The Medieval Endorsement

Before I plan to hand over my sole copy of W.S Merwin's recent new verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to a workmate, who, based on his delight with classic stories like Homer's Odyssey, asked me to endorse other classic literary adventures for him to read, I was killing time before work by re-reading it.

While reading those very potent, mythologically rich descriptions of Biblical and Classical proportions found in the Gawain-poet's tale - of the translatio imperii, of King Solomon's pentangle, of Christ's wounds, of Mary, the Queen of Heaven's image, and of knightly virtues - intuitively, I felt my mind wafting with an idea never conceived of before evoked by some orchestrated ineffable source.

Understanding these ideas in my own bizarre way, I thought analogously of the function of endorsement in advertising - a celebrated name or place of renowned association intended poetically to uplift the value of something above and beyond mundane reality to a far greater mythological significance. We're requested as readers of this medieval tale by the Gawain-poet to conceive of the extra poetic meaning associated with these well-known mythological endorsements.