Title: The faces of time
Description: The Twelfth Century witnessed the sudden appearance and virtual disappearance of an important literary genre - the Old French verse chronicle. These poetic histories of the British kings, which today are treated as fiction, were written contemporaneously with Latin prose narratives, which are regarded as historical accounts. In this pathfinding study, however, Jean Blacker asserts that twelfth-century authors and readers viewed both genres as factual history.

This exploration reveals remarkable similarity among the texts, including their idealization of historical and even legendary figures, such as King Arthur. It opens fruitful lines of inquiry into the role these writers played in the creation of the Anglo-Norman regnum and suggests that the Old French verse chronicles filled political, psychic, and aesthetic needs unaddressed by Latin historical writing of the period.
Subjects: French Narrative poetry, French poetry, Historiography, History, History and criticism, Medieval Rhetoric, Medieval and modern Latin prose literature, Narration (Rhetoric), Normans, Great britain, history, medieval period, 1066-1485, Latin literature, history and criticism, French prose literature, history and criticism, Normans, great britain, Rhetoric, medieval, French prose literature
Places: Great Britain
Time periods: Norman period, 1066-1154, To 1500