English

The winner of the 2023-24 Departmental Best Honours Thesis Prize is Abby-Jean Gertridge! Abby wins this prize for the breadth, depth, and rigour of the scholarship on display in a very wide-ranging thesis. Abby insightfully and compellingly compares such challenging and wide-ranging stories as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (circa 1375-1400), the Old Irish Fled Bricrenn and Táin Bó Cuailnge (perhaps eighth through twelfth centuries and a pair of very demanding texts), the Middle English Awntyrs off Arthure (circa 1425), and select episodes from Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur [sic on the spelling] (1469-70). This selection and range of texts, as well as the analytic approach focusing on heroism and heroic challenges and the nature and significance of thee challenges, were entirely Abby’s choice. Likewise, Abby throughout grounds the argument in the relevant criticism but maintains her own voice and ideas and is not afraid to disagree with the critics when her reading of the demanding textual evidence suggests an entirely plausible alternative. Congratulations Abby!