Introduction

AIMS

These online extras are designed primarily for secondary school English teachers and for Key Stage 4 (KS4)/post-16 pupils’ use. Those interested in Media Studies will also find useful sections. University undergraduates taking medieval options may find the notes of interest. The notes are also for the general public who enjoy the Channel 4 animation and wish to find out more about the poem and medieval culture.

WHY STUDY/ANIMATE THIS POEM?

Idealised descriptions of court life, realistic depictions of nature, detailed focus on architecture and armoury, lively action scenes in the hunts, intriguing seduction scenes, mysterious phenomena ideal for special effects, as well as civilised discussion and dramatic dialogue – this poem is an ideal choice for adaptation to a visual medium.

However, it is not simply the poem’s potential for visual interpretation that makes it of interest to a twenty-first century audience. What at first appears to be an excursion into the otherness of the medieval past in a tale of chivalry and mystery becomes a more complex narrative of education in human nature.

Separate episodes are interwoven in such a way that the reader (or viewer) has continually to revise their responses. What we are left with at the end are complex psychological and moral questions about relationships between ideals and reality, between shame and honour. The poem challenges, and sometimes perplexes, ideas about truth and identity, holding just as much interest for modern audiences as it did for medieval readers.