[MD] The Wedding of Sir Gawainand Dame Ragnelle/Autonomy

[MarshaV]

Whether it be Carl Jung or Victor Mansfield, I still find it annoying that it is a man's idea about the feminine, but in any case...   




 Victor Mansfield, "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle," from Head and Heart


Everyone in the industrialized world, with or without formal scientific training, is deeply influenced by scientific materialism—both by its view of nature and by its means of knowing. For nearly all of us, the rational mind, conditioned by science, is our starting point for viewing the world and our relationship to it. Essential as the rational mind is, experience has taught me that such a narrow locus is dangerously imbalanced and inadequate for grasping the whole of the outer and inner worlds. Such an attempt at grasping the whole of reality through the keyhole of the rational intellect will not help us relate the head and the heart—here, science and the inner spiritual world—either personally or as a culture. To begin broadening our perspective and preparing the ground for a more comprehensive view, I begin with an engaging tale from the medieval Arthurian legends, “The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle."

Because myths, legends, and fairy tales are expressions of the universal archetypes underlying human nature, they offer great insights into our individual psychology. At the same time, if rightly understood, they can also serve as a guide to questions facing the culture at large. In both its personal and universal aspects, this ancient tale offers clues to expanding our view of reality and bringing harmony between the head and heart.

Long ago, before digital time, King Arthur was hunting a hart [a mature male deer]. He ran the great deer into a fern thicket and killed it there. Just after the king had tasted the meat, a powerful and heavily armed knight charged in and accused the king of mistreating him for many years by giving his land away to Arthur’s favorite knight, Sir Gawain. In his rage, the formidable knight, Sir Gromer Somer Joure, came close to killing the king on the spot. However, Arthur skillfully convinced him that it would not be chivalrous since Arthur was only in his light hunting gear rather than full armor.

Instead of killing Arthur, Sir Gromer gave him a riddle that he must answer, or die. After one year, Arthur was to return to that very spot and answer the question, “What is it that all women desire above all else?" The king was glad to have a one-year reprieve, but the question seemed impossible and his life uncertain. When the king returned to his castle, Gawain immediately noted his distress. After hearing the king’s plight, the ever-enthusiastic Gawain suggested that they mount their horses and ride out in different directions to ask the question of every woman in the kingdom and record their answers in a great book. Surely that way they would find the right answer. Arthur was doubtful but saw no alternative. After almost a year of wandering and diligent questioning, their books were full of answers, but none of them seemed compelling.

Just before the appointed hour with Sir Gromer, while wandering in a deep woods, Arthur came upon a woman on an exquisitely beautiful horse that was embellished with gold and precious jewels. A fine lute hung from her shoulder. However, when she turned toward him, he saw she was horrifyingly ugly and misshapen. Snot dripped from her pig-like nose, one tusk turned up and one down, and her mouth was a gaping pit with loose, flapping lips. Dame Ragnelle immediately knew the king’s plight and told him that she alone had the answer that could save his life. However, she would not give the answer unless she could marry the finest knight in the land: Sir Gawain.

"This is not a favor I can grant. It is Gawain’s choice,” said Arthur.

Upon returning to the castle from their separate journeys, Gawain again noticed the King’s disturbed state and bade him explain. Without a moment’s hesitation, Gawain offered to wed Dame Ragnelle. No price was too high for his beloved king’s life.

At this point, pause a moment and ask yourself the question, "What is it that all women desire above all else?" Try to devise answers that are unique to women. For example, if you say, “All women desire above all else to be loved,” that statement could just as well apply to men, so it is not really answering a question specifically about women. On the other hand, if you say all women want to be mothers, that does not apply to all women. Remember that this question is unlike a physics problem with one right answer and more like a dream with multiple levels of complementary meaning. Here is the answer the tale gives:

Arthur hastily returned to Ragnelle and told her of Gawain’s acceptance. Ragnelle kept her end of the bargain. She told Arthur that, above all else, all women desire to be autonomous, to have sovereignty over their own lives. Elated, Arthur hastened to Sir Gromer and told him the answer. Gromer flew into a rage, not only because he had to let Arthur go, but also because he knew that the only person who could have told Arthur the lifesaving answer was Sir Gromer's own sister, Dame Ragnelle.

For her part, Ragnelle would not be a modest little bride. Unlike Gawain, she wanted a grand wedding in which the entire court participated. At the wedding feast, despite her fine raiment, everyone was aghast at her ugliness and extraordinarily ravenous appetite. She ate more food than six men, while Gawain looked on wanly.

On their wedding night, Ragnelle demanded a kiss of the reluctant Gawain, “Yett for Arthours sake kysse me att the leste." (Line 635) That momentous kiss transforms the world’s ugliest hag into the most beautiful jewel of a woman. Gawain was initially frightened by the sudden transformation and feared she might be some evil spirit. "Who are you?" he asked.

“I am your loving wife.” Then the most depressed of bride-grooms turned into the happiest of men. Amid the surprise and delight occasioned by her transformation, Dame Ragnelle explained that such was the curse on her that she could only be beautiful half the time. Gawain must choose whether he wished her beautiful in the night with him or during the day at court. The rest of the time, Ragnelle must revert to her hideous self. After carefully considering the question, Gawain told Ragnelle that the decision must be hers.

With Ragnelle granted full autonomy by Gawain, the spell was completely broken. Ragnelle could be beautiful all the time. There followed hours of rejoicing and lovemaking. In the meantime, the court, ignorant of this immense transformation, feared for Gawain's well-being. They worried that Ragnelle was some sort of predator, too wily and fierce even for Arthur’s best knight. When the wedding chamber was thrown open, all rejoiced in the realization of Ragnelle’s inherent beauty. The celebration brought the king and queen together with Gawain and Ragnelle, who even pleaded for indulgence toward Sir Gromer.

We can view this tale as a powerful, dreamlike expression of the collective psyche, a symbolic articulation of its primordial structure. Such tales erupt into collective consciousness and capture our imagination for centuries. They are the collective psyche’s reaction to some sort of imbalance or misalignment in our attitudes and behavior. From this standpoint, these tales are understood as symbolic representations of forces seeking our personal and collective psychological transformation. Just like major dreams, such tales can he interpreted from many complementary points of view without any one view negating another. The following depth psychological interpretation stays close to the original text and is in harmony with the best literary and historical scholarship, which demonstrates that Gawain is the courteous champion of the great mother goddess often known as Sovereignty.

The tale begins with King Arthur, the symbolic embodiment of collective consciousness, hunting a hart, often the symbol of our higher individuality. Arthur has offended Sir Gromer by giving Gromer’s land to the hero Sir Gawain, and this conflict within the masculine principle sets the story in motion.

Note that a conflict within the masculine results in a puzzle about the feminine. Only through solving the puzzle about the feminine can the male principle be saved. Aggression and heroism cannot gain this truth. Out of the deadly passion of masculine strife comes the question, "What is it that all women desire above all else?" Despite the heroic and obviously naïve efforts of Gawain, the conscious and willful approach to the question is unproductive. It is a psychological law that whatever is rejected and feared turns ugly and even more troublesome, whether it is a personal problem or a conflict in global politics. Although we need not always fully embrace the rejected, we certainly need to stay aware of it and in touch with it. Surprisingly, that which we reject, that which we fear, often contains exactly what we need for our health and wholeness, whether personal or collective. Our tale represents this profound truth through the image of the grotesque Dame Ragnelle, made ugly by men’s rejection and fear. Only she holds the answer, which she will reveal only in exchange for love from the hero. Here, men are out of harmony, fighting over land and prestige, and only the rejected, and therefore ugly, woman holds the redeeming truth. Gawain shows that his extraordinary loyalty and self-sacrifice are the lifegiving balm. Sometimes the greatest hero is one who gives up personal desires and aversions in the name of loyalty and idealism.

Autonomy or sovereignty over one’s own life is what all women desire above all else. Realization of this truth rescues the masculine and, when fully achieved as Gawain grants his wife the choice of when to be beautiful, transforms Ragnelle from ugly hag to radiant princess. The story concludes with the royal quaternio: the king and queen on one side and Gawain and Ragnelle on the other. The quaternio (a traditional symbol of wholeness examined at length by Jung) can encompass even the dark rage of Sir Gromer.

Initially it made me uneasy that Gawain grants Ragnelle full autonomy by allowing her to choose which half of the day she will be beautiful. If she is givenautonomy, rather than claiming it as her birthright, can’t the gift be taken back? What kind of autonomy is that? I propose both a philosophical and psychological answer.

Philosophically, I draw inspiration from the Buddhist principle of emptiness, the very heart of that great tradition. Emptiness means that all phenomena, from our deepest sense of self to the most distant galaxies, lack independent or inherent existence. Their true reality is not their apparent independence, but their deep relatedness and mutual dependence. Therefore, from a Buddhist perspective, even autonomy lacks independent existence. Even independence of action or self-determination depends vitally upon one’s relationship to others, in this case, the relationship of Ragnelle to Gawain. Thus, the feminine is dependent upon the masculine for its autonomy, yet Arthur’s very life depends upon the feminine. Nothing independently or inherently exists, whether it is the notion of autonomy or the life of a king.

Psychologically, it is clear that the masculine can deny autonomy to the feminine. In a patriarchal society, it is assumed that the masculine has that authority. More personally, I think of the many times that I have inappropriately denied my feminine aspect its necessary expression. Yet the unconscious, the feminine ground of my being, grants me life both psychologically and physically. Another psychological dimension of the problem forces itself upon me in the form of the question, “Why is the autonomy of the feminine so fragile, so dependent upon the masculine?” A partial answer comes from realizing that because the feminine gives birth in the broadest sense of the term, whether to physical life or to creative thoughts and urges, its very function often puts it second. Whether as the servant of nature in the maternity ward or as the creative matrix out of which our psychic life is born, the feminine, by its very nature, must give precedence not to itself but to what is being born. As many mothers learn, having a child can crush their autonomy. This self-sacrifice of the feminine in favor of whatever is born thus makes her autonomy fragile and in need of support from the masculine.

To understand this tale more deeply, we need a better appreciation of the feminine principle and what its autonomy or sovereignty actually means. Surely, it is not simply that women should exercise their personal will in all things at all times. Such a one-sided view could not be the secret of wholeness and completion. Perhaps the place to start is to ask what the feminine symbolizes. Here I cannot follow many modern feminists who assert that femininity is just cultural conditioning. Yes, cultural conditioning surely affects our view of the feminine and its expression. However, the obvious biological differences between the genders must express themselves psychologically even if culture inevitably modifies this expression. In other words, the continuity between mind and body so evident in modern biology and medicine, demands that the biological differences between genders must have a psychological expression. Gender differences are more than social conditioning.

For at least two reasons, it is a daunting task to understand the feminine principle. First, the feminine is unappreciated, even denigrated, in our culture. Second, thanks to feminists and others, it is simultaneously being redefined. The very notion of “the feminine" is a moving target cloaked in layers of cultural overlay. Even Jung, who championed the feminine well before it was popular to do so, was a victim of the prejudices of his times. While his work clearly articulates and advocates feminine aspects of the psyche, several passages about the feminine are embarrassingly offensive to modern sensibilities.


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