Post by boreades on Dec 15, 2018 15:16:05 GMT
Heard just today on BBC Radio:
The Green Knight enters the Court of King Arthur and challenges anyone to chop off his head. Gawain takes up the challenge. The rest is Arthurian legend.
The full poem also contains the first mention of something else symbolic:
Note the tenets of Gawain : friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness and pity.
Compare with the tenets of Freemasonry : Brotherly Love, Relief (charity) and Truth
But where does the name Gawain come from?
Gawain or Gowan as a metal worker could be a direct link from Arthurian Legend to Freemasonry. As we know, when Lodges are opened, there is a piece of ritual all Freemasons should know by heart.
If you ask "What is a Cowan?"...
e.g.
www.lodgetemperance.org.uk/what-is-a-cowan/
You get quotes from Dr. John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language of 1808 for the meaning of the word:
It appears that this Cowan is a lowland Scottish mispronounciation of the Gaelic Gowan. John Jamieson and James Anderson were both lowland Scots who knew not the Gaelic. From there it becomes part of UGLE foundation myths.
Which leads on to snobbish English Stone Masons (with their white pinnies) looking down on Blacksmiths and metal workers with dirty pinnies. With no thanks to whomever made the sword for the Tyler!
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight : Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poem of the knight who interrupts King Arthur's Christmas celebrations, challenging someone to chop off his head if he can do the same in return.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001kr8
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001kr8
The Green Knight enters the Court of King Arthur and challenges anyone to chop off his head. Gawain takes up the challenge. The rest is Arthurian legend.
Gawain must lose his head as the green knight did. He doesn't of course but then the world doesn't end at the new year, it is reborn. Gawain is reborn a sadder and wiser man. He has died and come back to life. He is the sacrificial victim that is needed for the new year to come in. The new year always demands a sacrificial victim and these days we have the baby Jesus to play such a role.
The full poem also contains the first mention of something else symbolic:
The poem contains the first recorded use of the word pentangle in English. It contains the only representation of such a symbol on Gawain's shield in the Gawain literature. What is more, the poet uses a total of 46 lines in order to describe the meaning of the pentangle; no other symbol in the poem receives as much attention or is described in such detail. The poem describes the pentangle as a symbol of faithfulness and an "endless knot". From lines 640 to 654, the five points of the pentangle relate directly to Gawain in five ways: five senses, his five fingers, his faith found in the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary (whose face was on the inside of the shield) and finally friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness and pity (traits that Gawain possessed around others). In line 625, it is described as "a sign by Solomon". Solomon, the third king of Israel, in the 10th century BC, was said to have the mark of the pentagram on his ring, which he received from the archangel Michael. The pentagram seal on this ring was said to give Solomon power over demons.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight#Pentangle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight#Pentangle
Note the tenets of Gawain : friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness and pity.
Compare with the tenets of Freemasonry : Brotherly Love, Relief (charity) and Truth
But where does the name Gawain come from?
Gawain or Gowan is Gaelic for Smith. Even Govan in Glasgow is of the same root. Gawain is tested with an iron axe and also uses it to chop off the Green Knight's head.
Gawain or Gowan as a metal worker could be a direct link from Arthurian Legend to Freemasonry. As we know, when Lodges are opened, there is a piece of ritual all Freemasons should know by heart.
WM : Brother Junior Warden – What is the situation of the Outer Guard or Tyler?
JW : Without the entrance of the Lodge.
WM : What is his duty?
JW : Being armed with a drawn sword, to keep off all cowans and intruders on Masonry and to see that the candidates are properly prepared.
JW : Without the entrance of the Lodge.
WM : What is his duty?
JW : Being armed with a drawn sword, to keep off all cowans and intruders on Masonry and to see that the candidates are properly prepared.
If you ask "What is a Cowan?"...
e.g.
www.lodgetemperance.org.uk/what-is-a-cowan/
You get quotes from Dr. John Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language of 1808 for the meaning of the word:
“Cowan, s.
1. A term of contempt; applied to one who does the work of a Mason, but has not been regularly bred.”
2. Also used to denote one who builds dry walls, otherwise denominated a dry-dyker.”
3. One unacquainted with the secrets of freemasonry.”
(It) is not found in any of the old manuscripts of the English Masons before the eighteenth century but does occur in an old Scottish manuscript by William Schaw in 1598. William Schaw was the King’s Master Mason and Warden General to the craft. He drew up a code of trade regulations, customs and a code of conduct that Scottish masons followed. These were known as the Schaw Statutes. In the following passage he writes: “That no master nor fellowcraft receive any Cowens to work in his society or company, nor send none of his servant to work with Cowens.”
It is first introduced into English Freemasonry in James Anderson’s book of Constitutions published in 1738 at the request of the Grand Lodge of England. James Anderson was a Scottish Mason and a member of the Lodge of Aberdeen so perhaps he knew all about Cowans : “but free and Accepted Masons shall not allow Cowans to work with them, nor shall they be employed by Cowans without an urgent necessity and even in that case shall not teach Cowans but must have a separate communication.”
1. A term of contempt; applied to one who does the work of a Mason, but has not been regularly bred.”
2. Also used to denote one who builds dry walls, otherwise denominated a dry-dyker.”
3. One unacquainted with the secrets of freemasonry.”
(It) is not found in any of the old manuscripts of the English Masons before the eighteenth century but does occur in an old Scottish manuscript by William Schaw in 1598. William Schaw was the King’s Master Mason and Warden General to the craft. He drew up a code of trade regulations, customs and a code of conduct that Scottish masons followed. These were known as the Schaw Statutes. In the following passage he writes: “That no master nor fellowcraft receive any Cowens to work in his society or company, nor send none of his servant to work with Cowens.”
It is first introduced into English Freemasonry in James Anderson’s book of Constitutions published in 1738 at the request of the Grand Lodge of England. James Anderson was a Scottish Mason and a member of the Lodge of Aberdeen so perhaps he knew all about Cowans : “but free and Accepted Masons shall not allow Cowans to work with them, nor shall they be employed by Cowans without an urgent necessity and even in that case shall not teach Cowans but must have a separate communication.”
It appears that this Cowan is a lowland Scottish mispronounciation of the Gaelic Gowan. John Jamieson and James Anderson were both lowland Scots who knew not the Gaelic. From there it becomes part of UGLE foundation myths.
Which leads on to snobbish English Stone Masons (with their white pinnies) looking down on Blacksmiths and metal workers with dirty pinnies. With no thanks to whomever made the sword for the Tyler!