Category Archives: Swartz, Kelly

Gawain: Gawain leaves in search of Green Knight

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About the scene and clip:
In a strongly physical performance, a trio tells and acts out the departure of Gawain from Bertilak’s castle: the hero must go off alone in search of the Green Knight.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. Brian Stone, Penguin, 2nd edition, London, 1974, IV: 83, pp. 98ff. One edition of this frequently-edited work is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, ed. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon, 2nd ed. revised by Norman Davis, Oxford, Clarendon, 1968.

About the performer/ensemble:
Eric Giancola and Kelly Swartz are Drama students in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2004). Jory McMillan is a Drama student in the Stella Adler Studio of Acting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2004).

About the production:
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in fall 2004.

Conquest: William and Orable in the dungeon

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About the scene and clip:
This clip shows William and his men in the Saracen dungeon; the Saracen queen Orable arrives to help them—and romance develops. This is a very comic performance: the female actor plays William and his men, and the male actor plays Orable—but this epic itself is of a highly comic, even rather parodic, nature.

About the work:
The Conquest of Orange tells a major story in the great life of William of Orange (Guillaume d’Orange), who was the hero of an entire cycle of French medieval epic songs. (He was an historical figure, a 9th-century contemporary of Charlemagne; many legends arose about him, and he was revered as a saint.) William is a strongly colorful, often comic, hero. In this late-12th-century epic, which contains many funny scenes, William conquers the southern-French city of Orange from its Saracen lord, King Aragon, and wins the love of Queen Orable, taking her away from her husband; she converts to Christianity and adopts a new name, Guibourc. Like most medieval French epics, The Conquest of Orange is composed in laisses (or stanzas) of variable length with ten-syllable lines in assonance (the final vowel is the same within each laisse). Such epics were originally sung by jongleurs, often with vielle accompaniment.

About the genre:
The epic is an ancient genre and is found in almost every culture. It is a long heroic narrative which tells of war and great deeds. Epics are generally composed in verse, and sung from memory or improvised in performance by professional performers with instrumental accompaniment. These narratives are created from traditional elements, commonly without recourse to writing, by poets whose names are often unknown to us. Among the famous traditional epics are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer; the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf; and the Old French Song of Roland. Many known poets adopt epic forms and themes for their literary verse (such as Virgil in his Aeneid).

About the edition/translation:
Guillaume d’Orange: Four Twelfth-Century Epics, tr. Joan M. Ferrante, New York/London, Columbia University Press, 1974, laisses xliv ff., pp. 179ff. Original: La Prise d’Orange, ed. C. Régnier, Paris, Klincksieck, 1970.

About the performer/ensemble:
Eric Giancola and Kelly Swartz are Drama students in the CAP 21 Studio at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005).

About the production:
This performance was created for a book party for Performing Medieval Narrative at the Maison Française of New York University in October 2005. The event was also sponsored by “Storytelling in Performance,” a workshop funded by the Humanities Council of New York University and co-directed by Profs. Timmie Vitz, Nancy Regalado and Martha Hodes. Videography was by NYU-TV.