In my dissertation, The Games Fairies Play: Otherworld intruders in Medieval Literary Narratives, I argue that otherworld intruders intrude upon mortals and the mortal world in search of game (using every conceivable meaning of game) where they enter into agreements and bargains with mortals in their pursuit of "game." These bargains are exceedingly carefully, and legally constructed contracts. I'm examining the games, bargains and contracts between otherworld intruders and mortals in various medieval Celtic and English texts, but particularly in the medieval Welsh mabinogi of Pwyll Pendeuic Dyfed, the Middle English texts of Sir Orfeo, Thomas of Erceldoune, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I examine these texts in order to show how an understanding of how the story pattern of an otherworld intruder who strikes a bargain with a mortal as part of a game works illuminates and removes some of the "problems" critics have in understanding my central text, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the role played by Morgan le Fay.

The file is in Adobe's .pdf format. You can download a free reader here. You may need the Junicode Unicode font in order to see the yoghs and diacritics properly, though the thorns should display properly even without a Unicode font.

Note: I've had to remove the downloadable .pdf of my dissertation because two people have plagiarized it, and three have attempted to sell my dissertation. I provided my dissertation as a service to my peers, and did not charge. It seems a double slap in the face for someone to charge for my work, and, attempt to claim it as theirs, when I asked them to remove it.

I made a chart of Gawain's year in terms of the poem and the major feasts; you'll find it here.

Please don't download and circulate my dissertation. You may have one copy for personal use. Feel free to send people a link to this page, but I really don't want anyone else distributing copies. Just send people here. In a few weeks I'll link to a book version from Lulu.