bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Arthurian Armings For War And For Love
Authors: Nickel Helmut
Published: April 2015

Literary descriptions of arms and armor in arming scenes vary according to their separate arming purposes: for war, for courtly service to a lady, for spiritual quest, and for indulgence in courtly follies.
'Syngne,' 'Conysaunce,' 'Deuys': Three Pentangles in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Authors: Hodges Laura F.
Published: April 2015

Linguistic evidence and knowledge of heraldic diction reveals that Gawain displays three pentangles in his arms and dress, a fact previously obscured by editorial glosses and either forgotten or overlooked by scholars.
Arthur as the Bearer of Civilization: The Alliterative Morte Arthure , ll. 901-19
Authors: Beal Rebecca S.
Published: April 2015

In The Alliterative Morte Arthure , Arthur's armor marks him as a product of his civilization, the antithesis of the lawlessness embodied in the giant of Mount St. Michel. The arming scene both elevates Arthur morally and establishes his civilization's primacy over that of the Romans.
Designing the End of History in the Arming of Galahad
Authors: Wright Michelle R.
Published: April 2015

This article analyzes Galahad's swords in La queste del saint graal as synecdoches of the chivalric function, which in the course of the narrative moves from an Arthurian to a celestial allegiance; Solomon's wife and Perceval's sister construct the signs of this transformation.
'Arms and the (Wo)man'
in Medieval Romance: The Gendered
Arming of Female Warriors in the Roman
d'Eneas and Heldris's Roman de Silence
Authors: Stock Lorraine Kochanske
Published: April 2015

An analysis of the arming of female warriors in the Roman d'Eneas and the Roman de Silence demonstrates a gendered différence between male and female warriors in medieval romance, as revealed in the presence or absence of stones of vertu on their armor.
Desperately Defending Winchester: Arguments from the Edge
Authors: Moorman Charles
Published: April 2015

Caxton's Le Morte Darthur represents Malory's own revision — Malory's own 'second edition' — of the text represented in the Winchester manuscript.
Caxton's Roman War
Authors: Field P. J. C.
Published: April 2015

Malory's Morte Darthur is the most famous of all Arthurian books, but very different views of it have been implied in recent disputes about the relationship between its two oldest surviving texts. This essay argues that the two texts derive independently from a lost archetype, and that an understanding of the process of derivation makes it possible to come closer than ever before to what Malory himself wrote.
The Winchester Malory
Authors: Noguchi Shunichi
Published: April 2015

'Caxtonian diction' and similar linguistic traces in the Roman War episode suggest that Caxton is responsible for the differences between the Winchester and Caxton versions of Le Morte Darthur .
From Alexander of Macedonia to Arthur of Britain
Authors: Furtado Antonio L.
Published: April 2015

As Geoffrey of Monmouth prepared to write the chapter on king Arthur which would culminate his Historia Regum Britanniae , he faced a disheartening difficulty: there was almost nothing in the authentically Celtic sources about Arthur. His basic structural and episodic models may have been supplied by historical and legendary biographies of Alexander of Macedonia, written in the first three centuries of the Christian era. This essay is a brief account of how Geoffrey, emulating Plutarch, extended the famous pair of world conquerors - Alexander and Caesar - to compose a triad with the imperishable king of the Britons.
Dante's Circle of Mars and the History of Arthur's Britain
Authors: Keen M. H.
Published: April 2015

Why do no Arthurian figures appear in Dante's circle of Mars in his Paradise, where he encountered the spirits of renowned Christian warriors. Dante knew the stories of Arthur and his knights: were they left out of paradise because he doubted whether their fighting was holy, or because he doubted the purity of their living? Or was it because Arthur's story could find no place in his scheme of providential history?
Howard Pyle and the Chivalric Order in America: King Arthur for Children
Authors: Fox-Friedman Jeanne
Published: April 2015

Howard Pyle's Arthuriad is peculiarly American in character. Pyle was drawn to the Middle Ages because he wished to recuperate its primitive simplicity as a model for an intense and authentic experience of life.
A Confluence of Pagan-Celtic and Christian Traditions in Charles Williams's 'Bors to Elayne: The Fish of Broceliande'
Authors: Curtis Jan
Published: April 2015

Bors's love song addresses Elayne in the Celtic tradition of poet as prophet and in the Christian tradition of seeker of God for whom romantic love is an elaborate conceit for the divine revelation.
Physical and Mental Cruelty in the Lais of Marie de France
Authors: Curtis Renée L.
Published: April 2015

Though it is commonly assumed that Marie's Lais depict a harmonious society in which tenderness prevails, this essay demonstrates that her Lais abound with vicious characters, often thwarted lovers, showing that Marie is clear-sighted enough to see that Love can corrupt as well as ennoble.
William Morris, Robert Bulwer-Lytton, and the Arthurian Poetry of the 1850s
Authors: Boos Florence S.
Published: April 2015

This essay examines parallels between William Morris's 1858 The Defence of Guenevere and Robert Edward Bulwer Lytton's 1855 Clytemnestra, The Earl's Return...and Other Poems and explores reasons for Morris's turn from Arthurian to other medieval romances in his later poetry.
The Armour of an Alienating Identity
Authors: Cohen Jeffrey Jerome , Of The
Published: April 2015

This essay examines the construction of masculinity in medieval culture. Heroism and sanctity organize the masculine body into a cultural coherence that is always both powerful and fragile. Identity in the Middle Ages depends upon an array of changing phenomena—from medical theory and manner of dress to martial activity and relation to other gendered bodies.
Masculine Military Unions: Brotherhood and Rivalry in The Avowing of King Arthur
Authors: Ingham Patricia Clare
Published: April 2015

When viewed in the larger context of chivalric culture during the Wars of the Roses, The Avowing of King Arthur suggests the pertinence of the Arthurian story to the construction of late-medieval military masculinity.
Malory's Body Chivalric
Authors: Kelly Kathleeen Coyne
Published: April 2015

Gaze theory shows us how, at the precise moment that we expect the male body to be most visible, i.e. , when under attack, that body is transformed and feminized, thus shielding the masculine 'body chivalric.'
Perceval's Sister: Malory's 'Rejected' Masculinities
Authors: Hoffman Donald L.
Published: April 2015

Against the background of the Christlike model incarnated by Perceval's sister, this essay reviews the central 'masculinities' presented in Malory's text to argue that Lancelot tries on and rejects the various modes of masculinity until accepting his final role which includes the Christlike and the feminine.
Folklore and Myth in The Knight of the Cart
Authors: Furtado Antonio L. , Veloso Paulo A. S.
Published: April 2015

The Knight of the Cart is far from being a straightforward knightly adventure. In this essay, we propose to uncover its underlying folktale structure, which in turn leads to a comparison with a tale in the same generic class, having an analogous subject matter ( matiere ) but opposite orientation ( san ) —the Indian epic Ramayana .
Chrétien de Troyes and Cultural Materialism
Authors: Stone Gregory L.
Published: April 2015

Modern readings of Chrétien de Troyes have been governed by the assumptions of idealist literary criticism. Chrétien is usually thought to have believed: 1) that ideas precede and determine the shape of material, social reality and 2) that the artist's task is to present ideas that will regulate the material practices of his or her society. Two famous episodes in the Chevalier de la charrete suggest that Chrétien is in fact a cultural materialist, one who believes that material realities and practices precede and determine ideas.
Chrétien's Knight of the Cart and Critical Theory
Authors: Sturges Robert S.
Published: April 2015

Explicitly theoretical readings of the Chevalier de la charrete of Chrétien de Troyes, including those in the present collection, demonstrate the extent to which medievalists have by now adapted various poststructuralisms to the understanding of medieval texts. Medievalists can now take twentieth-century critical theory for granted, and a variety of such approaches are now included in the medievalist's critical repertory.
The Arthurian Art of David Jones
Authors: Whitaker Muriel
Published: April 2015

Arthurian romance, especially Malory's Morte Darthur , inspired nine drawings and paintings by David Jones (1895-1974). Because Jones treated imagery in a polysemous medieval way, his art must be read not only literally, as representation of story, but also allegorically, tropologically, and anagogically.
About a Crown Found and a Grail Tournament Held at the 'Castle of the Maiden'
Authors: Nickel Helmut
Published: April 2015

An archaeological find made in 1955 at Magdeburg in Northern Germany is possibly linked to 'one of the oddest tournament stories' (Barber and Barker 56), the famous tournament with an Arthurian theme that was held at this Saxon city in 1279.
Two Early 'Expurgations' of the Morte Darthur
Authors: Parins Marylyn J.
Published: April 2015

Two editions of Malory's Morte Darthur (1634 and 1816) are prefaced by statments that the work has been expurgated, but expurgation in 1816 is inconsistent and in 1634 nonexistent. Exploration of the dichotomies between preface and text throws light on considerations governing publication and on the perception/reception of Malory's work under these conditions.
Malory and Rape
Authors: Batt Catherine
Published: April 2015

This essay uses literary, legal, and historical contexts for rape to illuminate how and why Malory forcefully deploys such issues in his focus on Lancelot in Le Morte Darthur .
Arthur's Channel Crossing: Courtesy and the Demonic in Geoffrey of Monmouth and Wace's Brut
Authors: Pickens Rupert T.
Published: April 2015

Comparison of a key passage in Geoffrey and in Wace's translation shows how Wace broadens the concept of corteisie and anticipates the conjoining of courtesy and aventure in Arthurian romance.
Remembering Troie : the Implications of Ymages in the Roman de Troie and the Prose Lancelot
Authors: Rockwell Paul
Published: April 2015

The prose Lancelot 's salle aux ymages may be a rewriting of the Roman de Troie 's Chambre de Beautés . Through a shift in the representation of ymages , the former seeks to undermine the sense of historical continuity articulated in the latter.
Adultery in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
Authors: Kennedy Beverly
Published: April 2015

Malory handles the theme of adultery in Le Morte d'Arthur as a function of his typology of knighthood. Each type—Heroic, Worshipful and True—has a different understanding of what constitutes knightly honor and has a correspondingly different attitude toward the commission and punishment of adultery.
Medieval Concepts of Adultery
Authors: Bullough Vern L.
Published: April 2015

Medieval society based its response to adultery on Germanic and Roman law codes, but was in fact more liberal than either. Unlike its predecessors, medieval canon and secular law recognized the responsibility of both parties, rather than of just the woman, in the offense. St. Thomas Aquinas argued that it was a breach of trust.
The Modern Editor and Medieval 'Misogyny': Text Editing and Le Roman de Silence
Authors: Psaki F. Regina
Published: April 2015

Various modern editing practices can promote a perception of a misogynist Middle Ages well beyond what the original artifacts might support.
The Non-Existent Knight: Adventure in Le Roman de Silence
Authors: Jewers Caroline A.
Published: April 2015

If Marie's Lais present a deliberately configured narrative space that relocates a feminized sense of adventure commensurate with the restricted lives of her heroines, Heldris's Silence takes the opposite tack by presenting a conservative message through radical feminine aventures . A reconsideration of the names of Heldris's protagonists helps to unlock further layers of interpretation.
Lesbian Desire in the Old French Roman de Silence
Authors: Blumreich Kathleen M.
Published: April 2015

Eufemie, representative of 'natural' heterosexuality, is praised and rewarded for her behaviors. Eufeme, the embodiment of 'unnatural' lesbian desire, is executed for her heretical deviancy.
The Specular Image of the Gender-Neutral Name: Naming Silence in Le Roman de Silence
Authors: Labbie Erin F.
Published: April 2015

The article analyzes the relationship between naming and identity by reading Le Roman de Silence in the context of feminist and psychoanalytic theories. Silence's subjectivity is constituted by, and challenges, notions of a stable signifier.
Devilish Ways: Sexing the Subject in the Queste del Saint Graal
Authors: Burns E. Jane
Published: April 2015

Amid the standard cast of knights and ladies at King Arthur's court, the devil in the Queste del Saint Graal disrupts rigid social and linguistic categories of masculinity and feminity, subverting the regulatory, heterosexual norms that typically govern both ecclesiastical and courtly cultures in thirteenth-century France.
Two for the Price of One: Courtly Love and Serial Polygamy in the Lais of Marie de France
Authors: Kinoshita Sharon
Published: April 2015

The represention of repudiation and remarriage in Fresne and Eliduc constitutes a vindication of feudal dynastic politics over the church's efforts to regulate aristocratic marriages.
Sodomy, Misogyny, and Displacement: Occluding Queer Desire in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Authors: Boyd David L.
Published: April 2015

By the late fourteenth century, the institution of chivalry had already lost much of its social value. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight attempts to defend chivalric ideals by blaming their decline on external forces: queer male behavior and desire that derives from the deceits and wiles of women.
Women, Power, and (the Undermining of) Order in Lawman's Brut
Authors: Fries Maureen
Published: April 2015

Lawman's additions and alterations to the sources of his Brut suggest that he intended to show the dangers of women's escaping their gender limitations.
Þat kinewurðe bed [a bed fit for a king]: Thematic Wordplay in Lawman's Brut
Authors: Weinberg Carole
Published: April 2015

The Brut delights in displaying the lexical resources of early Middle English. One example is the wordplay on kinewurðe , which alerts the reader both to the moral dubiousness of King Uther's actions in the immediate context, and to a significant thematic pattern in the poem.
Affective Poetics and Scribal Reperformance in Lawman's Brut : A Comparison of the Caligula and Otho Versions
Authors: Watson Jonathan
Published: April 2015

Some variations between the two versions of Brut can be explained by scribal reperformance. In the process of reading and transmitting their exemplar, the Brut redactors independently recompose Lawman's text according to the principles of traditional vernacular verse.
The Perpetual Enigma of Chrétien's Grail Episode
Authors: Rider Jeff
Published: April 2015

Chrétien de Troyes's Conte du Graal is a successful example of a deliberately enigmatic story. It was intended both to create an impression that it possesses an allegorical dimension and, simultaneously, to frustrate all attempts to grasp its allegorical significance.
Mothers in the Grail Quest: Desire, Pleasure, and Conception
Authors: McCracken Peggy
Published: April 2015

This essay explores the ambivalent representation of second-generation mothers in the Grail Quest and proposes that representations of sexually active widows, chaste mothers, and desiring virgins in the Prose Lancelot suggest the difficult combination of chivalric quest and Christian values in courtly romance.
Gender and the Grail
Authors: Fries Maureen
Published: April 2015

Earlier images of Arthurian women emerge in new configurations in Malory's version of the Grail Quest. Perceval's sister, a guide and helper to the knights, ends in a self-chosen, bloody sacrifice. Guinevere contributes to the failure of the homosocial ideal.
Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail, and the Edessa Icon
Authors: Scavone Daniel
Published: April 2015

Evidence that the Grail legends begun with Robert de Boron were inspired by Byzantine apocryphal texts and the rituals associated with the Edessan burial-shroud icon. Joseph is the common link between apocrypha and Grail.
'Ensemble poënt bien durer': Time and Timelessness in the Chevrefoil of Marie de France
Authors: McCash June Hall
Published: April 2015

Chevrefoil , by juxtaposition in the Harley manuscript with Chaitivel and Eliduc , underscores the fragile and transitory nature of human love, which lovers can preserve only through the creation of text or within the inclusive context of divine love.
Losing Your Head in Chrétien's Knight of the Cart
Authors: Feinstein Sandy
Published: April 2015

In Chrétiens Lancelot , beheading serves as a complex sexual, political, and religious image representing power, particularly the power of speech.
The Awntyrs off Arthure , Caerphilly, Oysterlow, and Wexford
Authors: Breeze Andrew
Published: April 2015

References in The Awntyrs off Arthure to Kirfre, Vlstur Hall, Wayford, and Waterford have puzzled scholars, but they may be identified as Caerphilly and Oysterlow in South Wales, and Wexford and Waterford in Ireland. If so, they provide evidence to associate the poem with the young duke of York (d. 1460), who was linked with the first three of these places, either directly or via his guardian.
John Vale's Book and Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur : A Political Agenda
Authors: Radulescu Raluca
Published: April 2015

Sir Thomas Malory wrote Le Morte Darthur at a time of political instability in England. The miscellanies owned by his contemporaries document a similar climate of unrest, a 'war of ideas' that influenced Malory's own presentation of kingship and governance.
Camelot 3000 and Beyond: An Annotated Listing of Arthurian Comic Books Published in the United States c. 1980-1998
Authors: Torregrossa Michael
Published: April 2015

This annotated bibliography illustrates the variety to be found in the Arthurian comic books of the 1980s and 1990s.
Illuminating Romance: Narrative, Rubric, and Image in Mons, BU 331/206, Paris, BN, fr. 1453, and Paris, BN, fr. 12577
Authors: Doner Janet R.
Published: April 2015

Close examination of MSS PSU of the Continuation-Gauvain reveals distinctive patterns of narrative-rubric-image relationships. Certain tensions among these elements may be attributable to technical aspects of the production process.
Marion Zimmer Bradley and The Mists of Avalon
Authors: Paxson Diana L.
Published: April 2015

This essay looks at the biographical roots of Marion Zimmer Bradley's romantic mysticism and female spirituality in the Mists of Avalon .
Arthur Without Fantasy: Dark Age Britain in Recent Historical Fiction
Authors: Nastali Dan
Published: April 2015

Only recent Arthurian stories accomplished the difficult task of creating a plausible fifth/sixth-century Britain, of incorporating at least some of the basic elements of the Arthurian tradition, and of managing to tell a good story while producing yet another variation on some well-worn themes.
Queens, Ladies and Saints: Arthurian Women in Contemporary Short Fiction
Authors: Howey Ann F.
Published: April 2015

Arthurian short stories increasingly incorporate feminist issues by revisioning the legend's traditional symbols of power, definitions of heroism, and binary oppositions between good and evil.
The Tragedy of Balin: Malory's Use of the Balin Story In the Morte Darthur
Authors: Norris Ralph
Published: April 2015

Malory severs many of the causal links between Balin's story and the Grail Quest that exist in the Suite du Merlin , transforming Balin from an anti-Galahad to a tragic hero.
Creating King Arthur's Children: A Trend in Modern Fiction
Authors: Tichelaar Tyler R.
Published: April 2015

Modern novelists are creating non-traditional children for King Arthur to link the present to the Arthurian past and to reject the legend's tragic ending.
Sexuality, Corruption, and the Body Politic: The Paradoxical Tribute of The Misfortunes of Arthur to Elizabeth I
Authors: Crosbie Christopher J.
Published: April 2015

Thomas Hughes's The Misfortunes of Arthur pays homage to Elizabeth I through its eclectic use of Arthurian traditions and by examining the corrupted sexuality of the body politic.
'A land shining with goodness': Magic and Religion in Stephen R. Lawhead's Taliesin, Merlin , and Arthur
Authors: Doherty John J.
Published: April 2015

Religion is a common theme in science fiction and fantasy. Stephen R. Lawhead's fantasy Pendragon Cycle tells of the conflict between Christian and pagan religions, in which the outcome is the Christian Arthurian realm of the Kingdom of Summer.
The Naked and the Best: Tests, Temptations, and Triumphal Rescues
Authors: Nickel Helmut
Published: April 2015

'The Best' — either 'the Best Knight in the World' or 'the Truest Lady' — is at times decided by bizarre tests with scurrilous elements. The examples here treated feature nakedness of victims, of agents provocateurs, and also of the Best Knights' and of 'theTruest Ladies' themselves.
Arthurian Wonder Women: The Tred of Olwen
Authors: Goyne Jo
Published: April 2015

Though introduced as a curse placed upon her suitor, Olwen, the most beautiful giant's daughter in Welsh folklore, brings to this tale wisdom and an aura of enchantment worthy of the most exemplary Arthurian heroines.
Malory's Multiple Virgins
Authors: Kelly Kathleen Coyne
Published: April 2015

The story of Lyones and Gareth's courtship in the Morte Darthur dramatizes the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of writing history—of establishing 'what really happened.' The attempt to narrate virginity's substantiation and/or its preservation turns our attention to the inadequacies of narrative itself.
Merlin and the Pendragon: King Arthur's Draconarius
Authors: Malcor Linda A.
Published: April 2015

Some scholars have argued that Merlin exhibits druid-like characteristics, but the medieval tradition of Merlin as the bearer of Arthur's dragonhead standard casts the prophet-turned-wizard in a very warlike role.
Merlin as Historian in Historia Regum Britannie
Authors: Bell Kimberly
Published: April 2015

Geoffrey of Monmouth uses the figure of Merlin to reveal metafictional levels of meaning in the HRB in order to foreground the historian's role in shaping perceptions of history.
'Going Native': Anthropological Lawman
Authors: Wickham-Crowley Kelley M.
Published: April 2015

Anthropological theories about writing another culture open up considerations of Lawman's positioning in relation to the Welsh/British and his history of their rulers.
The Celtic Wild Man Tradition and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini: Madness or Contemptus Mundi?
Authors: Thomas Neil
Published: April 2015

The Merlin material in the Vita Merlini , seen in the tradition of the Celtic saints' lives, shows how the image of Merlin, originally that of a psychological casualty of the Battle of Arfderyddd, is modified to take on the more positive profile of a Celtic holy man.
The Truth 'bi Arðure þan kinge': Arthur's Role in Shaping Lawman's Vision of History
Authors: Tiller Kenneth J.
Published: April 2015

Lawman's portrayal of King Arthur, as creator and subject of history, exposes historical truth as a violent process of suppressing rival texts and traditions.
Of This Is a King's Body Made: Lordship and Succession in Lawman's
Arthur and Leir
Authors: Sheppard Alice
Published: April 2015

Joining performance theory and principles of Anglo-Saxon lordship, I argue that lordship—not gender or generalship—shapes Lawman's approach to succession and ideal kingship.
Merlin and the Ladies of the Lake
Authors: Berthelot Anne
Published: April 2015

The figure of Merlin has in most texts a close relationship with a feminine character, either Morgue or the Lady of the Lake. While Morgue is often depicted as a negative figure, the Lady of the Lake is described as a positive force in the Arthurian world. Technically, however, both characters tend to replace Merlin as the embodiment of magic and wisdom in the 13th century romances.
The Spanish 'Viviens' of El baladro del sabio Merlín and Benjamín Jarnés's Viviana y Merlín : From Femme Fatale to Femme Vitale
Authors: Miller Barbara D.
Published: April 2015

In the Castillan Post-Vulgate romance, El baladro del sabio Merlín , Merlin's lust for the Lady of the Lake fundamentally diminishes the enchanter by impairing his prophetic capacity. But the reversal of Vivien's function in Benjamín Jarnés's experimental novel, Viviana y Merlín , shows at least one Arthurian personage to be less than predictable across the ages.
Yvain's Return to Wales
Authors: Lindahl Carl
Published: April 2015

In comparing the Welsh Owein with the Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes, rather than debating which text is older or the source for the other, it proves far more fruitful to consider Owein as a cultural translation of a French romance, a work through which an active Welsh storytelling tradition has domesticated a foreign tale and reshaped it to express the values and fulfill the expectations of a native esthetic.
Distancing Techniques in Chrétien de Troyes's Li Contes del Graal and Eric Rohmer's Perceval le Gallois
Authors: Grimbert Joan Tasker
Published: April 2015

The singular techniques Rohmer used to transpose Li Contes del Graal to the screen allowed him to replicate to an uncanny degree the 'aesthetic distance' for which Chrétiens romances are justly celebrated.
Re-Framing Perceval
Authors: Hoffman Donald L.
Published: April 2015

Cinematic re-framings of the Perceval legend tend to examine the locus of guilt. On the continent, Brechtian techniques shock the viewer into rethinking the narrative (Rohmer's Perceval le Gallois and Syberberg's Parsifal ). The American Fisher King distracts from its mystification of the real issues of the narrative and enacts a materialist consolation that it appears to dismiss.
Theme and Meaning in Peredur
Authors: Bollard John K.
Published: April 2015

This article examines the episodic and thematic development of the Welsh Peredur , proposing that the longer version of the White and Red Books is a unified tale concerned directly with such themes as courtesy, fame, and love.
In the Wake of the White Swan
Authors: Reel Jerome V.
Published: April 2015

Wagner's first Arthurian opera, Lohengrin , a standard work in the repertory, has had great influence in the world's musical culture. Premières around the globe, styles in singing, parodies, and publication of musical parts for home, state, and religious functions are gauges of its importance to Arthurian studies.
Building Arthurian Castles in Spain: William Sotheby's Constance de Castile
Authors: Simpson Roger
Published: April 2015

In Sotheby's narrative of fourteenth-century Spanish dynastic politics, which may be read as an allegory of the early nineteenth-century Peninsular War, two extensive Arthurian references play a key structural role.
Richard Wagner's Creative Processes: Parsifal
Authors: Kletke Daniel
Published: April 2015

Richard Wagner's sources influenced and shaped his creative processes, as seen in his use of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival in the composition of his final opera Parsifal .
Warwick Deeping's Uther and Igraine
Authors: Conlee John
Published: April 2015

In Uther and Igraine , Warwick Deeping creates an elaborate narrative context for the tale of Uther Pendragon's great love for Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, the Duke of Tintagel. Deeping thoroughly re-inscribes the novel's three main characters, and in so doing anticipates several developments in Arthurian fiction that we tend to associate more with the second half of the twentieth century, especially with the novels of Mary Stewart and Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Saying but Little: Malory and the Suggestion of Emotion
Authors: Schroeder Peter R.
Published: April 2015

When he shows a character saying 'but lytyll,' Malory suggests a more complex emotion than he does through his usual emotional displays.
Brangäne: Isolde's Alter Ego
Authors: Peyton Henry Hall
Published: April 2015

In Tristan und Isolde , Richard Wagner conceives Brangäne as the courtly embodiment of rationality who illuminates the innermost psyche of the passionate Isolde as the two become segments of an ideal whole.
Hoel-Hearted Loyalty and the Ironization of Arthur in Geoffrey's Historia regum Britanniae
Authors: Martin Carol A.N.
Published: April 2015

Comparison of Wace's and Geoffrey of Monmouth's versions of Hoel's speech in support of Arthur's Roman campaign highlights the irony embedded in the high-sounding but deliberately irresponsible rhetoric typical of Geoffrey's belligerents.
Once and Future Saxons: Nazis and Other Dark Forces in the Modern Arthurian Story
Authors: Traxler Janina P.
Published: April 2015

Modern Arthurian literature, especially realistic fiction and fantasy or science fiction, recycles the interpersonal conflicts and insecurities typical of older Arthurian literature and also treats the particularly modern anxiety about our ability to master the consequences of our technology.
'Problem Women' in Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône
Authors: Samples Susann T.
Published: April 2015

Initially, Amurfina and Giramphiel do not conform to the more traditional role of the courtly lady. Instead, they are independent, powerful, and self-aware, or in other words, 'problem women.' This essay examines their role in Diu Crône and determines whether they can be rehabilitated or must remain alienated from Arthurian society.
Born-Again Virgins and Holy Bastards: Bors and Elyne and Lancelot and Galahad
Authors: Cherewatuk Karen
Published: April 2015

Despite the ethic of the Sankgreal , the presence of fathers and their illegitimate sons has positive features and, in Lancelot, suggests a tragic play of emotions.
Queer Fisher King: Castration as a Site of Queer Representation ( Perceval, Stabat Mater, The City of God )
Authors: Roberts Anna
Published: April 2015

The concept of 'thematic site' connects queer figures in medieval romance to representations of queer desire and anxiety in other contexts. Castration constitutes one such site, allowing us to interpret the figure of the Fisher King as queer, in the light of French and German rewritings of Chrétien's Perceval , and in the context of the Attis myth in Augustine, Ovid, and Catullus.
Searching for Arthur: Literary Highways, Electronic Byways, and Cultural Back Roads
Authors: Nastali Dan , Boardman Phil
Published: April 2015

The Arthurian Annals project has been a fifteen-year effort to document the Arthurian tradition in English from the beginning of the fifteenth century through the year 2000. Including but extending far beyond familiar literary works, the Annals demonstrate that the vitality of the legend resides as much in the products of popular culture as in the great works of Arthurian literature. The research employed is described as well as some lessons learned about the transmission of the tradition.
From Wolfram to Wagner and Beyond: Sexuality, Freedom, and the Avoidance of Tragedy in Parsifal
Authors: Williams Simon J.C.
Published: April 2015

While Wolfram's poem Parzival explores chivalry, Wagner, who based his final music drama Parsifal on Wolfram's poem, is concerned with more metaphysical matters. Nevertheless, Wolfram influenced Wagner in his depiction of the sexual maturation of the hero. Wagner's Parsifal seems to be destined for a life of celibacy, but a recent production of the music drama opts for a more secular ending which reflects Wolfram's positivism and optimism.
'Men hadde niet Arsatere vonden alsoe goet': Walewein as Healer in the Middle Dutch Arthurian Tradition
Authors: Johnson David F.
Published: April 2015

The darling of most Middle Dutch poets, Walewein was imbued with the skills of healing as part of their efforts to rehabilitate his character in the face of a tarnished reputation in the French tradition.
The Love and Envy of Sir Palomides
Authors: Grimm Kevin T.
Published: April 2015

Malory constructs Sir Palomides as a microcosm of the forces of love and envy, whose conflict drives the narrative of the Tale of Sir Tristram .
Richard Wagner's Arthurian Sources, Jessie L. Weston, and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land
Authors: Sloane Patricia
Published: April 2015

A survey of the references to Arthurian romance and Wagnerian operas in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land confirms the special importance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde to Eliot's poem.
The Once and Future King : The Book That Grows Up
Authors: Lupack Alan
Published: April 2015

T. H. White's The Once and Future King is an experiment in artistic structure, in which the book grows up with the characters. As characters age, genres change from children's story to bildungsroman to romance to tragedy. The Book of Merlyn was intended as the final stage of this process, a philosophical dialogue which reflected upon all the whole of Arthur's life and experience.
Malory's Reformulation of Shame
Authors: Gibson Angela
Published: April 2015

In the Morte Darthur , Malory suggests that revealing private acts, even those that may themselves be dishonorable according to a shame culture, can be more destructive than the acts themselves. Such private acts are therefore not undervalued but esteemed and protected.
The Idea of Family in Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory
Authors: Mandel Jerome
Published: April 2015

The construction of family in each author's work does not reflect historical accuracy but aesthetic need. For Malory, the family provides the source of political antagonism and narrative tension that invigorates the romance. For Chrétien, the family provides an ideal alternative to chivalric adventurism that deconstructs the ideal of romance.
Vision and History: Prophecy in the Middle English Prose Brut Chronicle
Authors: Drukker Tamar
Published: April 2015

The Middle English prose Brut follows the biblical tradition of incorporating prophecy in its historical narrative. Merlin's prophecy forms an important part of the chronicle though it is set apart from the rest of the work.
The Bed and the Boat: Illustrations of the Demoiselle d'Escalot's Story in Illuminated Manuscripts of La Mort Artu
Authors: Greene Virginie
Published: April 2015

This article studies visual sequences representing the story of the Demoiselle d'Escalot in ten thirteenth- to fifteenth-century illustrated manuscripts. Although many of these images can be related to two common types of scenes (the conversation scene and the bed scene), the introduction of a 'boat scene' seems to have forced illustrators to become inventive.
Guinglain and Lancelot: The Nightmares in Le Bel Inconnu
Authors: Schwartz Debora B.
Published: April 2015

The Lancelot of Chrétiens Charrette is the primary intertextual model for the Unknown Knight Guinglain in Renaut de Beaujeu's Bel Inconnu . Guinglain's Lancelotian nightmares, parody the Sword Bridge and Future Cemetery episodes of the Charrette , link the narratives of poet and hero and offer a medieval example of the 'anxiety of influence.'
Naming and Renaming: On Two Grail Scenes in L'Estoire del Saint Graal
Authors: Séguy Mireille
Published: April 2015

L'Estoire del Saint Graal is crafted with a concern for precise naming which is authenticated by divine transcendence and/or etymological explications. The Grail, like the castle where it resides, is given a series of names. This is more than a matter of accumulating names. Rather, they are the means whereby the romance overwrites the divine word, and thereby appropriates for fictional representation the power to convey meaning.
A Jewish Encounter with Arthurian Romance
Authors: Sandler Florence
Published: April 2015

This essay discusses an Italian version of the Prose Lancelot which a scribe translated into Hebrew in 1279.
Swords and Sorceresses: The Chivalry of Malory's Nyneve
Authors: Hodges Kenneth
Published: April 2015

Malory's Nyneve, herself a chivalric figure, redefines important elements of political and romantic chivalry.
Strategies for Teaching the Roman de Silence
Authors: Blumreich Kathleen
Published: April 2015

As its title suggests, this piece offers a variety of strategies for teaching the Roman de Silence . Included here are ideas for small group, whole class, and research assignments.
From Children's Story to Adult Fiction: T.H. White's The Once and Future King
Authors: Worthington Heather
Published: April 2015

This paper reads the textual complications and structural development of White's multi-volume novel as a set of traces of and responses to sexual anxiety.
King Arthur Comes to New Orleans
Authors: Reel Edmee F. , Reel Jerome V.
Published: April 2015

Arthurian themes have been frequently used by New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes. The themes have dwelt on all aspects of the legends. Sources used have now changed and so too messages have changed.
The Harry Potter Stories and French Arthurian Romance
Authors: Arden Heather , Lorenz Kathryn
Published: April 2015

This article explores the varied medieval elements in the popular novels, as well as deeper narrative connections with Arthurian romance, particularly exploring parallels between the Harry Potter tales and Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval .
Hans Sachs's Arthurian Chastity Test
Authors: Dentzien Nicole
Published: April 2015

Using Hans Sachs's ehbrecher brugk as an example, this essay demonstrates the development of the bridge chastity-test motif in German literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, concentrating on changes in transmission and reception.
'The Dream Withered': The Tale of Sir Gawain
Authors: Miller Miriam Youngerman
Published: April 2015

Neil Philip's beautifully rendered The Tale of Sir Gawain , presenting the knight's deathbed attempt to find meaning in his experience, raises serious questions about the appropriateness of Arthurian tradition for a youthful audience.
The Place of Arthur in Children's Versions of The Faerie Queene
Authors: Woodcock Matthew
Published: April 2015

This essay examines Arthur's function within children's versions of The Faerie Queene , and highlights how editors negotiated the issue of Arthur's erotic quest for Gloriana.
Epilogue: Malory's Morte Darthur and 'the Place of the Voice'
Authors: Hanks D. Thomas
Published: April 2015

Reading Malory's Morte aloud adds elements to the oral-aural text which do not exist in the text when read silently to oneself.
Malory and Fifteenth-Century Political Ideas
Authors: Radulescu Raluca
Published: April 2015

This study considers the ways Malory responds to discussions of the nature and responsibility of kingship found in fifteenth-century chronicles and questions the validity of setting up Arthur's court as a political ideal for his time.
Prophecy in the Morte Darthur
Authors: Bliss Jane
Published: April 2015

Prophecy, as narrative structure, is mediated through numerous prophetic voices, and illustrates a theme of human will struggling against God's will and against Fate.
Howard Pyle's The Story of King Arthur and His Knights and the Bourgeois Boy Reader
Authors: Couch Julie Nelson
Published: April 2015

This analysis of Howard Pyle's use of genre-based exclusions to construct an American bourgeois boy reader challenges the accepted idea that The Story of King Arthur and His Knights presents a truly democratized Arthurian world.
Comedies of Contingency: Language and Gender in the Book of Sir Tristram
Authors: Fitzhenry William
Published: April 2015

Verbal interactions between female and male characters in Malory's Book of Sir Tristram suggest that language and gender converge to challenge chivalric ideals of self-sufficiency.
Camelot Calling: BBC Radio's Role in the Diffusion and Evolution of the Arthurian Legends, 1935 to 1960
Authors: Simpson Roger
Published: April 2015

This article traces and evaluates the BBC's role in promoting and restoring the traditional Arthurian canon, and in developing a new genre of radio drama.
Hot Pursuit?: Interlace and the Suggestion of Spatial Proximity in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain and in the Old French Prose Lancelot
Authors: Brandsma Frank
Published: April 2015

In Arthurian romance, narrative action often takes place in two or more locations simultaneously. The suggestion of spatial proximity is crucial to the narrative technique of both Yvain and the interlaced tale of the Prose Lancelot , as an analysis of episodes in which knights are pursued demonstrates.
MGM's 1953 Knights of the Round Table in its Manuscript Context
Authors: Sullivan Joseph M.
Published: April 2015

With financial and technical success, Knights of the Round Table embraced a production formula that MGM developed in four 1950s' spectacle films. The film is, however, flawed by its overly cautious portrayal of physical love and the miscasting of Ava Gardner as Guinevere.
Marie de France's Chievrefoil , Hazel Rods, and the Ogam Letters Coll and Uillenn
Authors: Sayers William
Published: April 2015

A better understanding of the medieval hazel coppice, the inscription of Irish Ogam along the edges of stone or wood, and the Ogam letters coll 'hazel' and uillenn 'honeysuckle' aids in our appreciation of Marie's lai as fundamentally concerned with the transformative, commemorative artistic process.
Comedic Preludes to Lancelot's 'Unhappy' Life in Malory's Le Morte Darthur
Authors: Jesmok Janet
Published: April 2015

Comic episodes in Malory's early tales of Lancelot du Lake not only portend later, graver events but also reveal a conscious artist, with a strong sense of character and theme, in touch with a whole work.
Sir John Stanley (c. 1350-1414) and the Gawain -Poet
Authors: Breeze Andrew
Published: April 2015

Evidence from dialect, the Garter, the Wirral, southern France, and aristocratic life, suggest the Gawain -poet was perhaps John Stanley. His correspondence may confirm this.
Constructing a Perilous Chapel: Contesting Power Structures in Naomi Mitchison's To The Chapel Perilous
Authors: Amey Michael D.
Published: April 2015

This article investigates the construction of hegemonic discourses and the resistance to those discourses depicted in Naomi Mitchison's Arthurian novel, To the Chapel Perilous .
Violence, Saracens, and English Identity in Of Arthour and of Merlin
Authors: Calkin Siobhain Bly
Published: April 2015

This essay examines the visions of Arthur and England advanced by Saracen-Christian violence in Of Arthour and of Merlin , and considers their pertinence to a fourteenth-century audience.
The Da Vinci Code : Dan Brown and The Grail That Never Was
Authors: Lacy Norris J.
Published: April 2015

Dan Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code , has enthralled many readers, but many others have pointed out his errors and raised objections to his dubious conjectures. Of particular interest to Arthurians is Brown's conspiracy theory (appropriated from other sources) concerning the Grail, but a discussion of that subject also requires consideration of his presentation of Church history and of the role that art plays in the elaboration of the Grail theory.
En-graving Chivalry: Tombs, Burial, and the Ideology of Knighthood in Malory's Tale of King Arthur
Authors: Tiller Kenneth
Published: April 2015

Malory's narratives of tomb building and tomb inscription in the first book of the Morte Darthur encode the ideals of Arthurian chivalric conduct onto geographic and textual space, organizing otherwise chaotic acts of violence.
'Cherchez Eufeme': The Evil Queen in Le Roman de Silence
Authors: Keene Katie
Published: April 2015

In Le Roman de Silence the evil queen, Eufeme, is often dismissed as yet another example of medieval misogyny, but Eufeme can also be seen as a character who is employed purposefully to explore two of the poem's themes: the debate between Nature and Nurture and the question of the integrity of King Ebain's rule.
The Uses of Middle Dutch Arthuriana
Authors: Lacy Norris J.
Published: April 2015

Middle Dutch Arthuriana provide a rich perspective on other Arthurian literatures while offering texts that hold great intrinsic interest. This article discusses the Dutch Lancelot Compilation and the romance of Walewein in order to illustrate both their own literary value and their importance in any consideration of adaptation, cyclification, and the establishment of dialogues among and within texts.
The Perverse Dynamics of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Authors: Ashton Gail
Published: April 2015

This article turns a queer eye upon Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to suggest that categories are continually elided through the workings of a perverse dynamics whose touchstone is not Gawain and the Green Knight as the title might indicate, but the semi-visible character of Morgan.
Using Primary Sources, Arthurian and Otherwise
Authors: Willingham Elizabeth Moore
Published: April 2015

The use of primary materials, both manuscript and early print, deepens graduate students' engagement with all aspects of historical linguistics and with textual studies more generally.
The Battle of Camlan and Camelford, Cornwall
Authors: Breeze Andrew
Published: April 2015

The river Camel in north Cornwall has interested Arthurian scholars thanks to its supposed links with Arthur's last battle of Camlan. On this a study of comment from the sixteenth century onwards reveals growing skepticism; many now conclude that, even if a battle was fought at Camlan in 537, gaining a permanent place in Welsh tradition, there are no historical grounds to associate it with Arthur.
Teaching Undergraduates How to Read Arthurian Texts
Authors: Sebastian John T.
Published: April 2015

Three strategies for teaching critical reading skills to non-majors in the undergraduate Arthurian classroom engage students as novice readers of pre-modern sources by exploiting what they do not and cannot know about medieval culture and inviting them to apply expertise developed in other disciplines to Arthuriana.
'Don't worry, I won't let them rape you': Guinevere's Agency in Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur
Authors: Blanton Virginia
Published: April 2015

By examining the production and reception of Knightley's Guinevere in King Arthur , this essay demonstrates how the portrayal addresses a contemporary audience.
Arthuriana as Living Tradition
Authors: George Michael W.
Published: April 2015

Incorporating popular culture and creative options for assignments makes undergraduate students aware of Arthuriana as a living tradition.
Learner-Centered Arthurian Course Design
Authors: Everhart Deborah
Published: April 2015

Students who take Arthutran courses are generally self-selected and highly motivated. By channeling this energy into learner-centered outcomes, we provide opportunities for students to understand Arthurian materials deeply while developing valuable lifelong learning skills.
Bed, Boat, and Beyond: Fictional Furnishing in La Queste del Saint Graal
Authors: Cooper Lisa H.
Published: April 2015

The Siege Perilleux, the Round Table, and the Bed of Solomon function in the Queste del Saint Graal not only as narratological devices but also, and despite the tale's insistence on their spiritual meaning, as forceful reminders of the material world and the materiality of the text itself.
Teaching Arthur through Performance
Authors: Vitz Evelyn Birge
Published: April 2015

Performing, rather than simply reading, Arthurian texts allows students to experience medieval works in something like their original reception context.
'I may do no penaunce': Spiritual Sloth in Malory's Morte
Authors: Ackerman Felicia Nimue
Published: April 2015

The concept of spiritual sloth offers a useful way of looking at Malory's Morte .
Saracens and Islamic Alterity in Malory's Le Morte Darthur
Authors: Goodrich Peter H.
Published: April 2015

Malory's treatment of Saracens depends upon his crusading-era literary sources and his personal awareness of Ottoman Turk incursions into Europe. Except for Palomides, his Saracens develop typical orientalist functions.