the inscribed plenitude of the divine. The knot, in short, is a figure of the book, and as a figure of the book, it must have attracted the Gawain-poet strongly. For in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a "volume" figured as a "nodo" capacities the understanding of the knots of the pentangle and the green girdle as each a "volume," or text or sign, which, as we have seen, must be read and interpreted, each in its own special way. And this is precisely because he is bound in a volume, tied in a knot, more mysterious and more intricate than anything he will ever comprehend. And the texts of man, by the same token, howsoever bound or woven or knitted they be, he must be ready to untie or loosen, to analyze, as the contingency of human affairs demands. Man's knots and man's texts and the knottiness of his texts must resemble the green girdle. "(Shoaf 164-165)This passage seems to root itself in the imagery of the sash and how in some ways it has a mysterious feel to it. The girdle may be the greatest example of clothing imagery which helps convey the theme, save perhaps the shied, which isn’t truly a clothing product. The sash is clothing that sets theme the greatest due to the fact that it contains powers of sorcery or witchcraft, at least according to the count’s wife. That’s what gives it that element of mysticism. By the way, the above passage also discusses the lack of ability man has to let go.The Green Knight arrival at Arthur’s court to pose a challenge for someone to cut off his head and to have the favor returned a year later. He and his horse are both entirely green and are clad in rich attire. The horse’s saddle is described as follows, in lines 164-167: " About himself and his saddle, set upon silk, / That to tell of the trifles would tax my wits, / The butterflies and birds embroidered thereon / In green of gayest, with many gold thread." The Green Knight’s appearance makes his supernatural...
