Or: Sceal se hearda helm hyrsted golde

Also the hard helmet hammered with gold

(Beowulf, The Last Survivor’s Speech)

SEMINAR 2

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT

Points for Discussion

1. The medieval romance as a literary form.

2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The manuscript and the poet

3. How would you state the theme(s) of the narrative?

Examine the ideal of knighthood as presented in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. What is the attitude to courtly love?

What conflict does Gawain face? If the whole adventure is a test of honor, would you say he passes the test? What do you make of the French motto "Honi Soit Qui Mal Pense" found at the end of the poem? ("Shame be to the man who has evil in his heart"; an equally plausible rendering is "shame on whoever thinks ill [of him/it].")

4. The structure of the poem.

What is the symmetry of Sir Gawain ’s structure? How is the introduction related to the themes of the narrative? Many scenes in the poem are doubled or multiplied. What effect does the repetition of passages have on the reader? What is the significance of the descriptive and narrative details included in the narrative?

5. The symbolism of the poem. How important is symbolism in medieval literature/ the narrative? Consider the following symbols: the pentacle, the holly, Christmas/ New Year. What might the Green Knight symbolize?

6. The characters in the narrative

Consider the central character. Is he a superhuman epic hero? Is he flawed? How is he similar/ different to Beowulf?

Who are the women in SGGK? What is the function of each? What can you conclude (if anything) about the depiction of women in the poem? (Is it essentially positive, negative, neutral, mixed? Are they idealized, realistically portrayed, caricatures?)

The Poet

Extremely little is known about the origins of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The poem survived the Middle Ages in a single manuscript. The poem was rediscovered by scholars during the early nineteenth century, and it has been recognized as a masterpiece of English literature ever since.

The manuscript in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appears contains three other poems. On the basis of their similarities in style, language, and theme, all four are believed to be by the same poet. None of the poems has a title in the manuscript, but the three are usually called Pearl, Patience, and Cleanness (or Purity). Those three poems have more obviously religious themes than Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The manuscript itself dates around 1400, and scholars have dated the composition of the poems anywhere from about 1350 to 1400.

Almost nothing is known about the anonymous Gawain -poet. No name appears in the manuscript, and the only traits that can be confidently determined about the Gawain -poet are what can be deduced from the poems. His language places him somewhere in the northwest of England. He was clearly well-educated, and his use of source materials shows that he understood Latin and French. The poems display a thorough knowledge of Christian doctrine and practice, but the poet would not have to have been a practicing clergyman to have possessed such knowledge. The Gawain -poet's intimate knowledge of the details of aristocratic life, such as weapons, feasting, and hunting, indicates that he was either a nobleman himself or attached to a noble house in some way, perhaps writing for a noble patron.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16