#gawainpoet — Public Fediverse posts

Since I didn't include the hashtag the first time around, let me try doing this #Introduction thread again.

Hi! My name is Ethan. I live in #BrooklynNY. I’m an #English professor at The King’s College, where I teach all kinds of #writing and #literature, from #Shakespeare to Russian novels to Southern lit. Most of my published writing is about #medieval literature, namely from 14th-century England (#Chaucer, the #GawainPoet, #Wyclif, etc.). I also like to write #fiction. 1/4

My theory: the day was so holy and somber, the #GawainPoet took it for granted that no one would be feasting, hunting, or playing games then, so he simply left it out of the poem and fast-forwarded to the start of Gawain and Bertilak’s exchange game. But who knows [shrug emoji].

#Childermas #FeastOfTheHolyInnocents #Gawain

It’s December 28th, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, or #Childermas which commemorates King Herod’s murder of children in his attempt to find the Christ child.

For scholars of the #GawainPoet this is the infamous “missing day” from the poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” … Lord Bertilak feasts for three days starting at Christmas, then hunts for three days, then suddenly it’s New Year’s Day. It’s not possible that the poet, who was obsessed with numerology, lost count. So what happened? 1/2

Here’s a link to my book, The Gawain-Poet and the 14th-Century English Anticlerical Tradition, from Medieval Institute Publications. It’s about how medieval priests behaved very badly, and how a lot of people, including the author of the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, criticized and made fun of them:
https://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Poet-Fourteenth-Century-Anticlerical-Tradition-Research/dp/1580443079
#medieval #Gawain #GawainPoet #anticlericalism