Sir Gawain and the Classical Tradition: Essays on the Ancient AntecedentsE.L. Risden The 14th century English alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is admired for its morally complex plot and brilliant poetics. A chivalric romance placed in an Arthurian setting, it has since received acclaim for its commentary regarding important socio-political and religious concerns. The poem's technical brilliance blends psychological depth and vivid language to produce an effect widely considered superior to any other work of the time. Although the poem is a combination of English alliterative meter, romanticism, and a wide-ranging knowledge of Celtic lore, continental materials and Latin classics, the extent to which Classical antecedents affected or directed the poem is a point of continued controversy among literary scholars. This collection of essays by scholars of diverse interests addresses this puzzling and fascinating question. The introduction provides an expansive background for the topic, and subsequent essays explore the extent to which classical Greek, Roman, Arabic, Christian and Celtic influences are revealed in the poem's opening and closing allusions, themes, and composition. Essays discuss the way in which the anonymous author of Sir Gawain employs figural echoes of classical materials, cultural memoirs of past British tradition, and romantic re-textualizations of Trojan and British literature. It is argued that Sir Gawain may be understood as an Aeneas, Achilles, or Odysseus figure, while the British situation in the 14th century may be understood as analogous to that of ancient Troy. |
From inside the book
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... king's wars,1 and oppression of poor illiterate farmers and peasants.2 We need only look to Langland's A-text of Piers Plowman, composed in ¡369 shortly after a particularly bad harvest a›ected by crop disease. Relief was nowhere to be ...
... King Edward III, the founder of the Order, seems to have fantasized that he was King Arthur reincarnated, throwing Arthurian-themed parties and establishing a “Round Table” of sorts with his Garter Knights. Which side of the River Dane ...
... King Arthur, but Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a rather curious Arthurian poem. To begin with, Arthur's court is “young,” and there is no real evidence of a “Round Table” in use at Camelot, though one is mentioned in a couple of ...
... kings of Britain and England, but other famous traitors (or tricksters perhaps) who took part in the Trojan War included Antenor (as he is portrayed in Chaucer's Troilus) and Odysseus, famous for his “tricherie” in bringing Troy to its ...
... king, Cadwallader, who dies in 689 C.E. Three personalities dominate the Historia: again Brutus, the legendary ... king's conquest of Gaul, his subsequent betrayal by Modred, and the final battle as first presented in Geo›rey's text ...
Contents
1 | |
The Trojan Framework of Sir Gawain and | 49 |
Ritual Sacrifice and the PreChristian Subtext of Gawains | 65 |
Aeneas Gawain | 82 |
The Tresounous Tulk in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | 112 |
Classical AnaloguesEastern and Westernof Sir Gawain | 135 |
Classical Magic and Its Function | 182 |
About the Contributors | 211 |