Pentangle
Mystic five-pointed symbol on Gawain's shield, called the endless knot, set by Solomon as truth.
The Pentangle is a mystic symbol attested in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, borne on Gawain's shield as a device of deep symbolic meaning. The source describes it as "a sign that Solomon set ere-while, as betokening truth; for it is a figure with five points and each line overlaps the other, and nowhere hath it beginning or end" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II, Wherefore Sir Gawain bare the pentangle). In English, the pentangle is called "the endless knot" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II, Wherefore Sir Gawain bare the pentangle).
The preface to the poem singles out the pentangle passage as particularly notable, highlighting "the quaintly earnest words in which the old writer reveals the hidden meaning of that mystic symbol, the pentangle" (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Preface). The five-pointed figure, with its interlocking lines that have neither beginning nor end, serves as an emblem of Gawain's five-fold virtues. Its attribution to Solomon places the symbol within a tradition of sacred geometry and truth.