In this episode of Medieval Beginnings, Irina and Mary jump to the 14th century for an introspective Arthurian romance about a knight trying to live up to his perfect reputation. The mysterious and intricate Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is perhaps best understood as a series of games within games, in which our hero, a recurring character throughout medieval literature, is never sure what adventure he’s playing.

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Read more in the LRB: 

Mary Wellesley: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n08/mary-wellesley/diary

Frank Kermode: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n05/frank-kermode/who-has-the-gall

Irina Dumitrescu is Professor of English Medieval Studies at the University of Bonn and Mary Wellesley as a historian and author of Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and their Makers.

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