Dec 14, 2018

Gawain's Travels Through the Literary Realm

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Prior to reading Jessie Weston and the Green Knight I had no idea that great Gawain was not as famous and well read about as he is today. I always thought all the Arthurian tales were popular as who doesn't love a good story about a chivalrous knight. Daniel Nastali goes into detail about the literary history of Gawain's rise to becoming a scholarly piece of literature. While claiming not much is known about the pieces popularity during the 14th century, Nastali mentions that the poems are pretty much ignored until Frederic Madden got a hold of and published them in 1839(45). The poem was then pretty much reprinted in 1864 by the Early English Text Society(EETS) but was still overlooked by scholars. In 1882 the piece sees the light of day again as its published in a children's story in Charles Henry Hanson's Stories in the Days of King Arthur. Though it did not gain the same amount of popularity as other children's stories during the time. In 1890's the poem began to ascend in popularity among scholars with Alfred Cope Garrett calling the poem "the last and greatest" English romances.(46) It is at the end of the 19th century that Nastali claims that it is Jessie Weston's work with the poem that truly brings about the poems literary significance. According to Nastali, Weston is held responsible for revealing and introducing many Arthurian stories to the wider scope of audiences they have today. In 1898 Weston published Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Middle-English Arthurian Romance Retold in Modern Prose. (47) the first of a series providing translations for Arthurian tales not mentioned in Malory's Morte D'Arthur'. Weston's version of Gawain did quite well being reprinted multiple times finally achieving a place in popular culture. After this moment several more versions of Gawain were written, but most importantly in 1912 Weston released an anthology including the poem making it readily available to academia.

So while I recognize Weston's contributions to Sir Gawain becoming a staple in academic reading and joining the realm of pop culture, I don't think this piece is aptly named as it gives more detail into Gawain's literary history than it goes into specifics about Weston's work on the piece. Also as I said before I had no idea Gawain was so unheard of prior to his ascent into pop culture, but I also learned so much about his journey into becoming a highly regarded reading and all the people who have worked with this journey as well.

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PROFESSOR of ENGLISH and MEDIEVAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY of NEW MEXICO

Anita Obermeier

Gawain's Travels Through the Literary Realm

Marie de France's Bisclavret

Margery Kempe and Female Authorship

Joseph’s Troubles about Mary - Corpus Christi Play