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SUMMARY:Green knights\, green men and green children: colour symbolism and
  the supernatural in the Middle Ages - Elizabeth Dearnley
DTSTART:20090202T194500Z
DTEND:20090202T210000Z
UID:TALK16290@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Gordon
DESCRIPTION:From the fairies of English folklore to the ‘little green me
 n’ popularly believed to inhabit Mars and even Slimer from Ghostbusters\
 , why are supernatural and otherworldly beings so often green?  \n\nSome c
 lues to this may be found in medieval colour theory\, where green had a pa
 rticularly wide spectrum of meanings. Many medieval tales tell of green fi
 gures from other worlds – such as the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and
  the Green Knight\, wild ‘green men’ and even green children. \n\nOver
  the centuries\, thinkers as diverse as Newton\, Goethe and Wittgenstein h
 ave proposed various colour theories. In the Middle Ages\, literary discus
 sions of colour were often backed up by scientific reasoning and theories 
 of optics\, as medieval writers\, artists and scholars attempted to make s
 ense of colour. But can any of this explain why the green knight was green
 ?\n\n\nBio: Elizabeth Dearnley is a Ph.D. candidate at Pembroke College. A
  graduate of University College\, London\, she worked as a freelance arts 
 journalist in Shanghai before returning to graduate study in Cambridge. He
 r thesis is on French-English translation in the fourteenth century\, but 
 she has a long-standing interest in colour theory and synaesthesia.\n\n
LOCATION:Nihon Room\, Pembroke College
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