Passing the Torch of the Great Western Tradition | Malcolm Guite Full Lecture

Описание: Memoria Press is proud to present the 2026 Parnassus Prize to Malcolm Guite for his epic, Galahad and the Grail — the first of four ambitious volumes retelling the Arthurian legends.

The Parnassus Prize is our annual literary award given to a recent book that best contributes to the cultivation of the Western liberal arts tradition. Galahad and the Grail is a more-than-worthy recipient, a book that does not merely comment on the great works of the Western tradition but seems destined to become one of them, recovering an old story and handing it on to a new generation.

In this lecture, Guite reflects on what it means to receive and pass on the tradition. He traces the great chain of epic poetry from Homer to Virgil to Dante, Spenser, Milton, and Tennyson, showing how each poet was mentored by those who came before. Tradition, Guite reminds us, is not the curating of a museum of ashes but the handing on of a torch.

00:00 Presentation of the Parnassus Prize
03:37 Lecture Begins: The Epic Tradition
17:45 The Epic Reaches England
25:55 Tradition is Not a Museum of Ashes
30:22 Reading: "Take Up the Tale"
37:25 Reading: Merlin, Arthur, and Educating Our Children
59:30 Reading: The Ending of Galahad and the Grail

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