Trip to Gawain Country

Now that I'm done with my first big exam, and prospects in Latin look good, I can post the adventures I had on January 1st of this year, when I went to Lud's Church in Staffordshire, England. This is the location some scholars think the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight had in mind when he was writing the climax of the poem. Here we are looking at Back Forest ('Back' as in the thing that goes popcrunch in the morning, not 'Black' as might be expected for such a notorious locale as the Green Chapel).

Because the sun is so low here due to the latitude, sometimes you'll see that one half of a valley is covered in snow, while the other side is bare. You'll see this as you're walking to get across the river to the path, and it gives you a good idea of the terrain. It used to be a hunting ground, and not only just in the poem, either. We didn't see any deer, boar or fox, but lots of sheep  

 Here is about where our path synched up with what is described in the poem. (IV, ll. 2144-5) "and ride a route through that rocky ravine till you're brought to the bottom of that foreboding valley". Here we can see an old stone staircase, and off the right of that (the left of anyone who had come down said slope's left) is the path. We'll see the orignial medieval path later. Pretty, but overgrown.

 

 Turns out Gawain's guide gives lousy directions. Like Gawain, we too got lost missing the (admittedly well camouflaged) signpost. For our trouble, we got to see the old medieval road, now overgrown and covered in leaves. The rock formation over here is Castle Rock, in a little clearing, presumably the spot where Gawain wandered about before finding the 'Chapel'.

 The Chapel itself appears right out of the side of a hill. In poor light, you could easily walk right past this.  

...and suddenly you're in this great, gaping crevasse in the side of a hill... That's Richard Morris, by the way, awesome professor, great guide, carries a giant map, and usually takes us to pub for lunch during field trips. Awesome.

 The walls are about 50-55 feet here (i'm pointing the camera almost straight up here).When everyone quiets down, there is no noise whatsoever, totally serene. That's probably for the best, as there are lots of icicles hanging about, not to mention rocks.

Here's our group. To those of you who are wondering what has happened to the cave entrance that Gawain had to go into to get into the chapel, there was a cave here that was explored in the 19th century, then sealed up by the landowner. The Miner they sent down into the cavern described an unearthly roaring and images on the wall "No Christian man should see". These are probably the roar of an underground river, which i hear are common in these parts, and prehistoric cavepaintings, which have also been found in this general area of England. Either way, the landowner chose to seal up the cave entrance, which sounds more like a challenge to me than a proper obstacle. Picks, anyone?

 Leaving the crevasse, we came to this area, known locally as the high desert [Hautdesert, anyone?] Once upon a time this constituted a proper Forest... Apparently, a woodland isn't technically a Forest unless it's a land officially designated for hunting. It was here that I found my own, personal Holly bough (extra points for those of you who catch the significance).

This was a fantastic daytrip, an opportunity for me and my classmates to nerd out about even the potential inspiration for a poem that most of the population isn't frightfully aware of [but should be], and to wander around in the forest and hilly hiking trails, which is quite a relief for this guy, who finds Leeds active, but rather industrialized and lacking in proper woodlands for casual perusal and enjoyment.