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
Results 1-5 of 41
... Magic and Its Function in Medieval Romance (Mickey Sweeney) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 ...
... magic and the supernatural, which numerous critics have explored in connection to Celtic lore of the beheading game and the Green Man.15 So we may safely argue that the poet of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight clearly chose to write in ...
... magic of the girdle instead of the eternal rewards of heaven. Could we read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a contemptus mundi piece, the moral of which Arthur and his young court do not understand? The next essay in this collection ...
... magical, pagan elements. Part of the success of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a poem, as the essays in this ... magic girdle, and the hunt scenes juxtaposed with the bedroom scenes in fitt 3, all of which the Gawain poet seems ...
... Magic and Its Function in Medieval Romance” makes a strong argument for situating the poet's attitude toward magic, both spiritual and secular, in the Classical tradition. The medieval Christian church branded some magic as evil or ...
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 |