The Adventure of Sir Gawain

            
             Throughout our lives, we have encountered myth, from the time we were children the fairytales we read, to now in the readings we encounter in college, mythology will always be around. The patterns of tales and myth cease to change, they remain constant. In reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you can find that it follows the pattern of Joseph Campbell's, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, in that it includes the adventure of the hero: departure, initiation, and the return. Joseph Campbell has been looked to for interpreting myth.
             In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table are celebrating Christmas, when they are interrupted with the presence of a green knight, who knows that this court is the most famous and praised. He wishes not to fight but play what he calls a Christmas sport for the season. The green knight placed a challenge on the table, he dares any knight to give a blow and take a blow in return with the axe to the head. No one wishes to rise to the occasion, so King Arthur rises and accepts the challenge. Sir Gawain rises and asks that the challenge be his because Arthur is the lord of the table and where would they be if it were not for him. Sir Gawain takes the axe and gives the blow cutting off the green knights head. By taking this challenge, Sir Gawain initiates the call to adventure. He will need to, in one year and a day, complete the challenge where he will meet his fate. With the challenge that Sir Gawain accepts it could be considered as the crossing of the first threshold, where he will encounter darkness, the unknown, and danger. .
             In part two, Sir Gawain sets out and encounters many trials in his quest for the Green Chapel. He begins his initiation encountering the road of trials. The trial Sir Gawain encounters is loneliness and fear. He does not like the path he takes and is upset that he was not able to hear the mass honoring Christ.