Reflections of the Holy Mother: The Place of Women in Beowulf, the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Abstract

This paper reviews the place of women in Beowulf, selected tales from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. These works contain female characters with important roles. Often, the presence of women at first glance, may have not have appeared to be the most significant characters, in these works, nevertheless they can tell us much in how women are regarded by the authors of these works and their context within society during the time.