Chaucer’s Arthuriana
The majority of medieval scholars, including Roger Sherman Loomis, argue that the popularity of the Arthurian legend in England was therefore on the wane in the latter half of the fourteenth century; as a result, the major writers of the period, such as John Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer, refrained from penning anything beyond the occasional reference to King Arthur and his court.
Mi Suete Leuedi, Her Mi Béne: The Power and Patronage of the Heroine in Middle English Romance
The Middle English Romances are somewhat difficult to study as a group. In order to examine these works accurately, one must take into consideration other literature produced at the same tirne, as well as that which preceded it.
Tolkien’s Heroic Criticism: A Developing Application of Anglo-Saxon Ofermod to the Monsters of Modernity
The structure of this study follows the development of Tolkien’s social criticism and heroic aesthetic. The study begins by looking at some biographical elements of Tolkien’s life and how those elements shaped the creation of Tolkien’s anti-hero, the Hobbit.
“La Belle Dame Sans Merci?”: Gawain’s Knightly Identity and the Role of Women in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
It is easy to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a romantic celebration of chivalry, but this romance contains a more wide-ranging, more serious criticism of chivalry than has heretofore been noticed.
Treason and Betrayal in the Middle English Romances of Sir Gawain
This article explores the themes of treason and betrayal which are common motifs of medieval romances, specifically those featuring the Arthurian knight Sir Gawain.
Monstrous transformations: loyalty and community in four medieval poems
I will examine two forms of transformation, the werewolf transformation and the monstrous human transformation, both of which feature shape shifters who presumably cannot be trusted
A survey of the scholarship of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
A survey of the major themes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (SGGK) reveals both the poem’s complexity and the poet’s artistry. A general examination of the poem permits commentary upon the work’s historical background, thematic unity, and narrative structure.
And He Honoured Þat Hit Hade Euermore After’: The Influence of Richard II’s Livery System on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The theoretical framework for my analysis of Richard II’s use of iconic signs was largely drawn from the works of Charles Peirce, Umberto Eco, and the studies of the iconography of kingship by Louis Marin.
(Un)Natural Love: Homosexuality in Late Medieval English Literature: Langland, Chaucer, Gower, and the Gawain Poet
We can examine in their works if there are any mentions of homosexuality, and, more importantly, whether these mentions bear a strong marking of late medieval English society. Do the four authors take different approaches to the subject? Do they take approaches at all, or do they omit any mention of homosexuality?
The Winter Solstice Season and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Does the season of the dark and the increasing day correspond to our own journeys into the dark and a celebration of light with new understanding and strengthened connectedness? Perhaps there is more than a bit of Pluto symbolism in our activities of the winter solstice.
Women Characters in Arthurian Literature
The main issue, then, is how Arthurian women characters have been portrayed throughout the centuries and the reasons for those particular ways of portrayal.
The Importance of the Belt in Religious and Secular Medieval Courtly Love Literature
Three stories from this time period focus on a sort of courtly love relationship between two people that involves this characteristic giving of a gift: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Guigemar, and an apocryphal account of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven by “John the Evangelist”. These seemingly different stories share one unifying bond: a belt.
On Lesbian and Gay/Queer Medieval Studies
On Lesbian and Gay/Queer Medieval Studies By David Lorenzo Boyd Medieval Feminist Forum, Vol.15 No. 1 (1993) Introduction: A graduate student sitting next…
North: The Significance of a Compass Point in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and some other Medieval English Literature
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the hero, like many another knight, sets out on a quest. In a couple of interesting ways, however, this quest journey is different from others in medieval romance: we know with some precision in which direction the hero is going — North
The Folk-Tale Element in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Folk-Tale Element in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight By Claude Luttrell Studies in Philology, Vol.77:2 (1980) Introduction: Ever since Kittredge published…
Reading and Believing: Covenant in the Poems of the Pearl Manuscript
Reading and Believing: Covenant in the Poems of the Pearl Manuscript Bates, Linda R. Marginalia, Vol. 4, (2005-2006) Cambridge Yearbook Abstract The narrator…
Courtliness and Transgression at Arthur’s Court With Emphasis on the Middle High German Poet Neidhart and the Anonymous Verse Novella Mauritius von Craûn
Courtliness and Transgression at Arthur’s Court With Emphasis on the Middle High German Poet Neidhart and the Anonymous Verse Novella Mauritius von Craûn…
‘Segges slepande’ and Cotton Nero A.x: The Ethics of Sleep in Patience, Cleanness, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
‘Segges slepande’ and Cotton Nero A.x: The Ethics of Sleep in Patience, Cleanness, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Leitch, Megan Marginalia, Vol.…
Re-reading Through Return in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Some Late Medieval Carols
Re-reading Through Return in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Some Late Medieval Carols Steer, Alex Marginalia, Vol. 2, Cambridge Yearbook (2004-2005)…
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as a Christmas Poem
The Christmas motif is readily observable in the poem’s externals, particulary in its setting and in the person of the Green Knight.