The Turke and Gawain is a late 15th-century ROMANCE
in MIDDLE ENGLISH that is preserved in a
17th-century manuscript called the Percy Folio,
along with three other late romances focusing on
Sir GAWAIN, always the favorite of King ARTHUR’s
knights in medieval English literature. Along with
The Grene Knight, The Carle off Carlile, and The
Marriage of Sir Gawain, The Turke and Gawain is
extant in a manuscript that appears to have been
mutilated by household servants of the manuscript’s
owner, who tore half-pages from the text,
apparently to light fires. Thus the surviving text of
The Turke and Gawain has a number of large gaps,
the 335 extant lines being only perhaps half of the
original text. Thus much of the reconstructed plot
of the story must be conjectured. Although the
manuscript is late, the language and orthography
of the text suggest that it was originally produced
in the North or the North Midlands area of England.
It is written in TAIL-RHYME stanzas—that is,
in this case, stanzas rhyming aabccb, with the couplets
in four-stress lines and the repeated b rhyme
(the “tail”) in three stress lines. It was a popular
MINSTREL stanza, and the audience of this poem
probably consisted of middle- or lower-class listeners
likely to be found in the tavern or marketplace,
as opposed to a very courtly audience.
The plot as we have it is an unlikely combination
of the head-chopping game familiar from SIR
GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT and the folktale
motif of three impossible tasks. As in many
Arthurian romances, the peace of Arthur’s court is
disturbed by the arrival of an outsider, the Turke of
the poem’s title, who issues a challenge, demanding
a champion from the court to exchange blows with
him. Gawain accepts the challenge and gives the
Turke a strong blow—apparently without
weapon—but the Turke postpones his return
blow, requiring Gawain to accompany him on a
journey before deigning to complete his part of the
challenge. The inordinately courteous Gawain
agrees, and the Turke leads him through violent
storms to a mysterious castle, where Gawain is fed.
Gawain asks to receive the blow from the Turke
that will fulfill his bargain, but instead the Turke
requires Gawain to follow him to the Isle of Man,
where they enter the castle of the king, a powerful
giant. The Turke tells Gawain he will be tested, but
that he will receive help from the Turke. Gawain is
first forced to play a game of tennis against 17 giants
who use a heavy brass ball that no one in England
would be able to strike.With the help of the
Turke, Gawain defeats the giants. The Turke then
successfully accomplishes the second challenge—
lifting a great chimney over his head and twirling
it. The final challenge is a cauldron of molten lead
into which the giant king intends to hurl Gawain.
But the Turke, through the ruse of a cloak of invisibility,
is able to burn the giant in the cauldron
instead. After the tasks have been accomplished,
rather than returning the blow he owes to Gawain,
the Turke surprisingly bows his neck and asks
Gawain to strike off his head. The decapitated
Turke turns into the noble Sir Gromer, who had
been enchanted in that alien form. Sir Gromer becomes
the new king of the Isle of Man, and a number
of enchanted captives are released as Gawain
returns to Arthur’s court.
The motifs of the story suggest a number of issues
common to romance. Here the archetypal
“other,” the pagan Turk or Saracen, is converted to
Christianity through a death and rebirth ritual that
enables him to be resurrected as a Christian and a
valuable member of Christian society. Meanwhile
Sir Gawain, who is first offered the throne of Man
but refuses it, remains the popular embodiment of
chivalric virtues as the late medieval English audience
sees him: one who is free to ride anywhere in
search of adventure, rather than be tied to the responsibility
of governing.
Bibliography
Hahn, Thomas, ed. Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and
Tales. Kalamazoo,Mich.:Medieval Institute Publications,
1995.
Jost, Jean E. “The Role of Violence in Aventure: ‘The
Ballad of King Arthur and the King of Cornwall’
and ‘The Turke and Gowin,’ ” Arthurian Interpretations
2, no. 2 (1988): 47–57.
Lyle, E. B.“The Turk and Gawain as Source of Thomas
of Ercledoune,” Forum for Modern Language Studies
6 (1970): 98–102.