Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In Our Time13 Dec 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

Avsnitt(1084)

Kant's Categorical Imperative

Kant's Categorical Imperative

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how, in the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) sought to define the difference between right and wrong by applying reason, looking at the intention behind actions...

21 Sep 201749min

al-Biruni

al-Biruni

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Central Asian polymath al-Biruni and his eleventh-century book the India.Born in around 973 in the central Asian region of Chorasmia, al-Biruni became an itiner...

31 Aug 201741min

Bird Migration

Bird Migration

After 27 years, Melvyn Bragg has decided to step down from the In Our Time presenter’s chair. With over a thousand episodes to choose from, he has selected just six that capture the huge range and dep...

6 Juli 201751min

Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic

Is it always better to be just than unjust? That is the central question of Plato's Republic, discussed here by Melvyn Bragg and guests. Writing in c380BC, Plato applied this question both to the indi...

29 Juni 201748min

Eugene Onegin

Eugene Onegin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexander Pushkin's verse novel, the story of Eugene Onegin, widely regarded as his masterpiece. Pushkin (pictured above) began this in 1823 and worked on it over the n...

22 Juni 201749min

The American Populists

The American Populists

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what, in C19th America's Gilded Age, was one of the most significant protest movements since the Civil War with repercussions well into C20th. Farmers in the South and ...

15 Juni 201749min

Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Christine de Pizan, who wrote at the French Court in the late Middle Ages and was celebrated by Simone de Beauvoir as the first woman to 'take up ...

8 Juni 201750min

Enzymes

Enzymes

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss enzymes, the proteins that control the speed of chemical reactions in living organisms. Without enzymes, these reactions would take place too slowly to keep organisms a...

1 Juni 201748min

Populärt inom Historia

kod-katastrof
massmordarpodden
historiska-brott
motiv
p3-historia
olosta-mord
rss-historiska-brottslingar
historiepodden-se
rss-historien-om
historianu-med-urban-lindstedt
rss-seriemordarpodden
rss-massmordarpodden
mannen-utan-spar
militarhistoriepodden
obskyr-historia
nu-blir-det-historia
palmemordet
vetenskapsradion-historia
krigshistoriepodden
harrisons-dramatiska-historia