Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T21:46:13.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Conclusion

The Singing “Bonkes” of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2021

Andrew M. Richmond
Affiliation:
Southern Connecticut State University
Get access

Summary

My conclusion examines the Middle English romance most popular with modern scholars: the masterful Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Long noted for its acute understanding and subversion of literary convention, this romance displays a thorough understanding of the integral role that identifiably English landscapes play in constructing and defining the genre. Intriguingly, such awareness manifests especially in passages that relate topographical features “echoing” the sounds of human hunters, their canine companions, and the activities of more ambiguous characters (such as the Green Knight himself). SGGK thus anchors its fantastical narrative within recognizably English environments while calling attention to how human perception and communication produce such literary landscapes. Examining this romance alongside The Greene Knight (c.1500), a popularized ballad-romance of the same narrative, reaffirms that English and Border landscapes remained integral to the “voice” and character of late medieval and early modern verse romance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Landscape in Middle English Romance
The Medieval Imagination and the Natural World
, pp. 167 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Conclusion
  • Andrew M. Richmond, Southern Connecticut State University
  • Book: Landscape in Middle English Romance
  • Online publication: 06 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108917452.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Conclusion
  • Andrew M. Richmond, Southern Connecticut State University
  • Book: Landscape in Middle English Romance
  • Online publication: 06 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108917452.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Andrew M. Richmond, Southern Connecticut State University
  • Book: Landscape in Middle English Romance
  • Online publication: 06 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108917452.006
Available formats
×