Journal of Taibah University the first issue

2
Haitham Abdulaziz Saab
Medieval and Renaissance Values in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
and Spenser’s Epithalamion
Works of literature are standard representations of their times.
They are mirrors reflecting people’s notions, beliefs, culture and
values. The two poems I would like to examine in this paper present
revealing suggestions about two different literary periods in the
history of English literature. The first, anonymously written, Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight (1350), is one of the finest Middle-
English romances, which illustrates the revival of the alliterative meter
of Old English verse. It encompasses various characteristics of
medieval Literature, of the magical, chivalric world of Arthurian
romance. The second is Spenser’s Epithalamion (1595), a lyrical
poem celebrating the author’s marriage. The poem, in turn, is a
prominent work that represents the classical genre, namely
Epithalamion, which is widely popular during the Renaissance period;
one could call it literally “at the bridal chamber,” or refer to the Greek
to interpret it as “A Wedding Song.” This is a poem which relies
much on number-symbolism, where numbers alert us to theme. To
put Spenser’s Epithalamion into perspective, we note that the
Renaissance indeed marks a considerable shift of thought and culture
from that of the Middle Ages. In my historical approach I
acknowledge the great influence that history has on literary texts—
both their production and their later interpretation. The scrutiny of
historical and cultural contexts facilitates our understanding of literary
works. In her comprehensive study of historical scholarship, Annabel
Patterson describes the tenets of the historical approach to literature.
She contends that:
As a polemic, it derives its energy from a conviction that
literary texts have always been, more or less, products of
their historical, social, political, and economic
environments and that they cannot be understood unless
one attempts to resituate them within those conditions. 1
In addition to the historical-cultural construct, the historical
paradigm I use here is interested in the major ideological realms of
change occurring in medieval and Renaissance worlds. By these I
mean the attitudes towards religious, spiritual, and social issues and
the perception of knowledge and education. The two poems illustrate
these major changes, considerably showing the extent in which they
differ.