Is the Green Knight in the Sir Gawain poem some kind of divine/Christ figure? Holly (green and red) is an emblem of Christ’s life-giving shedding of blood, and the Green Knight carries holly into Arthur’s court at the beginning. In fact, he becomes “holly” when he’s beheaded (blood on his green self), not to mention that he receives a death blow and lives. He’s the one who sends temptations Sir G’s way, and he’s the “judge” in the final scene in the Green Chapel. He’s the one who offers the Christmas game in the first place, and seems to preside in some way at the Christmas festitivities.
The sequence would then be: The Green Knight “dies and rises” at the initial Christmas celebration; but then Gawain has to face a series of temptations and tests (3 of them!) to prove his worth as a Christian knight, to prepare for standing before his judge in the final judgment in the Green Chapel. At the Green Chapel, Gawain is punished (though mercifully) for his failure, but is saved so as through fire. Under testing, he had persevered through today and tomorrow, but he did not attain to the third day. Remarkably, he fails on the third day because he is afraid of death; he fails as a Christian knight on the third day because he forgot THE third day. Yet, because of his confession, the Green Knight forgives the failure of the third day, letting him off with a nirt in the neck.
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