Parallel fitt-endings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A case of medieval paratextuality.

This paper examines the endings of the so-called fitts in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. For the first time in the criticism of this renowned fourteenth-century alliterative romance of the Matter of Britain attention is called to a remarkable number of lexical and thematic features shared by the concluding sections of the poem's four compositional divisions. It is argued that the parallel fitt-endings serve to underline the units of Gawain as an orally delivered Arthurian narrative of the kind that was used as a form of entertainment at medieval round tables and generally at court. The rationale behind the parallel fitt-endings is discussed in terms of paratextuality, with emphasis on such typical paratextual effects as pointing to the genre and the mode of the text in question. Paratexts peculiar to medieval literature and to Middle English alliterative romance are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]