Manicle

[Footnotes:] impossible: Gawain clearly considers his pledge to be as binding as an oath. gauntlets: strictly speaking, manicles would in this case be chainmail mittens.

The sergents, in place of the hauberk, wore a smaller hauberk called a haubergeon without manicles - the attached mail glove - an iron cap in place of the helmet, and nail leggings without foot-protectors (see Contanine, p.69).

One implication of “deliverance” is release from the bondage of the mind, nicely summed up by William Blake's “mindforg'd manicles” (102). When the mind is unaware of its enslavement, emancipation is impossible.