Overview of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

A medievalist gives an overview of the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, providing a taste of Middle English and reviewing the poem's main events as well as its themes.

[gerdforster]

Can we hope to see more of these kind of videos? As you so eloquently explained in an older video, literature like arthurian legends is one of the sources of the genre. I'm sure a lot of your viewers will appreciate the occasional look into works you deem important. Especially if we get more recitals in Old and Middle English out of it ;)

[ninascott-stoddart]

You're a wonderful and passionate advocate for these stories and this time period. Thank you so much!

[sleepingalligator]

You're very charming and informative, Thanks for the video.

[afantasybabble]

Thanks for the lecture. I had the pleasure of reading this story as part of a literature class in college. The professor had just published a article about it so we got to hear some great analysis. Have always enjoyed the story and anything related to it since then.

[mycreativity]

Now I think I can make a whole note with your lecture.Thank you so much❤

[thebrothersgwynne]

Loved writing a dissertation on the evolution of Arthurian legend last year, but your wealth of knowledge far surpasses mine! Looking into Nennius' Historia Brittonum, to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and beyond was beyond exciting and engaging, as was watching this.
Will

[janushkerg]

I was looking for any English poem explanations, since my English Literature exams are coming up, and stumbled upon this video. Even though you wouldn't have time to create any more before my exams, I'd still be very interested in watching similar analyses. You have a very clear and captivating way of explaining things along with the analytical style, which I really like!

[bctalicorn]

Really curious to see what your reactions of the film are, if you see it eventually. They do a lot more to make Gawain less honorable to play up his flaws, but the ending of the film is incredible and quite a bit different from the poem. It's also quite hard to follow at times, it's definitely a thinker of a movie, but I thought it was rather brilliant.
They add quite a few extra characters and scenes, and dive deeper into themes on what it means to be an honorable person. Also plays up how elaborate Morgan Le Fey's plan is. It's a brilliant adaptation that's just as strange and whimsical as the poem.

[CabinCreekGames]

After seeing the movie (loved it by the way), I dove into Simon Armitage's translation of the poem. I devoured it in a couple of sittings today and came to watch your video. This video is such a great overview! The movie and story seem to have their fair share of differences, but in my opinion, the film keeps the core elements and emotions intact.

There is also a movie tie-in translation that includes a forward by the director which examines some of the differences to the film. He states something similar to this: "The best one can hope for in adapting a work such as this is to catch a glimmer of the original enough to drive the viewer to the source to discover what you merely scratched the surface of." I was slightly in awe because that is exactly what I did.

To me, they are both works of art and I hope to see a review/discussion of the poem compared to the film adaptation. As always, thanks for your amazing content!

[JohanHerrenberg]

Excellent video. I learned a lot and I loved hearing Middle English! You should make more of these, Philip!

[taimohamed]

As a language nerd, this was a great video!

[masterofsilence]

Just saw the movie and it was nice to watch this to understand a bit more of the context

[paulamucinga]

Finally, I was able to have an easy summary of what for me was such a challenge fantasy story..thank you, Dr. Chase, you do agreat job! Best wishes on your channel..🤗 God bless..

[jeroenadmiraal]

Very interesting video Philip, thank you. I suddenly remember a green man in the books of Gene Wolfe and his series is also about renewal. That's interesting...

[SJ-GodofGnomes]

Another amazingly interesting video! Being a bit of a King Arthur fan from a young age I knew some of what you told us about, but as always you took it to the next level! I found Canterbury Tales immensely entertaining, but it take a moment or two to come to grips with the English used...

[MrRorosuri]

can't wait to see this . tnx for the reading, philip

[vangso]

Hi Philip, it was a great summary, congrats. Just a side note. You mentioned the idealistic picture of other Arthurian texts, and you highlight the humanism of this Sir Gawain story. It’s true, however, the most famous Arthurian author, Chrétien de Troyes also walked on this humanistic road. For example both Lancelot and Perceval in their Chrétien-novels are very “humanistic” with a lots of flaws and doubts, It’s very interesting, that the Perceval, The Tail of the Grail and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight both are about story of the failure of the main character. They have a lot of common characteristics, and very funny that in Chrétien’s poem the half of the book is actually about Gauvain, and in a sense Gauvain also fails in his mission.

[KFoxtheGreat]

If you ever want to do an entire video series on the evolution of the English language, I would watch every second of it. This was such an interesting topic and video. Thank you! 😁

[Altruismisreal]

In my judgment, you did an excellent job with this video—informative and entertaining 😊

[BookBlather]

This was great! What a wonderful reading. Amazing how different the language was. I got such an education this morning… thanks Philip!