Medieval romances so insistently celebrate the triumphs of heroes and the discomfiture of villains that they discourage recognition of just how morally ambiguous, antisocial or even downright sinister their protagonists can be, and, correspondingly, of just how admirable or impressive their defeated opponents often are.
This tension between the heroic and the antiheroic makes a major contribution to the dramatic complexity of medieval romance, but it is not an aspect of the genre that has been frequently discussed up until now. Focusing on fourteen distinct characters and character-types in medieval narrative, this book illustrates the range of different ways in which the imaginative power and appeal of romance-texts often depend on contradictions implicit in the very ideal of heroism.
Author(s): Neil Cartlidge (ed.)
Series: Studies in Medieval Romance, 16
Publisher: D. S. Brewer
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: X+248
City: Cambridge
Notes on the Contributors vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction / Neil Cartlidge 1
Part I: Individual Characters
1. Turnus / Penny Eley 9
2. Alexander the Great / David Ashurst 27
3. Hengist / Margaret Lamont 43
4. Harold Godwineson / Laura Ashe 59
5. Mordred / Judith Weiss 81
6. Merlin / Gareth Griffith 99
7. Gawain / Kate McClune 115
8. Gamelyn / Nancy Mason Bradbury 129
9. Ralph the Collier / Ad Putter 145
10. The Anti-heroic Heart / Stephanie Viereck Gibbs Kamath 159
Part II: Character-Types
11. Crusaders / Robert Allen Rouse 173
12. Saracens / Siobhain Bly Calkin 185
13. Ungallant Knights / James Wade 201
14. Sons of Devils / Neil Cartlidge 219
Index 237
