SOURCE: Rooney, Anne. “The Hunts in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” In A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, edited by Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson, pp. 157-63. Cambridge, England: D. S. Brewer, 1997.

In the following essay, Rooney argues that some critics have overanalyzed the hunting scenes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and contends that they are simply examples of worldly pleasure.

The game causeth ofte a man to eschewe þe vij deedly synnes … for whan a man is ydul and recheless … it is a thyng which draweth men to ymaginacioun of fleishly lust and plaisire, for suche men han no lust, but alway for to abyde in oon place, and thenketh in pryde or in auarice eiþer in wrethe, oiþer in slawthe or in gloteny or in lechery or in envie.

(Edward Plantagenet, 2nd Duke of York, The Master of Game (Baillie-Grohman and Baillie-Grohman...