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(1078)

St Thomas Aquinas

St Thomas Aquinas

Melvyn Bragg discusses the life, works and enduring influence of the medieval philosopher and theologian St Thomas Aquinas with Martin Palmer, John Haldane and Annabel Brett. St Thomas Aquinas' ideas ...

17 Sep 200942min

Ediacara Biota

Ediacara Biota

Melvyn Bragg and guests Martin Brasier, Richard Corfield and Rachel Wood discuss the Ediacara Biota, the Precambrian life forms which vanished 542 million years ago, and whose discovery proved Darwin ...

9 Juli 200942min

Logical Positivism

Logical Positivism

Melvyn Bragg discusses Logical Positivism, the eye-wateringly radical early 20th century philosophical movement. The Logical Positivists argued that much previous philosophy was built on very shaky f...

2 Juli 200942min

Sunni and Shia Islam

Sunni and Shia Islam

Melvyn Bragg and guests Amira Bennison, Robert Gleave and Hugh Kennedy discuss the split between the Sunni and the Shia. This schism came to dominate early Islam, and yet it did not spring at first fr...

25 Juni 200942min

Elizabethan Revenge

Elizabethan Revenge

Melvyn Bragg and guests Jonathan Bate, Julie Sanders and Janet Clare discuss Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedy. From Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy to Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Elizabethan st...

18 Juni 200942min

The Augustan Age

The Augustan Age

Melvyn Bragg and guests Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards and Duncan Kennedy discuss the political regime and cultural influence of the Roman Emperor Augustus. Called the Augustan Age, it was a golden age...

11 Juni 200942min

The Trial of Charles I

The Trial of Charles I

Melvyn Bragg and guests Justin Champion, Diane Purkiss and David Wootton discuss the trial of Charles I, recounting the high drama in Westminster Hall and the ideas that led to the execution.Begun on ...

4 Juni 200941min

St Paul

St Paul

Melvyn Bragg and guests Helen Bond, John Haldane and John Barclay discuss the influence of St Paul on the early Christian church and on Christian theology generally. St Paul joined the Christian churc...

28 Maj 200942min

Populärt inom Historia

motiv
massmordarpodden
historiska-brott
p3-historia
olosta-mord
historiepodden-se
rss-massmordarpodden
rss-seriemordarpodden
historianu-med-urban-lindstedt
rss-brottsligt
rss-historien-om
vetenskapsradion-historia
krigshistoriepodden
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
konspirationsteorier
podme-bio-4
nu-blir-det-historia
palmemordet
rss-arkiv-stieg
rss-borgvattnets-hemligheter