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fandomhigh2006-02-02 07:28 pm
godinakilt.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2006-02-02 07:28 pm
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Arthurian Traditions (02/02)
[[Sorry for the lateness and the shortness. Day of death. Don't have the energy to do more. Just let me know how you did on the quiz.]]
"Alright, class, time for your quiz." Camulus moves around the room, placing two pages facedown on each desk. "Fifteen multiple choice on the first page worth one mark each, five passages on the back, two marks each, I just want the title and the author. I hope you all read 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' because it is on here. If you read the stories, you should get a hundred percent. Begin now."
Once the quiz was passed in, Camulus moved back to the front of the class and waved around 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'. "Alright. Written around 1400 BCE by an unknown poet, usually called simply the Gawain-poet or the Pearl Poet, who is also credited with three other poems found on the same manuscript. The first modern translation was produced in 1925 by JRR Tolkien, who I understand is rather more famous for some fantasy children's story or something like that.
"You'll notice a few things about the poem, namely the use of assonance, similiar sounds in a string of words to emphasise points. While I say that this is a translation, it's really only more of an update, showing the words in their modern forms, so this assonance was deliberately done by the original poet. The use of clashing 'g's and hard 'c's, mirroring the battle or conflict in the story.
"The bob and wheel. The small verse at the end of each stanza, which summarises what went before or gives a preview for what comes next. Four three-beat lines rhyming abab (the wheel) and a one-beat tag that rhymes a (the bob). The 'bob and wheel' is what the Gawain-poet is known for.
"One last thing. There are a couple of very Celtic motifs running throughout the poem. The first is the idea of three-fold repetition. There are three hunts, three Masses, three of anything important. The pattern of threes repeat itself again and again in Celtic lore, and there were several three-fold goddesses, each expressing a different aspect of a central idea. Another of the Celtic motifs is something we like to call The Beheading Game. This is the challenge that is made to Gawain at the beginning of the poem - he can behead the Green Knight if he promises to receive the same stroke at a point a year hence - a pattern of action which is mirrored in several Celtic tales as well, including the Mabinogian."
He says all this while writing key phrases on the board. While his back his still turned, he says, "Do you have anything to add, Miss Alexander?"
"Alright, class, time for your quiz." Camulus moves around the room, placing two pages facedown on each desk. "Fifteen multiple choice on the first page worth one mark each, five passages on the back, two marks each, I just want the title and the author. I hope you all read 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' because it is on here. If you read the stories, you should get a hundred percent. Begin now."
Once the quiz was passed in, Camulus moved back to the front of the class and waved around 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'. "Alright. Written around 1400 BCE by an unknown poet, usually called simply the Gawain-poet or the Pearl Poet, who is also credited with three other poems found on the same manuscript. The first modern translation was produced in 1925 by JRR Tolkien, who I understand is rather more famous for some fantasy children's story or something like that.
"You'll notice a few things about the poem, namely the use of assonance, similiar sounds in a string of words to emphasise points. While I say that this is a translation, it's really only more of an update, showing the words in their modern forms, so this assonance was deliberately done by the original poet. The use of clashing 'g's and hard 'c's, mirroring the battle or conflict in the story.
"The bob and wheel. The small verse at the end of each stanza, which summarises what went before or gives a preview for what comes next. Four three-beat lines rhyming abab (the wheel) and a one-beat tag that rhymes a (the bob). The 'bob and wheel' is what the Gawain-poet is known for.
"One last thing. There are a couple of very Celtic motifs running throughout the poem. The first is the idea of three-fold repetition. There are three hunts, three Masses, three of anything important. The pattern of threes repeat itself again and again in Celtic lore, and there were several three-fold goddesses, each expressing a different aspect of a central idea. Another of the Celtic motifs is something we like to call The Beheading Game. This is the challenge that is made to Gawain at the beginning of the poem - he can behead the Green Knight if he promises to receive the same stroke at a point a year hence - a pattern of action which is mirrored in several Celtic tales as well, including the Mabinogian."
He says all this while writing key phrases on the board. While his back his still turned, he says, "Do you have anything to add, Miss Alexander?"
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