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The seminar is conceived as a philological introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight against the background of Middle English romance as a genre/register. Our "philology" will entail characterization of language structure as well as reading through the poetic texture of the romance within the limits set by its language.
The prerequisite is an elementary knowledge of Old and Middle English. The analysis and discussions will be based on the original text of the poem but will also look to its renderings into Present-Day English. The sessions will be conducted in English and Czech, as needed. Poslední úprava: Čermák Jan, prof. PhDr., CSc. (07.02.2026)
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Primary text: SGGK, edited by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd edition ed. by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1925, 1967 https://www.giuseppebrunetti.eu/Brunetti/ME/index_gaw.php?poe=gaw&lingua=eng
PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME: Week 1 (18 February) · Introductory: Division of Labour. The Alliterative Verse. Romance as a genre. · Reading: Cooper, Helen “Introduction to SGGK in Keith Harrison’s translation”, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. ix-xxxiii (‛The poet’; ‛The romance background’; ‛The Poetics of SGGK’; ‛The Poem’). · In-class close reading: ll. 1(I. Fitt) – 84 {From Troy to Camelot. Christmas time at Camelot}.
Week 2 (25 February) · Close reading: ll. 85-249 {Green Knight’s arrival and challenge}. · Presentation 1: Hoyt N. Duggan, “Meter, Stanza, Vocabulary, Dialect,” in A Companion to the Gawain Poet, ed. Derek Brewer and Jonathan Gibson (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 221–42
Week 3 (4 March) · Close reading: ll. 250-490 {First beheading and the covenant between Gawain and the Green Knight}. · Presentation 2: Thorlac Turville-Petre, The Alliterative Revival (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1977), chap. 4: „Poetic Diction“, pp. 69–92
Week 4 (11 March) · Close reading: ll. 491 (II. Fitt) – 639 {Gawain puts on armour}. · Presentation 3: Turville-Petre, Thorlac, "Alliterative Horses", The Journal of English and Germanic Philology (JEGP)112, 2, 2013, 154–168
Week 5 (18 March) · Close reading: ll. 640–810 {Gawain’s Journey and arrival at Bercilak’s castle}. · Presentation 4: Pons-Sanz, Sara, Fights and Games: Terms for Speech in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Journal of English and Germanic Philology , July 2020, Vol. 119, No. 3, pp. 353-379
Week 6 (25 March) · Close reading: ll. 810–1125 {Reception by the host}.
Week 7 (1 April) · No class: Reading Week
Week 8 (8 April) · Close reading: ll. 1126 (III. Fitt) – 1411 {1st bedroom scene and 1st hunt}. · Presentation 5: Ad Putter, “The Ways and Words of the Hunt: Notes on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Master of Game, Sir Tristrem, Pearl, and Saint Erkenwald,” The Chaucer Review, 40 (2006), 354–85
Week 9 (15 April) · Close reading: ll. 1412 – 1689 {2nd bedroom scene and 2nd hunt}. · Presentation 6: Thomas L. Wright, “Luf-Talkyng in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” in Approaches to Teaching Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. Miriam Youngerman Miller and Jane Chance (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1986), pp. 79–86
Week 10 (22 April) · No class: to be made-up for at a later date
Week 11 (29 April) · Close reading: ll. 1690 – 1921 {3rd bedroom scene and 3rd hunt}. · Presentation 7: Conor McCarthy, “Luf-talking in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” Neophilologus, 92 (2008), 155–62
Week 12 (6 May) · Close reading: ll. 1921 – 1997 {Gawain’s last night at Hautdesert}. · Presentation 8: Jucker, Andreas H., “Courtesy and Politeness in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’,” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 49 (2014), 5–28.
Week 13 (13 May) · No class: Rectorʼs Day
Week 14 (20 May) · Close reading: ll. 1998 (IV. Fitt) – 2258 {Gawain’s journey to the Green Chapel and the encounter with the Green Knight}. · Presentation 9: Pons-Sanz, Sara, “Speech Representation as a Narrative Technique in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” Review of English Studies, 70 (2019), 209–30.
Week 15 (tbs) Make-up session for Week 10 · Close reading: ll. 2259 – 2478 {Return Blow and Denouement}. · Presentation 10: Robert J. Blanch and Julian N. Wasserman, “Medieval Contracts and Covenants: The Legal Colouring of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” Neophilologus, 68 (1984), 598–610 · Wrap-up
Poslední úprava: Čermák Jan, prof. PhDr., CSc. (07.02.2026)
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Students will be required to complete their weekly reading assignments, offer one presentation and write a philological analysis of a text passage they will choose. Poslední úprava: Čermák Jan, prof. PhDr., CSc. (07.02.2026)
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Primary texts: Andrew, M. and Waldron R., eds. 1987. The Poems of the Pearl Manuscript. 2nd rev. edn,1996. Exeter. Borroff, M., trans. 1977. Pearl. New York. Tolkien, J.R.R. and Gordon E.V., eds. 1967. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Rev. N. Davis. Oxford. 2nd edn. Secondary texts: Borroff, Marie. 1952. Sir Gawain and tlze Green Knight: A Stylistic and Metrical Study, Yale University Press. Brewer, D. - Gibson, J., A Companion to the Gawain-Poet, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1997 Cooper, Helen. 1998. Introduction to SGGK in Keith Harrison’s translation, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford University Press. texts for individual presentations
Poslední úprava: Čermák Jan, prof. PhDr., CSc. (07.02.2026)
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