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Queen Guinevere is King Arthur’s beautiful wife, although Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s Queen Guinevere bears little resemblance to the one of later Arthurian legend. Queen Guinevere only exists in the poem’s opening sequence as she sits at her place of honor with Sir Gawain at the high table. The narrator describes Queen Guinevere as a uniquely beautiful woman—the most beautiful woman any person in King Authur’s court had ever seen—with “dancing grey eyes” (82). However, while Queen Guinevere may be beautiful, she is also silent. She does not utter a single word at the New Year’s Day banquet. Instead, she simply sits under an ornate tapestry surrounded by riches from all over the world. The poet’s description of Queen Guinevere sitting on her dais, surrounded by exotic tapestries and jewels, suggests that the queen, herself, is first and foremost a beautiful object, a mere treasure in King Arthur’s hoard. The poem’s characterization of Queen Guinevere is further complicated when considered in the wider context of Arthurian legends. The narrator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight celebrates Queen Guinevere, but anyone familiar with medieval literature knows that she will later bring about the fall of Camelot when she betrays her husband with Lancelot.
