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The essays collected here put considerable emphasis on Arthurian narratives in material culture and historical context, as well as on purely literary analysis, a reminder of the enormous range of interests in Arthurian narratives in the Middle Ages, in a number of different contexts. The volume opens with a study of torture in texts from Chrétien to Malory, and on English law and attitudes in particular. Several contributors discuss the undeservedly neglected 'Stanzaic Morte Arthur', a key source for Malory. His 'Morte Darthur' is the focus of several essays, respectively on the sources of the 'Tale of Sir Gareth'; battle scenes and the importance of chivalric kingship; Cicero's 'De amicitia' and the mixed blessings and dangers of fellowship; and comparison of concluding formulae in the Winchester Manuscript and Caxton's edition. Seven tantalizing fragments of needlework, all depicting Tristan, are discussed in terms of the heraldic devices they include. The volume ends with an update on newly discovered manuscripts of Geoffrey of Monmouth's seminal 'Historia regum Britanniae', the twelfth-century best-seller which launched Arthur's literary career.
Author(s): Elizabeth Archibald, David F. Johnson (eds.)
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 218
City: Cambridge
List of Illustrations vi
General Editors’ Foreword vii
List of Contributors ix
I. Wounded Bodies: Kingship, National Identity and Illegitimate Torture in the English Arthurian Tradition / Larissa Tracy 1
II. The Place of Emotion: Space, Silence and Interiority in the 'Stanzaic Morte Arthur' / Marco Nievergelt 31
III. Another Source for Malory’s 'Tale of Sir Gareth' / Ralph Norris 59
IV. ‘Warre and Worshyppe’: Depictions of Battle in Malory’s 'Le Morte Darthur' / Lisa Robeson 75
V. Malory’s ‘Chivalric Cliques’: Public and Private 'Felyshyp' in the Arthurian Community / Richard Sévère 105
VI. Scribal Modifications to Concluding Formulae in the Winchester Manuscript / David Eugene Clark 123
VII. Heraldic Imagery in the Embroidered Tristan Narratives / Sarah Randles 155
VIII. Update to the List of Manuscripts of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 'Historia Regum Britanniae' / Jaakko Tahkokallio 187