Notes-British Lit

BedeEcclesiastical History of the English PeopleHistorical and Cultural Context

  • Written by Bede the Venerable (673-735) in the 8th century CE (731)

  • Bede was an English monk from Northumbria

  • Very interested in learning and teaching—growth of monasteries caused increase in learning

  • Wrote many genres (poetry, hymns, scriptural commentary, history)

  • Timekeeping—came up with BC and AD system to help keep track of Easter

  • Bede believed Christianity unified the English people—bias can be seen throughout Ecc. History

  • History of the people

  • Celtic peoples originally lived in Western Europe—ones in the British Isles were called Britons

  • Around 55-50 BCE Julius Caesar an the Romans invade

  • 43 CE Southern parts of England become Roman—build Hadrian’s and Antonine’s Walls to keep out “barbarians” (Celtic peoples—Scots, Picts, Irish)

  • Celtic peoples in Ireland and Scotland were never conquered by Rome. And Wales kept its culture

  • Christianity came with Emperor Constantine (became tolerated in the Roman empire)

  • Early 400s to 600 CE Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) came to British Isles per request of the Romanized Britons to help hold back th Celtic tribes after Rome withdrew from Britain

  • Wiped out Christianity and brought in the polytheistic Germanic religion (Woden, Thor)

  • Eventually joined with the Celtic tribes they came to fight and become oppressors

  • Around 600 CE rechristianization occurred, coming from Ireland, Scotland, and Rome

  • 597 CE missionaries come to King Edwin and convince him to convert.

  • 731 CE Bede writes Ecc. History

  • 789 CE first Viking invasion (Norse and Danish people)  and first raid

  • 793 CE first monastery attacked

  • Viking got absorbed into the population and unified Anglo-Saxon kings lands (all different kings on their own lands)

  • 871-899 CE King Alfred the Great of Wessex who ruled most of England overcame Vikings in most of England except north and northeast

  • Alfred promotes learning and education

  • 800-1042 CE Danish settlement ruling England until

  • 1066 CE the Norman invasion

  • Bede did not like the Romanized Britons because they were not trying hard enough to convert the Germanic tribes to Christianity

The Coming of the English People (44-46)

  • Romanized Britons had been fighting the Huns
  • Later a plague fell upon them causing Celtic tribes to suffer losses and stop attacking them
  • Increase in luxury and then crime
  • Attacks start again—Bede describes Celtic tribes as “barbarians”
  • Germanic tribes arrive (see above)
  • Immigrants take over and enslave natives
  • Britons eventually regain strength and fight (led by King Arthur) Germanic tribes and control of land is back and forth until the “siege of Mount Badon”

The Life and Conversion of King Edwin (pg 48-49)

  • King Edwin of Northumbria—hesitant to convert to Christianity

  • Paulinus (missionary) preached Christianity to him— Edwin wanted to discuss with his council first

  • His chief Pagan priest Coifi said he thought they should convert to Christianity stating the story of the sparrow:

  • A sparrow flies through a mead hall in the middle of a storm, for a moment it is warm and safe but the next it is flying out of the hall and back into the cold of a winter storm.

  • This story is metaphorical of the Pagan/Germanic way of life and religion. It describes a transitory human life with no guarantees after death.

  • Bede then describes Christianity as the solution to this problem. Christianity has a heaven, happiness in an afterlife and eternity.

Language

  • Ecc. History written in Latin

  • Language of scholars and learning

  • Progression of Old English:

  • Celts spoke Celtic languages (aka vulgar languages—British, Welsh, Gaelic)

  • Roman invasion brought Latin

  • Germanic tribes brought Germanic languages

  • Vikings bring Scandinavian languages

  • These four make up Old English

  • Normans brought Old French

  • Old English and Old French  merge with some Norse to create Middle English

Important Characters/people

  • Bede
  • Edwin
  • Coifi

Main ThemesImportant passagesCædmon’s Hymn (53-55)

  • Dream vision (poem genre)

  • Arbitrary beginning of English literature BUT:

  • Spoken by Cædmon in Old English, written down by Bede in Latin

  • Cædmon

  • Illiterate—lived in monastery

  • Doesn’t participate in mead hall culture (singing in the halls) but secludes himself and receives a message in dream to sing verses. Created hymn about creation and presents it to his abbess (Hild)—test him. Realize he received a heavenly gift and sent him to a monastery where he learned the sacred history and turned it to verse. Knew how he would die in the end.

  • Cædmon’s Hymn marks the beginning of the transition from orality to textuality.

Elegies: The Wanderer and The Wife’s Lament

  • Elegy: an ancient form of lyric verse referring to poetry centered on loss (of happiness, love, battle). One looks back into the past that was better than the speakers present (contrast between miserable present and happy past)

Poetic terminology and thematic motifs of the elegy:

  • Exile: key theme of heroic poetry. Lamenting the loss of a lord or companions. The hero has lost their warrior community through being outlawed or banished
  • Ubi sunt: latin for “where have they all gone?”—transitory nature of the world/humans. Where has all the happiness gone? (mead-halls, the shining cup, horses). Saying all pleasurable and sorrowful worlds will pass eventually.
  • Ruin theme: wrecked buildings, world fallen apart, memory of lost happiness
  • Gnomic verse: universal, proverbial statement about the way of the world. Pithy maxim, strongly moralistic
  • Aphorism: a statement about the way the world is

“The Wanderer” (66-68)

  • Germanic nightmare—isolation
  • Speaker is torn between past and present, Germanic and Christian values, pain and pleasure
  • Loss represented through decaying buildings and inhabitants, environment/weather (apocalyptic)
  • Tension between Christian resignation of an inflexible fate and contempt for worldly good, with Pagan acceptance of the transience of life and desire for treasure

“The Wife’s Lament” (70-71)

  • Similar motifs
  • A wife isolated and lonely—lamenting the loss of her family and friends because of her marriage. Turns from sad lament to anger at husband

The Epic

  • Epic- a long narrative poem celebrating deeds of one or more heroes (often descended from gods or superhuman) in grand ceremonious style where they often found or save a nation

  • Primary epic: lost origins, don’t know who wrote it (Beowulf)

  • Secondary epic: author is known (Paradise Lost by Milton)

  • Poetic Terminology and Thematic Motifs of the Epic

  • Oral poetry: meant to be heard not read—recited by bard or scops

  • Two half lines/hemistitches: four syllables each with a break in between (can’t see in modern translation—period in center of line)

  • Caesura: gap between the first and second part of a line

  • Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds (very little rhyming in epics)

  • Repetition: of synonyms/synonymous phrases

  • Kenning: compound word—periphrastic or roundabout words of metaphoric quality

  • Gnomic verse: see

  • Specialized poetic vocab: uses words different than everyday speech—grand style

  • Epithet: descriptions of characters

  • Speech acts: insults, praises, formal boasts—important in Beowulf who boasts about his deeds and strength

  • Historical basis: author expects you to understand history

  • Stark imagery/binarism: light/dark, culture/nature, human made/wild

  • Digressions: function as comparisons to story (ex. Finnsburh episode)

Judith

  • Written by same scribe as Beowulf—Nowell in 1010

  • Judith goes to Holofernes who is attacking her city—he is about to rape her but she kills him and chops off his head

  • Hand of god

  • Beautiful—more related to her strength and heroism

  • Heroic femininity—Judith turns from Semetic woman to Germanic warrior

  • Beauty as metaphor for something else in OE lit

  • Special bond with god and her special role in her community

  • OE Heroic poetry showcases the warrior values of bravery, loyalty, vengeance as well as the desire for treasure.

  • Heroic Femininity in Judith

  • Syncretic figure of Judith: a Semitic woman becomes a Germanic warrior.

  • Tacitus writes of Germanic women:  “The woman must not think that she is excluded from aspirations to manly virtues or exempt from the hazard of warfare. That is why she is reminded in the very ceremonies which bless her marriage at its outset, that she enters her husband’s home to be the partner in his toils and perils, that both in peace and in war she is to share his sufferings and adventures” (De Germania).

  • Heroic, Learned Femininity: Hild—founding abbess of Whitby and Cædmon’s superior—exemplifies the power of Anglo-Saxon women in families, politics and church. She led the Celtic party at the Synod (=advisory council) of Whitby during which the date of Easter was debated.

  • \

BeowulfHistorical and Cultural Context

  • Beowulf is preserved in the Cotton Vitellius manuscript—hard to date, between 10th and 11th centuries

  • Unknown author, probably composed in parts by multiple scops over time

  • A Germanic epic about the celebration of heroic deeds in a warrior society

  • Comitatus bond/code between warriors and their lord—central value of Germanic culture

  • A latin term coming from the Roman historian Tacitus

  • Lord (from OE cyning) is the “ring-giver”, must supply warriors with treasure—material possessions are valued

  • Chosen based on warrior merit (strength, intelligence)

  • Must protect people

  • Thanes (noblemen) must be loyal until death—cowardice is the ultimate disgrace

  • Honor—support the leader and the leader protects the people

  • Fratricide is the greatest taboo of all (Cain/Abel) because kinship is so important and you are breaking that bond

  • Wergild— =man money, death price—the moral obligation to avenge a killing by killing other or they have to pay

  •  Scops: (=shaper of stories) Germanic performers/minstrels who composed dramatic oral poetry out of established narrative and poetic elements and performed it at court (one they were usually attached to)

  • Also acted as historians of important events, cultural values, codes of conduct—keepers of knowledge because Germanic tribes were illiterate before they came to England

  • No formal laws—justice is individual—vigilantes

  • No written legal codex—legal system based on precedent (what have we decided in the past)

  • Beowulf takes place in Southern Sweden (Geats) and Denmark (Danes)—NOT actually in England

  • Beowulf part of the Geat tribe

Language and Poetic Form

  • Written in Old English after being performed by scops over and over

  • Structure is accentual containing alliteration

  • Alliterative form— each poetic line has four stressed syllables

  • First stress of second half line after caesura—determines alliterating sound for rest of line

  • Not every stressed syllable will alliterate—usually one or two

  • All vowels alliterate with other vowels

  • Occasional hypermetric lines with extra syllables

Summary and Main Themes

  • Over all, a story about heroic deeds and a warrior (Germanic) culture

  • Begins with a description of Scyld Scefing—a good king to whom you are supposed to compare all the others

  • Eventually gets to Hrothgar, descendent of Scefing, is king of the Danes

  • Hrothgar builds Heorot—mead-hall built of wood

  • Is a good king because he shares his wealth with his people—comitatus

  • Rewards his faithful men, they bond over food and drink

  • But Heorot begins to get attacked by a “monster”—Grendel—who kills the men in Heorot

  • Question of Grendel’s race—possibly of a Celtic tribe, exiled because he is not Germanic

  • Grendel as a “monster” might just be a displaced person, forced to move from arable land to the moor

  • Cultural outsider—maybe shaman or priest of a Celtic tribe trying to interact with Germanic culture

  • Grendel is descended from Cain—fratricide is huge taboo

  • He lives in the marshes below Heorot

  • Hrothgar is not fulfilling his duty as lord because cannot protect his people

  • Beowulf shows up and offers to help Hrothgar fight Grendel

  • Beowulf is very cocky has faith in himself

  • Binarism between Beowulf and Grendel

  • B walks in the light—G stalks at night

  • Heorot is a warm, dry, happy home (cultured)—G lives in the moors, miserable (wild/nature)

  • B has a father—G has a mother

  • B is eloquent—G doesn’t speak

  • Grendel attacks again but this time Beowulf fights him. Tears off his arm and he runs away wounded

  • Grendel thinks of fleeing—cowardice is bad in germanic culture

  • Beowulf defeats Grendel with his bare hands

  • Beowulf rewarded for defeating Grendel with treasure (banner, helmet, byrnie, sword, horses)

  •  Celebration in the mead hall—Wealhtheow, Hrothgar’s queen, gives speech thanking Beowulf—is also about cultural values

  • Women as peace-weavers—meant to stop the feuding through marriage

  • Grendel’s mother introduced—seeks vengeance for her son

  • hypocrisy/misogyny of her wanting revenge by killing more men in Heorot and depicted as evil when an important cultural value of the Germanic people was revenge and the wergild

  • Lives in an abyss—a deep lake with an inverted version of Heorot

  • Inverted culture—is it in her nature to be monstrous?

  • Beowulf needs a sword to kill her—fight in her realm, descent to hell—kills her with much more difficulty and cuts off Grendel’s head who went there to die

  • End of part one—Beowulf as an ideal young man and thane

  • End of Hrothgar’s 50 year reign—ruled well for 50 years then a singular creature (Grendel) came—reversal of fortune

  • Beowulf becomes king—rules well for 50 years then his reversal of fortune—dragon as singular creature

  • Slave steals cup from dragon’s hoard, upsets dragon

  • Dragon—symbol of miserly accumulation of wealth—treasure used to belong to rich man who couldn’t take it with him when he died so hoarded it, dragon found it and sits on it

  • Takes treasure out of circulation—goes against Germanic values—makes society collapse

  • Beowulf goes to fight dragon

  • Abandoned by his own men—goes against comitatus 

  • Only Wiglaf stays to help him fight

  • Requires lots of weaponry to overcome dragon

  • Beowulf gives his life to save his people—a good lord

  • Once dragon is defeated he wants to give treasure to the people 

  • One request before he dies is to see the treasure

  • After Beowulf dies all goes back to endless war and feuding

  • Beowulf burned with the treasure

Important Passages and CharactersPassages

  • Beowulf’s father owed Hrothgar a debt and Beowulf repaid it-example of wergild—456-475
  • Breca and the speech act—500-555
  • Fight with Grendel—700-790
  • Sigemund digression—foreshadowing of dragon fight—835-915
  • Finnburh digression—about the terrible cost of feuding—1065-1125
  • Wealhtheow speech—1160-1190
  • Fight with Grendel’s mother—1515-1650
  • Description of hygd (Hygelac’s queen) as bad queen—1925-1965
  • Stealing cup from dragon—2225-2240
  • Go to fight dragon—treasure or death—2510-2540
  • Beowulf dies and Wiglaf admonishes coward warriors—2820-2890
  • Funeral—3140-3180

Characters

Aeschere: old Spear-Dane warrior; Hrothgar’s good friend

Beowulf: Geatish warrior

Breca: Beowulf’s childhood friend

Ecgtheow: Beowulf’s father

[Finn: Frisian warrior; husband of Hildeburh]

Grendel: enemy of the Spear-Danes

Grendel’s Mother: enemy of the Spear-Danes

Halfdene: Hrothgar’s father

[Hildeburh: Danish princess; wife of Finn]

Hrothgar: king of Spear-Danes

Hygd: queen of the Geats; wife of Hygelac

Hygelac: king of the Geats; Beowulf’s “ring-giver”

[Sigemund: mythological hero, dragon-slayer]

Scyld Scefing: found of Spear-Dane tribe

Unferth: warrior of the Spear-Danes; jealous of Beowulf

Wealhtheow: wife of Hrothgar; mother of Hrethric,  Hrothmund, and Freawaru

Romance

  • Romance—anything translated out of Latin into the vernacular (usually a romance language—Spanish, French, Italian)

  • About a journey into another world where the implausible becomes possible

  • Fulfillment of desire through dangerous and circuitous routes—in the end they usually get what they want but there are problems along the way

  • Extremes:

  • Comic action with the possibility of tragedy

  • Opposition of tones—anger and bliss

  • Split between midpoint (despair) and ending (happy and spiritually redemptive—often divine appearance shapes the outcome)

  • Concept of courtly love

  • A celebration of errotic love with women at the center of narratives and errotic rituals with speciallized behavior and language—

  • Contrast to religion—sex is no longer about dirty jokes or burning in hell

  • Reversal of comitatus bonds—lady as lord—love turns around feudal bonds

  • Lady is all powerful

  • Knight serves her instead of warrior serving lord

  • Fears her wrath

  • Also misogynistic portrayal of women—a resentment of power and fear of abuse of power—a warning against errotic manipulation

  • Courtly love for men

  • gives relief from combative, competitive comitatus

  • Sense of privacy and secrecy

  • Not martial but erotic

  • Courtly love for women

  • Release from reproductive destiny—think of themselves as for more than just breeding

  • Sense of subjectivity as desiring individuals

  • No evidence real women were treated with respect or power as in literature—courtly love is a literary scenario not a cultural one

  • Arthurian romances based on Celtic myths—where a lot of the magic came from in romance in general as well

LanvalHistorical and Cultural Context

  • The Norman Conquest—

  • 1066 Normans conquest

  • William (the Conqueror) of Normandy defeated King Harold of England (other claims to the throne were King Harold of Norway and Edgar Ætheling)

  • William crowned king on Christmas day 1066

  • Normans become the ruling elite—new royal line

  • New aristocracy—english nobles replaced

  • New language/language hierarchy

  • Normans brought Old French

  • Old French (Norman French) was the language of government and culture—Normans were in charge

  • More “skilled”/”civilized” words are more likely to come from OF (or latin)

  • Upper class spoke Old French

  • Lower class spoke Old English

  • Latin still the language of church and learning

  • Urban growth—more people living in centralized cities—rapid economic growth

  • Arrival of Jewish people—associated with financials—money lending not allowed for Christisans so Jewish people had to supply money to the king

  • Had few protections

  • Were expelled from England in 1290

  • Chivalry—chivalric Norman culture was warriors riding on horseback and heavily armed

  • Word “chivalry” comes from french “cheval” meaning horse

  • “Knight” comes from OE “cniht” meaning boy/servant

  • Feudalism—came with William

  • Lord and vassal system—the king owned the land, gave plots of land (fiefs) to his vassals (knights) and they perform military duties for him in return

  • New university system (Bologna, Sorbonne, Oxford, Cambridge)

  • New interest in classical learning (philosophy, theology, rhetoric)

  • Renaissance of the 12th century—transiatio studii (translating classic Latin texts into romance languages (vernacular languages)

  • Henry the Second—ruled 1154-1189

  • Commissioned literary works arguing for the power shift from east to west (translatio imperii)—Aeneas from Troy (Turkey) to Rome, Brutus from Rome to London (England)

  • Wanted to consolidate power through literature connecting him with the classic past, mythic pre-Germanic Britain, and Arthur

  • Uses tales of Geoffrey of Monmouth (see below) to solidify his claim to power

  • Excavation of Glastonbury—supposed shrines of Arthur and Guinevere

  • Possibly ordered the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury

  • Eleanor of Aquitane—ruled 1122-1204

  • Educated (rare for a noble woman) in Latin, math, art, history, and male and female courtly pursuits (hunting, embroidery)

  • Originally married Louis the Seventh of France then later married Henry the Second

  • Had lots of children

  • Richard the First of England (the Lionheart)

  • Daughters were important literary patrons

  • Geoffrey of Monmouth

  • Wrote History of the Kings of Britain (1139) in Latin—very myth focused

  • Focused on the mythological figure of Brutus (descended from Aeneas) who “discovered” and was the first king of England

  • Writings later became the basis for the legends of Arthur (Aurelius Ambrosius) (based on Welsh mythology)

  • Told the story of Merlin’s prophecy of Arthur and Uther Pendragon’s lust for Igerna—Merlin disguised him as her husband to enter Tintagel (castle) and Arthur was conceived

  • Geoffrey gives credit to individual kings and mythological figure, fighting tribes—Bede focuses on the coming of Germanic tribes

Language and Poetic FormMarie de France

  • Unclear who she really was—possibly related to Henry the Second

  • Well educated in multiple languages

  • Wrote lai, fables and story about knight to purgatory

  • Lanval written in Old French but written in England for the court of Henry the Second

  • Manuscript from mid 13th century (written ~1150-1200)—preserved in the British Library—published in 1819

  • Form—Lai/lay

  • Written in rhyming couplets—shift in poetic form from accentual (alliteration) epics to syllabic (rhyme) romances

  • Genre is lai—a short early romance meant to be performed with music (harp)

  • Many elements of courtly love, medieval romance and 12th century culture

  • Courtly behavior

  • Classical learning

  • Woman’s desire rules

  • Romance used to describe the language (vernacular) then later the stories written in the vernacular

  • Romance languages became the ones of storytelling and fanciful narratives about love and adventure (often magical elements like fairies)

Summary and Main Details

  • Lanval—a knight of King Arthur’s Round Table

  • He is a very good knight (handsome, generous, valorous) but envied by others

  • Lack of comitatus—not supported by his fellow knight

  • Turns into competition

  • Lanval leaves competition and corruption of court and rides into nature 

  • (contrast of nature in Beowulf vs Lanval—in Beowulf nature is bad, associated with Grendel and the uncultured wild— in Lanval it is an escape from court, where he finds his lover)

  • Running water as a boundary between worlds—horse can sense it

  • Also horse gives him freedom to leave

  • Is taken by two maidens to a fairy lady’s tent—extremely richly decorated—she tells him she will be his lover as long as he tells no one about it

  • She becomes his source of wealth—reversal of lord roles—she provides for him

  • The woman is idolized and has identity (contrast with Beowulf)

  • Lanval returns home to find riches—he begins to give out gifts, clothes—he provides for the people in the way that the king should

  • Guinevere makes a move on Lanval—he turns her down but speaks rashly and reveals his fairy lover

  • Guinevere is very angry—accuses Lanval of rape

  • She is the only woman with a name

  • Misogynistic view of women abusing power

  • Doesn’t have power on her own though, has to go to Arthur

  • Lanval distraught over losing his lady

  • Called into court by Arthur

  • Denies that he did anything but has no one to back up about his lady

  • In the end she shows up to save him—riding in on a white horse

  • The power is with the woman—first Arthur believes Guinevere and then the fairy

  • Fairy is more powerful than Arthur—tells him to set Lanval free and he does

  • She takes him away to Avalon (possibly Celtic otherworld)

  • Saved by the supernatural—benign supernatural vs monstruos one in Beowulf

Important Passages and CharactersPassages

  • Lanval leaves court—39-52
  • Fairy introduction—80-105
  • Fairy’s deal—120-155
  • Spreading riches—200-215
  • Guinevere’s attempt and accusation—263-320
  • Fairy shows up as savior—545-625
  • Lanval and lady ride away—635-end

Characters

  • Lanval
  • The fairy lady
  • King Arthur
  • Queen Guinevere
  • Other knights of the Round Table

Sir Gawain and the Green KnightHistorical and Cultural Context

  • Composed in the last quarter of the 14th century (200 years after Lanval)

  • Poet is anonymous—known as Pearl Poet—from Northwestern England

  • Cultural differences shown—purposely “old fashioned” because was writing about Arthurian literature which wasn't popular in London anymore

  • Opening of the poem relates to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s mythical narrative of the founding of Britain by Brutus—not really any other references to it

  • The temptation tale—Welsh (Celtic) origin

  • It is a Christmas story—has Pagan elements, Christmas colors, takes place during coldest time of the year

  • Pre-Christian fertility myths—Green Knight’s beheading=death and rebirth

  • Chivalric romance—medieval knightly virtues—courtliness

  • Link to the Order of the Garter—(origins 1344, official foundation 1348)—comes from the girdle

  • Honi soit qui mal y pense—last line of poem—motto of English crown and Order of the Garter

  • Courtly love

  • Gawain vs Beowulf

  • Both warriors, well spoken, claim divine protection (b god, G Mary), examples of masculine achievements, models for others, intrusion of supernatural foe and 3 tests

  • Different cultural contests, treatment of women, shift in masculinity, more privacy in SGGK, Gawain’s tests not as obvious as Beowulf’s

  • Green Knight as figure of good—green as symbol of rebirth—sacred marriage of May Queen and Green Man —european spring festivals

  • Ritual of fertility—sacrifice for the good of humanity

  • Merging of ancient pagan ideas and Christianity

  • Gender—

  • Presented as masculine poem—in title

  • Courtly, Christian world

  • But also about feminine, natural world (pagan)

  • Features elusive women

  • Structure overseen by women—Guenivere, Lady, Morgan, Mary above all

Language and Poetic Form

  • Also a romance—mostly same features

  • Alliterative romance—genre

  • Pearl Poet mixes end rhyme (OF) with alliteration (OE)

  • Alliterative revival—going back to OE conventions while in the Anglo-Norman period

  • Written in Middle English

  • Poetic form—

  • Written in iambic pentameter (ten syllables stressed and unstressed)

  • OF influence—bob and wheel rhyme—

  • Bob—first line with one stress

  • Wheel—four next lines with three stresses—ababa

  • Bob and wheel used to convey important narrative information

  • \

Summary and Main Details

  • Starts with description of Brutus

  • Describes Arthur and his court—celebrating Christmas—feasting like in Beowulf

  • Arthur needs a story before he eats (and waits to eat until all his knights are served—like a good lord/host)

  • Gawain at table—starts besides Guinevere

  • Green Knight enters on horse and challenges someone to strike him

  • Has holly branch (green when nothing else is green)—approaches in peace

  • And huge battle ax—war

  • Clothing

  • Bob and wheel used to give important descriptions

  • Contrast with Grendel’s intrusion of Heorot

  • Arthur agrees to challenge (without knowing terms)

  • GK gives terms—”you can chop my head off now (with my ax) and in a year I’ll chop off yours”

  • No one wants to accept challenge until Gawain does—get commitment in bob and wheel of stanza

  • Gawain has to seek out GK in a year to get head chopped off

  • The blow—chops of GK’s head—he picks it up and tells Gawain to find him in a year—now a matter of honor, he has to follow through

  • Description of the seasons, they pass fast and before Gawain knows it, time to go on quest

  • Description of Gawain’s armor—very elaborate—fashion info like with the GK

  • Shield—virgin mary painted on the inside-his patron

  • Pentangle on outside—can draw without lifting hand—5 points

  • 5 perfect senses

  • 5 skillful fingers

  • 5 wounds of Christ (2 hands, 2 feet, 1 inside)

  • 5 joys of Mary (annunciation, nativity, resurrection, ascension, assumption)

  • 5 virtues (generosity, fellowship, courtesy, charity, chastity)

  • Knightly perfection

  • Leaves on his quest—alone, faces challenges—like OE elegy but with less ruin and lament

  • Turns to virgin mary for help

  • Reaches castle and welcomed with courtesy and hospitality

  • Met the lord of the castle—Bertilak—has beard, sign of masculinity—he welcomes Gawain and they feast

  • Lady takes interest in Gawain—described as beautiful—also old lady (Morgan le Fay) there

  • Gawain asks where to find Green Chapel—Bertilak knows where it is so tells Gawain to stay

  • Gawain will stay in castle with the lady and Bertilak will go out hunting

  • Make deal for Bertilak to give what he gets hunting and for Gawain to give whatever he gains—swap

  • Three hunts three attempts at seduction:

  • 1st

  • Hunt—deer, provides info on hunting, breaking down a deer—slaughter—deer are weak

  • Encounter with lady—Gawain defenseless, lady comes in and he doesn’t know how to react—pretends to be asleep to asses the situation

  • Treats as joke—still tries to use courteous language

  • She tries to tempt him—he keeps  denying her until finally gives her a kiss because he doesn’t want to be rude—not erotic

  • Exchange—deer and kiss

  • 2nd

  • Hunt

  • Boar—ferocious, fights back—many men against one boar—they still get him in the end

  • Encounter

  • Gawain welcomes her at first, goes along with it

  • Fights back with insults

  • Exchange boar and kiss

  • 3rd

  • Hunt

  • Fox—clever, under the radar, quick, agile—but still kill him

  • Doesn’t fall for obvious danger of the blade but the hidden danger of the dogs

  • Encounter

  • Gawain struggles between chivalry and lust—becomes harder to say no

  • Pressure of gift exchange

  • Glove—lady’s favor token of adultery

  • Ring—greed—rejection of sexual temptation—doesnt want to have to give it to Bertilak in exchange

  • Girdle—denial of chivalry

  • Magic—makes wearer invincible

  • Cheating in encounter with GK

  • Desire to live vs wanting to be a good knight

  • Associated with Morgan le Fay

  • Feminine clothing

  • Tenuous material object representing femininity and the importance of the body contrasting with pentangle which is perfect and represents intangible masculine ideals

  • Teaches Gawain that he is not perfect in GK fight

  • Does not give girdle to Bertilack

  • Almost New Years, time for Gawain to go to Green Chapel

  • Leave Bertilak’s castle in same conditions as arrived—death and rebirth cycle

  • 3 temptations on the way to chapel—3 chances to run

  • Reaches chapel—is actually a barrow

  • Ancient burial sites covered with large mounds of earth

  • Called cairns in Ireland, Wales, Scotland

  • Built from Neolithic era (4000 BCE) to late pre christian ages (c 600 CE)

  • Neolithic ones for all members of a family or clan

  • Early bronze age (c 1900 BCE) ones for important figures

  • Meets GK

  • 1st blow

  • Gawain flinches in fear—GK rebukes him for cowardice

  • 2nd blow

  • Gawain doesn’t move

  • GK stops ax swing

  • 3rd blow

  • GK strikes him but only nicks neck because Gawain cheated with the girdle

  • Physical description of neck, Gawain becomes embodied—flesh (like Christ took human flesh)—began as cultural construction, intangible idea of the perfect knight and becomes embodied when accepts girdle—feminine

  • GK reveals he is Bertilak and that Gawain failed part of the test because he accepted the girdle

  • Gawain blames women for his foolishness and refuses to take responsibility

  • Bertilak reveals Morgan le Fay was behind everything the whole time

  • She sent GK to Arthur’s court to test their reputation—test those who think so highly of themselves—and scare Guinevere (feud between women)

  • Gawain returns home, embarrassed—to him girdle is symbol of his failure, his lies cheating, but to Arthur and court make fun and say its an honor—teaches Gawain humility

  • Narrative is circular—not linear like traditional chivalric quest—poem doesn’t endorse a single perspective

Important Passages and CharactersPassages

  • Green knight introduced—130-220
  • GK states his terms—290-300
  • The blow—415-465
  • Pentangle—620-670
  • Elegic journey—680-740
  • Arrives at Bertilak’s castle—760
  • Gawain and Bertilak deal—1105-1110
  • 1st hunt—1150-1175, 1320-1370
  • 1st encounter—1180-1315
  • 2nd hunt—1420-1465
  • 2nd encounter—1470-1555
  • 3rd hunt—1690-1730
  • 3rd encounter—1730-1875
  • Reaches chapel—2190-2210
  • 1st blow—2255-2285
  • 2nd blow—2290-2310
  • 3rd blow—2310-2330
  • Morgan le Fay reveal—2430-2475

Characters

  • Gawain
  • Arthur
  • Guenevere
  • The Green Knight/Bertilak
  • Bertilak’s Lady
  • Morgan le Fay

The Canterbury TalesHistorical and Cultural Context

  • 14th century—chaos after centuries of prosperity (economic growth, rise of education and universities, trade, agriculture)

  • Great Schism—two popes (Rome and Avignon) fighting over doctrinal problems, papacy discredited

  • Hundred Years War—England wanted to rule France, France wanted to rule England—fought over it

  • Black Death—bubonic plague—1348—⅓ to ½ of the population of Europe died within the first two years but was around until 1700

  • So many people died that after villages and farms were abandoned because there was no one to work

  • Actually improved peasant's conditions because there was no labor force

  • But then returned to pre plague status and now the peasants wanted to be released from feudal obligations—landowners and peasants clashed

  • In cities—employers and guilds kept wages low to protect from outside competition—masters and workers clashed

  • Led to:

  • Rebellions and uprisings

  • Peasants Revolt of 1381—rural population marched on London calling for social reform—led by Wat Tyler who was executed and then rebellion put down harshly

  • Religious aftermath—

  • Millenarianism—rumors about the end of the world—people would go around publicly whipping themselves to atone for their sins

  • Lollardy—Movement against the church’s power—forerunner for the prodestant reformation—radical preacher John Ball said God made all humans equal, there shouldn't be classes—influenced by John Wycliffe’s ideas

  • John Wycliffe—influential medieval thinker—(c 1330-1384)

  • Published a bible in english—wanted to make scripture more available to everyone—not just in Latin or greek

  • Inspired order of poor preachers who took scripture to the people

  • Against transubstantiation—the changing of bread and wine into body and blood of christ—believed it was metaphorical not physical

  • For predestinarianism—belief that only the elect are saved (invisible church of the elect vs the sinful visible church of rome)

  • Statutes of 1363—regulated clothing based on social class

  • Wearing knives meant you were of gentle status

  • \

  • Canterbury Tales written by Geoffery Chaucer (in 1387)

  • Chaucer lived probably around 1343 to 1400

  • Born in london, father was wine merchant

  • Educated in london—maybe at St Paul's grammar school and possibly attended university later

  • 1357 was a squire in court of Elisabeth countess of Ulster

  • Trained to serve aristocracy

  • Probably spoke 5 or 6 languages

  • Served 3 english kings

  • Fought as soldier in hundred years war

  • Worked as government official

  • Became member of parliament while writing poetry on the side

  • 1372—visited italy for the first time—important for him as a writer, exposed to works from Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch

  • Important works: Book of the Duchess (1368), House of Fame (1377), Troilus and Criseyde (1385)

  • Charged with abduction and rape but now doubt against charge

  • Societal order in Chaucer’s world

  • Great chain of being:

  • God

  • Angels

  • Humans

  • Animals

  • Plants

  • Rocks, etc

  • Estates of human hierarchy

  • Knights—fight

  • Clergy—pray

  • Commoners—work

  • 1375 added 4th estate—merchants

  • Hierarchies were changing because people didn't want to believe in them after the plague

  • \

Language and Poetic Form

  • Written in Middle English 

  • Uses end rhyming couplets

  • Genres:

  • Frame narrative—main action (pilgrims’ stories) is told through an enclosing frame story (pilgrimage)

  • Estates satire—social critique of those not conforming to their social station, not acting the way they should

  • \

Summary and CharactersThe General Prologue

  • Starts in spring (renewal of life, hope, confidence) good time to go on a pilgrimage

  • Setting starts in Southwark (just south of London)—known as a criminal/prostitute haven

  • Some landmarks—bedlam (hospital for mentally ill), the clink (prison on clink st)

  • Narrator (separate from Chaucer) is in an inn and 29 pilgrims enter—he decides he will describe them all—orders them how he thinks is appropriate

  • Obsessed with ordering

  • Kind of follows narrative sequence (knight, clergy, workmen)

  • Narrator not in control of his own material because the 14th century was so full of unrest—questions of how can we order people, how does social order let us talk about people

  • Describes estate/job and clothing

  • \