Environment in Sir Gawain and Utopia

While the environment has been studied in greater depth from the Renaissance period onward, new research has extended further back to look deeper into the portrayal of the environment in early texts. In a period before modern day concerns of industrialization and pollution, depictions of the environment may be replete with insights into people and their relationship with the natural world and how it has changed over time. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Tomas More’s Utopia offer an interesting window into past thought regarding the environment in the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which was written in the Middle Ages, seems to focus heavily on the life of the court and the relationships between knights and their lords. From the outset, indoor, courtly life appears to be emphasized over the outdoor environment. Nevertheless, Sir Gawain must leave the court for the outdoors because of the promise he made with the Green Knight. During his search for the Green Knight, the harsh winter environment batters and tests Sir Gawain, a knight who seemed much more comfortable within the walls of Arthur’s court. During his journey he finds “little to call food” (694), and “it’s no surprise to find that he faces a foe so foul or fierce he is bound to use force” (716-7117). However, the “wars were one thing, but the winter was worse” (726). Clearly Gawain struggles in his journey and presents a relationship with the environment that could be characterized as man vs. nature. The environment is harsh and unwelcoming to a man more accustomed to navigating the indoor and human relationships found in the courts. For the people of the Middle Ages focused on the formalities of courtly life, the environment represented hardship and unexpected dangers. 

Lord Bertilak seems to offer a different perspective, which appears in his comfort and skill in the outdoors through hunting. For example, the rule in the first hunt was that “The stags of the herd with their high-branched heads and the broad-horned bucks were allowed to pass by, for the lord of the land had laid down a law that man should not maim the male in close season” (1154-1157). Such a law shows that Lord Bertilak is knowledgeable about the natural resources by ensuring that the population of deer can continue to survive. Ann Martinez concludes that “Bertilak’s hunting and land management practices adhere to the concept of a sustainable yield for the Middle Ages. Each hunt is well organized and has a specific purpose: a) animal population control through selective hunting for the first, and b) mitigation of hazardous animals on the estate for the last two” (Martinez, 120). Such practices recognize a desire to remain cognizant of the workings of the natural world while also accepting that humans rely on the resources. Lord Bertilak demonstrates an informed and reasonable use of and relationship with the environment. His relationship with nature is one that is much less adversarial and more practical while also recognizing the inevitability of human use and consumption. 

By comparing Sir Gawain’s relationship with the environment to Lord Bertilak’s, it becomes clear that the Gawain Poet was also contemplating the usefulness of these outer, environmental relationships as well. Doing so may have been less common at a time when Arthurian tales of courtly life flourished. Despite the emphasis on the courts and human relationships in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, there clearly remain practical reasons to affiliate with the outer environments as well. The outer environments provide sustenance and predictability through the cyclical nature of the seasons (despite also being unpredictable). These characteristics are not exactly intrinsic to the purely social realm of the courts and thus, association with the outside world appears necessary. There is a degree of consistency even if the outside world is harsh or unreliable at times. 

In contrast to involvement with the natural world that acknowledges natural patterns and human use informed by them, Utopia, the sixteenth century work of Thomas More, appears to emphasize the hope that the environment could be strictly managed through human law. This would seem reasonable considering the England that More lived in was constantly wracked by agricultural crisis, high prices and famine (Palmer, 168). Thus, in the story, the Utopians have a very well-functioning agricultural system. For example, “Every city has enough ground assigned to it so that at least twelve miles of farm land are available in every direction” and “at the center of every block…are large gardens” (More, 71, 73). The Utopians always have much more food than they need for themselves and can share the extra with their neighbors (72). Plentiful and successful agriculture is done through the work of committed laborers and laws that strictly portioned spaces. Human thoughtfulness in designing the cities and farm land appears to allow for everyone to both enjoy cultivating the gardens as well as always be physically nourished from them. There is seemingly a balance between humans and their role of managing natural resources from the environment. 

While on the surface one might assume that successful agriculture and plentiful gardens implies a harmonious relationship with people and the natural environment, on a deeper level it appears that the relationship between people and nature in Utopia is based on human law, control and manipulation. This is apparent when “by their policies the Utopians make the land yield an abundance for all, though previously it had seemed too poor and barren even to support the natives” (79). Furthermore, the Utopians “uprooted [a forest] with their own hands and moved [it] to another site. They did this not so much for the sake of better growth but to make transport easier…” (92). Here it is clear that through human law and will the environment is bent into production even if the ground is unsuitable or a forest must be moved. Palmer concludes that More, going against environmental determinism (that the environment was the driver of hardship or success) common of early modern thought, believed that “Environmental impact could be offset by prudent legislation and application of scientific methods and technology” (Palmer, 170). Thus, successful human laws could make any negative influence of the environment negligible to people. As a result, the relationship between humans and nature presented by More makes humans dominant. It is not so much of a relationship that is suggested but more of strategic manipulation and overcoming of natural forces. 

Placing these two texts side by side highlights the difference in attitudes toward the environment between people of the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. The Gawain Poet seemed to stress the value in appreciating the working of the natural world while More values human law to provide well-functioning societies through natural resources. Lord Bertilak hunts sustainably by recognizing limits to the natural world and the Utopians make laws that manipulate the environment to work in their favor. In the context of today’s society, it seems that the relationship with the environment that More gives as the ideal, is the one people currently participate in. There is ecological crisis because people value success, material items and profit making the environment a victim of human control and manipulation. The Gawain Poet however, provides an example of human consumption of the environment but with a more sustainable feel. There is value to following the patterns and processes in the natural world. Based on the current environmental crisis, it might be worth it for humans to adopt a relationship with the environment that is more consistent with the one offered by the Gawain Poet.

Works Cited

Martinez, Ann M. “Bertilak’s Green Vision: Land Stewardship in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Arthuriana, vol. 26 no. 4, 2016, p. 114-129. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/art.2016.0052.

Palmer, William G. “Environment in Utopia: History, Climate, and Time in Renaissance Environment Thought.” Environmental Review, vol. 8, no. 2, 1984, pp. 162–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3984193.

“Gawain and the Green Knight. ca. 1390-1400.” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight,_from_Pearl_Manuscript.jpg.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Translated by Simon Armitage. The Norton Anthology of  English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, and M. H. Abrams, 10^th ed., vol. A,   Norton, 2018, 204-256.

Thomas, More. Utopia. Translated by Robert M. Adams, In The Norton Anthology of  English Literature, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, 10^th ed., vol. B, 2018, 44-118. 

“Island of Utopia. ca. 1518.” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_More_Utopia_1516_Carte_de_l%27île_d%27Utopie.png.