say anything. What's up with this kiss.
The second day and the third day were similar. The wife gave Gawain two kisses and three kisses, and Gawain also gave them back to Betty Lack, but on the third day, the wife secretly gave Gawain an alleged The belt that could protect him from harm, because Gawain was worried about being beheaded, so he took this belt and didn't give it to Betty Lak.
Three days later, Gawain went to the Green Hall to meet the green knight. The green knight slashed three times, the first time Gawain shrank, the second time was the green knight's test, and the third time Gawain took the axe, but The green knight only scratched Gawain lightly, because he passed the trial along the way, just because he concealed the matter of the belt, so he still gave him a little punishment.
When Gawain returned to the city, he always wore this belt as a symbol of his timidity and hypocrisy, to remind himself to be honest and sincere.
It can be seen that the framework of the story of "The Green Knight" basically follows the structure of the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", but Gawain in the poem overcomes all obstacles and stumbles in the end, but Gawain in the movie, It can be said that he failed to pass a test.
2. The Five Virtues of a Knight
In the Middle Ages when poetry was written, the five-pointed star was the symbol of Christianity at that time, and the "five" represented the five wounds on the hands, feet and left rib of Jesus during the crucifixion, symbolizing the five joys of Mary. In the poem "The Green Knight", the five horns of the five-pointed star represent the five virtues of chivalry: generosity, propriety, chastity, piety and friendship.
It should be noted that the English pentangle of the five-pointed star in this poem is one of the earliest records of this word.
In the poetry, there is no real classification of the trials corresponding to these five qualities, only that he has withstood the test of chastity in the castle of Bettyrac, but lost his integrity because of his greed for life and fear of death (I guess can be classified as ritual).
But in the movie "The Green Knight", Gawain's five virtues are basically tested in turn.
The first is generosity, which is obviously the behavior of the boy he met at the beginning (the boy's name is Scavenger, which refers to scavengers). He didn't give generously but walked away with a thank you. Even if the young man asked him for money, Gawain just gave him a coin.
Regardless of whether it was right for Gawain not to give money to the young man or whether the young man had bad intentions, there is no doubt that Gawain's actions did not satisfy the generosity of chivalry, so he was soon robbed by a team of scavengers and lost. Everything.
After that, there is etiquette, which is relatively broad, but we can see that Gawain stayed there at Ms. Winifred's house, and slept directly on the bed without asking. The most important thing is that when a woman asked Gawain to help, Gawain To actually want a reward, selfless help should be the virtue of a knight, and Gawain is obviously not qualified in this one.
In fact, when he met a scavenger, when the scavenger said that his two older brothers were killed in battle, Gawain didn't react or even greeted him, which was already against etiquette.
This point of chastity is naturally that in Betty Lac's castle, in the face of the temptation of Betty Lac's wife, he couldn't hold back, and he couldn't hold back and slumped on the spot, which was naturally a negative score.
The article of piety may be ambiguous. We can understand it as Gawain's disloyalty to the Lord. After all, he is an image who goes to pubs and brothels every day before Christmas, and has no respect for important moments at all. Obviously, he is not loyal to chivalry. Accepting that belt is an iron proof that he is greedy for life and fear of death. In the eyes of Knight Gawain in the original poem, it is still a stain worth remembering for a lifetime. For the weak chicken in this film, Gawain, Of course there is no piety at all.
Friendship is obviously a friendship with the little fox, and finally parting ways with the fox symbolizes the breakup of friendship and companionship.
And deceiving Betty Lack to hang out with her wife probably didn't count as a matter of love or righteousness.
Of course, at the end of the film, Gawain decided to face death calmly after seeing his life in the light of the light, which was considered the last bit of honor guarding the knight.
But where did this strange journey begin?
3. The protection of the mother and the girdle
In the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", there is a very powerful female character. She is Gawain's mother's sister, King Arthur's stepsister, and Merlin's apprentice. She is the trigger for everything. In this film, this character is merged with Gawain's mother, although the film does not give a name, but it is clear that she is Morgan Le Fay.
That's right.
In the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", the green knight was summoned by Morgan Le Fay. She wanted the green knight to test the courage of King Arthur's knights and to scare King Arthur's wife Guinevere .
In the movie, the green knight is obviously summoned by Morgan Le Fay. Note that there is also a scene of Merlin.
But since Morgan Le Fay became Gawain's mother in the movie, what exactly did she want to do?
After watching the whole film, we can guess that this is her "inspiration" for her unworthy son. Gao Wen accepted the challenge, and a year later, he went over the mountains to accept the green knight's counterattack. After that, he could return triumphantly and be justifiable. Inheriting the throne comes with a good plan.
But nothing comes without a price, and the green knight wants to chop off his son's head. As a mother, Morgan Le Fay naturally has a method, and her woven belt has the power to protect her son from death.
But the belt was snatched away in the first half of the film.
Then inexplicably, it was sent back by Betty Lack's wife. What's going on here?
In the original poem, there is an ugly old woman in Betty Lack's house. In the film, this old woman is blindfolded, and the only blindfolded character in the film is Gawain's mother, so We can contact that this old woman is Morgan Le Fay, who is watching her son's adventures and sending aid at a critical moment.
So how amazing is this belt?
In fact, it can only help Gawain escape death. Originally, the head should have been chopped off by the green knight, but because of the belt, Gawain saved his life, but the axe that was not chopped off became Gawain's dagger hanging over his head. The Sword of Mokris, which he must wear for his entire life to protect himself, a spell that lasts a lifetime, and a curse.
After knowing all this, Gawain decided to tear off his belt and accept death calmly. He didn't know whether Morgan Le Fay, a mother, would hate iron for not becoming steel or feel that his son had finally become a responsible and responsible 14 What about the new century youth?
4. The green knight and the metaphor of nature
There is one point that has not been mentioned before, that is, in the original poem, it is not Morgan Le Fay who summoned the green knight, but she cast a spell on Betty Lak to turn him into a green knight, which is why the green knight Finally, I know that Gawain received the belt (the belt may not have mana in the original poem, it is just the sustenance of Gawain who is desperate to survive and blindly believes in magic), this is also the reason why Bettyrac's castle is so close to the Green Palace .
But apart from the true identity of the green knight, what the green knight represents is also worth discussing. You can take a look at the following pictures.
Is it similar to the green knight in the movie? These are totems from all regions, cultures, and eras around the world, collectively known as the "Green Man", and I guess the film obviously draws on such an idea, combining the image of the Green Knight with the Green Man.
And what does the green man stand for? Generally speaking, green men symbolize nature, the cycle of life in nature, the ebb and flow of times, and so on.
So when we revisited the film with this point in mind, the game where you chop my head off this year and I chop off your head next year can be understood as the inexhaustible demands of human beings on nature, which will eventually lead to revenge from nature. This is also a kind of simple environmental awareness. Of course, there may be no such meaning in the original poem, but in this film, especially the remarks of Betty Lack's wife, it clearly shows this layer of thinking of reverence for the natural world.
Speaking of nature, the giant in the film is also impressive. The original poem mentions the giant very briefly. In this film, the image of the giant may represent the force majeure, mysterious and grand phenomenon in nature. Wen tried to use the power of giants to move forward, but flinched when the giants stretched out their hands, which may have shown a kind of human desire and mixed fear in the face of nature.
5. The Martyr and the Little Fox
Finally, let's talk about some other Easter eggs.
In the film, the headless Miss Winifred that Gawain ran into in the deserted mansion was actually the girl of St. Winifred in history. She wanted to be a nun, but when she became a nun, she could not get married, which made her pursue The hunter was disappointed, and could only be destroyed if he couldn't get nature, so a suitor named Calado cut off Miss Pooh's head, and she also became a martyr in a sense.
But Miss Sister didn't die for too long, her head fell off, and a pool that could heal the body suddenly appeared on the ground, so with the help of another old man, Saint Benoy, Miss Pooh's head was returned to its original owner, and Carado naturally also punished.
In the film, Gawain helped Miss Saint-Vigny fish the head, which happened to be in a pool.
And then there's the fox. The fox in the film is a test of Gawain's "friendship", but in the poem, the fox appears in the third day of Gawain's deal with Betty Lack, the day Betty Lack hunts the fox (also in the film). In this way), and Gawain, who exchanged with Betty Lack, was struggling with whether to hand over the belt, so in the poem, the fox still has this layer of meaning.
And foxes often appear in Celtic legends, and foxes are usually used as soul mates or guides after death. In the film, when Gawain eats poisonous mushrooms, he is always accompanied by little foxes and chooses foxes. Being friends should take this into account.
Knowing these backgrounds, do you think this film will be easier to understand in retrospect?
Because of these complex backgrounds, "The Green Knight" still has some barriers to entry. If you don't know it, you can read a story, but IMHO, the filming is really not that exciting. If you don't understand the story in many places, you must be It will be stinky and long, which can be regarded as a slight lack of director skills.
After all, a really good story, no matter whether the audience has background knowledge or not, should be able to enjoy watching it. If you have to do homework to get acquainted with many stalks, you may be able to win a lot of applause in the small circle. For the public, it is undoubtedly a Qu Gao and widow, unpleasant existence.
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