Gawain Gift Exchange

7/30/2019 Gawain Gift Exchange

1/16

Midwest Modern Language Association

"Never the Less": Gift-Exchange and the Medieval Dream-Vision "Pearl"Author(s): Heather MaringSource: The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Fall, 2005),pp. 1-15Published by: Midwest Modern Language AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30039317 .

Accessed: 19/05/2013 22:56

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Midwest Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Sun, 19 May 2013 22:56:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mmlahttp://www.jstor.org/stable/30039317?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/30039317?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mmla


2/16

"Never the Less": Gift-Exchange andthe Medieval Dream-Vision PearlHeather Maring

The fourteenth-century Middle English poem Pearl abounds withimages of surplus. The liminal, visionary sphere that the Dreamer entersis the ordinary, natural world wrought in lapidary splendor, a mysticaltreasury of crystal cliffs ("crystal klyffez"; 1. 74); trees bedecked withleaves sliding and shining like burnished silver (11.77-80); river banks likegolden filaments and beryl ("fyldorfyn" and "beryl bryst"; 11.106, 110); agleaming river whose glassy waters reveal a bottom of emeralds, sap-phires, and other jewels (11.114-19); a radiance brighter than the sun suf-fusing the air (83); and, not least, the pearl-maiden clad in her pearl-stud-ded dress (")at swete in perlez pygte"; 1. 240).1 One also encountersheaven's surfeit of riches in the pearl-maiden's description of the 144,000virgins who accompany Christ, each bearing the title of "queen." Being abride of the Lamb ("Lambes vyuez"; 1. 785), each virgin reigns equally.2The more the merrier, the pearl-maiden explains, since "ingreat companyour love thrives / in honor more and never the less" ("Incompayny gretour luf con pryf, / In honour more and neuer be esse"; 11.851-52).3 Heav-en's perfection is characterized by such plenitude that no individualqueen of heaven could be called "less than" any other.4The surplus evident in these lines not only displays the ChristianGod's infinite bounty but also depicts luxuries--namely, gems, beautifulbirds, lovely clothes, and fertile orchards-that would have been familiarto members of the aristocracy and to an audience of any class acquaintedwith tropes of gift-exchange. In a poem presumably by the same author,Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight,the hero Gawain is beholden by his hostto exchange prizes with him at the end of the day. While the plot of thispoem clearly turns on Sir Gawain's struggle to live up to the conditions ofthe contract of gift-exchange, my article suggests that the gift-exchangetrope also occurs in Pearl, where it is signaled by this poem's openinglines, by the luxurious world the Dreamer explores, and by further inci-dents to be explored in detail below.Because the rich, sensual images in Pearl have commonly been inter-preted as metaphorical-if not allegorical--symbols of the Dreamer's spir-itual lesson, their role in the rite of gift-exchange has gone largely unno-ticed. The Dreamer begins in a state of mourning and transitions to oneof recognition that death-as-loss (of a daughter) fades like a chimera whenset within the greater reality of God's infinite surplus, a surplus made

HeatherMaring 1

This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Sun, 19 May 2013 22:56:03 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/16

"tangible"by the sensual delights that the Dreamer encounters. While atthe beginning of Pearl the Dreamer complains of his bereavement, "thatdoes but oppress my heart grievously" (1. 17), he concludes the poemwith what he has found: "aGod, a Lord, a fully perfect friend" (11.1204-05). Regretting his "mad striving" (11. 1999-1200) to take more than hasbeen granted to him, the Dreamer redirects "pity" rom his dead daughterto Christ (11.1205-10).5A metaphorical interpretation correctly regards the pearl-an imageand epithet that recurs frequently in this poem-as, for example, a symbolof the kingdom of heaven ("pereme of heuenesse clere"; 1. 735), i.e., thePearl of Price in Matthew's parable (13:45-6, recounted in Pearl 11.729-39).While this hermeneutical approach certainly makes sense given theprominence of allegory in the later medieval period, an interpretation ofthis poem would also benefit from a metonymicanalysis-an analysis thatexplores how Pearl's emphasis on gift-exchange belongs to a performativeparadigm, where ritualistic gestures (as in the rite of gift-exchange) makeimmanent larger units of meaning; where references in verbal art to gift-exchange or other ritualistic activities stand metonymically for the enact-ment of these processes.6 In order to explore the role of gift-exchange andits metonymic significance in Pearl, this article briefly describes how ritualperformance may be metonymically cued in poetry before focusing on thecentrality of the gift-exchange trope to Pearl's vision.7Ritual Performance in PoetryAn obvious starting point for a discussion of ritual in medieval poetryis the influence of the Roman Christian Church. Medieval literary worksdraw upon the Christian liturgy for a wide variety of purposes:8 poemsmay celebrate special moments in the liturgical year or present hagio-graphical narratives suffused with liturgical echoes; they may close hero-ic narratives with prayers, depict their heroes making Eucharistic ges-tures, or interweave vernacular (and sometimes worldly) sentiments withLatin phrases from hymns and prayers;9 some poems even "appear tohave been performed along pilgrimage routes or as part of the devotionalactivity at the shrines of the saints" (Vitz 511). Liturgical gestures inmedieval verse cross boundaries between style, genre, and content; ver-nacular poems may use familiar ritual phrases for religious and secularpurposes, and they may incorporate liturgical hymns into their narrativesor be incorporated themselves into medieval rites.One attraction of the liturgy (and sacraments) for poets and authorsmay have been the economy of expression afforded by incorporating afamiliar formula or activity into verse.10 The presence of ritual speechand acts within a medieval poem would have evoked an ambient ritualtradition, whose many instantiations referred to the ongoing, cyclical

2 "Never he Less"



4/16

recurrence of ritual acts within time. Rituals occur within circumscribedvenues, and their specialized "language" takes shape in formulaic orunusual forms of speech, bodily activities, social choreographies, an arrayof implements, and other sensorial features. Because rituals themselvespossess so many different media for communicating their layered signifi-cance, any easily recognized feature-whether a phrase, a role, a physicalact, a scent, or a structural parallel-could metonymically cue, pars prototo, the ritual itself. And any familiar ritual activity--Christian liturgy,the sacraments, and other social and civic rites that, depending on con-text, shade into the secular or sacred-could metonymically be signaledin medieval verse. By merely invoking a part of such a ritual, a poemmay suddenly elicit an audience's sense of that ritual's entire perform-ance and its associations. Perhaps for this reason, in the PurgatorioDantementions just the opening words of hymns, knowing that upon encoun-tering "Salve regina," for instance, the rest of the antiphon will continueresounding in the mind of readers even as they hear the counterpoint ofDante's own poem.Such a "ritual poetics" presupposes an audience's ability to deciphermetonymic gestures drawn from actual rituals. The conditions were pres-ent for a ritual poetics because many medieval poets and their audienceswere familiar with oral traditional communication in verse, a form ofcommunication that works via metonymic referentiality.11 The so-called"digressions" n Beowulf serve as a common example of oral traditionalref-erentiality. When the Beowulf-poet describes the Fight at Finnsburg (11.1068-1159a),12an event that occurred outside the immediate timeframe ofBeowulf's adventures, he or she provides little of the "backstory," he sortof explanatory information a literate reader would expect when a wholenew set of characters emerges in a story within a story. The recounting ofthe Finnsburg episode begins after the battle between the Danes andFrisians-and the battle's circumstances must be pieced together fromasides and "The Fight at Finnsburg" fragment unrelated to the Beowulfpoem. Why at this juncture in Beowulf's adventures should one hearabout two feuding tribes only tangentially related to him? Any perceived"lack of information" here is really our problem-our cultural disso-nance-and not the poet's, who would have taken for granted his audi-ence's familiarity with the Finnsburg story. In addition, by not spellingout the reason for telling the tale of Finn and Hnaef, the poet would havebeen "playing by the rules" of this type of oral-derived poetry, whichassumes the audience's competency at deciphering narrative parallelsand inversions. The point here is that the Beowulf-poet could render partof the Finnsburg episode in verse, but one should assume that metonymi-cally these some two hundred lines stood for a much lengthier storyfamiliar to the poem's audience.

HeatherMaring 3



5/16

Because oral traditional and oral-derived verse afforded medievalpoets-those working in either literary, oral, or both media-the means tocompose poetry using an efficient and specialized poetic language, itwould not have required a vast cognitive leap for them to employ the spe-cialized language of ritual as well. Although such poetry may have lainbeyond the purview of the Church, it could still belong to a broad contin-uum of para-liturgical and para-sacramental verse. A Marian praise poem,by using a few liturgical phrases in translation, could recall for its audi-ence the antiphons to Mary filling, and seeming to surpass, a cathedral'swalls; such phrasing could recall the ritual power of the Church to invokethe Virgin's listening presence. By transposing ritual features into vernac-ular verse, poets could compose poems that partook of the institutionalpower of ritual, while at the same time elaborating upon that ritual,depicting its reverberations in everyday lives, creating erotic parodies,comedically satirizing its inversions, and so on.Now that I have touched on how medieval poems may call upon ritualfor their repertoire of poetic strategies, I will turn to an examination ofgift-exchange in Pearl. By the end of this article I hope to shed light onthis poem's reason for invoking the performative gesture of gift-exchange.Gift-Exchange and Pearl

The performance of gift-exchange is enacted on two levels in Pearl: atthe narrative level and, self-referentially, in the poem's representation ofitself. At both levels these exchanges take place between human beingsand also between human and divine realms, thereby demonstrating theirhierarchical, reciprocal, and obligatory relationships. David Aers hasargued that in comparison to the contemporaneous poem Piers Plowmanthe Pearl-poet's works do not take into account fourteenth-century shiftsin class-relations. He writes that Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight "careful-ly occludes all contemporary conflicts over the extractions and distribu-tion of 'lucrum.' . . . [Objects] are, instead, located in courtly worldswhere exchanges (of clothing, food, kisses or blows) are exchanges ofgifts, not, carefully and precisely not[,] exchanges of commodities in four-teenth-century commerce" (94). It may be true that Pearl depicts an older,more traditional, or ideal version of the gift-exchange economy at workamong members of the aristocracy (or between gentry and artisans), butthis mode of regulating social relationships coexisted with nascent formsof capitalism in southern Britain at the time.Rather than interpret the Pearl-poet's seemingly exclusive focus on gift-exchange as a sign of pandering to the sensibilities of an elite courtly aris-tocracy or of an overly conservative (i.e., "nostalgic")mindset, one mayexamine how the practice of gift-exchange allows the poem's narrator totransform his relationship to death using imagistic and verbal means. The

4 "Never he Less"



6/16

poem does not just represent (metaphorically) a Christian reality, itinvokes and enacts (metonymically) that reality using the performativerite of gift-exchange.The ritual of gift-exchange functioned as part of a medieval culturalhabitus oriented toward the establishment and maintenance of inter- andintra-societal relationships.13 Gift-exchange, therefore, does not occupy acategory necessarily separate from religion; it is not secular (versussacred). In fact, Western Christianity reformulates the parameters of gift-exchange within its own cosmology: in return for his eternal life in para-dise, Adam failed to render the gift of complete obedience to God; Christbecame "the Son of Man" in order to repay Adam's debt. More graphical-ly, Jesus was the "sacrificial lamb" in the ritual of exchange betweenearthly and celestial realms.14 The very materiality of gift-exchange (andthus the ease of its integration into the context of a poem's imagery andritualistic performance, for instance) may lead one to differentiate it from"real"religion if one strictly associates religion with more abstract fea-tures, such as faith, spirituality, a belief system, or devotion. But gift-exchange cannot be analyzed by separating its significance-associatedwith the immaterial realm of ideation-from its practice--associated withmateriality or sensuously apprehensible objects and scenarios. CatherineBell, summarizing Pierre Bourdieu's insights into gift-exchange, remarksthat "what is experienced in gift-giving is the voluntary, irreversible,delayed and strategic play of gift and counter-gift; it is the experience ofthese dimensions that actually establishes the value of the objects andgestures" (82-83). Abstracted from the context of practice (into theory),the items exchanged lose their significance: the value of gifts exchanged(and of the process itself) cannot be established solely in principle, sincewhat is exchanged may appear inordinately "cheap"or "expensive" fromthe vantage point of a more abstract system's standards for measuringvalue. Worth emerges only in the living practice of exchange, a practicethat may be figured metonymically in words.A Poem is a Pearl

In Pearl the performance of exchange appears in the material and situ-ational context of the poem qua poem. During the late fourteenth century,poems could be presented to noble patrons or the Christian God with theintention of honoring them.15 An audience no longer aware of Pearl'soriginal context(s) of composition and performance,16 but familiar withthe process of gift-exchange, might still easily imagine that, in return forthis carefully wrought poem, the poet or its presenter (not necessarily thesame person) receives patronage from either a worldly prince or thePrince Himself.

Felicity Riddy has remarked on Pearl's status, noting that it would have

HeatherMaring 5



7/16

evoked comparison to late-fourteenth-century elegant manuscripts depict-ing the Book of Revelation, which were considered luxury items. Shewrites:As a jewel, the poem locates itself amongother highly-wrought,presti-gious art-objects,religious and secular, of the late fourteenthcentury:the elaboratereliquaries,caskets, crowns,brooches and cups that wereproductsof thejeweler'scraft.(147-148)

Riddy continues:[J]ewelsare . . . objectsof exchange,partof the elaboratesystemof gift-giving and receivingthroughwhich networksof power,reciprocityandobligationwere maintained .... Pearlcan be seen as a partof the samesystemof exchangeas thesejewels. (150, 151)

To Riddy's observations one could add that Pearl is formally-but notnarratively-structured so that the ending leads back to the beginning ofthe poem, "rounding" t to the shape of a pearl. The first line of Pearl sug-gests that the poem itself may be a pearl-offering for a prince: "Lovelypearl, to pay [also 'to please' or 'to satisfy'] a prince" ("Perleplesaunte, toprynces paye"). The second line implies that the pearl-poem should be"purely enclosed [or set] in bright gold" ("clanlyclos in golde so clere"; 1.2)-either written in gold ink or adorned with decorative gold leaf-andhoused in a prince's library. The written state of Pearl as an art-manu-script adorned in gold and the spoken state of Pearl-its lush acousticpresence-are the "material,"sensory features necessary to the experien-tial performance of gift-exchange. The closing lines cinch the implicationsof this first line, both formally and thematically: "Hegranted us [leave] tobe His humble servants / And precious pearls unto His payment ['pleas-ure,' 'satisfaction']" ("He gef vus to be His homly hyne / Ande preciousperlez vnto His pay"; 11. 1211-12). The gift has shifted from the poemitself, implicated in the opening lines, to the Dreamer's humble service-a service rendered, at least partially, by the composition of the poem.Exchanges Between the Dreamer and God

Pearl's obsession with images of pearls and jewels align it with systemsof gift-exchange and obligation that have powerful significance for therepresentation of the relationships between the dead and the living andbetween human beings and God. The objectification of the Pearl-poem asan elaborate piece of artistry, productive within the economy ofexchange, resonates with its process-oriented narrative, which depictsgift-exchange as a consolatory and healing context for interpreting thedeath of a loved one.Early concatenating phrases, such as "pearl without spot," "preciousornament," and "adorned by pearls," underscore the narrator's lapidary

6 "Never he Less"



8/16

obsession and the role of precious luxury items in Pearl. Each concatenat-ing or repeating phrase falls at the end of five stanzas in all.17The begin-ning of the next stanza introduces one of the words in the phrase--"spot,""ornament," and "adorned"-thereby linking groups of five stanzas andalso each stanzaic section to the next. Taking into account a denselyechoic rhyme-scheme and short alliterative lines, one discovers anacoustically elaborate poem where words stud the fabric of the lines likeso many gems with rhyming facets. The Dreamer, in fact, refers to him-self as a "jeweler"who has lost his pearl. What should strike one as prob-lematic in the Dreamer's self-definition is not just his early lack of recog-nition that God is the true "Jeweler,"but also that, rather than sending hisgem into the ritual circulation of gifts that sustain society, this jewelerwants to hoard his jewel.The primary importance of gift-exchange slowly grows evident to theDreamer and the audience. One first encounters the Dreamer searchinghis garden for a lost pearl, an activity that turns out to be a quasi-metaphor for his internal distress at having lost his daughter (a "quasi-metaphor" because the Dreamer seems, in fact, to have been searchinghis garden). His loss has yet to be reframed within the rite of gift-exchange, but regardless of the Dreamer's inability to see his daughter asa gift-a gift that has already been given (back) to Christ-an experienceof heavenly treasures is forthcoming. When the Dreamer first sees hisdaughter, he is struck by the many pearls that cover her dress, especiallythe very large and flawless pearl at her breast (11.221-28). Visually, sheseems to emerge from a dazzling cliff, a perfect jewel suddenly freedfrom her entourage of brilliant stones (foreshadowing her later disappear-ance among the processing virgins). The pearl-maiden's costume and thevery manner of her appearance to the Dreamer make her the sacred vari-ation on a motif already running through the poem, linking pearls withgifts just as the poem itself may be likened to a pearl and a gift. She actsas the Dreamer's guide through theological paradoxes and eventuallyreveals that he has been granted a divine dispensation to see (but notenter) the Holy Jerusalem. One implication is that "in exchange" for thepearl-child, "given" in death to Christ, the Christian God bestows thedreaming father with a vision of his daughter, her teachings, and the NewJerusalem. Therefore, the dead should be deemed gifts, not forgotten orlost beings, for they present an ongoing connection to the eternal.But comprehension of the gift-exchange dynamic only truly dawns onthe Dreamer after he awakens and notes that every mortal human hasbeen granted the gift of being "precious pearls for his payment ['pleasure'or 'satisfaction']" (11.1211-12).18The pearl-maiden becomes one of theseprecious pearls that God has received for his pleasure and payment; inexchange the Dreamer notes that he may partake of Christ's immanence

HeatherMaring 7



9/16

daily through the ritual of Mass (11.1205-10). God possesses his daughter,while the Dreamer may encounter His Son "in the form of bread andwine" (1. 1209).This lesson is another implication of gift-exchange in Pearl, that Chris-tians continually have recourse to a Gift no human being may ever fullyrepay. In the era of Pearl's composition, lavish gifts could earn membersof the gentry "prestige."Citing the Historia WalciodorensisMonasterii, Brit-ton J. Harwood observes that "[T]herelation between nobility and the giftbecomes a sort of refrain: the gift itself is noble (nobiledonum), made bypeople behaving nobly (ut nobilis faciens donationem), displaying theirnobility by adding to others' wealth in noble fashion (ut nobilis, nobiliterampliaverunt) (Economie2: 24)" (484). Reputations could be made or loston the basis of participation in gift-giving (485). But when the most pow-erful lord to partake in socially "aggressive"gift-exchange is Christ, thereis an "original inequality" (491).19The boundless largesse of the Lord, thepearl-maiden makes clear, underlies the logic of the Parable of the Vine-yard (Matthew 20.1-16)-and is a marker of his unsurpassable nobility.Thus, the invocation of gift-exchange in the poem's opening and closinglines, and the images of nobility and heavenly treasures, call attention toGod's infinite and boundless nobility.The Chain of Pearls

In Pearl the properties of jewels may lead the Dreamer both towardand away from an appreciation of the Christian God.20 Like the courtlylover (or the mystical adept), through his appreciation of their beauty hemay be led to God. He may travel from desire for a lovely stone to desirefor the holy city that rests upon foundations of twelve precious stones (11.991-94, 997-1016). But he may also encounter the consequences of grow-ing too literal in his attachment to lesser forms of beauty, as when theDreamer in a surge of over-reaching desire finds himself thrust from thevery liminal space that afforded him such optical and acoustic delights.The Pearl poem itself relies on formal aesthetic delights (alliteration,rhyme, concatenation) while it represents a fine edge between two choic-es in the face of aesthetic pleasure: one choice leads up the interior psy-chological chain toward God, the other down. The first choice means fol-lowing the shifting referents for the term "pearl," beginning with the"jewel"itself. A pearl "sorounde" (1. 5) may point, by its humble materialexistence, to the perfect unbounded atemporality of God. Pearls inmedieval culture also could symbolize a cure for heart-break or over-wrought love-longing,as the following lapidary instructs:

Pearl is chief of all stones that are white and precious, as Isidoresays. .... [A]ndsome say that they comfortlimbs and members, for itcleanses them of the superfluity of humors and [they] strengthenthe

8 "Never he Less"



10/16

limbs, and help againstcardiacpain [ordisease]and againstheart fail-ure.Margaritas chef of al stonsPatben wy6t &preciose, as Ised seyp....[A]ndsomme seyne Pat Pey comfortenlymes &membris,for it clensephim of superfluiteof humours & fastenPe lymes, &helpen agen be or-diacle passioun & agens swonyng of hert . .. (Evans and Serjeantson107-8)

Using stock phrasesfrom courtlylove poetry,the Dreamercomplainsatthe beginningof the poem, "Thatdoes but oppressmy heartgrievously,My breastin balefulnessonly swells and burns"("patdotz bot prychmyhertPrange, My breste in bale bot bolne and bele";11.18-19).The "rightpearl"could cure the Dreamer's depression and even the fainting fit(another ranslationof "swonyngof hert"),which broughton his vision.Frompearlto a maiden adorned n pearlsis a leapthe Dreamer'smindmakeswhen he enters the dream-vision.The maiden then leadshis mindtoward more spiritualassociations when she recounts the parableof thePearlof Price.Finally,one perceivesthe chain of associations romphysi-cal stone, to pearl-maiden,to heavenly dwelling place, come to rest onChrist himself.21With tender words the maiden speaks of Christ's Pas-sion, sayingin section XIV,"MyLamb,my Lord,mydearJewel,/ My Joy,my Bliss,my noble Love- / The prophetIsaiahof Him did speak/ Com-passionately of His meekness"("MyLombe,my Lorde,mydereJuelle, I/

My Joy,my Blys, my Lemmanfre- / pe profeteYsayeof Hym con melle/ Pitouslyof Hys debonertd"; 1.795-98, italics mine). Such courtlyturnsof speech are meant to stir the heart,just as they portraya heartstirred.The poet has often used the term "juelle" s a synonymfor his lost pearland for the pearl-maiden.In the end, apprehending he meaningfulnessof the pearl-that it belongs to a many-tiered"language":erbal (MiddleEnglish),ritualistic(the objectof gift-exchange),Biblical(inparable),andcourtly(aterm of endearment)-drawsone closer to God.Hearingthe maiden tell of her wedding to Christ,herJewel, seems tobe the mystical apexof the poem:he is the real Gift.As a reader or audi-tor, one has followed the Dreamer's own train of perceptions. First, itseemed that the lost pearlwas a precioustangibleobject,fit for a prince,that could be set within a ringor could roll from the palm of one's handinto the maze of herbs in a garden. Next, one finds that the pearl theDreamer mourns is actually the pearl-maiden, his deceased child. Bymentioningthe Pearlof Price,the maidenhints at anotherpearl-heavenitself-on which Dreameroughtto fix his desire.Finally,when the maid-en calls Christher "dereJuelle," he idea that the "lostpearlequalsmaid-en" or that the pearl figures heavenly salvation is superceded. The"pitous"depiction of Christ's tribulationon the Cross,which fuses thedictionof courtlylove with Biblicalprophecy,22would lead the Dreamer

HeatherMaring 9



11/16

by example toward a realization of what he should truly mourn: "God'sLamb as true [steadfast] as stone" ("Godez Lombe as trwe as ston"; 1.822)--Christ, the stone or Jewel who repaid Adam's debt.23Thus, one sees the Dreamer follow a chain of "pearls," rom least true(that is, real, eternal) to most, from a figure of speech signifying hisdaughter to the spotless Lamb. The other choice, to follow baser desires,drags the Dreamer down the chain, into the terrestrial sphere. This sortof desire is possessive, an attempt to hoard and keep someone or some-thing for oneself (cf. the Dreamer's mistake when he first meets thepearl-maiden: "Now I have found it (pearl), I shall 'make a festival,' / anddwell with it in shining wood-groves" ["Now haf I fonde hyt, I schal mafeste, / And wony with hyt in schyr wod-schawez"; 11.284-85]). Objectsthat move between two or more beings (as in gift-exchange) continue tobear significance, a significance that, following the chain of associationsin Pearl, ultimately derives from the deity. Once drawn outside of this"loop," objects begin to lose their connection to the ultimate font ofmeaningfulness. Hoarding, possessiveness, and selfishness-these statescut objects from their source of meaning, rendering them mute withinthe field of social interaction. This muting brings about their symbolicdeaths, while physical deaths (at least when a human being is the "object"in question) may actually unbar the threshold of heavenly eternity.Exchanges Between Heaven and Earth

In exchange for enunciating the poem-as-pearl, the audience is guidedthrough an extended vision, at multiple sensory levels, of consolation forworldly suffering.24 In this sense the poem does not just represent theDreamer's process of experiential education concerning the enduringrelationship between heaven and earth, a relationship played out in ritualexchange; the audience also may enter the performative paradigm where-in a verbal pearl is re-created and offered to the Prince. Bell observes thatin rites of exchange and communion, ritual sacrifice enacts the union ofhuman and divine worlds (109-14). One sees this represented on multiplelevels in Pearl, from the procession of the wounded and bleeding lambrepresenting Christ to what could be considered a psychological sacrificeof the Dreamer's daughter to the Prince of heaven who claims her. Onemight also say that the poem "to satisfy the Prince" ("topay )e Prince"; 1.1201) enacts a virtual communion, bringing a vision of heaven to earth,making that well-known place of spiritual regeneration-Jerusalem-pres-ent in exchange for the poem's performance.In exchange for praise of the Christian God and his works, praiseembedded in the form of a verse-pearl, the earth-bound man may justpossibly reach paradise, which is also likened to a pearl. Since gift-exchange has been shown to be one of the most fundamental practices in

10 "Never he Less"



12/16

traditional societies, its enactment in Pearl highlights the performativepossibilities of medieval poetry and Pearl's union of aesthetic and reli-gious practices. Words have more power in this context than is usuallyattributed to them; rather than abstractly providing information or sub-jectively evoking concepts and moods, words may be ritually effective inthe context of performative poetry.25For example, specialized registers oflanguage employed in medieval poetry-such as alliterative, stress-basedlines of verse-may themselves constitute a "performance-arena" wherewords have the metonymic force of traditional verse formulas.26 Writtenmedieval verse inhabited a culture where verbal artistry had recourse toperformative genres, such as oral traditions and oral-literary hybrids. Ver-bal cues in such genres could bear the power to invoke, pars pro toto,what they described. Hence a counter-gift for giving voice to this exquis-itely crafted poem could truly be a glimpse of the New Jerusalem.

Pearl is not just about how the gift-exchange model provides consola-tion. It presents an "interactive" form of consolation, where one may par-ticipate in rites that bind heaven and earth in orderly systems of obliga-tion that mask the messy randomness of death (for what could ever truly"satisfy"or repay a parent for the loss of a child?). While giving voice tothe pearl offering called Pearl, one may imaginatively follow the chain ofpearls that leads from the ephemeral to the eternal.University of Missouri-Columbia

Notes1. AllPearlcitationscome fromMalcolmAndrewandRonaldWaldron,ThePoemsof the Pearl Manuscript: Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the GreenKnight.Sarah Stanbury's edition of Pearl offers the most recent select bibliographyof editions, translations, and criticism (with brief annotations).2. On parallels between virginity treatises and Pearl, see Nicholas Watson, "TheGawain-Poetas a Vernacular Theologian."3. Unless otherwise stated, all translations are mine.4. The maiden does differentiate between the Virgin Mary and Christ's virgin ret-inue.The pearl-maiden uses the phrase "never the less" (in five of the six stanzas insection XV) as she recounts John's visions of the "Appocalyppece" (1. 866). Theconcatenating element in this section of Pearl, "neverthe less," recurs in the maid-en's speech as an echo and rebuke to the Dreamer's earlier misdirected hungerfor "more and more" (section III). "Never the less" occupies varying semanticroles in these stanzas, reflecting the over-spilling fullness of language (especiallywhen spoken by a heavenly emissary). As long as the Dreamer fails to realize theplenitude promised by heaven, he will remain inconsolable with respect to hisdaughter's death, which at first he perceives as an irreparable loss.5. Some may read the plainness and brevity of the Dreamer's final statements asa clue that he has not truly learned from his vision, but I take his words at face

HeatherMaring 11



13/16

value. In the mystical dream-vision genre, exemplified by Dante's Commedia,theDreamer undergoes a life-changing process of education. The formal circularity ofPearl, like the Pearl of Price, which the maiden calls "endelez rounde" (1. 738),complements the linearity of the Dreamer's historical experience and growth.6. This paper uses "metonym" as it is construed in studies of oral tradition andperformative verbal art: a part that stands for the whole. See John Miles Foley,TheSingerof Talesin Performancechs. 1-3.7. Marcel Mauss' landmark study on prestation, The Gift: Forms and Functions ofExchange in Archaic Societies, describes gift-exchange in traditional societies as anobligatory process occurring within and between social groups, a process thatvaries from culture to culture. Concerning the distributed objects that bindgroups together he writes, "What they exchange is not exclusively goods andwealth, real and personal property, and things of economic value. They exchangerather courtesies, entertainments, ritual, military assistance, women, children,dances, and feasts; and fairs in which the market is but one element and the cir-culation of wealth but one part of a wide and enduring contract" (3). Other signif-icant contributions to the study of gift-exchange include those by Edward B. Tylor,who proposed the "gifttheory," Raymond Firth, and Pierre Bourdieu.Britton J. Harwood's "Gawainand the Gift" and Lawrence Besserman's "Gawain'sGreen Girdle" are of special importance to the study of gift-exchange in Pearl.Harwood's article provides an extensive bibliography for studies of medievalsocio-economic relationships and related issues in Sir Gawain.8. This summary is indebted to Evelyn Birge Vitz's broad survey in "The Liturgyand Vernacular Literature."9. "Macaronic"poems that mix two languages, one usually being Latin. See Vitz523-24.10. On communicative economy in oral verse, including oral-derived medievalpoetry, see John Miles Foley, TheSingerof Talesin Performance53-59.11. This comparison of ritual and oral traditional paradigms relies on "traditionalreferentiality," a concept developed by John Miles Foley to describe the relation-ship between individual oral poems and their oral traditions (see ImmanentArt,ch. 2, and Homer's TraditionalArt, ch. 4). More specifically, "traditional referen-tiality" explains how each individual oral composition functions metonymically inrelationship to a culturally inherited body of traditional poetry whose traditionalconcepts were never written down, nor needed the assistance of writing. The oraltradition acts as a context that poems metonymically reference, "acontext that isenormously larger and more echoic than the text or work itself" (ImmanentArt 7).Although traditional referentiality may sound a bit like "allusion,"Foley maintainsa strong distinction between intertextual and oral practices, noting the way inwhich a seeming fragment of verse or a hero's epithet elicits a host of traditionalassociations specific to its particular orbit. Traditional referentiality at work in anoral poem actively substitutes pars pro toto; the medium allows the poet to sum-mon with great efficiency an extraordinary amount of information pertaining tonarrative structure, characterization, and traditional concepts in a few words orphrases, the way a footprint may tell a trained hunter the kind, size, gender,health, and activity of a creature. To shift metaphors, against the summonedbackdrop of traditional associations, an individual poet may "ring out hischanges," suggesting creative affiliations with ancient traditional authority andthereby aligning the present with a revered past. My article suggests that "tradi-

12 "Never the Less"



14/16

tional referentiality," usually deemed the metonymic relationship between apoem and an oral tradition, could also apply to poetry and ritual.See Mark Amodio's Writingthe Oral Tradition,for a discussion of hybrid oral andwritten poetics in both Old and Middle English poetry.12. A shorter oral-derived version of this story appears in the 47-line fragment"The Fight a Finnsburg," but this poem and the Beowulf episode appear todescribe different moments in a larger story (see Klaeber 230-38 for commentary;245-49 for two editions of the poem). Cf. Adrien Bonjour's The Digressions inBeowulf.13. For more details, see Harwood's analysis of contemporary gift-exchange prac-tices.14. When John the Baptist recognizes Christ, he cries "Behold the Lamb of God,which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1.29).15. The role of later medieval gift-poems appears to differ from the Norse model,where poets served their benefactors by weaving them, their relatives, or mem-bers of their court into tales that honored their deeds (cf. Richard Bauman 138and 141-142). In Pearl's case the recipient bears away the poem-prize because ofhis or her participation in the distribution of wealth, instead of an act of heroism.In both eras a poet's skill with words could further the reputation of a patron'scourt or household, whether explicitly or implicitly.16. The pearl-maiden may have been a young girl named Margaret (a name mean-ing "pearl"), whose death was commemorated by this poem. Felicity Riddyobserves: "Intrying to imagine an occasion for the composition of Pearl then, wemight think of an orbit for a dead child-a commemorative Mass performed eachyear on the day of her death" (151). For widely varying depictions of the Pearl-poet's identity and his audience, see also Derek Brewer 4-6; Malcolm Andrew 23-33; and Michael J. Bennett 71-90.17. The only stanza section comprising six stanzas instead of five concatenates thephrase "never the less," which the maiden uses to explain the boundless generosi-ty found in heaven. Formally the poem appears to exhibit what the maidendescribes.18. These lines also may be understood as present subjunctive, i.e., "may Hegrant us . . ." (11.110, 1211f.).19. Harwood interprets Sir Gawain's acceptance of the girdle as a testament "tofallen humanity's inability to make a gift of itself" (490).20. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the hero arms himself with diamondsbefore his quest to face the Green Knight's counter-blow (11.615-18). The diademof diamonds plays no passive role, since its properties supposedly lent the heroprotection from all dangers. In fact, the circlet of diamonds could easily slip one'snotice-a detail among a stream of details-when it actually foreshadows themagical girdle and calls attention to Gawain's problematic faith in objects.21. For an exploration of associated images in Pearl that do not focus so strictlyupon pearl figures, see Marie Boroff, "Pearl's 'Maynful Mone': Crux, Simile, andStructure."22. In nearly every turn of phrase, the maiden invokes the voices of Biblicalprophets and seers: Isaiah, John the Baptist, and John the apostle, who wasbelieved to be the author of Revelation. Describing her wedding to Christ, shesays, "As t is seen in the Apocalypse: / Saint John saw them all in a group. / On

Heather Maring 13



15/16

the hill of Zion, that seemly mount, / The apostle saw them in a spiritual dream"("As n beApocalyppez hit is sene: / Sant John hem sy6 al in a knot. I On behyl ofSyon, bat semly clot, / pe apostel hem segh in gostly drem"; 11.787-90). Further-more, lines 797-803, 811-15, 819-24, and 823-26 allude to or paraphrase theprophecies of Isaiah 53 (cf. Andrew and Waldron).23. Christ is also the Jewel in the following line: "Allsang to praise that brightJewel" ("Al onge to loue Patgay Juelle"; 1. 1124).24. Both the poem and the commemorative Mass that may have occasioned itprovide opportunities to transform unhealthy or morbid attachment to a deadchild into a connection with divinity.25. The term word-powerdenotes the rich, metonymically referential gestures oforal-traditional art, which rely on the enabling event of performance and theenabling referent of tradition for their meaning (Foley,Singer 27-28).26. For more on the metonymic power of oral-derived medieval verse, see AlainRenoir, Mark C. Amodio, Nancy Mason Bradbury, and John Zemke.

Works CitedAers, David. "Christianity for Courtly Subjects: Reflections on the Gawain-Poet."Brewer and Gibson 91-101.Amodio, Mark C. Writingthe Oral Tradition: Oral Poetics and Literate Culture inMedievalEngland.Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P,2004.Andrew, Malcolm. "Theories of Authorship." Brewer and Gibson 23-33.Andrew, Malcolm and Ronald Waldron, eds. The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript:Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 4th ed.

Exeter: U of Exeter P, 2002.Bauman, Richard. "Performance and Honor in 13th-Century Iceland." Journal ofAmericanFolklore 99 (1986): 131-50.Bell, Catherine. Ritual:Perspectivesand Dimensions. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997.Bennett, Michael J. "TheHistorical Background."Brewer and Gibson 71-90.Besserman, Lawrence. "Gawain's Green Girdle." Annuale mediaevale 22 (1982):84-100.Bonjour, Adrien. The Digressions in Beowulf. 1950. Medium IEvum, 5. Oxford:Blackwell, 1965.Boroff, Marie, trans. "Pearl's 'Maynful Mone': Crux, Simile, and Structure."Actsof Interpretation: The Text in Its Contexts, 700-1600: Essays on Medieval andRenaissanceLiteraturein Honor of E. Talbot Donaldson. Eds. Mary J. Carruthersand Elizabeth D. Kirk. Norman: Pilgrim, 1982. 159-72.. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, Pearl: VerseTranslations. 3rd rev.ed. New York:Norton, 2001.Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Stanford:Stanford UP, 1977.Bradbury, Nancy Mason. Writing Aloud: Storytelling in Late Medieval England.Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1998.Brewer, Derek. Introduction. Brewer and Gibson 1-21.

14 "Never the Less"



16/16

Brewer, Derek and Jonathan Gibson, eds. A Companionto the Gawain-Poet. Cam-bridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997.Evans, Joan and Mary S. Serjeantson. English Mediaeval Lapidaries. EETS, 190.London: Oxford UP, 1933.Firth, Raymond. "Offeringand Sacrifice: Problems of Organization."Journal of the

Royal AnthropologicalInstitute 96 (1963): 12-24.Foley, John Miles. Homer's TraditionalArt. University Park:Pennsylvania State UP,1999.. ImmanentArt: From Structure to Meaning in Traditional Oral Epic. Blooming-ton: Indiana UP, 1991.. The Singerof Talesin Performance.Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995.

Harwood, B. J. "Gawainand the Gift." PMLA 106.3 (1991): 483-99.Klaeber, Friederich, ed. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg. 3rd ed. with 1st and2nd supplements. Boston: D. C. Heath, 1950.Mauss, Marcel. The Gift:Formsand Functionsof Exchangein Archaic Societies. NewYork:Norton, 1967.Renoir, Alain. A Key to Old Poems: The Oral-FormulaicApproach to the Interpreta-tion of West-GermanicVerse.University Park:Pennsylvania State UP, 1988.Riddy, Felicity. "Jewelsin Pearl." Brewer and Gibson 143-55.Stanbury, Sarah, ed. Pearl. TEAMS Middle English Text Series. Kalamazoo:Medieval Institute Publications, 2001.Tolkein, J. R. R., trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo.Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975.Tylor,Edward B. PrimitiveCultures.2 vols. New York:Harper, 1958.Vitz, Evelyn Birge. "The Liturgy and Vernacular Literature." The Liturgy of theMedieval Church.2nd ed. Ed. Thomas J. Heffernan and E. Ann Matter. Kalama-zoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2005.Watson, Nicholas. "The Gawain-Poet as a Vernacular Theologian." Brewer andGibson. 293-313.Zemke, John. "Improvisation, Inspiration, and Basque Verbal Contest: Identity inPerformance." Voicingthe Moment:ImprovisedOral Poetryand Basque Tradition.Ed. Samuel G. Armistead and Joseba Zulaika. Reno: Center for Basque Studies,U of Nevada P, 2005.

Heather Maring 15

Documents

Gawain Gift Exchange