Gawain - Family

Family

The character of Gawain is connected by familial ties to specific characters in much of the literature concerning Arthurian legend. His relationship to Arthur is established as early as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, in which he is said to be the nephew of the king. In Gillian Brashaw’s 1980 trilogy entitled Hawk of May, Morgawse (known in other texts as Morgause) is the knight’s mother, while his brother, who is later revealed to be cousin instead, is Medraut (in other texts, Mordred). According to the fifteenth-century tale entitled The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, Gawain’s wife is Ragnelle, or the “Loathly Lady”. He marries her out of the desire to save the life of his king, who might have forfeit himself to a knight known as Sir Gromer Somer Joure were he not able to come up with the answer to the question of what women most desire. The unattractive Dame Ragnelle offers her answer in return for Gawain as her husband, but on their wedding night reveals her true form as a beautiful young woman. She bears him a son, called Gyngolyn in this text, but whose name is varied in other texts and is sometimes referred to only as the “Fair Unknown.” Though Gawain is most often depicted as the son of King Lot, in Vera Chapman’s The Green Knight (1975) he is the offspring of Leonie and Gareth of Lyonesse and is instead Lot’s nephew.