Dennis Howard Green

Just before World War II, Green enrolled at the Trinity College, Cambridge to study German.[2] During the war he abandoned his studies to serve in the Royal Tank Regiment, where he rose to the rank of major and participated in the Normandy landings. During this time it is probable that he was a member of British intelligence.[1] Completing his studies at Cambridge after the war, Green received his PhD from the University of Basel in 1949. He subsequently lectured German at the University of St Andrews from 1949 to 1950. He was elected to a Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1949, where he served as a University Lecturer in German from 1950 to 1966.[1]

From 1956 to 1979 he was Chair of the Department of Other Languages at Cambridge. A polyglot, Green spoke not only English and German, but also Portuguese, Romanian, Chinese and other languages.[1] Green's study, The Carolingian Lord (1965), established him as an international authority on German medieval studies. From 1966 to 1979 he was Professor of Modern Languages at Cambridge. In 1979 he became the Schröder Professor of German at Cambridge University, succeeding Leonard Wilson Forster. He retired from this position in 1989, becoming a Fellow of the British Academy.[1]

Green was at one point Vice-President of the International Association for Germanic Studies (IVG). He was the author of a large number of books and articles.[1]

Green married Dorothy Warren in 1947. They had one daughter, and divorced in 1972. In 1972 he married Margaret Parry, who died in 1997. In 2001 Green married Sarah Redpath.[1]

• Green, D.H. (1965). The Carolingian lord : semantic studies on four Old High German words: balder, frô, truhtin, hêrro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Green, D.H. (1966). The Millstätter Exodus : a crusading epic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Green, D.H.; Johnson, L. Peter (1978). Approaches to Wolfram von Eschenbach : five essays. Bern: Peter Lang. ISBN 3261029080.
• Green, D.H. (1979). Irony in the medieval romance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521224586.
• Green, D.H. (1982). The art of recognition in Wolfram's Parzival. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521245001.
• Green, D.H. (1994). Medieval listening and reading : the primary reception of German literature 800-1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521444934.
• Green, D.H. (1998). Language and history in the early Germanic world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521471346.
• Green, D.H. (2002). The beginnings of medieval romance : fact and fiction, 1150-1220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521813999.
• Green, D.H. (2007). Women readers in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521879422.
• Green, D.H. (2009). Women and marriage in German medieval romance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521513357.