Tag Archives: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Lit in the Year after Justin’s Death

In the year following Justin’s death, important works were Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Tennyson’s In Memoriam.

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“Better Living” Emerged from a Midnight Epiphany

In the latest installment of “A Life Lived in Literature,” I recount the origins of “Better Living through Beowulf.”

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The Most Dangerous Game: Wild Pigs

An Outdoor Living article on the fierceness of wild boars brings to mind “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” which features a dramatic boar hunt.

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A Mary Oliver Poem for Lent

Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” works as a Lenten poem but departs from medieval notions of what Lent involves.

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A Woman 600 Years Ahead of Her Time

If Chaucer’s created a timeless and transcendent character in the Wife of Bath, it is because he listened–really listened–to women.

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The Green Knight and Plague Fears

The message of the Green Knight: love nature, love your bodies, and love life. People who don’t are often driven by their fear of life’s transience.

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Covid PTSD and the Green Knight

Has Covid-caused PTSD created a MAGA death cult? I turn to “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” written in response to the Black Plague, for perspective.

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The Green Knight’s Lesson: Love Life

A Loren Eiseley passage on seeing his blood put me in mind of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where Gawain has a similar revelation.

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Sir Gawain and the Winter Solstice

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” pits paganism’s Winter Solstice against Christmas. But reconciliation is possible.

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