Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is an English masterpiece of medieval alliterative poetry. The author although unknown is thought to be of North Midland origin, arguably, due to studies in the dialect of Cheshire or South Lancashire birth. One theory made by Mr Ormerod Greenwood (and a serious contender, according to this editions translator, Brian Stone) is that the author may have been a Hugh Mascy, or Hugo de Masci an old Cheshire family. The writting, a contemporary of the likes of Chaucer, exists a vellum manuscript in the Cotton Collection of the British Museum.
"He was a man of serious and devout mind, though not without humour; he had an interest in theology, and some knowledge of it, though an amateur knowledge perhaps, rather than a professional; he had Latin and French and was well enough read in French books, both romantic and instructive; but his home was in the West Midlands of England; so much his language shows, and his metre, and his scenery." (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Edited J.R.R. Tolkien and E.V. Gordon, 1925.)
The Alliterative Revival is a term adopted by academics to refer to the resurgence of poetry using the alliterative verse form - the traditional versification of Old English poetry - in Middle English during the period c. 1350 - c. 1500. The last alliterative poem known before this period is Lawman's Brut, which dates from around 1190. Opinion is divided as to whether the reappearance of such poems represents a conscious revival of an old artistic tradition, or merely signifies that despite the tradition continuing in some form between 1200 and 1350, no poems have survived in written form. (wikipedia.org)
No comments:
Post a Comment