The Dame, The Knight and The Ugly: manifestations of power in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell Anonymous College

The OED defines power as the “ability to act or affect something strongly”. However, this essay is not interested in the meaning of this power but instead, will examine the manifestation of power, in ugliness. In The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell, but also in other Gawain tales, female power is embodied by two polarising stereotypes – the beautiful maiden wielding physical, sexual power versus the ugly hag wielding immaterial power. In these motifs, we can see clear literary boundaries set out for female characters and female power. This essay will use the Loathly Lady stereotype and three Gawain tales to examine how ugliness and power might explain Dame Ragnell.

The most common type of female power in the Gawain tales is sexual power manifested in beauty. For the medieval reader, a woman cannot be considered sexually without beauty and therefore, beauty is not just essential to the representation of female physical power but also, the source of such power. Ziolkowski notes that “the canon fixed criteria for determining what was beautiful” (p1) making beauty in the tales very specific. Arguably, this specificity provides a clear indication of female sexual power and outlines characters that fulfil these medieval...