Continuing its policy of publishing extended explorations of Arthurian subjects, this eighth volume of Arthurian Literature contains four articles. Elizabeth Archibald addresses the reasons for the insertion of the story of Mordred's incestuous birth into many versions of the Arthurian legend (including Malory's) from the early 13th century on, and follows its development from the Vulgate Cycle to later Arthurian narratives. The use of irony to point up aspects of the Lancelot-Guinevere relationship in the prologue to Le Chavalier de la Charrete is explored by Jan Janssens. The early...

This collection of new essays on Arthurian themes contains one on Layamon, two on Chretien, and one on Victorian art. The contributors are Oliver Goulden, Claude Luttrell, Christine Poulson, W.R.J.Barron and Francoise Le Saux. The contents of previous volumes are listed at the back of this volume.

The tenth volume of Arthurian Literature continues some ofthe themes of earlier issues, as well as exploring unfamiliar andcontroversial ground. The second part of CHRISTINE POULSON's survey of the Arthurian legend in 19th-century art is an analysisby subject of the works catalogued by artist in Arthurian Literature IX. A. H. W. SMITH provides a substantial update to MaryWildman's bibliography of modern Arthurian literature which appearedin Arthurian Literature II, adding not only recent works butalso many items missing from the earlier list. Mr Smith also contributesan article on Ponticus...

Epitomises what is best in Arthurian scholarship today.ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ROMANISCHE PHILOLOGIE Arthurian Literatureis now established as a leading publication for research articles of monograph length on subjects of perennial interest to Arthurians. The Indexto the first ten volumes, representing the years 1980-1990, will be warmly welcomed by Arthurians and other scholars with an interest in medieval and later literature. Additionally an extended biographical essay by JANET GRAYSON draws together material relating to the life and work of Jessie Weston, who, largely working outside the...

King Arthur in Music is the first book to be devoted to the subject. The range of musical material is too wide for a single author to tackle satisfactorily, and the nine contributors to this volume are experts in the very different fields involved. The first essay, by Robert Shay, deals with the late seventeenth century semi-opera King Arthur, while the final essay by William Everitt looks at the appearances of Arthur on stage and screen and the scores that have accompanied these. Between these two extremes, the main body of the book deals largely with opera as we now understand it, from...

The British Isles have a long tradition of tales of gods, heroes and marvels, hinting at a mythology once as relevant to the races which settled the islands as the Greek and Roman gods were to the classical world. The tales drawn together in this book, from a wide range of medieval sources, span the centuries from the dawn of Christianity to the age of the Plantagenets. The Norse gods which peopled the Anglo-Saxon past survive in Beowulf; Cuchulainn, Taliesin and the magician Merlin take shape from Celtic mythology; and saints include Helena who brought a piece of the True Cross to Britain,...

Within three generations (1426 to 1485), and through the dark anddangerous years of the Wars of the Roses, the Pastons establishedthemselves as a family of consequence, both in their native Norfolk andwithin court circles. Ambitious and highly mobile -- womenfolk as wellas men -- they kept in touch by correspondence, usually but notinvariably through the medium of a clerk. These letters, a raresurvival, break upon us across the centuries with the urgency, andsometimes the violence, of their preoccupations: defending property, fighting court cases, making the right alliances, and, on the...

John Aubrey's racy portraits of the great figures of 17th-centuryEngland stand alongside Pepys's diary as a vivid evocation of theperiod. Aubrey was born in 1626, the son of a Wiltshire squire; at theage of 26 he inherited a family estate encumbered with debt, andfinally went bankrupt in the 1670s. From then on he led a sociable, rootless existence at the houses of friends -- from Oxford and theMiddle Temple --pursuing the antiquarian studies which had alwaysobsessed him. At his death in 1697 he left a mass of notes andmanuscripts, among them the material for Brief Lives. He nevermanaged to...

Illustrated and redesigned for a new generation of readers, Richard Barber's classic The Reign of Chivalry presents a broad picture of the chivalric world, and shows how chivalry affected or was affected by great social movements, great writers and great events, analysing the legacy it passed down to later ages. The opening chapter looks at the central figure of chivalry, the knight, and asks why he is such a different figure from other fighting men. Following sections deal with chivalry in relation to the main themes of medieval literature, especially the vast cycle of Arthurian romances,...

NEW LOWER PRICE The image of King Arthur's Round Table is well-known, both as Thomas Malory's portrayal of a fellowship of knights dedicated to the highest ideals of chivalry, and as the great wooden table at Winchester castle. Now a dramatic archaeological find at Windsor castle sheds new light on the idea of a round table as a gathering: the 'House of the Round Table' which Edward III ordered to be constructed at the conclusion of his Windsor festival of 1344. The discovery of the foundation trench of a great building two hundred feet in diameter in the Upper Ward of Windsor castle, allows...