The use of the bob and wheel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- Michael Smith
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
One of the notable poetic features of the Middle English masterpiece Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is its use of a device known as the 'bob and wheel', in which two extra syllables (the bob) on the final line of a full verse introduce a concluding quatrain (the wheel) acting as a coda to the main stanza. The translation of the 'bob and wheel' is particularly difficult when attempted in verse.
The bob and wheel in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Middle English masterpiece Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is particularly notable for its use of two distinctive poetic devices within each main stanza, in addition to a third feature which links both.
These are: the alliterative long line (comprising an a- and b- verse), the alliterative short line (at first glance resembling an extended b-verse), and the 'bob', a syllabic addition at the end of the final long line in each stanza which introduces the 'wheel', a rhyming quatrain of alliterative half lines. This 'bob and wheel' occurs at the end of each verse (see image below)
The technique reveals an exceptional understanding of metre in the service of narration. The introduction of the 'bob' creates a jarring effect which signifies the approaching end to the stanza but also the transition to the 'wheel'. In most (but not all) cases, the wheel acts as a coda to the preceding verse. I examine the various components below.
The alliterative long line
The alliterative long line was the poetic device of choice for English alliterative poets of the fourteenth century. Here, a given poetic line is divided into two halves, a slightly longer a-verse and a shorter b-verse; these are separated by a narrative pause, or caesura.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is unusual in its use of long and short lines. The majority of poems from the so-called "Alliterative Revival of the Fourteenth Century" use the long line only. It is later in the century when significantly more complex alliterative poetry emerges when rhyme is introduced more comprehensively.
However, this was not an evolutionary process. 'Conventional' long line poems (if I may call them that) did not give way to stanzaic forms but were read alongside them and remained popular.
They include extensive narratives such as the Alliterative Morte Arthure (King Arthur's Death) and William of Palerne (The Romance of William and the Werewolf), both of which I have translated and are available through Blackwells and other good booksellers.
How the alliterative long line works
In its simplest form, the alliterative long line alliterates four times on the same letter and is denoted by academics as aa-aa, where 'a' denotes an alliterating letter in a given line and '-' is the caesura.
The following line (l. 600)of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a good example::
Ϸe brydel barred aboute, [-] with bryʒt golde bounden.
(The bridle was striped all over, bound with bright gold)
Here, the alliterating letter is 'b'. At first glance, this line also seems to offer a fifth alliterating word in "barred" to suggest an aaa-aa form. But a casual reading aloud soon reveals where a natural stress appears; despite the additional alliterating 'b', the line does not read as if the poet intended an additional stress.
However, many alliterative poems, Sir Gawain included, vary in what they alliterate and often choose a metrically clearer form such as aa-ax, where three words alliterate on one letter, followed by a fourth which alliterates on a different letter. An example (l. 605) is seen below, where the stronger letter, "h", gives way to the weaker "k":
Ϸenne hentes he þe helme [-] and hastily hit kisses
(Then he lifts up his helmet and briefly kisses it)
It can be seen in the example above that the stress seems to fall away more naturally when spoken aloud, more so, perhaps, than in the aa-aa form. It is possible that "and" may take the place of the caesura in creating a pause.
Such inconsistencies highlight how copying by scribes can impact the final outcome. But such scribal introductions also call into question whether the aa-aa form itself is definitive.
The problem with all extant texts in the alliterative form is that they are all copies of lost autographs. We cannot know, in fact, whether aa-aa represents the ultimate alliterative form to which all poets aspired or whether a more naturally flowing aa-ax represents the original poet's intention. Other forms, which may also be corruptions, include variants such as aa-xa, ax-ax, ax-aa, xa-xa, and xa-aa.
But what never changes is the fact that the b-verse always drops away in stress towards the end. The b-verse therefore has a distinctive, lowering stress to the a-verse. This is given particular emphasis when comparing the lines of any b-verse with one of the rhyming half-lines of any 'wheel'
The 'b' verse and the alliterative short line
The b-verse is distinctive and, as discussed, implies that an alliterative form of aa-aa in the long line may be a flawed way of presenting alliterative poetry.
Certainly, each long line moves towards a conclusion whereby its stress is naturally diminished, and not accentuated (which it would appear to be in an aa-aa delivery).
The separation of a- and b- verses is therefore critical in terms of the delivery of the line. The caesura and its location thus plays a major part in the resolution of each line.
However, a comparison between the long-line 'b' verse and metrical form of the rhyming alliterative short lines in any 'wheel' from Sir Gawain reveals significant changes in poetic metre and stress. The poetry transforms.
Below, I compare four sequential b-verses with their following rhyming 'bob and wheel'. The passage is from that part of the narrative where Gawain is armed prior to his journey in search of the Green Knight.
Apart from the introduction and use of rhyme in the lines of the 'wheel', it will be observed that the stress form is different to that of any given b-verse. In the example below, the b-verse of each long line is shown in bold and the 'bob and wheel' in dark red.
And syþen þe braden bryne of bryʒt stel ryngez
Vmbeweued þat wyz vpon his boþe armes,
With gode cowters and gay and glouez of plate,
And all þe godlych gere þat hym gayn schulde
Ϸat tyde;
Wyth ryche cote-armoure,
His gold sporez spend with pryde,
Gurde wyth a bront ful sure
With silk sayn vmbe his syde. [ll. 581-589]
It is immediately apparent that the alliterative short lines of the 'wheel' are self contained and, unlike the b-verse, do not rely on a preceding a-verse. Unlike the short lines of the wheel, the half-lines of the b-verse seem to substantiate what occurs in the preceding a-verse.
Secondly, the entire quatrain takes the form of a descriptive poetic sentence ("When he was dressed in a glittering armoured coat and golden spurs, a stout sword was attached to his side with a silk girdle".) The quatrain therefore has a narrative purpose of its own.
This is emphasised by the rhyme scheme, where the first and third lines, and second and fourth lines, rhyme with each other (abab). The wheel is also poetically introduced by the bob: the bob rhymes with the second and fourth lines of the wheel, to give a scheme of babab.
Finally, the alliterative form of the wheel is distinctive to the poetry elsewhere, On occasions it can often be difficult to understand whether or not the poet is actually alliterating in the wheel.
This is significant because it reveals how the introduction and use of rhyme in the wheel changes the stress pattern in the alliterative short line. Now, instead of the stress dropping off at the end (as in the b-verse), it lifts to emphasise the rhyme.
The consequence of this is that the wheel as well as the bob are suddenly definitive. The change in metrical form is suggestive of distinctive purpose, raising what otherwise might have been a 'conventional' long-line poem into a much more complex narrative form.
The purpose of the bob and wheel
It is clear that the bob and wheel is a device of profound complexity. It changes the poem from one of straightforward narrative (such as the Alliterative Morte Arthure) into a multifaceted, almost spiritual experience.
Before discussing this further, it is important to point out that the 'bob' as it is represented in modern editions of the poem is not depicted in the same way in the original manuscript (London, British Library, Cotton Nero A.x).
Instead, as can be seen below, the bob ("Wyth wynne") from the opening stanza [normally shown as l. 15 in modern editions] is shown floating away from the original line ("...Bretayn he settez") [normally shown as l. 14].
In other cases, the bob is closer to the line. In the example below, we can see that the 'bob' ("To chace") is shown just above and to the right of "hunte and hornez" in ll. 1415-6. In this example, a (faint) visual marker is just visible next to the "to" in the bob, indicating it should be inserted in the reading.
Notwithstanding, the depiction of the 'bob' in such a visual form highlights its importance to a reader. In most cases the text would have been read aloud so a visual marker near to the 'wheel' is clearly a navigational and narrative device to assist in poetic delivery.
It is possible that the source text used by the scribe depicted the 'bobs' even more dramatically, perhaps with red markers so that they could not be missed.
Clearly, however, this is not something the scribe just 'happened' to notice; it is a fundamental part of the poem. It reflects not merely an observance of convention but the need to retain a device for the effective presentation of the poem to others.
The bob and wheel in reading aloud
There is little doubt that the stress patterns of the alliterative long line, short line and the bob-and-wheel, were all part of a tradition in reading and, in particular, reading aloud.
Whether Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in its original form was delivered by a reader to an attentive courtly audience in the manner of Chaucer reading to the court (see image below) or whether the manuscript which survives was intended for smaller audiences, it is clear that the layout of the text is meant for open delivery.
The bob and wheel both map progress. For the audience, the extra two syllables of the 'bob' indicate a change - we are introduced to a narrative device (the wheel) which takes the listener from the preceding verse to the next.
For the poet-reader, it also signals a break in the narrative, allowing the introduction of drama by means of differently weighted speech, as well as the potential to prepare the audience for the next verse or to bring to an end a longer collection of verses, known as the Fitt.
We know from later poems, such as the Awntyrs off Arthure, that stanzaic alliterative poetry began to reach new heights in the early fifteenth century. However, the 'bob and wheel' in Sir Gawain suggests something other than just poetic expression and the demonstration of technique.
Instead, it creates a navigational and expressive device highly suggestive of performance, rather than simply being a poetic experiment.
Often, the 'wheel' introduces a narrative reflection on the events of the poem (such as the haunting warning to Gawain at the end of Fitt 1). Sometimes, it is used as a way of conveying the views of the characters (such as the courtiers' comments on Gawain's seeming happiness at ll. 1889-1992).
One of my favourite examples is at the end of Fitt 3, when the narrator comes fully into the frame as a real character in himself. He seems to lift the audience away from the action and uses the wheel as a link to the next, dramatic passage in the narrative:
"...If he sleeps soundly, I dare not say,
For he had much on the morning to mull on with his mind
in thought.
Let him lie there still,
He is near to what he's sought;
And if you will a while be still,
I will tell you how things wrought..." [SGGK, ll. 1992-97]
Translating the bob and wheel
The challenge for the modern translator is whether to replicate the bob and wheel in their work or to translate in prose. Most recent translators consider the use of the wheel as fundamental to an experience of the poem and I agree.
From JRR Tolkien (posthumously published in 1975) to Simon Armitage in 2007, translators have seen the bob and wheel as essential features of the poem. Even Gwyn Jones, whose 1952 translation was prose-based and largely ignored the 'bob', still retained the quatrains as a distinctive feature of the poem.
The difficulties arise when confronted with the form of medieval sentences and the position of the verb. Middle English lines frequently end on a verb which means that the resultant translation can often sound "poetic" or "courtly". There is an element of "Yoda" in the delivery, with lines delivered structurally backwards!
While it is possible to navigate around this problem, translators are not able to do so in a way which delivers a reading in modern English which is effective. This means that, unless a prose translation is attempted (as in WRJ Barron's edition for Manchester University Press), the default position is necessarily one of compromise.
This in itself is not an issue. Most modern readers read silently and, as such, ingest the bob and wheel differently to their medieval predecessors. The 'bob' still maintains its effectiveness as a break but the 'wheel' becomes more decorative and less performative.
What is most beguiling about the bob and wheel for the modern translator is not the challenge of the initial translation but what the process inspires. Once seen on the page it encourages further attempts and different levels of bravery.
But there is no doubt that the bob and wheel lies at the heart of the effective representation of the Gawain-poet's fabulous chivalric masterpiece. Distinctive, evocative and flexible, it is magnificent implement of dynamic storytelling.
Such is the magnificent legacy of the Gawain-poet, a man of profound depth of thought, deep poetic skill and incredible narrative capability. Somehow, the bob and wheel lies at the heart of his ability still to enchant his audiences.
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My translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was published in 2018. My publisher is Wilton Square Books.
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About the author, Michael Smith
I am a British translator and illustrator of medieval literature. I am also an established printmaker, with work in private collections worldwide.
My books, including translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, and William of Palerne, are published by Wilton Square Books and are available through all the usual outlets. All my books feature my own linocut prints as their illustrations.
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