Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In Our Time13 Joulu 2018

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

In a programme first broadcast in 2018, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the jewels of medieval English poetry. It was written c1400 by an unknown poet and then was left hidden in private collections until the C19th when it emerged. It tells the story of a giant green knight who disrupts Christmas at Camelot, daring Gawain to cut off his head with an axe if he can do the same to Gawain the following year. Much to the surprise of Arthur's court, who were kicking the green head around, the decapitated body reaches for his head and rides off, leaving Gawain to face his promise and his apparently inevitable death the following Christmas.

The illustration above is ©British Library Board Cotton MS Nero A.x, article 3, ff.94v95

With

Laura Ashe Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, University of Oxford

Ad Putter Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Bristol

And

Simon Armitage Poet and Professor of Poetry at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Jaksot(1078)

The Physiocrats

The Physiocrats

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Physiocrats, an important group of economic thinkers in eighteenth-century France. The Physiocrats believed that the land was the ultimate source of all wealth,...

20 Kesä 201342min

Prophecy

Prophecy

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the meaning and significance of prophecy in the Abrahamic religions. Prophets, those with the ability to convey divinely-inspired revelation, are significant figure...

13 Kesä 201342min

Relativity

Relativity

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Einstein's theories of relativity. Between 1905 and 1917 Albert Einstein formulated a theoretical framework which transformed our understanding of the Universe. The...

6 Kesä 201342min

Queen Zenobia

Queen Zenobia

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, a famous military leader of the ancient world. Born in around 240 AD, Zenobia was Empress of the Palmyrene Empire in the Middle East. A highly educat...

30 Touko 201342min

Lévi-Strauss

Lévi-Strauss

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. One of twentieth-century France's most celebrated intellectuals, Lévi-Strauss attempted to show in his work that...

23 Touko 201342min

Cosmic Rays

Cosmic Rays

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss cosmic rays. In 1912 the physicist Victor Hess discovered that the Earth is under constant bombardment from radiation coming from outside our atmosphere. These so-c...

16 Touko 201342min

Icelandic Sagas

Icelandic Sagas

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Icelandic Sagas. First written down in the 13th century, the sagas tell the stories of the Norse settlers of Iceland, who began to arrive on the island in the l...

9 Touko 201342min

Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Gnosticism, a sect associated with early Christianity. The Gnostics divided the universe into two domains: the visible world and the spiritual one. They believed th...

2 Touko 201342min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
totuus-vai-salaliitto
tsunami
rss-ikiuni
konginkangas
rouva-diktaattori
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
historiaa-suomeksi
rss-iltanuotiolla
historian-nurkkapoyta
rss-kikka-forever
rss-kuningashuone