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The pureness and righteousness of Siyavash – the mythological protagonist in Firdausi's Book of Kings – that were trialed by his passing across fire, took root in the depth of Iranian people's believes and ideas. In the chivalric romance of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, that has a high status in English and European literatures, Gawain too, as one of the purest knights of king Arthur, after being successful in passing a series of trials – that like Siyavash's trial had a supernatural nature – proves his personal virtues. Through an integration of the structuralist theories of Claude Levi Strauss and Northrop Frye, this research intends to provide a critical framework to study the form and content of these two stories in order to determine their similarities. Here "similarities" refers to the archetypes and mini-myths that have been stated in the narrative plot of the romance of the two stories in the dual contrast of nature versus culture. On the ground of this basic dual contrast the two protagonists pass their "intrinsic" and " "superficial" archetypal trials to prove their righteousness. Moreover, the two stories restate the two basic archetypes: Death and Rebirth, as well as the Terrible Mother.

Keywords: archetypal criticism, Claude Levi Strauss, Northrop Frye, Siyavash, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

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