Abstract
Among the possible Arthurian source texts for The Lord of the Rings, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight stands out as a likely inspiration. Tolkien engaged closely with the Gawain-poet for over 50 years, and as Cossio and Fimi recently demonstrated in their archival study of the W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture, he did so concurrently with his writing of The Lord of the Rings. Tom Shippey, John Fyler, Miriam Miller, and Roger Schlobin, among other scholars, have speculated on Sir Gawain’s influence for Tolkien’s work. Miller makes the case that Sir Gawain is a definitive source for the stories of Middle-earth, based on their similar plot structures and the moral development of their protagonists. Schlobin challenges several of Miller’s claims, but allows that there may be a meaningful link between the “philosophical and moral” themes of the two stories. In this essay, I will illuminate this moral relationship and make a definitive case for the Gawain-poet’s impact on Tolkien’s writing. Through a comparative reading of the W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture, Tolkien’s Letters, and the primary texts, I will argue that Gawain’s character development—defined by sacrificial fate, fearful temptation, and the lingering wound of self-judgment—served as a model for Frodo’s heroism and Tolkien’s reinvention of the romance hero in The Lord of the Rings.
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