THE TURKE AND SIR GAWAIN”: IS THE TURKE AS ALIEN AS THE GREEN KNIGHT?

OpenAlex · İngilizce

The alien figures of the romances representing the outsider or the challengers to the court of King Arthur usually perform as foil for the knights of the Round Table. In several cases the challengers transform into somebody else to reach a resolution in the end. The Turke and Sir Gawain (c.1500) is a romance that represents both a foil and a transformation. The challenger figure is represented as a more probable character with the Turke figure as he does not look like a magical being like the Green Knight. The influence of the emerging power of the Turks on the imagination of the Western Europe can be traced within the romance. Still, the image of the Turk is an alien one despite the growing concerns about the Ottoman Empire. As a result of this concern the Turke figure within the romance is represented as a magical and cursed figure. This article discusses the alienated representation of a real-life concern for the English people.