La décapitation dans Sire Gauvain et le Chevalier Vert

Abstract

The motif of the severed head in Arthurian novels is less common than one might think and serves a variety of purposes. In a perspective of the anthropology of violence, Perlesvaus and Le Chevalier Vert are rich in episodes featuring violent decapitations, exposed severed heads, in short both the ritual itself and its result, often for didactic or allegorical purposes. A pre-Christian motif, but also borrowed from hagiography, common in war scenes as well, decapitation or the severed head take on their own meanings in the Romanesque world, which we propose to analyze in this intervention.

Keywords

• decapitation
• violence
• paganism
• hagiography
• Green Knight