ABSTRACTS
(in alphabetical order; contributions to Round Table
sessions have been included when available)
Sophie Albert
ECHOS DES GLOIRES ET DES «HONTES». LES RECITS ENCHASSES DANS GUIRON
LE COURTOIS: CARACTERISTIQUES GENERALES ET ANALYSE D’UN EXEMPLE
(MS. DE PARIS, B.N.F., F. FR. 350, F 161-166)
Guiron le Courtois, roman arthurien écrit autour de 1240, comporte de multiples récits
enchâssés. Les narrateurs, souvent des chevaliers, y racontent aussi bien des prouesses que
des mésaventures – les «hontes». La première partie de notre exposé définira les variables
dont joue le romancier pour donner à chaque récit secondaire une tonalité propre: rôle du
narrateur dans l’aventure narrée; place et identité de l’auditeur, parfois protagoniste du récit
enchâssé; rapports entre le récit encadrant et le récit encadré.
Dans une deuxième partie, nous étudierons un épisode au cours duquel Guiron et Lac,
père d’Erec, se rencontrent de nuit, sans se reconnaître, auprès d’une fontaine. Lac raconte à
Guiron une aventure dont ce dernier est le principal protagoniste, victime d’abord d’une
«honte», puis héros d’une prouesse: après s’être fait moquer par toute la cour de
Northumberland, Guiron défit jadis l’escorte du Sire de l’Etroite Marche et emporta une dame
dont ce chevalier s’était emparé peu de temps auparavant. Puis il abattit Lac, témoin de
l’aventure, qui voulait à son tour s’emparer de la dame. Après ce récit, les deux chevaliers
s’endorment. Le lendemain, Lac défait l’escorte de la dame de Malehaut, épouse de Danain,
et s’empare de celle-ci; mais il est abattu par Guiron. Nous analyserons cet épisode en
fonction des variables définies dans la première partie, en nous attardant notamment sur les
rapports entre le récit encadrant et le récit de Lac. Chaque élément du premier trouve dans le
second un écho inversé; le récit principal comporte une dimension morale, très atténuée dans
le récit de Lac. Enfin, nous resituerons l’épisode dans l’ensemble de l’œuvre en le confrontant
à d’autres passages où un récit enchâssé se fait l’écho du récit principal et nous essaierons de
dégager l’originalité du passage choisi.
Elizabeth Archibald
ARTHUR IN LATIN
The popularity and evolution of the Arthurian legend in western Europe are due, as is well
known, to a Latin source, Geoffrey of Monmouth. His birth-to-death account of Arthur seems
to have spawned both the chronicle and the romance traditions. We may be surprised,
however, that so few Arthurian narratives in Latin survive from the later Middle Ages. Siân
Echard has described them in her Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition, in which she
ascribes the Latin Arthurian tradition largely to the Angevin court, but I think her account
leaves some issues to be resolved. Since Latin was the European lingua franca, why are there
not more Latin versions of Arthurian fictions from other geographical/political areas, and why
are there no translations of the Latin Arthurian romances that do survive? The De Ortu
Walwanii, for instance, seems eminently suited to French or English adaptation. And might
one not have expected a Latin version of the Grail story? I may not be able to resolve these
problems, but I shall address them in this paper.
Dorsey Armstrong
PERIPHERAL IDEOLOGIES AND THE ALLITERATIVE MORTE ARTHURE
The Alliterative Morte Arthure is a poem that repeatedly enacts a pattern of conflict and
resolution in which the proponents of the dominant chivalric ideology – Arthur and his
knights – consistently triumph over a series of opponents to prove that their belief and social
system is the most successful. Yet, shortly after his greatest triumph, Arthur and his kingdom
are destroyed by a threat that is a product of the very belief system that has enabled him to
reach such heights of power – Mordred and his desire for the throne and the queen.
This paper examines those moments in which ideologies that might be called
"peripheral" to the dominant Arthurian ideology appear or are suggested by the poem. Even
though the figures who represent these minority or oppositional ideologies – Romans,
Saracens, the Mont St. Michel giant, women, and the citizens of Metz, to name a few – are
either defeated or incorporated into the Arthurian social order, I would like to suggest that
careful analysis of these encounters with belief systems that differ or diverge from that of
Arthur and his knights reveal the flaws in the Arthurian ideology that will ultimately produce
the final collapse of the community.
Susan Aronstein
“THE ROME YOU SPEAK OF DOESN’T EXIST”: NATIONAL IDENTITY AND
IDEOLOGICAL CONFUSION IN JERRY BRUCKHEIMER’S KING ARTHUR
In one of the opening scenes of Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur, Arthur paints a picture of
Rome as a political utopia where “the greatest minds from all over the world have come
together in one place to help make mankind free.” Arthur’s vision of Rome – the land whose
honor he defends in far-off Britain – is in keeping with his own personal convictions that all
people are “free from their first breath” and “in order for men to be men, they must first be
equal.” Arthur, the soldier, fights to ensure these ideals and to bring about a global Roman
order – civilized and peaceful. In these ideals and this cause, Bruckheimer’s Arthur is – in
spite of everyone on the film’s attempts to distance this movie from earlier cinematic and
literary versions of the legend – a direct descendent of a long line of American Arthuriana that
claims the once and future king and his doomed utopia as the ancestors of America’s political
and ideological institutions. This relatively straightforward equation between medieval past
and American present is, however, complicated in Bruckheimer’s film, making the would-be
blockbuster more than a simple translation of the themes and motifs of American Arthuriana
into a grittier past in which the mythic king becomes a “real hero” and chivalric knights
become randy soldiers. Instead, the film both celebrates American values and critiques a
contemporary America in danger of becoming Rome – a power that will stop at nothing in its
quest to secure “more land, more wealth, more people loyal to Rome,” a ruthless imperial
machine run by corrupt and self-interested governors, who exploit, imprison, and torture the
very people they have supposedly come to free. As such, the film is ideologically confused,
both asserting American values as universal truth and deriding imperial ambition, both
valorizing martial violence and questioning its motives. On the one hand, it seems to directly
critique current foreign policy; on the other, it argues that a coalition of military power is
essential to keep the barbarians from the gate. In this paper, I examine King Arthur’s mixed
messages as they played out in both the cultural (Afghanistan, Iraq, extended tours of duty,
Abu Gharib) and cinematic (Troy, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Manchurian Candidate) contexts in
which the film was released, arguing that (although the film is admittedly deeply flawed) its
lack-luster performance at the box-office can be partially attributed to its failure to offer
audiences either a straight-forward valorization of martial violence – a la Peter Jackson’s Lord
of the Rings films – or a whole-hearted critique of both the system and its underlying
ideologies.
Emmanuèle Baumgartner
LANCELOT ET SON CLAN. DU CHEVALIER DE LA CHARRETTE A LA MORT LE ROI
ARTU
A l’origine, chez Chrétien, Lancelot, le chevalier natif de Logres, est un homme seul,
parfaitement apte à incarner la figure neuve du chevalier errant. Cette situation se modifie au
long du Lancelot en prose. D’abord isolé par la catastrophe initiale, la mort du père, et devenu
l’héritier potentiel du royaume de Bénoïc, en Gaule, Lancelot se reconstitue peu à peu une
ascendance et surtout une «parenté», le lignage du roi Ban, dont l’importance s’accuse dans la
Mort Artu. Ce sont autant les enjeux narratologiques de ce phénomène d’extension que ses
incidences idéologiques que je voudrais aborder. Si ce phénomène en effet est lié en priorité
aux modalités de l’écriture en prose, il est, simultanément, à l’origine des tensions qui
s’accumulent, puis éclatent dans la Mort Artu, entre un roi par définition «rassembleur» et les
forces centrifuges du clan.
Anne Berthelot
NARRATEURS DU GRAAL
Comme le reconnaît avec chagrin Merlin dans le roman éponyme attribué à Robert de Boron,
son “Livre du Graal” dont il est sur le point d’entamer la dictée à Blaise ne sera pas un texte
canonique, parce que lui-même, en dépit de son savoir, n’est pas “au nombre des autorités”,
n’a pas un statut comparable à celui des apôtres. Du Roman de l’Estoire de Joseph à L’Estoire
du Graal en prose (aussi appelée Estoire de Joseph, d’ailleurs), le problème de l’énonciation
se pose avec acuité quand il s’agit de rendre compte de ce qui a trait au “saint Vessel”. S’il est
un sujet dont le cadre énonciatif doit être impeccablement verrouillé, au-dessus de tout
soupçon de mensonge ou d’“accommodements” esthétiques, c’est bien le Graal. Mais, au vu
de sa nature inévitablement apocryphe, construire un tel cadre autour de cet objet sacré relève
de la quadrature du cercle – difficulté à laquelle ont déjà été confrontées les différentes
versions de l’Evangile de Nicodème. Pourtant, malgré ou peut-être à cause de ce qui apparaît
de prime abord comme une aporie, les textes focalisés sur le Graal ont consacré une attention
considérable à la question de leur assignation: qui parle du Graal? Qui est le narrateur chargé
de prendre en charge ce récit à la fois impossible et essentiel? L’apparente transparence du
système d’énonciation de la Queste du saint Graal cède la place à la mise en scène hautement
sophistiquée du “Prologue” de L’Estoire du Graal. Cette communication envisage d’étudier
comment, de Gautier Map à l’ermite anonyme de l’Estoire, en passant par le Josephès du
Haut livre du Graal (autrement dit, le Perlesvaus), se dessinent des silhouettes de narrateur
qui emploient des stratégies énonciatives complexes pour autoriser le discours sur le Graal.
Jean Blacker
KINGS, BARBARIANS, AND BARBARIAN KINGS IN WACE’S ROMAN DE BRUT
While King Lear and King Arthur are the most well known royal figures in Wace’s Roman de
Brut (c. 1155), based substantially on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae
and the First Variant version, there are literally scores of kings and other leaders, both
barbarians and corteis, including the legendary and historico-legendary Lud, Aurelius, Uther,
Cadwallader, Hengist and Horsa, and the (largely) historical Elfrid, Edwin and Athelstan.
This paper will explore the depictions of lesser-known but nonetheless important British
heroic figures against the backdrop of their Anglo-Saxon counterparts, with a view toward
establishing a hierarchy of kingship in the Brut, a hierarchy which may have contributed to
Arthur’s emergence as monolithic figure in this text, only later to be reduced in stature in
numerous French romances of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Phillip C. Boardman
GAWAIN AND THE PLAY OF GENRES IN THE ALLITERATIVE MORTE ARTHURE
In few medieval Arthurian works has the question of genre been as contentious or as central
to interpretive strategies as in the Alliterative Morte Arthure. The principal collection of
criticism of the poem, published in 1981, identified fully six generic categories claiming the
poem and finally flirted with a formal mixture. Mainstream twentieth-century interpretation
moved from heroic epic, through romance and tragedy, returning in the latest scholarly article
to the heroic, arguing that Gawain is central to the heroic impetus of the poem. Yet it is
precisely the episodes in which Gawain appears that the romance impulse is strongest, for
these inset jewels undercut and counteract the ethos of heroism and epic seemingly pervasive
in the poem. This paper will examine the question of genre afresh, particularly focused on
what might be called the “matter of Gawain,” the knight who carries to the poem his own
strongly mixed traditions of meanings for a fourteenth-century audience.
Fanni Bogdanow
THE THEME OF THE HANDSOME COWARD IN THE POST-VULGATE QUESTE DEL
SAINT GRAAL
The Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal which together with the Post-Vulgate Version of the
Mort Artu forms the third part of the Post-Vulgate Roman du Graal was composed between
1230 and 1240, namely shortly after the Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian romances and the First
Version of the prose Tristan (Tr. I), but before the Second Version of the prose Tristan (Tr.
II). The character who in the Post-Vulgate is referred to as the “Handsome Coward” is the
Grail hero himself, Galaad. But in contrast to the use of the theme in the earlier romances, the
Post-Vulgate writer, influenced by the mystical doctrine of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, wished
above all to underline what should be the prime quality of a knight, humility.
Mario Botero García
«LE RETOUR DU ROI». LE PERSONNAGE D’ARTHUR DANS LE TRISTAN EN PROSE
Dans la littérature arthurienne l’image du roi Arthur, on le sait, souffre d’une «dégradation»
au fur et à mesure qu’elle passe d’un texte à l’autre. En effet, le contraste est saisissant entre
sa première apparition, héroïque, dans un texte en langue vernaculaire, le Roman de Brut de
Wace, et les romans de Chrétien de Troyes où le roi devient une figure passive quant à
l’exercice de la chevalerie, tout en détenant les vertus royales symboliques (justice, courtoisie,
largesse): son rôle, apparemment accessoire, est pourtant indispensable dans une société qui
ne peut se dispenser de lui. Aussi, en même temps que l’image du roi continue à être
présentée de façon plutôt positive, les textes introduisent des indices qui mettent en question
l’équilibre de ce monde idéal: dès Erec et Enide jusqu’au Conte du Graal le rôle du roi Arthur
est de plus en plus contesté. Dans le lai de Lanval de Marie de France, le roi Arthur est déjà
présenté sous un jour peu favorable: il s’agit d’un roi injuste et impuissant qui annonce, déjà à
cette époque, la désintégration du mythe. Mais c’est dans le cycle du Lancelot-Graal que
l’image et le rôle d’Arthur sont davantage mis en question compte tenu, d’une part, des enjeux
provoqués par l’irruption du chevalier (Lancelot) dans le couple formé par le roi et la reine et,
d’autre part, de l’introduction du Graal. Devant ce panorama inquiétant, nous verrons
comment le Tristan en prose et ses versions étrangères essaient de redonner au roi de Logres
une fonction et un prestige qui étaient les siens dans les premiers textes de la légende
arthurienne.
Hélène Bouget
PYN, APOLLONIUS, ET LE GEANT AUX DEVINAILLES: DU ROMAN ANTIQUE AU
ROMAN ARTHURIEN
Celui que l’on considère comme le premier roman français, Le Roman de Thèbes, et le
Tristan en prose, composition tardive du cycle arthurien, s’ouvrent tous deux sur un prologue
similaire fondé la figure mythologique du Sphinx. Pyn, le monstre du roman antique, se
retrouve en effet sous les traits du géant aux devinailles du Tristan. Cette réécriture d’un
matériau antique est profondément originale dans le récit arthurien, et nous invite dès lors à
réfléchir sur les enjeux de ce recours. Les devinailles, telles que les pose le géant, sont
uniques dans le corpus arthurien, et s’inspirent bien davantage d’une tradition héritée de
Symphosius, de l’Historia Apollonii ou du Roman de Thèbes. Ce sont de véritables motifs
discursifs, absents des autres récits arthuriens, qui donnent la couleur archaïque et mythique
du prologue. Comment interpréter alors leur présence? Quand naît le Tristan, le récit arthurien
semble obligé de renouer avec une forme d’énigme topique pour renouveler l’entrée dans un
univers romanesque bien connu où il ne reste plus grand-chose à résoudre, et s’affranchir du
modèle du Lancelot-Graal.
Beverly Boyd
RETROSPECTIVE IDEALISM AS IT APPEARS IN MALORY’S BOOK
This paper will discuss two kinds of idealism found in Malory’s book, apart from Arthur’s
sobriquet “the Once and Future King”: retrospective idealism, associated with Arthur's court
as the epitome of feudalism and the home-base of his knights; and Christian idealism, which
both illuminates that court and eventually contrasts with it as the flower of its company depart
on a destructive quest for a sublime goal never presented by their religion and indeed
antithetical to it in its pre-requisites for success.
Arthur’s knights begin with loyalty to their feudal lord and keep his court in their
hearts as a desired homecoming. Arthur is their past. Their future is a great unknown for those
possessed by desire for the Grail quest. The pre-requisites amount to heresy: innocence/purity,
a severe contrast with Christian doctrine of salvation through repentance and promise to sin
no more. In this context, the sinners Guenevere and Lancelot, who have done this at the ends
of their lives, can hope for the Great Reward, in contrast with Dante’s Francesca and Paolo,
who have not.
Frank Brandsma
DEGREES OF PERCEPTIBILITY: THE NARRATOR IN THE FRENCH, GERMAN, AND
DUTCH VERSIONS OF THE PROSE LANCELOT
In narratology, one of the ways to characterize narrators is by analysing the degree in which
they become visible within the narrative. S. Rimmon-Kenan, for instance, has described six
degrees of perceptibility. The German and Dutch translations of the prose Lancelot have
changed the specific position of the (impersonal) narrator in the original text in different
ways. Do the changes the translators made influence the degree of perceptibility? Were the
Dutch and German translators trying to make the narrator more visible, using different means
to achieve the same end? Or did they move in completely different directions, as they did
when it came to choosing verse or prose for their translations?
Julianne Bruneau
CELTIC PRETEXT AND CONTEXT IN CHRETIEN’S CONTE DU GRAAL
The current Celtic interpretative paradigm rests on the early foundations of literary criticism,
philology, Celtic studies, and Romantic nationalism. These other paradigms structure the way
we think about the Celtic origins of Chrétien de Troyes’ Arthurian romances, indeed, that we
think about their origins as being Celtic at all. This Celtic paradigm, what “Celtic” has
become in received literary, linguistic, and folkloric thought needs reexamining in relation to
Chrétien for two reasons. First, because the types of Celtic interpretation most frequently
practiced on the Conte du Graal do not take into account the prejudices accrued in the
foundations of their fields. Second, because these types of Celtic interpretation often overlook
the Celtic elements the text offers in favor of reconstructed ones – they apply a pre-textual
history to the text that it need not bear.
As an alternative, I propose to contextually examine the Celtic elements in the Conte
du Graal. By looking with the text at the Celts – at Welsh Perceval in particular – rather than
pretextually looking for those Celts we suspect engendered it, we are freer to wonder why
Chrétien’s Arthurian court was often located in Welsh castles, and why its king defended a
young Welsh lad against his own knights’ prejudice. We can question anew the transmission
theory so invested in past values, that Celtic stories came to Chrétien via Brittany,
reconsidering Philippe of Flanders’ interests in Wales and England that may have inspired
Chrétien’s imaginary British feudalism. The book Philippe gave Chrétien, if plausibly Celtic,
may yet turn out to be a trope. Nevertheless, focusing on the twelfth-century Old French text
confirms that a Celtic mode of inquiry is still necessary to our field, if with a shift in the
paradigm.
Kristin L. Burr
NURTURING DEBATE IN LE ROMAN DE SILENCE
At the conclusion of Heldris de Cornuälle’s Le Roman de Silence, the narrator exhorts any
“good woman” in the audience not to take offense at the romance’s severe criticism of the
wicked Queen Eufeme and instead to strive to do what is right. How, though, is one to
understand this piece of advice? The tale’s heroine, Silence, has cross-dressed, become the
court’s best knight, and finally married the king – hardly a model that women could hope to
emulate. Not surprisingly, scholars’ reactions to this ending – and to Heldris’s depiction of
women more generally – have varied: some posit that the romance ultimately advances a
conservative ideal, whereas others argue for a more radical message testifying to women’s
potential to overcome gender stereotypes.
Examining the narrator’s role in the tale helps to understand better this range of
interpretations. Throughout the romance, the narrator repeats himself, particularly
emphasizing the themes of honor, shame, false appearances, and women’s evil nature. He thus
draws the audience’s attention to these key concepts. At the same time, the narrator’s remarks
frequently contradict earlier statements or are juxtaposed with scenes that negate their value.
Moreover, other characters voicing similar sentiments concerning women prove to be
mistaken in their beliefs. The tension between the narrator’s beliefs and the story he recounts
casts doubt upon the narrator’s credibility. It also fosters debate, encouraging the audience to
consider multiple perspectives. Rather than guide the audience to a single conclusion, Heldristhe-composer actively invites discussion through the portrayal of Heldris-the-narrator, leaving
the audience with an ambiguous yet provocative message that continues to inspire
controversy.
Keith Busby
MULTILINGUALISM AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARTHURIAN CODEX
This paper will consider the distribution of Arthurian romance manuscripts in French and
other languages in some multi-lingual areas such as England, the Lowlands, and Italy. I shall
attempt to relate such distribution to linguistic and cultural tendencies in the different regions,
mainly in the later 13th and 14th centuries. The argument will essentially expand and focus
notions presented in chapters 6 and 7 of Codex and Context. I will use evidence from extant
manuscripts as well as that from booklists, post-mortem inventories, and wills, to draw
conclusions concerning the reception of Arthurian romance and the owners of its manuscripts.
Emma Campbell
LANGUAGE AND GENRE IN THE WORK OF CLEMENCE OF BARKING AND MARIE
DE FRANCE
This paper will explore the relationship between matière and genre in Arthurian literature by
investigating some of the ways in which genre might be inflected by a perceived connection
between language and the material world. Comparing the approaches to language (and, more
specifically, written language) implicit in Marie de France’s Lais with those expressed in
contemporary saints’ lives such as Clemence of Barking’s Vie de Sainte Catherine, I will
suggest how such texts might posit conceptions of language that invest it with certain,
generically specific, mediating functions. Such mediating functions, I will argue, rely on
subtly different notions of how language relates to or transcends the materiality of the
medieval present. Thus, I will argue that, whereas the Lais often suggest that the written text
might be able to trace connections between past and present, Clemence’s text instead presents
the text as a means of transcending the material and temporal world. In Marie’s Lais, that
which is lost or intangible is placed in dialogue with that which is materially present, leaving
a physical trace that might endure into the future. By contrast, Clemence’s Vie draws its
readers or listeners away from the material world in which the text is rooted, towards that
which always to some extent exceeds human physicality and temporality. Written language in
these two cases thus serves alternative historical and ideological functions, functions that rely
in different ways upon language’s relationship to its material referent. In examining the
attitudes to language exhibited by these works, I will therefore comment on how matter – as it
is linguistically mediated – might relate to form; how, in other words, different genres rely on
distinct concepts of language as an idiom that might bridge the gap between the material and
that which escapes it either temporally or spiritually. I will thus propose ways of looking at
Arthurian texts and their generic composition that takes into account their relationship both to
a particular concept of language and, more crucially, to the broader literary context in which
they were composed.
Damien de Carné
LA RELIGION DE THOMAS
Une partie de la tradition critique fait état d’une rupture entre la littérature arthurienne et la
littérature tristanienne. Alors que des liens anciens et harmonieux entre les deux domaines
sont visibles dans plusieurs textes (Érec et Énide, Béroul, Eilhart et probablement leur
modèle…), une séparation brutale a lieu, qui durera jusqu’au Tristan en prose. Cette
séparation est attribuée généralement au refus de la littérature non-tristanienne d’assumer
l’idéologie subversive des Tristans. Les poèmes consacrés à Tristan témoignent en effet d’une
certaine audace sur à peu près tous les points qui concernent la destinée du héros : féodalité et
fidélité, amour, chair et mariage, place de l’individu dans la société et devant Dieu…
C’est cette dernière dimension qui sera étudiée ici: le poème de Thomas en particulier,
objet apparent du rejet de Chrétien de Troyes, n’a guère été examiné dans cette perspective,
alors qu’il manifeste tout au long de son déroulement un effort pour représenter ce que
pourrait être l’amour terrestre hissé à une dimension religieuse ou, comme le disait Jean
Frappier, une religion de l’amour. Passant rapidement les épisodes les plus connus et les plus
évidemment subversifs (le fer rouge, la mort des amants…), nous nous attacherons à montrer
comment le narrateur manifeste cette ambition religieuse: comment l’adoration amoureuse
des amants emprunte ses formes à la dévotion spirituelle, comment leur vie se calque parfois
sur celle du Christ, et comment le arrateur organise une casuistique ou une mystique de
l’amour. Il apparaît que c’est là une donnée fondamentale du scandale tristanien. Il n’y a qu’à
relire la récriture de cet amour-religion que propose le Chevalier de la Charrette pour en
apprécier les effets dans l’élaboration de la littérature arthurienne.
Jane Chance
MARIE DE FRANCE VS. KING ARTHUR: GENDER INVERSION AS CULTURAL
SUBVERSION IN LANVAL
In Lanval, Marie France constructs a feminized and powerless male hero, Lanval, whose alien
nature – he is from a foreign land – is matched by his similar unconventional inability to
manage the chivalric and masculine duties of valor and the indoor and courtly virtues of
courtesy and feudal homage to a lady. Otiose, escapist, the deliberately horseless Lanval has
to be transported by visions to another world, one dominated by a fairy queen whose strength
lies in magic and Celticized power. Insubordinate and insolent to King Arthur and his queen
Guenevere, whose disloyalty to her own lord Lanval unmasks, Marie’s antihero is rescued
repeatedly by acts of feminized fairy grace. Ultimately Lanval projects forward Marie de
France herself, as a bastard daughter of a royal father whose own power resides in her ability
to write truth – as she notes in her prologue – and thereby to reveal God’s grace through the
modest gifts bestowed on a mere woman. Male failure and female heroism in this important
tale reflect her signature protofeminism in this brief vernacular Breton lay like no other
Arthurian romance. If King Arthur is uncharitable and Queen Guenevere an apparent slut,
feminized Lanval is, perhaps, right to reject the masculine world of chivalric values for the
more virtuous, even noble realm of faërie led by a true queen.
Carol Chase
THE OPENING MINIATURE IN MANUSCRIPTS OF THE PROSE JOSEPH
D’ARIMATHIE
The prose Joseph d’Arimathie survives in seventeen manuscripts (for a complete list of mss,
see Richard O’Gorman, ed., Robert de Boron, Joseph d’Arimathie. A Critical Edition of the
Verse and Prose Versions (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995), 6-12.)
Five of these, however, are fragments and three are incomplete at the beginning, leaving nine
manuscripts with the first folio intact. New Haven, Yale University Library MS 227 opens
with a three-part illumination depicting Judas’s kiss, the descent from the cross, and the
entombment. In his description of this manuscript, which also contains the Estoire del Saint
Graal and the prose Merlin, Alan Knight suggests that “in the eyes of the scribe and,
presumably, his readers, the prose Joseph was a passion story”, while the Estoire “was
regarded as laying stress on the history of the Grail’s transfer, in the wake of Christianity from
Jerusalem to the West.” (“A Previously Unknown Prose Joseph d’Arimathie,” Romance
Philology, 21 (1967), 177-78). According to this critic, the introductory miniatures in Yale
reinforce this interpretation (178). It is the intent of this study to refine this analysis by a
closer examination of the opening miniautres in the Yale manuscript and to survey the first
folios in other manuscripts to determine whether it can be extended to all of the Joseph
manuscripts.
Karen Cherewatuk
TRISTRAM AND ISODE’S “MARRIAGE” IN MALORY
An interpretive paradigm frequently employed in analyzing courtly adultery is the parallel
love relationship of Guenevere and Launcelot and of Isode and Tristram. In Malory’s Morte
Darthur, besides being enamored of their king’s wives and frequently mistaken for the other,
Launcelot and Tristram share similar adventures: from being the targets of Morgan le Fay
excessive desire to enduring spells of madness and wounds by arrows in private places. The
list of similarities could go on and that is not surprising, given that the Tristram legend was
absorbed into the Arthurian cycle as a tale parallel to Launcelot’s.
What is surprising is the difference in loyalty Guenevere exacts from her lover in
comparison to Isode. While Launcelot is chaste at least within the confines of courtly
adultery, Tristram beds Sir Sewardys’s wife even after he has drunk the love portion; later he
actually weds a second Isode. I propose to explore Tristram’s disloyal acts from an alternate
interpretive paradigm: that of domestic marriage. If we grant that Tristram and Isode have, for
better or worse, entered into a common-law marriage, then we are prepared to recognize
Malory’s gendered hierarchy within that relationship. Tristram goes off questing and
occasionally comes “home unto Joyus Garde,” to a waiting Isode who has learned to keep her
tongue at her “husband’s” command (Works 839, 763-64). The paradigm of marriage applied
to Tristram and Isode’s adulterous relationship reveals Malory’s patriarchal values and social
conservatism: As with other of the Morte Darthur’s marriages, Malory grants sexual freedom
to the man while containing and domesticating his only openly adulterous queen.
Peter G. Christensen
THE ‘HIDDEN UNITY’ OF HUMAN EXISTENCE IN HANNAH CLOSS’S TRISTAN
(1940)
The question of narrative voice is raised as an issue in the literary representations of the story
of Tristram and Iseult by Hannah Closs (1905-1953) in the two-page Introduction to her
novel, Tristan (London: A. Dakers, 1940, rpt. New York: Vanguard, 1967; German
translation as Tristan by Manfred Ohl and Hans Sartorius (Frankfurt am Main: W. Krüger,
1984). Closs claims that the story (i. e., myth) of Tristan and Iseult needs the form of a novel,
asking rhetorically, “Is not much of the poignancy of the tragedy lost in modern versions
because so often they adopt the dramatic form, thus hardly allowing us to remember that
Tristan was once a boy, a child, and that in his childhood is already foreshadowed his fatality?
(1967: xi). Closs uses an omniscient narrator for her 342-page novel of the full life of Tristan,
often strikingly moving from the mind of one of the four main characters (Tristan, Iseult,
Mark, and Iseult of Brittany) as we read from one paragraph to the next. This technique helps
her to gain sympathy for all four of the major characters. Closs writes in her Introduction that
she is using the novel as a form in which the “recurrence and interweaving of certain images
and themes are not intended to ‘reintroduce’ persons or external phenomenon by
characteristic attributes, but rather to suggest a hidden unity in the form of human existence”
(1967: xii).
Closs’s Tristan as far as I can tell has had no individual essays devoted to it, despite its
originality and power. My essay will be divided into three parts: 1) analysis (close-reading) of
the narrative point-of-view; 2) discussion how it relates to the views on Tristan and Iseult
presented by Closs in her earlier book Art & Life (New York: Stokes, 1937) and the
scholarship of her husband August Closs (1809-1990), Professor of German at the University
of Bristol, in his published work on Gottfried von Strassburg in such works as Medusa’s
Mirror (London: Cresset, 1957), and 3) analysis of Hannah Closs’s understanding of “Tristan
and Iseult” as an archetypal myth with relation to the Irish stories and to Wagner’s opera,
which she mentions in her Introduction. The lure of a reconstruction of an Ur-Tristan, the
archetypal story reassembled from the fragmented surviving versions, will also be considered
here with reference to Bédier, Michel Cazenave, and the collection of essays edited by
Danielle Buschinger, Tristan, myth européen et mondial.
Siegfried Christoph
WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH AND THE ART OF ENGAGING THE AUDIENCE
It is generally acknowledged that Wolfram von Eschenbach, more than his MHG
contemporaries, intrudes as a narrative voice in his works, particularly Parzival. Opinions
vary, however, on whether, and how, these intrusions reflect on the narrative, a conception of
the narrator, or even the process of narration itself.
The paper will propose that Wolfram’s intrusions fall into two broad categories: First,
in the role of the narrator as a distinct identity and, ultimately, authority; second, the
narrator’s use of engaging devices, e.g. rhetorical questions addressed to the audience, in
order to bridge and direct the sequence of narrative segments.
A brief comparison and contrast with the narrative strategies of Chrétien and
Hartmann von Aue will orient the paper's main focus on Wolfram's increasingly selfconscious perception as a narrative voice which engages the audience directly and indirectly
for the purpose of advancing or retarding the narrative order.
In conclusion, the paper will suggest that later MHG Arthurian romances largely failed
to appreciate the importance of a strong narrative voice and have hence suffered in the
estimation of readers.
Christopher R. Clason
“NU HABT IUCH AN DER WITZE KRAFT / UND HIELT IN ALLE RÎTERSCHAFT”:
DISCOURSE OF HIDING/REVEALING IN WOLFRAM’S PARZIVAL
Recently, critical interest in Wolfram’s narrative art has dramatically increased, along with
the attention critics have begun to pay to the themes of epistemology and the process of
learning in his Parzival. Indeed, a red thread separating knowing and not knowing runs
throughout the tale from beginning to end, advancing the plot and generating the most
significant thematic conflicts. Parzival’s path from simpleton to protector of courtly and
religious sophistication’s highest levels is extremely long, arduous and complex. Additionally,
the text itself presents and incorporates epistemological difficulties, as Wolfram’s narratives
style poses strong challenges through its irony, double entendres, digressions and
embellishments.
In this paper I would like to treat the relationship between Wolfram’s narrative and
knowledge in Parzival by focusing on the polarity between what is revealed to the central
character and what is hidden from him. Three areas seem to require investigation:
1) Parzival’s “horizon of expectations” lies at a minimal level, and the instruction he
receives anticipates a much broader knowledge base than he possesses;
2) both of the first two advisors responsible for his early instruction reveal their
particular inadequacies as mentors, by failing to recognize Parzival’s shortcomings, as well as
by giving advice with the intention of furthering an agenda inconsistent with Parzival’s best
interests; and
3) the discourse of each instructional area reveals its “truth” from a particular
perspective, while other points-of-view are completely hidden or only partially clarified.
Because information is revealed in an incomplete or altered manner, or in some way shrouded
from what the young Parzival can understand, the boy’s early training is doomed to failure.
However, bad advice becomes a necessary stage of development, since the difficulties he
encounters as a result of following it strengthen Parzival and guide him through despair to
recovery and finally to the highest levels of human spiritual experience.
Joyce Coleman
THE IDEOLOGY OF FOOLERY: DINADAN IN THE PROSE TRISTAN AND MALORY
In Antecedents of the English Novel, Margaret Schlauch identifies Sir Thomas Malory’s
Morte Darthur as a pivotal text in the transition from verse romance to prose novel. As a
particular exponent of Malory’s “courtly realism,” she mentions “the comically realistic Sir
Dinadan.”
This paper will re-examine Dinadan’s role in Malory, questioning both the degree and
the nature of the realism he imparts to the romance. This discussion will involve, first,
comparing Malory’s Dinadan to that of his French source, and, secondly, examining how
Dinadan functions within Malory’s romance.
In the “Second Version” of the Prose Tristan, Sir Dinadan is a sarcastic critic of
knightly manners and customs. He not only runs away from combat but argues energetically
that his is the only rational response. Translated to Malory’s England, Dinadan’s vertiginous
foolery becomes the good-humored eccentricity of a fundamentally conventional knight.
Dinadan refuses combat not because the system is a joke but because he lacks the skill of
Tristram and Lancelot.
In a different way, however, Malory’s Dinadan does undermine Arthurian chivalry –
by undermining the linguistic ethos that has served to define the chivalric worldview. The
standard, heroic language that constituted a seemingly straightforward world of clear choices
and transparent loyalties gives way, over the course of the “Tristram,” to lies, exaggerations,
irony, tact – and jokes. Dinadan’s inversions of discourse protocols alert us to the artificiality
of socialized behavior, infecting the transparencies of Logres with the virus of human
complexity. Insults that Dinadan threw at Lancelot in jest, Gawain will later say in deadly
earnest.
Involuntarily, tragically, Dinadan undermines the knightly values that he shares by
unleashing on the simple, self-affirming discourse of Arthurian chivalry the power of
language to distort, invert, and misrepresent. That lesson inculcated, realism cannot be far
away.
Thomas Crofts
THE RHETORICAL SITUATION OF MALORY’S “TALE OF THE SANKGREAL”
This paper will consider the matière of the grail-narrative in the rhetorical context of Malory’s
Morte Darthur. While Malory’s source text, the Queste del Saint Graal, already represented a
‘cyclical’ installment of the grail story – an episode in a sequential narrative of which it was
not necessarily the climax – it remained governed by the claims of theological allegory.
Malory’s “Tale of the Sankgreal”, on the other hand, is governed by the architecture of
Malory’s whole work, his sequencing of the episodes, the teleology which that sequence
projects and seeks to fulfill. Malory’s grail quest thus finds itself in a unique rhetorical
situation.
Does Malory’s worldly treatment of this holy subject matter efface the historical and
theological import of the grail matière, or does it rather reconnect with that substance in
different terms? For all his abbreviation of it, Malory does not try to suppress the grail
narrative, or to keep it contained within the bounds of its proper tale: in previous pages of the
Morte Darthur, both in narrative episodes (“The Tale of Balyn”) and in the manuscript’s
margins, there is ample allusion to, and even red-ink “prognosticacyon” of, a quest for the
grail. Also, the grail story and its successor in the Morte, “The Book of Sir Launcelot and
Queen Guinevere” are made curiously to overlap. As Malory reduces and re-articulates the
matter, the grail’s magic is turned to subtler ends than before, and takes its place quite
usefully in the rhetorical comedy of the whole book.
My reading of Malory’s “Tale of the Sankgreal” seeks to identify the rhetorical
suturing by which Malory made his grail quest a matter of significance to his protagonists as
well as to his fifteenth century readers.
Lynne Dahmen
THE ROMAN DE SILENCE AND THE MATTER OF BRITAIN: IS IT AN ANGLONORMAN TEXT?
Heldris of Cornuälle’s 13th c. text, the Roman de Silence, can be read within the historical and
literary traditions associated with both Britain and Anglo-Norman England. To be more
precise, I will argue for the importance of the matière of Britain to reading the work. In this, I
go beyond traditional arguments for the relevance of the Arthurian material related to Merlin.
Thus, in addition to considering Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae and the
chivalric romance of L’Estoire Merlin, I will also consider the importance of the ancestral
romance Fouke le Fitz Waryn and the romance Ille et Galeron. In addition, the connection
between the work and thirteenth-century Angevin politics is also important, as Heldris draws
on themes and historical figures that can be seen to resonate with contemporary events in
Anglo-Norman England. In this paper I will situate Silence within both historical and literary
traditions, considering the above works to argue for the importance of the matière of Britain
to the poet while claiming that the importance of this matière suggests that we read the work
within the tradition of Anglo-Norman literature, not just as a roman but also as a work with
important reflections on the genre of histoire.
Karina van Dalen-Oskam and Joris van Zundert
THE VOICE OF THE SWORD OR THE VOICE OF THE COURT?
The Middle Dutch Roman van Walewein (Romance of Gauvain) was written by two authors.
Only one manuscript containing the complete text is left to us. A quantitative analysis of the
vocabulary of this text by means of computer-assisted authorship attribution techniques yields
convincing evidence for the place in the text where the second author, Vostaert, took over
from the first, Penninc.
The two authors show some very significant differences in their respective vocabulary.
Penninc makes significantly more use of the first and second person of the personal pronoun,
in contrast to a significantly higher use of the third person by Vostaert. Penninc also applies a
lot more modal verbs. But what does this information tell us about the voices of the two
narrators?
Our hypothesis is that a difference in the amount of dialogue between the two parts of
the text may partly give rise to the differences we have found. The paper will investigate
whether this is the case. We will present an analysis of the vocabulary of both authors
differentiating their text in dialogue, in narrator’s text, and in ‘erlebte Rede’ (narrated
monologue). The results of these measurements will hopefully lead to deeper insight in the
ways the voices of Penninc and Vostaert differ from each other. They will also help to
evaluate the used authorship attribution techniques.
Mildred L. Day
ARTHUR’S WEREWOLF: HORROR AND COMEDY IN FOUR LANGUAGES
Beginning about the twelfth century with Arthur and Gorlagon (Latin) and even rating a
mention in the Le Morte DArthur (English), the horror story of the werewolf and his betrayal
is absorbed into the Arthurian cycle. Melion tells the tale in French. Marie de France in
Bisclaveret also tells it in French – but without Arthur. The Dutch Lancelot tells another
version sharing details of the quest for what women want – but without the wolf. The ancient
tale of magic and betrayal became part of the Arthurian legend.
Only in the hand of the author of Arthur and Gorlagon, however, did it become
comedy. The great Arthur is the butt of the joke. Beginning with the frame “what do women
want” and embellished with scholarly debating tags, the tale is entertainment for a feast. Sly
hints for the Welsh speakers give the story away from the beginning: the names of all three
kings that Arthur visits are versions of the Welsh or Breton terms for ‘werewolf’: Gorlon,
Gorleil, Gorlagon. In the final scene, all is explained to Arthur and to the rest of the audience.
Arthur and Gorlagon may be in Latin, but it would have been most fun for the Welsh.
Rosemarie Deist
ARISTOCRATIC MASCULINITY AS MALE IDENTITY
The paper looks at perceptions of martial prowess as a primary ideological formulation of
male identity in classic Arthurian romance and its late medieval successors. The oscillating
articulations over time in fiction of qualities regarded as admirable in a knight and aristocratic
man reveal deeply felt changes in the societal structures in which they surface. Major factors
betraying a changing ideology of masculine identity are public display along with single
combat, the notion of compagnonnage, and the activities proper to king and kingship.
Cora Dietl
TRISTRAM – A EUROPEAN HERO
The paper is intended to give an introduction to the Utrecht Arthurian Fiction database
project. The project aims at a new description of the development and of the regional patterns
of this literary genre.
The Tristan romances form a respectable subgroup of Arthurian Fiction. The hero’s
tragic love is treated in a large number of texts from all over Europe, from Portugal and
Iceland to Eastern Europe. In some European regions, the authors tend to separate Tristan
from Arthur and his court. In my paper I will demonstrate which regions favour a nonArthurian Tristan and which features of the Tristan romances go with a refusal of the hero’s
Arthurian connection. Special attention will be paid to the patron’s status, the intertextual
relations of the Tristan romances to (other) Arthurian texts, the narrator’s concept of honour
and his views on society, as well as his evaluation of the hero’s forbidden love.
An Faems
“MENECH MINSCE ES COMEN OM TE SIENE DAT WONDER GROET”
LE NARRATEUR DE TOREC ET LE MERVEILLEUX
Le merveilleux paraît être omniprésent dans les textes médiévaux et les romans arthuriens ne
font pas exception. Dans ces textes, le merveilleux se décline en, entre autres, le miraculeux,
le magique et l’étonnant.
Dans la présentation du merveilleux l’instance narrative joue un rôle important. Dans
la présente communication je voudrais me concentrer sur ce rôle, en analysant la façon dont le
narrateur de Torec, un roman en moyen néerlandais qui fait partie des romans interpolés dans
la grande Compilation de Lancelot, traite les éléments merveilleux dans son histoire. De ces
éléments, Torec en possède plusieurs: une couronne qui apporte des bienfaits à son
possesseur, des chevaliers qui disparaissent de façon mystérieuse pendant leurs duels, une
femme qui ne rit qu’à trois reprises, des forces guérisseuses spéciales, un enchantement
étrange, la nef des aventures et un parent de l’Autre Monde, pour en donner que quelques
exemples.
Comment le narrateur de Torec introduit-il ces éléments? De quelle manière décrit-il
le merveilleux? Explique-t-il ce merveilleux ou nie-t-il cette caractéristique de ces
personnages, animaux, situations et objets? Sont-ils présentés comme allant de soi ou comme
quelque chose de particulier? Si le narrateur ne donne pas immédiatement d’explication, créet-il alors du suspens ou s’agit-il seulement d’une question d’organisation du récit? Est-ce
toujours le narrateur même qui explique le merveilleux ou laisse-t-il parfois la parole aux
personnages à cette fin? En ce dernier cas, pourquoi le ferait-il?
En répondant à ces questions je ne voudrais pas seulement examiner le merveilleux
dans Torec en contribuant ainsi à l’interprétation de ce roman arthurien, mais je voudrais
également éclairer les procédés qui sont à la base de la narration même.
Cette analyse fait partie d’un projet plus large sur le rôle du merveilleux dans la
littérature en moyen néerlandais.
Christine Ferlampin-Acher
ARTUS DE BRETAGNE ET LES MESAVENTURES DE L’AIGLE: DES MANUSCRITS
DU XIVE SIECLE A TRESSAN ET DELVAU
Artus de Bretagne est l’un des rares romans arthuriens à avoir eu les honneurs quasi continus
de l’édition, du XVIe au XIXe siècle, peut-être parce qu’il est à la périphérie du monde
d’Arthur. La comparaison entre les versions manuscrites des XIVe et XVe siècles, des
éditions du XVIe siècle, puis des imprimés du XVIIIe (dans la Bibliothèque des Romans de
Comte de Tressan en 1782) et du XIXe siècle (version d’Alfred Delvau dans la Nouvelle
Bibliothèque Bleue) permet de mettre en évidence le travail de récriture, d’adaptation au
support et le détournement des enjeux, tant au niveau du texte, que des illustrations.
Laurie A. Finke
“YOU DON’T VOTE FOR KINGS”: KING ARTHUR AND MEDIEVAL POLITICAL
THEORY IN MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL
Winston Churchill once called the legend of King Arthur “a theme as well founded, as
inspired, and as inalienable from the inheritance of mankind as the Odyssey or the Old
Testament” (60). What is it that makes it such an important and “universal” theme? Churchill
goes on to explain: “Let us then declare that King Arthur and his noble knights, guarding the
Sacred Flame of Christianity and the theme of a world order, sustained by the valour, physical
strength, and good horses and armour, slaughtered innumerable hosts of foul barbarians and
set decent folk an example for all time.” King Arthur deserves to remembered for all times
because he was able to impose, even if temporarily, a “world order,” or at least a local one
that excluded the “foul barbarians.” Presumably for the same reason, the story of King Arthur
has inspired filmmakers of all generations. It is a narrative that explores the nature and
exercise of political authority, providing ideological legitimacy for the political institution of
the monarchy and defining the nature of the individual’s political obligations within the
institution. Two films by British directors that treat the same medieval material, the legend of
King Arthur, reflect contemporary discourses around issues of power and authority. Despite
drawing on the same material, material which itself is concerned with the nature and exercise
of power and proper kingship, their treatments could not be more different, reflecting and
reproducing the dominant values of British (and American) society at the time of their
production. Monty Python and the Holy Grail combines the television genre of sketch comedy
with various formulae and conventions for representing the Middle Ages, parodying the
romanticized images of medieval chivalry and monarchy. Boorman’s film, steeped in Malory,
Tennyson, Richard Wagner, and Jesse Weston, is a loving recreation of the Grail legend that
announces its nostalgia for a lost immediacy with nature and clarity of order, hierarchy, and
authority.
Francis Gingras
TOUT ET SON CONTRAIRE: LE GENRE DU ROMAN ARTHURIEN AU RISQUE DE
LA CONTRADICTION
La matière arthurienne joue un rôle capital dans la constitution du «genre» romanesque dans
la deuxième moitié du XIIe siècle. Or dès la fin du siècle apparaissent des anti-romans
arthuriens ou, à tout le moins, des romans qui s’amusent à déjouer l’horizon d’attente créé par
les romanciers de la génération précédente (qu’on pense au Bel Inconnu de Renaut de
Beaujeu, au Chevalier à l’épée ou encore à la Demoiselle à la mule de Païen de Maisières).
Ces romans en vers, qui se multiplient dans la première moitié du XIIIe siècle (La Vengeance
Raguidel, Hunbaut, Les Merveilles Rigomer), constituent la preuve même de la conscience
qu’existe une forme romanesque caractérisée par un certain nombre de formules-types, sinon
figées, qui appellent renouvellements et transformations. Il s’agira donc d’étudier ces
procédés associés au régime anti-romanesque (métalepses, mélange des genres, fantaisies
péritextuelles) comme autant d’éléments déterminants dans la définition du genre romanesque
au Moyen Âge. Plus particulièrement, l’organisation du manuscrit Condé 472 (Bibliothèque
du Musée Condé de Chantilly) qui regroupe plusieurs de ces romans et où s’entrelacent
romans arthuriens canoniques et parodiques, sera interrogée à titre de témoin de la réception
des effets d’échos intertextuels par les lecteurs médiévaux eux-mêmes.
Sarah Renard Gordon
CONSUMPTION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN MEDIEVAL
EUROPEAN ARTHURIAN ROMANCE
In romance, food is used to construct identity, to codify courtly convention, to test knights,
and to show development of the protagonists. Most Arthurian romances begin with a feast
with Arthur waiting for adventure before he can eat. Grail mysteries are set at the table.
Young knights arrive at mealtime to be knighted. Consumption becomes on the one hand a
locus of convention, and on the other hand a locus of comedy and transgression of
convention. Looking at the role of food in the late twelfth- through early fourteenth-century
French, English, and Dutch traditions of Fergus, Perceval, and Raguidel reveals much about
characterization and courtly convention. Beginning in the Old French tradition, how
characters approach food and eating reveals much about their status in the court. The young
heroes Fergus and Perceval in French, English, and Dutch romances first show their ignorance
of courtly convention with their uncouth approaches to food, later learning better manners and
developing better taste as they evolve and become integrated into the Arthurian court. They
go from picnics and food stealing and fasting to being accepted at courtly feasts. Established
Arthurian heroes such as Gauvain and Yvain too show their imperfections and errors in
episodes involving food. Similarities and differences in the translations/adaptations are
explored in a comparative reading of short food scenes in: Le Roman de Fergus and Ferguut,
Perceval, le Conte del Graal and Perchevael and Sir Perceval of Galles, La Vengeance
Raguidel and Wrake van Ragisel.
Linda Gowans
LAMENTING OR JUST GRUMBLING? ARTHUR’S NEPHEW EXPRESSES HIS
DISCONTENT
In this paper I shall consider a selection of speeches in which Gauvain/Gawain/Walewein
expresses discontent as a result of circumstances that have recently befallen him. Aspects to
be explored include: whether the narrator employs a specific term for the utterance; how the
speech is presented within the text (for example, in the form of an internal monologue, or as
an address to an audience), and the nature of the sentiments being expressed. I shall also look
at the question of possible intertextuality, and at links to related motifs in Arthurian romance,
drawing on material in French, Dutch, Latin, English and Gaelic.
Andrea Grafetstätter
DIE DEMONTIERUNG DER IDEOLOGIE DES ARTUSROMANS IN HEINRICHS VON
DEM TÜRLIN DIU CRÔNE UND DESSEN FORTSETZUNG IM FASTNACHTSSPIEL
Im Artusroman sind Artus und die Ritter der Tafelrunde in jeder Hinsicht integre Ritter, die
das ideale Rittertum verkörpern. Auch Königin Ginnover ist über jeden Zweifel erhaben.
Dieses idealisierte Bild der Artusritter und des Königspaares wird in nachklassischen
Artusromanen demontiert. Hierfür steht beispielsweise der Artusroman Daniel vom Blühenden Tal vom Stricker, der einerseits gattungsuntypisch einen kämpfenden König Artus
vorführt, wie das auch bei Heinrichs von dem Türlin diu Crône gezeigt wird, hier allerdings
mit weniger ruhmreichem Ergebnis als dort. Ferner wird Daniel vor allem durch seine List
gekennzeichnet: “Damit wird eine Umdefinition des arthurischen Helden manifest: Daniel
agiert nach Handlungsmustern, die aus der Spielmannsepik und dem Tristanroman kommen,
nicht aus dem arthurischen Bereich” (V. Mertens, Der deutsche Artusroman, 1998, S. 213).
Eine Demontierung der Helden trifft noch viel mehr auf Diu Crône von Heinrich von dem
Türlin zu, was hier insbesondere in der Becherprobe deutlich wird. Diese Szene findet eine
aufschlussreiche und viel zu wenig beachtete Fortsetzung in einem Fastnachtsspiel: Ain gar
hupsches vastnacht spill und sagt von Künig Artus, wie er siben fursten mit iren weyben zuo
seinem hoff geladen het und wie si durch ain horn geschendet worden gar hupsch zu hören
(A. v. Keller, Fastnachtspiele aus dem fünfzehnten Jahrhundert. Nachlese, 1858. Bibliothek
des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 46). Daneben gibt es zahlreiche weitere Beispiele für
Abweichungen vom traditionellen Artusroman in der Crône, die im Zentrum des Vortrags
stehen sollen.
Ylenia Grattoni
THE FEATURE OF THE TRISTANO RICCARDIANO 1729
This communication proposes to illustrate the status of the studies about the Tristano
Riccardiano 1729 and the new data resulting from our linguistic and structural analysis of the
text. This translation to the Italian vernacular is characterized by a considerable tendency to
abbreviatio and by a strong linguistic hybridism, and seems to demonstrate once more the
attitude to contamination and to the composition of episodes used by many adapters of the
Tristan matter. It is also further evidence of the passage, in the Venetian area, of the material
of the R version and, furthermore, of the episodical structure as the characteristic mark of the
Tristanian tradition in Italy.
Yan Greub
LA STRUCTURATION DU BEL INCONNU VUE DANS DANS SON MANUSCRIT
UNIQUE
On peut essayer de rechercher la manière dont une narration médiévale est organisée dans une
production contemporaine réelle: un manuscrit. Dans un roman arthurien en vers, l’apparente
continuité narrative n’est organisée matériellement que par 1: le vers, et 2: l’ornementation et
la taille plus grande de certaines initiales. Les commentateurs se contentent d’ordinaire de ne
pas décrire la régularité d’apparition de ces dernières ou, le plus souvent, de ne pas même
signaler leurs occurrences. Il nous semble pourtant qu’il y a là quelque chose à connaître, non
seulement des modes de facture des manuscrits, mais aussi de la conception qu’ont pu se faire
les médiévaux de la structuration des textes arthuriens. Une description des règles
d’apparition et de répartition des grandes initiales devrait reposer sur une étude comparative,
mais nous proposerons seulement ici une première approche, sur un cas d’espèce: le Bel
Inconnu de Renaut de Beaujeu, tel qu’il est attesté dans son manuscrit unique. Comme on ne
possède pas de connaissance de la philologie de ces éléments textuels particuliers, il paraît
prudent, pour une première tentative et dans la perspective d’un exercice, de simplifier
artificiellement le problème, en écrasant la distinction entre décisions de l’auteur et décisions
des copistes successifs. Nous ne décrirons donc ici, à strictement parler, que le
fonctionnement d’un texte tel qu’il était reçu, sans nous occuper de la genèse de ses éléments.
Kevin J. Harty
“REEL” IMAGES OF THE GRAIL KNIGHT
Cinema embraced the image of the Grail knight a century ago when Thomas Edison produced
the first film of Wagner’s Parsifal. Since then, cinema has given us a continuing series of
Grail knights, some expected and predictable, others not. This paper, supplemented by a series
of film clips, examines images of the Grail knight as they are presented in the following films:
Parsifal (1904), The Knights of the Square Table; or, The Grail (1917), The Light in the Dark
(1922), The Knights of the Round Table (1953), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975),
Excalibur (1981), Parsifal (1982), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and The
Fisher King (1991). The cinematic tradition of the Grail knight, of course, reflects earlier
literary and operatic traditions, and the often-times very different “Reel” Grail knights remind
us that the Arthurian ideal can be realized by the rare knight who rises above the moral fray
that keeps Camelot an impossible ideal for his fellows to realize.
Kristina Hildebrand
“GOD KNOWS I SPEAK TRUE”: NARRATIVE, GENDER, AND THE TRUTH IN
WILLIAM MORRIS’S THE DEFENSE OF GUINEVERE
William Morris’s The Defense of Guinevere combines two narrators: the implied author and
Guinevere. This paper argues that Guinevere, whose voice is explicitly and implicity
constructed as female, attempts to appropriate the story of her possible adultery and use it as a
vehicle for her own truth, rather than that of her accuser. Guinevere’s appropriation of the
narrative to tell her truth is, however, finally depicted as “unspeakable” and as insignificant
compared to the combat, the male arena for truth-telling.
Guinevere’s voice is the dominant one, but the implied author’s voice is more
significant than the scant number of lines indicates: it opens and closes the poem, and
emphasises Guinevere’s femininity. It expresses the male gaze, which is also present in the
poem as the audience of listening knights. Although the implied author’s voice expresses
sympathy for Guinevere it is distant and detached, in its clarity strongly contrasted against
Guinevere's immediate, fragmented narrative, and that contrast, again, points to the femininity
of Guinevere’s voice.
Guinevere’s voice also constructs itself as female by using references to her beauty, to
other women, and to her feminine modesty to defend and assert her truthfulness. Her voice is
created inside a feminine sphere, never moving, through metaphor or phrase, into the
masculine areas of combat, knighthood, and honour. Through her narrative, Guinevere reappropriates the telling of her story, insisting on her own version of events. Still, in her
narrative she emphasises, again and again, her inability to speak and the dangers of speaking.
At the end of the poem, Guinevere’s spirited narrative defense is finally undermined by a
return to male truth-telling: Lancelot arrives to save her, bringing the masculine assertion of
truth by way of combat.
Donald L. Hoffman
FIRST KNIGHT (1995): AN AMERICAN GIGOLO IN KING
ARTHUR’S COURT; OR, 007½
The 1990s were a surprisingly rich decade for cinematic depictions of King Arthur, who
appeared in seventeen screen treatments, including a TV series (“Prince Valiant”), animated
films, and children’s entertainment in attitudes ranging from the inane (Johnny Mysto: Boy
Wizard-1996) to the inspiring (Deepak Chokra in Alchemy) and the quasi-historical (The
Crystal Cave [TV 1996]). Arthur himself figures as a cameo in Waxwork II: Lost in Time
(1992) to the major hero of a major film resuming his traditional role in First Knight (1996).
He is portrayed by actors of diverse ages, from the teen cutie Eric Christian Olsen in Arthur’s
Quest (1999), better known (perhaps) for his role as the pseudo-Jim Carrey in Dumb and
Dumberer, to such veterans as John Gielgud, as the voice of Arthur in Dragonheart (1996), to
Michael York in the TV film, A Knight in Camelot (1998), Joss Ackland in A Kid in King
Arthur's Court (1995), Martin Sheen in the Deepak Chokra films (1996), and Efrem
Zimablist, Jr. in the “Prince Valiant” TV series (1991). He was even twice portrayed by
Italians, Nick Mancuso in A Young Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1995) and
Giovanni Guarini in the BBC series, Kings and Queens of England (1993) and by two 007s,
Pierce Brosnan in Quest for Camelot (1998) and Sean Connery in First Knight (1995). Of all
these films, only First Knight may be able to make some claim to being taken seriously. Thus,
while it may not be representative of the Arthurian films of the decade, First Knight is the
only one that invites serious discussion as a reinterpretation of the Arthurian legend. This
paper will analyze the explicit and implicit claims made by this film.
Marjolein Hogenbirk
A HORSE IS (NOT) A HORSE. GRINGALET AS AN EPIC CHARACTER.
In Old French romances in verse and in prose ‘Le Gringalet’, Gauvain’s horse, is depicted as
an exceptional mount, sometimes with a supernatural background. Yet, the horse usually is no
more than a part of Gauvain’s armour and an attribute of his knighthood. In several romances,
Old French as well as Middle Dutch texts, the relationship between Gauvain and his horse is
emphasized as an important motif, and some romances show a remarkably different Gringalet,
who is a real character that helps his master when he is in need, like the famous Beyaert in the
chansons de geste. In this paper, I’ll examine Gringalet’s appearance in several Old French
and Middle Dutch romances, like L’ atre périlleux, Escanor, Walewein ende Keye and
Moriaen. It is striking that epic motifs in the characterisation of Gringalet go hand in hand
with a more positive description of Gauvain.
Corry Hogetoorn
L’ARTUR DE LEURS REVES
Dans deux textes, éloignés l’un de l’autre dans l’espace et dans le temps, Breuddwyd
Rhonabwy (Le Songe de Rhonabwy) et la Faula de Guillem Torroella, l’auteur retourne en
rêve dans le royaume d’Artur. Pour le texte gallois du début du XIIIe siècle, le choix d’un
règne idéal, personnifié dans la personne d’Artur, est évident. Pour la Faula, texte occitanomajorquin de la première moitié du XIVe siècle, le choix de ce personnage est plus
surprenant.
Dans cette communication, je me propose de trouver des points de ressemblance entre
les deux textes, malgré les différences dans l’intrigue et dans les circonstances de leur
création. Est-ce que nous avons affaire à deux civilisations, qui ont connu une période de
floraison culturelle et politique et qui se trouvent dans une période de déclin? Et alors,
pourquoi ce choix commun de voir en Artur la personnification de leur passé idéalisé?
Sue Ellen Holbrook
RESPONDING TO VOICE AS CHARACTER, BODY, AND GENDER IN MALORY’S
MORTE DARTHUR
Gestures of discourse in de Worde’s woodcuts for Malory’s Morte Darthur remind us that
even in visual stillness people are giving voice. Old French romances, Vida Dutton Scudder
observes, are “largely made up of conversation, each character being indiscriminately
endowed with a marvelous flow of words,” but “Malory does generally make us feel what sort
of a person is talking” (Le Morte Darthur, 1917). Here, I re-visit Malory’s handling of voices
by bringing together Scudder’s commentary with ideas about voice developed by Simon Frith
for popular song (Performing Rites, 1996). Stylistic studies, such as P. J. C. Field’s Romance
and Chronicle (1971), have analyzed linguistic and rhetorical devices that reproduce vocal
sounds. Frith’s approach demands we recognize our involvement as listeners and the
interaction of our repertoires with the text’s.
As we draw upon auditory memories as well as textual cues to hear voices in Malory’s
written, rather than performed, narrative, we interpret verbs of discourse: Elayne . . . scryked /
and saide, my lord sire Launcelot Alas why be ye in this plyte. We fill in gaps and resolve
ambiguities of tone: Ye myght haue shewed her sayd the quene somme bounte and gentilnes
that myghte haue preserued her lyf. With such reader involvement in mind, along with work
on Arthurian women’s language, I pursue how voice stands for the person, draws attention to
something happening to the body, and especially makes us hear one voice as male and another
as female. Do Colombe and Palomydes make dole out of measure the same way? Does
Perceval’s sister drone like a hermit? In whom else might we find, in Scudder’s words, the
“futile femininity talk” of the “Lady or damosel or whatever ye be” who shoots an arrow into
Lancelot’s ass? Is the voluble “mis-saying” of Lynet peculiarly feminine?
Tony Hunt
‘A TIME FOR SILENCE AND A TIME FOR SPEECH’: A DIALECTICAL THEME IN
CHRETIEN DE TROYES
In this paper I try to show that in all Chretien’s romances there come moments which mark a
crucial choice between speaking and remaining silent.
Danièle James-Raoul
L’ANONYMAT DEFINITIF DES PERSONNAGES ET L’AVENEMENT DU ROMAN:
LA LEÇON DE CHRETIEN DE TROYES
Face au personnel roulant arthurien, légué par la tradition, qui se caractérise par son nom,
éventuellement par ses origines, son inscription dans la société ou une généalogie, les
personnages définitivement anonymes s’imposent comme des figurants essentiels qui aident à
conforter, dans ses grandes lignes, la hiérarchie actantielle autant qu’à restituer l’effet de réel.
Si certains critiques estiment qu’il s’agit là d’une spécificité propre à la matière arthurienne,
intuitivement, on ne peut s’empêcher d’associer immédiatement ces personnages, qui
demeurent en retrait de l’action, à l’univers romanesque. En reconsidérant cette idée au plan
diachronique, on s’aperçoit que le procédé s’avère être, de fait, une nouveauté narrative dans
la seconde moitié du XIIe siècle, sans rapport avec le fonds arthurien, mais qui prend de
l’ampleur dans ce cadre littéraire, sous la plume de Chrétien de Troyes. On peut considérer
qu’il s’agit là d’un élément constitutif du nouveau genre romanesque.
Sibylle Jefferis
DAS MEISTERLIED VON DER KÖNIGIN VON FRANKREICH: IHRE GESCHICHTE IN
TEXT UND BILDERN
The Meisterlied, adapted from the verse-novella, or maere, of Schondoch’s Königin von
Frankreich und der ungetreue Marschall, was first printed by Hans Sporer, 1498, in Erfurt.
Now located at the Library of Congress in Washington, it has 15 woodcuts. It is the only print
with illustrations, which have never been shown or published before, because the print was
considered as lost since shortly after 1870. The print was sold from the Dombibliothek in
Erfurt in the 1870s, to Horace de Landau, and it was bought at auction by Lessing Rosenwald,
in 1948, in Philadelphia, who donated parts of his collection, including this volume, to the
Library of Congress in 1953.
Schondoch, on whose novella the Meisterlied, the prose adaptation (the Cronica), and
the play by Hans Sachs are based, had changed his French source, the chanson de geste of
Sibille, and made it different from the novels in French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian.
The change consisted of letting the queen raise her young son in a nearby forest, instead of
going to her father in Constantinople and returning with an army to fight against the king, so
that her grown son, the prince of France, could obtain the throne. In Schondoch’s novella, the
prince gets discovered at age four, and the king himself, together with duke Leopold of
Austria and the poor “colier” come to get him and the queen back to the court. No other
names are mentioned, so that the novella functions as an exemplum and was copied and
remodeled for over 200 years in Germany. Weaving, embroidery, manuscript illuminations,
and frescoes demonstrate this story as well.
The motif, that the prince is raised by his mother in a forest, away from the court, is
reminiscent of Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival. A special motif, which occurs in both
works, is that the young prince goes around with bow and arrows to shoot birds. And just like
Parzival is attracted by the three shining knights he meets and wants to follow and seek
knighthood, which leads to his becoming the king of the grail, in a similar way the prince gets
picked up by the three men on horseback to come back to the court in Paris. This happened
through justice and the grace of God, not by fighting. Another recurring motif in both works
is the duration of 4¼ years, in which the events of the plotline are taking place. Nobody has
noticed these parallels before, and so no one else has written about it yet.
Takako Kato
DIGITAL WINCHESTER AS AN ENHANCED RESOURCE: HIGH RESOLUTION
IMAGES AND MARKUP OF THE TEXT
Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, which for four and a half centuries had been known
only through versions deriving from William Caxton’s 1485 first edition, is now realized to
have also existed in a very different form. The Winchester manuscript, rediscovered in 1934,
has a considerably different narrative structure from that of Caxton’s edition: while Caxton’s
text is divided into books and chapters, the Winchester version is divided by Lombardic
Capitals and by explicits, which indicate some kind of beginnings and endings. In 1947,
Eugène Vinaver published The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, the first edition based mainly on
the Winchester manuscript. As his title implied, Vinaver argued that Malory had written ‘a
series of eight separate romances’, and not the single book presented by Caxton. Since the
publication of the Works, scholars have further studied the narrative of the work, and have
proved the narrative coherence and continuity through the ‘whole book’. Now, there are
probably very few scholars who would consider Malory’s Morte Darthur as a series of
separate romances. [Contribution to Round Table]
Amy S. Kaufman
THE LAW OF THE LAKE: LADIES, CHIVALRY, AND JUSTICE IN MALORY’S
MORTE DARTHUR
In Malory’s Morte Darthur, King Arthur outlines a chivalric code for his knights that includes
the directive: “...allwayes to do ladyes, damesels, and jantilwomen and wydowes socour:
strengthe hem in hir ryghtes, and never to enforce them, uppon payne of dethe” (120.20-23).
Though the concept of the chivalric code does not originate with Malory’s text, his version
notably does not include the condition described by Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot: that if a
damsel has been won in battle by a knight, “Sa volenté an poïst faire/Sanz honte et sanz
blasme retraire” (1326-7) [he might do with her what he pleased without shame or blame].
Malory’s version of a chivalric code has been accused of slippery language and even
contradiction, but a better understanding of this code may be earned by examining its
enforcers, which are so often women. In several key episodes, Malory alters his source
material through Nymue and other Ladies of the Lake so that ultimately, his version of the
Lake functions as a companion court to the Round Table – a court of women who monitor and
judge Arthur’s knights. This paper will examine the role of Nymue and her damsels as
ideological enforcers within Malory’s romance and will highlight differences between
Malory’s ideological code and that of his predecessors. Drawing on textual comparison as
well as the scholarship of Dorsey Armstrong, Maureen Fries, Geraldine Heng, and Sue Ellen
Holbrook, the paper makes a case for a pro-feminine Arthurian ideology not often subscribed
to Malory and questions the widespread assumption that Nymue and her disciples exist solely
to facilitate the goals of Arthur and his knights.
Masatoshi Kawasaki
PERFECT OR IMPERFECT? NARRATIVE VOICES IN SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN
KNIGHT
The emergence of Gawain as a hero is represented in the scenes of the arming of Gawain and
his departure from Camelot; because, henceforth, he seemingly has the stage to himself. As
J.A. Burrow makes a good suggestion, the description of any person can be of two kinds: one
is the superficial description which is devoted to armour and weapons, and the other is the
inward description which is concerned with the reality of the hero’s mental situation, that is,
the properties of the inner man. Comparatively speaking, we would rather find much
significance in the latter; for, when we trace the hero’s mental situation of the second phase,
we can easily recognize that this plays an important role. And so the “pentangle” passage is of
great importance. Indeed, it is the word “golde” (620) which is suggestive of the superficial
description, since it might colour our response to something conventional and it also “belongs
as a mark of excellence, both to the exterior and to the interior man” (J.A. Burrow, 1965).
Nevertheless, when we encounter the word “vrysoun” (608), which means “embroidered silk
band on Gawain’s helmet”, we can find out there a human inclination; for the words
“papiayez” (611), “tortors” (612), and “turlofez” (612), which by chance appear with the
“vrysoun”, may give us the images of the “mistress” or “true love” in the story.
In a sense, Gawain might be typical of an ordinary human being, not merely symbolic
of a moral perfection. That is why the hero gradually discloses his own mental reality
according to his relation to others (including horrible beasts). Therefore, we could not avoid
observing the words, such as “vrysoun” and “schome” (2372), so as to notice the hero’s
mental failure; otherwise, as Martin Puhvel (1985) points out, Sir Gawain could not be
regarded as one of the great suspense stories of the Middle Ages. In this paper, I suggest that
Gawain would not be always a perfect knight, if we could place him in the interrelation
between individual and society. Finally, I will end my paper by considering what the poet’s
narrative voices are.
Douglas Kelly
LES ANOMALIES DANS LES DESCRIPTIONS STEREOTYPES: UN ASPECT DE
L’INVENTION DE L’INTRIGUE DANS LES ROMANS ARTHURIENS
La description de stéréotypes est un lieu commun dans les romans arthuriens. Chrétien de
Troyes a servi de modèle à plusieurs écrivains puisque c’est lui en effet qui introduisit cette
caractéristique de la poétique médio-latine dans le roman arthurien; mais il le fit en intégrant
dans le stéréotype des anomalies qui paraissent incongrues. Par exemple, dans Erec et Enide,
Enide apparaît comme le type même de la beauté idéale, mais la description de sa beauté
contraste avec celle de la robe usée qui couvre, tout en les révélant partiellement, les parties
de son corps que Chrétien ne décrit pas. Pour sa part, Erec, le meilleur chevalier de la Table
Ronde après Gauvain, ne participe pas à la chasse du blanc cerf ni, après son mariage, aux
tournois. Ses hommes ne manquent pas d’ailleurs de lamenter cette recreantise. De telles
anomalies constituent des conjointures qui produisent les conflits à partir desquels Chrétien
tisse ses intrigues. Je me propose d’examiner cet aspect de la composition de quelques romans
arthuriens de Chrétien et aussi d’autres, anonymes, écrits après lui au cours du XIIIe siècle.
Kathleen Coyne Kelly
IDEOLOGIES OF ANXIETY IN MALORY’S MORTE DARTHUR
In a famous passage in the Morte Darthur, Malory/the narrator, speaking about Launcelot and
Gwenyver, says:
But nowadayes men can nat love sevennyght but they muste have all their desyres.
That love may nat endure by reson, for where they bethe sone accorded and hasty,
heete sone keelyth. And ryght so farth the love nowadayes, sone hote sone colde. Thys
ys no stabylyté. But the olde love was nat so. For men and women coulde love
togydirs seven yerys, and no lycoures lustis was betwyxte them, and than was love
trouthe and faythfulnes. And so in lyke wyse was used such love in kynge Arthurs
dayes. (1119-20)
Many modern readers and critics may well read this fascinating juxtaposition of sexuality and
history, and read it persuasively, as representing a good deal of anxiety about love/adultery
and now/then, particularly given the reference to “stabylyté.”
In my paper, I want to focus on the postmodern and poststructuralist critical reflex that
invokes the idea of “anxiety” with respect to representations of sexuality and history (or “the
past”) in medieval literature, and in the Morte Darthur in particular. I have noticed (with
some anxiety) how often medievalists (including myself) and other scholars use the word,
even in the midst of carefully defining and historicizing such concepts as “gender”,
“homosexual”, “masculine”, “class”, and so on. However, we have not defined or described
“anxiety” in such a way as to test its validity as a concept for the Middle Ages. (Anxiety is, of
course, well-theorized within modern, psychoanalytic paradigms.) Nevertheless, “anxiety”
functions as a key word in discussing how race, class, gender, and sexual acts and identities
are represented, reproduced, or critiqued in medieval texts. Moreover, a number of scholars
have also mapped an ideology of anxiety onto medieval historical writing and on references to
“the past” in various medieval texts. Malory’s “nowadays” passage conveniently allows me to
discuss both sexuality and history as they have been read through an anxious lens, so to speak.
I hope to initiate a long-overdue discussion of what we mean when we talk about
“anxiety”. Is it anachronistic to use the term “anxiety” as frequently as we do, in the contexts
in which we do? Is “anxiety” a modern (if not modernist) problem projected back on the
Middle Ages? If we ought to make a distinction between medieval and modern “anxiety”, on
what basis should such a distinction be made? “Anxiety” did not exist as a word in the
English lexicon [at least] in the Middle Ages; what is its equivalent, then, in medieval
medical, philosophical, and theological treatises? How is anxiety (ours or theirs) represented
in medieval texts, and under what circumstances? Given its usefulness, how might we
recuperate the word by historicizing it?
Robert L. Kelly
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD: “MIRROR” OF JUST RULE IN MALORY’S TALES V AND
VIII
In Malory’s later tales, Sir Lancelot exemplifies a political type: the royal servant who is more
accomplished as a knight and lord and more politically powerful than the king he serves, yet,
unlike Fortescue’s “overmighty subject”, does not seek his king’s overthrow. The best
historical “mirror” of the type is the Duke of Bedford, who was the effective ruler of England
during Malory’s young manhood. Although never crowned, Bedford was the most powerful
person in England and Lancastrian France in the decade preceding his death in 1435. In
November, 1433, the Speaker of the Commons delivered a speech to Parliament praising
Bedford as the ideal knight and lord, both of which offices having the aim of enforcing
justice. By this standard, Malory’s Arthur is tainted: by failing to protect Tristram against
Mark and to punish his nephews for murdering Morgawse and Lamerak; and finally for
conspiring with his nephews to deprive Lancelot of his right to a trial. Arthur’s insufficient
commitment to justice, whether due to misjudgment or lack of will, is repeatedly pointed up
by Lancelot, who thereby appears more kingly than Arthur. By the final tale, Arthur’s subjects
(and to a large degree the narrator himself) arrive at a pragmatic view of kingship based on
competence alone, without regard to lineal or sacral legitimacy. The “mirror” of Bedford as
ideal though uncrowned ruler may have helped bring Malory to that outlook.
Elspeth Kennedy
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEXT AND IMAGE IN THE SCENES LEADING UP
TO THE DEATH OF THE DAMSEL OF ESCALOT IN THE MORT ARTU IN THREE
CYCLIC MANUSCRIPTS
The three cyclic manuscripts studied here by Alison Stones and Elspeth Kennedy (London,
Brit. Libr., Additional 10292-4, of which 10294 contains the Mort Artu, and Royal 14 E III;
Amsterdam, Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica 1/ Oxford, Bodleian, Douce 215/
Manchester, John Rylands University Library, French 1, of which Douce and Rylands contain
the Mort Artu), are textually related in that they all give the short version of the Mort Artu and
artistically related in that the miniatures are executed by a group of illuminators working in
the north east of France and Flanders at the beginning of the fourteenth century. However,
there are interesting differences in the relationship between text and image in the three cyclic
manuscripts that merit further exploration.
Virginie Greene has recently published an important article in Arthuriana (12:4
(2002), 50-73, ‘The Bed and the Boat: Illustrations of the Demoiselle d’Escalot’s Stoy in
Illuminated Manuscripts of La Mort Artu’), but she studies different manuscripts (many of
them not closely related textually) from a different point of view than we do here.
Edward Donald Kennedy
GAWAIN’S FAMILY
Blood ties were often important in medieval romance, and although in many of the romances
in England and on the Continent in which Gawain appears as a hero there is no reference to
other members of his family, in some works, both chronicles and romance, members of his
family are mentioned, and these family members are often relevant to Gawain’s role in the
story. In some English works influenced by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum
Britanniae, for example, Gawain and Modred are contrasting brothers, nephews of Arthur and
sons of King Loth of Lothian, and this kinship was probably suggested by the motif of the
good brother and the bad brother found in folk tales. This difference is brought out
particularly in the English alliterative Morte Arthure in a final confrontation between Gawain
and Mordred. In some Latin and English Scottish chronicles, Gawain and Modred are both
good brothers, and Modred, is the older brother and true heir to the British throne instead of
Arthur. In French prose romances, members of Gawain’s family become more ominous, as he
is related to Morgan le Fay and two treacherous brothers, Mordred (now Arthur’s son by
incest) and Agravaine, and this perhaps prepares for Gawain’s decline in some French
romances and for his role, by urging Arthur to get vengeance on Lancelot, in the destruction
of Arthur’s kingdom. Before the fifteenth century, the family relationships of the French
romances were generally ignored in English romances about Gawain, with the notable
exception of the late fourteenth-century Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where the
intertextual allusions to Gawain’s aunt Morgan le Fay and his brother Agravaine might have
reminded those familiar with French romances that the young Gawain of this romance, who
fell just short of perfection, had a lot farther to fall.
Yoshio Konuma
LA SOUVERAINETE DE GAUVAIN DANS L’EPISODE DU CHATEAU
MERVEILLEUX: DU PRINCIPE DE L’ENTRELACEMENT DE CHRETIEN DE TROYES
Gauvain est-il un parangon ou un mauvais génie de la chevalerie? Il se présente toujours sous
ces deux faces tout au long du Conte du Graal. L’épisode du Château Merveilleux,
notamment, constitue une aventure curieuse et révélatrice de la nature de Gauvain. Son succès
est incontestable: le chevalier affronte l’épreuve du «Lit de la Merveille», dans laquelle il
esquive l’attaque de nombreuses flèches, lutte contre un lion farouche et rompt le sort qui
affligeait le château. A la première lecture, la victoire de Gauvain semble digne d’un
champion de la Table Ronde. Toutefois, est-elle vraiment méritoire sur le plan spirituel?
Quant à sa personnalité, nous la tenons comme l’exemple de la souveraineté non-idéalisée en
considération de la géométrie du Conte du Graal. Mais nous éviterons de considérer ici que
ce roman est construit par les aventures des deux protagonistes. Le Conte du Graal ne
constitue aucunement une sorte de “diptyque”.
Pourquoi Gauvain s’est battu contre le lion ? La réponse à cette question ne se trouve
pas dans la composition symétrique du Conte du Graal parce que les aventures de Gauvain
correspondent non seulement à celles de Perceval, mais aussi à celles des autres chevaliers.
En effet, comme dans l’épisode de la Pucelle aux Petites Manches, il existe dans l’épisode du
Château Merveilleux quelques éléments remarquables qui rappellent paradoxalement Le
Chevalier au Lion. La prouesse de Gauvain s’y révèle illusoire puisqu’il joue principalement
le rôle du contraire d’Yvain et le romancier la décrit implicitement avec humour et ironie.
Bien que nous puissions trouver un pareil entrelacement structurel dans Le Chevalier de la
Charrette et Le Chevalier au Lion, deux romans que l’auteur a parallèlement composés entre
1177 et 1181, cet entrecroisement ne provient pas seulement d’un problème chronologique. Il
est étroitement lié à l’art littéraire et à l’idéalisme particuliers à Chrétien de Troyes. Gauvain
est loin d’incarner un souverain idéalisé et porte mal le nom du “Chevalier au Lion”. En
opposant ainsi deux souverainetés bien contrastées, cet exposé se propose de mettre en
lumière le principe d’entrelacement inhérent aux épisodes qui concernent Gauvain.
Anna Elżbieta Korczakowska
REPRESENTER LE CHEVALIER BLESSE: ETUDE DES ENLUMINURES DE CINQ
MANUSCRITS DU XIIIE SIECLE DU LANCELOT EN PROSE
Bien que les atteintes à l’intégrité corporelle aient été un fait quotidien dans l’univers
chevaleresque, elles ne le furent pas nécessairement pour chaque lecteur médiéval. Les
enluminures des manuscrits dépassent le rôle de simple ornement et sont un élément
important de la lecture, supplantant parfois le manque d’expérience personnelle, en particulier
pour les femmes, les clercs, les jeunes, même s’ils ont pu assister au retour de chevaliers
blessés ou aux soins qu’on a pu leur dispenser dans l’espace domestique. L’enlumineur luimême manquait de cette expérience – son atelier ne la fournissant pas non plus. Nous avons
donc affaire à un double jeu de l’imaginaire – celui de l’artiste qui se met au service de celui
du lecteur, dont les idées se forment en partie à partir des images fournies, mais aussi celui du
lecteur qui détermine pour une part celui de l’artiste, toujours limité par les attentes et la
sensibilité de son public.
Nous nous proposons d’analyser les enluminures mettant en scène des chevaliers
blessés dans les manuscrits du cycle Lancelot – Graal du XIIIe siècle, donc
chronologiquement les plus proches de la composition du cycle. Nous étudierons les
modalités de représentation des atteintes à l’intégrité corporelle, et notamment: nous
présenterons une analyse des représentations picturales des blessures au sein de chaque
manuscrit, nous nous attacherons à déceler et analyser les correspondances et les différences
entre la représentation picturale et la leçon de chaque manuscrit, nous procéderons ensuite à
une comparaison des représentations des différents manuscrits. Seront étudiés les manuscrits
suivants: Bibliothèque Universitaire de Bonn 526, British Library Add. 10292-10294,
Bibliothèque Nationale de France B.N. 110, B.N. 339, B.N. 344, B.N. 12573 et Beinecke
Library 229.
Elena Koroleva
L’ASPECT «FEMININ» DU GRAAL
Le Graal est entouré, des le début de son histoire littéraire, de femmes, et les romans
arthuriens en abondent. Pour accéder au Graal, le héros a besoin de la présence féminine, ce
qui s’explique, sans doute, par le fait que le Graal est avant tout un symbole féminin.
Dans les romans de Chrétien de Troyes et de Wolfram d’Eschenbach la vie du héros
comprend deux étapes: (1) il est élevé et guidé dans la vie par les conseils de sa mère (c’est
par elle qu’il appartient au lignage du Graal); (2) il se perfectionne en apprenant le code
amoureux avec Blanchefleur/ Condwiramur.
Les personnages féminins jouent le rôle intermédiaire entre le monde “réel” et l‘Autre
monde, le monde du Graal. Comme le Graal, elles ont une double caractéristique: d’une part,
elles sont un symbole évident de la fertilité (le Graal qui dispense de la nourriture) et de la vie
(le Graal qui soutient la vie du Roi-Pêcheur etc.); d’autre part, elles sont liées à l’Autre
Monde et sont la cause des souffrances et de la mort (le Graal “cruel” qui punit les pécheurs).
La présentation met en valeur les parallèles que l’on peut trouver entre les structures
des romans du Graal et les mythes des Déesses-Mères (les déesses de la fertilité et de la
maternité aussi que de la guerre et de la mort). Avec la christianisation de la légende les
personnages féminins ne disparaissent pas, mais se transforment sous l’influence, sans doute,
du culte de la Vierge. La bien-aimée est supplantée par la soeur qui incarne la virginité de la
mère du Christ, et l’image de la mère subit aussi des modifications: elle se présente surtout
comme une mère souffrante.
Susanne Kramarz-Bein
DIE ALTNORWEGISCHE PARCEVALS SAGA IM SPANNUNGSFELD IHRER QUELLE
(CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES, PERCEVAL) UND DER MITTELHOCHDEUTSCHEN
ÜBERLIEFERUNG (WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH, PARZIVAL)
Die altnorwegische Parcevals saga (Datierung um ca. 1260) fußt auf Chrétiens de Troyes
Perceval. Stärker noch als ihre Quelle fokussiert die Saga auf den Aspekt der höfischen
Erziehung ihres Titelhelden, der sich im Lauf des Textes vom unerfahrenen
“Muttersöhnchen” zum perfekten/vollkommenden Ritter entwickelt. Die Saga ist integrativer
Bestandteil des höfischen Bildungs- und Erziehungsprogramms des norwegischen Königs
Hákon IV. Hákonarson (reg. 1217-1263), der wie kein norwegischer König vor ihm
Anschluss an die europäische höfische Kultur (bes. Englands, Frankreichs und Kastiliens)
suchte und in diesem Zusammenhang zahlreiche europäische Versromane in norwegische
Sagaprosa übersetzen ließ. Hier sind als erste die Tristrams saga (gemäß Prolog im Jahr
1226), aber aus dem arthurischen Kontext auch eine Ívens saga, Erex saga und Möttuls saga
sowie eine Übersetzung der lais der Marie de France.
Programmtext dieses höfischen Milieus ist der zeitgleiche Königsspiegel, von dem die
Parcevals saga zweifellos kontextuell beeinflusst wurde. Als weitere epische Großtexte sind
die altnorwegische Karlamagnús saga und die Þiðreks saga zu nennen, die ebenfalls diesem
höfisch-literarischen Milieu zuzurechnen sind. Bei all diesen Saga-Übertragungen handelt es
sich um Adaptionen für ein norwegisches Publikum, das mit der kontinentaleuropäischen
höfischen Kultur z.T. erst vertraut gemacht werden musste. All diese Texte verraten das
Interesse der norwegischen Monarchie, zugleich aber auch deren Anspruch auf Gleichstellung
mit den europäischen Höfen der Zeit.
Als ein poetisch elaborierter Vergleichstext wird Wolframs von Eschenbach
mittelhochdeutscher Versroman Parzival (1200-1210) zum intertextuellen Vergleich mit der
Saga herangezogen. Insbesondere vor diesem Hintergrund lässt sich das spezifische Profil der
Sagaprosa ermessen. Anders als in der Saga und in den frühen Artusromanen, in denen die
gesellschaftliche Problematik im Vordergrund stand, dominiert in Wolframs Versroman im
Zusammenhang mit der Gralsthematik die religiöse Problematik der Sündhaftigkeit und die
damit verbundene Schuldfrage und -erkenntnis Parzivals. Überhaupt ist der Gottesbezug und
damit die Hervorhebung der religiös-metaphysischen Dimension ein bestimmendes Element
in Wolframs Versroman. Eine solche Problematik spielt hingegen in der Saga keine große
Rolle; sie gibt sich säkularer, und auch die Gralsproblematik tritt hier zugunsten der
Repräsentationen des Höfischen eher in den Hintergrund.
Ekaterina Kratasyuk
“UPDATING” LEGEND: ARTHURIAN ROMANCE IN RUSSIAN INTERNET AND
ADVERTISING
The crucial aspect of Arthurian legends’ special value within Popular culture is connected
with the contemporary trend of representing all the medieval meanings (in Barthian definition
of the word) through Arthurian plots, symbols and names and particular importance that
Middle Ages as idea and metaphor have for contemporary culture.
While Western Arthurian borrowings are natural examples of self past representation
and actual methods of “aura stealing” (in W. Benjamin’s sense), the numerous uses of these
legends in Russian context is a peculiar fact, which refer to an important social trend of postsoviet period.
Several “total destructions” of the Past, witnessed by the generation of Soviet people,
led to distrust to own history’s versions and formed so called “negative identity” (L. Gudkov).
This factor along with worldwide influence of American pop culture increased the interest in
the Western picturesque adaptations of the Past, which are not legendary versions of history,
but quite the contrary, historical versions of legend (the “King Arthur” movie is the recent
example of this trend).
This paper is based on Arthurian Internet sites, on-line and off-line advertising, where
transformed Arthurian romance’s elements are used as key patterns of ideology. Texts,
analyzed in this paper, have appeared as re-writing of Arthurian legends in fan fiction, revitalizing of the heroes in life-like games and performances or are big pieces of badly retold
legendary plots in advertisements.
The aim of this paper is to reveal what Arthurian meanings and formulas (J. Cawelty),
appeared as a reduction of the legend within influence of the popular culture mechanisms,
have penetrated in everyday life and help illustrating contemporary social norms, creating
images and selling goods.
Kathy M. Krause
THE IDEOLOGY OF INHERITANCE IN ARTHURIAN ROMANCE
Social historians have often read courtly literature as reflective of a society in which male
primogeniture had created a class of landless “jovenes”, young men who spent their time
jockeying for influence around their lords, and searching for heiresses. Scholars such as
George Duby or Erich Koehler read romance as wish-fulfillment fantasy: young knight leaves
court, experiences adventure, proves himself, meets girl, marries girl, gets social position
upon his return. Although many aspects of this “master narrative” have come under attack in
recent years by both historians and literary critics, its basic assumptions continue to underlie
much medieval literary criticism, particularly that of a social or historical bent. Rather than
attack this position in this paper, I would like to take a different tack and suggest an
alternative master narrative. In place of a bildungsroman, I propose a family romance, or
more accurately a dysfunctional family romance: the tale of the missing heir. After a overview
to establish the broad lines of the issue of inheritance and heirs in Arthurian Old French texts,
I will examine a number of romances with female heirs, including Le Bel Inconnu, Meraugis
de Portlesguez and Chrétien’s Yvain, in order to examine in more detail the issue of
inheritance in Old French Arthurian literature, and to challenge the conventional “master
narrative”, which anachronistically privileges the individual over the family in its reading of
medieval narrative.
Dorothea Kullmann
CHEVALERIE, AMOUR ET COURTOISIE DANS EREC ET ENIDE
On se propose d’aborder une fois de plus le vieux problème de l’idéal courtois tel qu’il se
présente dans le premier roman courtois que nous connaissions. A notre sens, la notion
moderne d’“amour courtois” et l’association répandue de la courtoisie à la chevalerie (dues à
l’influence que la lyrique occitane et le développement ultérieur de l’idéal chevaleresque dans
la littérature arthurienne ont eue sur la critique) ont complètement obscurci l’intention
originelle de Chrétien. Celui-ci, en effet, manifeste une méfiance très nette à l’égard de la
chevalerie mise au service de l’amour. En analysant les différentes occurrences des termes en
question, on montrera que le narrateur de l’Erec (dont les commentaires sont, au fond, bien
plus surprenants qu'on ne l’a cru jusqu’ici) met l’accent sur l’application des règles de la
courtoisie dans les situations banales de la vie, en dehors et de l’amour et du combat. On
étudiera aussi le caractère particulier, éducatif, qui en résulte pour le roman entier.
Norris J. Lacy
PERCEVAL FROM NORTH TO SOUTH
Background: In May 2004 I presented a paper in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on the figure of
Perceval. (It was a sequel to my earlier study “Motif Transfer in Medieval Arthurian
Literature..”) I now wish to offer a further study of Perceval, centered on my contention that
in works after Chrétien and Perlesvaus, and with exceptions such as Wolfram von
Eschenbach, Perceval presented special problems for authors. That is, he was recognized as a
prominent and appealing character, but a good many authors seem not to have known just
what to do with him once Galahad assumed his role as chosen Grail hero. Fortunately, his
complexity and versatility (naive or comical youth, gifted knight, etc.) gave authors numerous
options for remaking or retaining aspects of Perceval’s character.
For the Utrecht program, I wish to broaden the focus, beginning (necessarily) with
French but then offering observations about the permutations of Perceval in the Norse
Parcevals saga, commenting briefly on the character in a German romance or two and in
Moriaen, and ending with an examination of the Italian Tavola Ritonda. I may conclude with
remarks about the (thus far unpublished) French Prose Yvain, from which Perceval virtually
disappears, leaving only his sister to play out her role from the French Queste.
In adaptations or translations of Chrétien, there seems to be an imperative to modify
either the character or his narrative circumstances, and alterations (e.g., in the Norse romance)
reshape Perceval's situation in relation to his mother's death, his relationship with
Blanchefleur, and other themes. Even in texts inspired by the French Queste, where he
becomes “accessory” to Galahad, authorial approaches regularly illustrate and underline the
dual aspects of Perceval’s literary existence: the intriguing imperative to alter or elaborate on
his character, on the one hand, and the broad range of possibilities that he offered for such
elaboration, on the other. He emerges as the most versatile and quite possibly the most
complex of Arthurian figures.
Carolyne Larrington
THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MERLIN AND MERLIN CONTINUATION IN BL ADD.
38117
BL Add. 38117 contains the Prose Joseph of Arimathea, based on Robert de Boron; the
reworking of de Boron’s Merlin in prose, to the point of Arthur’s coronation, and the Merlin
Continuation or Suite de Merlin. It was believed to be the unique ms. of the Merlin
Continuation until Vinaver’s discovery of Cambridge Add. 7071 in 1945. The manuscript
originated in Northern France in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century and contains 70
illustrations to the narrative. 6 of these illustrate the Estoire du Graal, 19 are found in the
Merlin, while 45 illustrate the Suite de Merlin. The first editors of the Merlin and the Suite,
Paris and Ulrich comment of these illustrations, that while they are “remarquables d’ailleurs
par leur élégance et la finesse de leur exécution, [ils] ne présentent rien de particulièrement
intéressant”. It is the contention of this paper that, on the contrary, the illustrations do present
a number of points of interest. Certain episodes are illustrated particularly densely; some
mise-en-scènes – encounters in the forest, intrusions to court – are very frequent, while other
illustrations are conventionalised. Unsurprisingly, since they originate from roughly the same
area and period, many of 38117’s images are close in design to the illustrations of the Estoire
du Graal and the Merlin in BL Add. 10292, though this ms. is more profusely illustrated.
At times the illustrators take little note of details of the text or anticipate episodes
some folios further on, while elsewhere the depiction seems to have a symbolic dimension.
And, perhaps most interestingly, the manuscript shows signs of reader reception – certain
illustrations have been partially erased or scraped. What links the damaged illustrations
appears to be their subjects; readerly disapproval of, among others, Caiaphas, demons, and,
apparently, some of the activities of Ninianne, the damoisele cacheresse, seems to underlie the
erasure attempts.
Françoise le Saux
ARTHUR, WACE’S ROMAN DE BRUT AND COLOURED CAPITALS: ON
CODICOLOGY AS A SOURCE FOR TEXTUAL RECEPTION
This paper analyses the distribution patterns of large coloured capitals in a selection of
manuscripts of Wace’s Roman de Brut. It focuses on the relative importance of the Arthurian
section signalled by the manuscript planners through the density and placing of coloured
capitals within the copies they designed. Part of Wace’s readership (especially on the
Continent) would have been interested in the Roman de Brut primarily as an authorising subtext for the increasingly popular Arthurian romances of a Chrétien de Troyes and his
followers. In Anglo-Norman England, this literary interest was subordinated to, or at the very
least, coexisted with the work’s historical interest, inasmuch as it purports to be an accurate
account of the past of the homeland.
Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan
MATIÈRE AND GENRE IN THE MIDDLE WELSH ‘BIRTH OF ARTHUR’
Later Middle Welsh prose draws extensively on other literatures, and those translating and
adapting material into Welsh were often more concerned with narrative content than with
questions of genre. In the field of Arthurian literature in particular, French, Latin and, later,
English texts were extensively quarried. Some texts were adopted as more or less complete
narratives, whilst in other cases redactors selected episodes, parts of episodes or even details
from one or more sources, bringing them together with material from native tradition to create
a new whole. In particular, historiography and romance or other story genres became blurred,
but in addition, characteristic features of non-native genres such as romance were often lost in
translation. This paper will focus on one case-study, the fragmentary account of the birth of
Arthur preserved in Aberystwyth, NLW MS 1A (Y Cymmrodor 24 (1913), 247-64), whose
sources include Galfridian history and French prose romance. The only other manuscript
witness, a variant text preserved only in the early-seventeenth century Peniarth MS 215B,
provides further evidence of the process and purpose of the composition.
Andrew Lynch
BEYOND COWARDICE
This paper will investigate the ideology of cowardice within medieval English Arthurian
narratives. In theory, cowardice provides an unanswerable ‘last word’ in Arthurian discourse,
because it is so incompatible with the physiological/psychological norms of knighthood and
‘manhood’. Typically, the coward knight forfeits his conventional privileges of gender,
sexuality and rank, and is associated with a surprisingly broad range of evils, especially
treachery, ‘effeminacy’, ‘villainy’, sloth, lust and covetousness. I am interested in narrative
representations that go beyond the typical: e.g., by extending the contexts in which
‘cowardice’ can be understood to occur: by crediting the coward with some virtues, or by
showing the vices of ‘good knights’; by tolerance of individual lapses, and pragmatic
admissions that knights are not always consistently courageous; by humorous and playful
treatments; by a transformative emphasis on interiority and motive rather than action and
reputation.
Questions which I shall consider include: How does cowardice operate as part of a
moral discourse? Is there a separate category of ‘moral cowardice’ or ‘moral courage’? Is
there a form of ‘courage’ available to the non-armigerous classes, e.g. the religious, the clerk,
the bourgeois, the peasant? Can a woman be a ‘coward’? Cowardice is of special interest in
Arthurian narrative, partly because the king himself may seem liable to the accusation, at least
in his political conduct. Is there a special kind of regnal cowardice?
Answers to such questions will be based on a broad survey of English Arthurian texts,
I shall comment particularly on the unusual representation of the issue in Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight.
Sibusiso Hyacinth Madondo
LE HEROS AUX QUATRE VISAGES: TRISTAN JONGLEUR, AUTEUR, ACTEUR ET
DEVIN
Dans le contexte d’infratextualisation médiévale, deux voix alternantes se font entendre dans
la présentation et la confirmation de la descente généalogique du héros: celle de l’auteur ou du
conteur et celle du personnage principal. Il arrive occasionnellement qu’un tiers se charge de
révéler les origines du héros. D’habitude, l’affabulation du conteur constitue un récit
hypertextuel qui vise à démontrer la naissance mystérieuse et l’appartenance à la royauté du
héros figurant souvent déjà appauvri et nomade. De l’autre côté, la voix atténuée est celle de
l’hypotexte ayant en vue l’objectif de souligner la véridicité des propos du conteur par le récit
du héros lui-même. La voix altérée de l’hypotexte s’entend souvent lorsque le héros présente
ses origines à son hôte, à son vainqueur ou à un quelconque chevalier qu’il vient de
rencontrer.Dans les mythes de Tristan, la présence de deux voix est assez marquée et
d’ailleurs le héros est doté des caractéristiques d’un jongleur. Tristan est le musicien
infaillible et le bon conteur apte à extorquer par ruse l’audience de ses paroles masquées.
Margarida Madureira
LE THEME DE LA GUERISON PAR LE SANG DANS LES ROMANS DU CYCLE DU
LANCELOT-GRAAL
Nombreux sont les récits du Lancelot-Graal qui racontent l’histoire d’une guérison par le sang
humain: le sang de Gauvain, celui du grand père de Lancelot ou de la sœur de Perceval, par
exemple, s’avèrent avoir des pouvoirs merveilleux, voire même miraculeux, leur permettant
de guérir soit la maladie incurable soit les blessures mortelles reçues au combat. Dans tous les
cas, c’est la mémoire du sang guérisseur du Christ, c’est-à-dire du Graal, qui est évoquée, lui
aussi souvent présent dans des scènes de rétablissements miraculeux. Cela ne permet pourtant
pas de conclure qu’un même sens se dégage de tous ces épisodes de guérison par le sang. En
fait, le contexte et les différents éléments mis en œuvre dans chaque représentation accordent
à celle-ci une signification spécifique. Dans ma communication, j’analyserai quelques
épisodes mettant en scène le motif de la guérison par le sang dans le but d’en repérer la
construction et le sens spécifiques. Je prêterai une attention toute particulière à la primauté
accordée à une orientation religieuse ou profane dans chaque épisode, qui trahit le mélange
d’éléments empruntés à des genres différents (le récit courtois, l’exemplum, etc.). Les
variations fourniront des informations précieuses sur le processus d’écriture (de réécriture)
dans le vaste cycle de la Vulgate.
Julia Marvin
THE ARTHUR OF THE OLDEST ANGLO-NORMAN PROSE BRUT CHRONICLE
In its many versions and translations in Anglo-Norman, Middle English, and Latin, the prose
Brut chronicle was the most popular secular work of the late Middle Ages in England – which
means, among other things, that its account of the life of Arthur was the more widely
disseminated than any other. Over 250 manuscripts survive in all. Yet the prose Brut remains
largely unknown in modern Arthurian studies: even Richard J. Moll’s important study of the
“chronicle” Arthur in late-medieval England gives only a few pages to the prose Brut (and
those largely concerned with idiosyncratic versions), although it takes up works like Thomas
Gray’s Scalacronica and John Hardyng’s chronicle, both of which are heavily indebted to the
Brut chronicle.
In a way, this neglect has been no wonder, for scholars have had little to work with
besides F.W.D. Brie’s partially completed EETS edition of the common Middle English
version (1906-8). I have just made a full edition and translation of the oldest version of the
Anglo-Norman prose Brut, from the fall of Troy to the death of Henry III in 1272: this is the
prose Brut from which all subsequent versions of the chronicle derive. What I would like to
do in this paper is introduce its Arthur to an audience of Arthurians who may find him a
provocative and engaging figure.
The prose Brut’s Arthur is far from the largely passive figure of French romance
tradition – but neither is he is simply a version of the warrior king of Wace’s Roman de Brut
(the major source for this portion of the text). I will argue the prose Brut casts Arthur as not
only a conqueror, but a good governor, kind and generous to the poor and helpless, merciful
to the defeated, a bringer of peace and stability, and above all just and attentive to his loyal
baronage. I will focus on the prose Brut’s treatment of a few famous moments out of
Galfridian tradition, ones influential in both romance and chronicle traditions, including
Arthur’s great Pentecost feast and his combat with the giant of Mont-Saint-Michel.
The prose Brut’s reconstitution of Arthur bespeaks a serious engagement with the
moral and social problems posed by romance, particularly that of its chronic violence, but also
that of the isolation and individualism of the adventurous, glory-seeking knight. I believe it
sets out to create a different kind of exemplar in its Arthur, one that addressed the hopes and
fears of its original baronial audience. The chronicle’s longlived popularity suggests that it did
so with great success.
Maud Burnett McInerney
ARTHUR AND COMPANY: THE NINE WORTHIES IN THE ANGLO-BURGUNDIAN
TRADITION
When several unnamed gentlemen demanded of William Caxton that he publish an Arthurian
narrative, they argued that Arthur, of all the Nine Worthies, was particularly deserving of the
printer's attention because he was a British king, “born within this realm and king and
emperor of the same” (Caxton's Preface). The nationalist tendency of this argument is clear.
The conceit of the Nine Worthies, however, while not unknown in insular tradition (it occurs,
for instance, in the Alliterative Morte Arthur) is particularly associated with the artistic and
literary pretensions of the Burgundian court where Caxton learned the printer's art. Caxton’s
English patrons may have been particularly interested in the ancient British king as a model
for a monarchy reimagined in the aftermath of the Wars of the Roses, but the immediate
interest of the Burgundian court in the figure of Arthur is less evident. Identification with
classical worthies like Alexander the great (subject of prose narratives by Jean Wauquelin and
Vasque de Lucène) encouraged an imaginative look to the East, to the wealth of the Ottoman
empire and the possibility of a new Crusade. Arthurian narratives, on the other hand, are scant
(although not entirely lacking) from the Burgundian libraries. In spite of this literary absence,
however, Arthurian themes (if not Arthur himself) appeared with great frequency in court
pageantry (Le Pas du Perron Fée, Le Pas de L’Arbre d’Or) and in the decorative arts
(ceramic tiles, playing cards, etc). This paper will explore the exemplary value of Arthur and
the other worthies to a Burgundian dynasty preoccupied with different questions of
legitimacy, arguing that ideals of chivalry evoked by Arthurian allusion were central to
Burgundian self-invention and especially to Philip the Good's always projected and never
realized Crusade against the Turks. (Nb: this paper will touch briefly on Latin as well as
English and Burgundian texts.)
Elisabeth Michelsson
“TOM A LINCOLN” (BL MS. ADD. 61745)
The manuscript play Tom a Lincoln (BL MS. Add. 61745) was first discovered in 1973
among the papers of Sir John Coke (Secretary of State to Charles I) at Melbourne Hall,
Derbyshire, where they were brought in 1634. It is one of a number of items in a notebook
dated to between 1607 and 1616. The play-text is a transcript amounting to more than 3000
lines in five different hands, one of which belongs to the owner of the notebook, Morgan
Evans, whose name is subscribed at the end of the play. We don’t know when the play was
performed or for what audience it was intended, but internal evidence indicates that it may
have been part of the Christmas revels of Gray’s Inn (where Evans was resident) at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. The authorship of Tom a Lincoln was first attributed to
Thomas Heywood by P.J. Croft in 1973 when the notebook containing the play was up for
sale at Sothebys, but other possible authors have been suggested.
The play has its special appeal not only in the mystery of its progenitor – probably a
contemporary of Shakespeare – but also in the author’s choice of subject matter and in the
way it is handled. Generically a tragicomedy, the play was probably written by and/or for law
students at Gray’s Inn sometime between 1607 and 1616. It presents a hero, Tom a Lincoln,
who is the bastard son of King Arthur, the king of chivalric romance, who is here made into a
butt for the jokes of Rusticano, the play’s clown. As professor Richard Proudfoot says in his
introduction to the play in the Malone society edition, the obvious source for the anonymous
play is Richard Johnson’s Tom a Lincoln, the Red Rose Knight.
Patricia Michon
LA CONDAMNATION DES AMANTS DE CORNOUAILLES DANS LES “TRISTANS”
DE LANGUES ROMANES
Depuis le poème de Béroul, Tristan et Yseut sont condamnés au bûcher par le roi Marc de
Cornouailles. Le Tristan en prose française provoque cette scène par une série d’épisodes que
nous retrouvons modifiés dans les textes de langues romanes, El Cuento de Tristan de Leonis
aragonais, El Libro del esforzado cavallero don Tristan de Leonis castillan, Il Tristano
Riccardiano, Il Tristano Panciatichiano et La Tavola Ritonda, tous trois italiens. Nous nous
proposons, dans cet exposé, d’analyser ces différents textes. En effet, en les confrontant, nous
constatons que les Tristans hispaniques et italiens ont un ancêtre commun dérivé de la version
en prose française. Cet ancêtre a malheureusement disparu, et seuls ses descendants trahissent
son existence. En outre, les versions diffèrent quelque peu d’une péninsule à l’autre, et l’étude
comparée de nos romans nous invite à émettre plusieurs hypothèses sur la manière dont cet
ancêtre disparu a franchi les Alpes et les Pyrenées. Une telle approche nous donne ainsi la
possibilité de surprendre les auteurs dus Moyen Age dans leur travail de création et de
remaniement.
Barbara D. Miller
EL BALADRO DEL SABIO MERLÍN (THE SHRIEK OF THE SAGE MERLIN): IMAGE
AND TEXT OF THE 1498 BURGOS INCUNABLE
The unique, earliest intact edition of the Spanish Post-Vulgate Merlin adaptation can be seen
from several perspectives. For scholars of French, its primary interest may be the otherwise
lost material of sections originating as thirteenth-century translations. For Hispanists, a
primary issue is the work’s status as a refundición, given its numerous Iberian features. For
instance the interpolated Estoria de dos amadores (taken from the Spanish novela
sentimental), is connected to the famous “tale of the shriek”, here fully narrated (perhaps by a
Spanish author).
The original woodcut engravings interspersed throughout the 1498 Baladro may
interest scholars considering the interplay between text and mage, or reworkings as a textual
category, as well as early books generally.
The proposed presentation will include incunable photographs taken by permission at
the Biblioteca Universitaria de Oviedo. It will address the bibliographic description of this
literary and historical treasure, as well as explore questions of the relationship between image,
story, and history in the context of Ferdinand’s and Isabella’s Spain.
Megan Moore Becker
REWRITING ARTHUR: FLORIANT ET FLORETE’S REMAKING OF FRANCOBYZANTINE RELATIONS OF POWER
In the course of the twelfth-century, French crusaders invaded, sacked, and destroyed many
precious Byzantine cities, perhaps none more violently than Byzantium’s beloved capital,
Constantinople. Yet most medieval French literature depicts the interactions between Franks
and Byzantines as harmonious, gift-giving accords through which women and property are
exchanged in marriage, as in the twelfth-century Arthurian romance Cligés of Chrétien de
Troyes. By the thirteenth century, however, the strain the crusades placed on historical
Franco-Byzantine interactions comes out and shines through many medieval French tales.
One such tale in particular, Floriant et Florete, rewrites many of the Arthurian tales (such as
Erec et Enide, Perceval, Claris et Laris, and, even, Cligés), often copying from them directly,
but changes them slightly for a new, thirteenth-century context in what is known as the
process of translatio. Critics have overlooked Floriant et Florete as a romance which offers
only a tedious copy of older, better-known romances. Yet Floriant et Florete, through
translatio, offers extremely fertile ground for investigating the ways that the Arthurian legend
– and specifically the figure of King Arthur himself – was manipulated to draw attention to
the Franks’ historical and political failings in maintaining dominance over the crusader states
in the late thirteenth century. In Floriant et Florete, this transition is mapped onto the figure
of Arthur, who is rewritten from the peace-loving, avid story-hearer and hunter we see
repeated throughout twelfth-century romance to a war-mongering colonialist who seeks to
colonize and capture Greek lands and control of Sicily, being literally described with fear as a
“world conqueror” when he appears on Sicilian shores with his men.
In keeping with the second major theme of this congress, the interplay between
matières and genres, I read this transformation as informative and fertile material for
understanding the ways that historical events (the matière described in Floriant et Florete,
specifically the fight between France and Byzantium for the control of Sicily) predicated
certain generic and thematic shifts within thirteenth-century Arthurian romance. I use
postcolonial and feminist theory to explore the ways that a parallel reading of Cligés and
Floriant et Florete underscores the way that narrative content dictates form, and I suggest,
through my reading, that the “Byzantine romances” of medieval French literature trace an
evolutionary path of Arthur as a narrative figure who reflects the ways that Franks and
Byzantines interacted not only in literature, but in history as well.
Stefano Mula
DINADAN ABROAD: THE TAMING OF A COUNTER-HERO
The legend of Tristan and Iseult, and the exaltation of their adulterous relationship was
certainly not to everybody’s taste during the Middle Ages, so much so that the great Chrétien
de Troyes wrote a roman, the Cligés, that can be rightfully called an Anti-Tristan. In the 13th
century, the legend is partially drowned in the lengthy prose versions of the story, where the
love story has a less relevant role, while chivalric exploits and the Arthurian world become
the center of the work. At the same time, from the inside of this world, a new transgressor
appears: Dinadan. Clearly under the influence of chivalric culture, Dinadan leaves his
homeland to go in search of Tristan, but as soon as he finds him, he discovers that in the real
world of an Arthurian hero not all that glitters is gold, and from then on he becomes the most
vocal critic of his fellow knights’ behavior. In this paper, we will follow Dinadan’s
adventures not in the wondrous woods of Arthur’s land, but in the even more dangerous lands
of intertextuality and translation. From the Italian Tavola ritonda to the Spanish Cuento de
Tristan to Malory’s Morte Darthur, we will see how different authors and different cultures
tried to silence or at least reduce the impact of the most curious and fun character of the
Tristan legend.
Ariadne Carneiro do Nascimento
MERLIN OR THE BARREN LAND: A CARNIVAL VIEW OF THE LEGEND
This work aims to point the dialogue and the intertextuality between Merlin or the barren
land, by the contemporary German Tankred Dorst, and the King Arthur myth. The analysis
shows a literary composition full of intertextuality concerning the whole King Arthur myth
context – a comic and simplistic view of the legend. Besides, similar features to those on
François Rabelais’ works are found. For instance: informal language; rudeness; injury,
hyperbolic phrases; contrast game between degradation and elevation.
Since these characteristics remit to Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept about carnival, the
Grotesque Realism and Carnivalisation shown by him will be discussed and the parody theory
by Linda Hutcheon as well. According to Bakhtin, the hierarchy inversion is one of the
carnival party characteristics during the Middle Age and Renaissance. Therefore, the carnival
shows the world upside down and it provokes exaggeration related to the low part of the body.
The parody profanes the original texts (related to the legend), discredits the characters:
they lose their authority but we cannot declare it destroys the original texts. There is a paradox
of the parody because it criticizes the myth, but venerates, ratifies and renovates its
importance through a creation of a new model.
But what does Tankred Dorst criticize? The round table is presented as unique symbol
and it denotes a utopian image of democracy. Sitting in a circle, every knight has the same
rights. When these objective promises are to become reality they are destroyed by the same
civilization which has created them because they join the democracy ideal to the utopian
progress.
The book deals with the human nature and these are the reasons why ambition,
obscure relations, passion, intrigue and power thirst are shown. These human characteristics
make impossible the democracy and they destroy the utopia and the human kind.
Marco Nievergelt
THE SECULAR ORDERS OF CHIVALRY, THE KNIGHTING CEREMONY AND SIR
GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
A connection between Sir Gawain and the order of the Garter has been assumed repeatedly,
based on indirect references and allusions found in the text. Rather than attempting to situate
the poem more precisely in its relationship to specific historical figures connected to the
Order of the Garter, I propose an examination of the nature, significance and purpose of these
references within and outside of the text. In fact the poem, rather than referring exclusively
and directly to the Order of the Garter, seems to allude to several different Secular Orders of
Chivalry founded in the mid-fourteenth century. These references, that take the form of the
inclusion of specific symbols, objects and devices also adopted by the Orders, suggest a
concern with Orders of chivalry collectively, rather than with any specific Order. Most of
these oblique references also share a common logic and can be seen as articulations of a
symbolic tying complex. Crucial symbols such as the ‘endeles knot’ and Gawain’s green
girdle both function as symbolic articulations of the notion of ‘tying’ and echo the devices and
symbols adopted by the contemporary Orders.
This idea of ‘tying’ is central also within the symbolic structure of the knighting
ceremony, where the girding with the belt of knighthood, together with the accolade is the
central gesture conferring knighthood. Often single images or symbols in Sir Gawain, such as
the pentangle, the girdle and the beheading, thus seem to be echoing both the knighting
ceremony and the practices and devices of contemporary Orders. By using his symbols in this
manner the poet does not simply juxtapose the two kinds of references, but seems to argue for
a close, pre-existent relationship between the knighting ceremony and the Orders of Chivalry.
This forces us to examine the two issues jointly, and seems to suggest a direct influence of the
knighting ritual and its symbolism on the practices of the Orders. This joint discussion can
help towards a clearer understanding of the actual purpose and nature of the Orders’ activity,
and thus will help to throw light on the ideals and ideology animating them. At the same time
such a discussion invites an interpretation of Gawain’s journey and adventures as a narrative
transposition of a knightly initiation ceremony.
Przemyslaw Nocun
THE LANCELOT PAINTINGS IN POLAND AMONG MEDIEVAL ARTHURIAN WALL
PAINTINGS IN EUROPE
The dwelling tower in Siedlęcin near Jelenia Góra (south-west Poland) is one of the best
preserved examples of such buildings in Central Europe. The basic part in service of
representation in the tower was the big hall, differentiated from others by bigger height and
richer interior decoration.
The medieval paintings with Arthurian motifs were discovered in the hall of the
dwelling tower of Siedlęcin in 1880. It seems that the paintings were supposed to cover all
four walls of the room but the only ones finished were those on the south wall (on both west
and north wall we can see drafts which probably were suppose to serve as a base for further
works.
The polychromes in the big hall of the castle (on the south wall) occupy over 32
square meters. They were all made using the al secco technique. The concept and funds came
from Duke Henry I and his wife in 1345-1346. The artist probably came from north-east of
Switzerland. The paintings were never finished. It seems that after Duke’s death in 1346, the
next owners of the tower wanted to continue the work with the help of one of Swiss master’s
students. Unfortunately neither they managed to finish the works.
The mural paintings on the south wall of great hall show two out of many of
Lancelot’s adventures. The lower band presents one of the first stories – Lancelot and Lionel.
The upper band shows the Kidnapping of Guenevere by Meleagant.
The Lancelot story in Siedlęcin is one of fifteen Arthurian cycles known in Europe and
one of two, showing the story of the most famous Arthurian knight (except Siedlęcin, the
story of Lancelot was also a motif of frescoes in Frugarolo in Italy).
María-Kristina Pérez
MORGAN LA FEY: FEMININE SEXUALITY AND ARTHURIAN REPRESENTATION
In this paper, I propose to explore the pan-European dimensions of the Arthurian tradition
through a study of the changing role and representation of Morgan la Fey in Celtic, Old
French and Middle English literature. I intend to demonstrate that there are many texts in
which the Breton Fairy Mistress is clearly an avatar of Morgan La Fey and that she fills the
function of a Celtic Sovereignty Goddess. I will then explore her reinterpretation as a more
demonized figure in Middle English Arthurian literature, particularly in Malory and Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight.
The analysis will proceed within a psychoanalytic framework using Gilles Deleuze’s
work on masochism and the primary position of the Mother in imposing the Law to supplant
the Lacanian model and subsequent theorization of Courtly Love. I will regard Morgan La
Fey as a symbol of autonomous female sexuality, progressively emptied of any real substance
– like the Courtly Lady – and continually used as a screen for the projection of fundamental
male fear-fantasies. Morgan la Fey provides an important case study not only in terms of the
dissemination of Arthurian legend through different European cultures but, also, from a
feminist perspective, as a study of changing reactions to, and portrayals of, female sexuality
and power. She represents the possibility of exploring the production of the same feminine
entity in different European texts and contexts over a long period of time.
Lacan has posited that “myth is always a signifying system or scheme…which is
articulated so as to support the antinomies of certain psychic relations” (J. Lacan, The Ethics
of Psychoanalysis 1959-1960. The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book VII. trans. D. Porter and
ed. J-A Miller. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992: 143.) and Morgan
La Fey is both a mythological subject and object of the patriarchal ‘mythification’ of Woman.
As a Sovereignty Goddess, Morgan La Fey influenced the development of the Courtly Lady,
which in turn affected the perception of Woman in Western culture. Studying the
transmutation of Morgan La Fey, an enduring powerful, single female character in Arthurian
representation will provide a useful contribution to understanding the medieval European
production of the feminine.
Rupert T. Pickens
ARTHURIAN TIME AND SPACE:
CHRÉTIEN’S PERCEVAL AND WACE’S BRUT
Chrétien de Troyes read Wace’s Rou, and he famously quotes from it in Yvain. He also knew
Brut, but scholars have generally concluded with Margaret Pelan (1931) that he was little
influenced by it. Joseph Duggan (2001) argues in fact that little exists to suggest that Chrétien
really knew Brut at all, but concedes the possibility that Wace produced a vernacular model
for Arthurian narrative and “a framework for the courtly world.”
Yet Perceval’s affinity with Brut is recognized in the manuscript tradition. Seven
Perceval manuscripts transmit romances by Chrétien with works by other writers, and three of
them include Brut. In R, Chrétien’s romances are inserted into Brut after Wace introduces the
12-year peace when Arthur’s “adventures” took place. The first section of H, originally an
independent book, has Perceval serve English history: it opens with the Brut and closes with
Perceval, while in between are dispersed a variety of Anglo-Norman historical texts.
Similarly, A begins with Chrétien’s four early romances, but Perceval is separated from them
and privileged by placement with Brut in a group of other texts endowed with true historical
value.
Arguments dismissing Wace’s influence on Chrétien are based on the paucity of
specific instances of borrowing, but Sara Sturm-Maddox (1984) has shown one way that
Wace’s account of Utherpendragon’s murder profoundly shapes Perceval. My paper expands
her argument and, further, attempts to demonstrate, rather than how Perceval imitates Brut,
how it resonates with it. Brut is an authoritative reference that authenticates events in
Perceval genealogically, chronologically and topographically. Chrétien builds on Brut’s
historical foundations without contradicting it (one exception proves the point), and he
engages Perceval in dialogue with it on issues concerning which Wace falls pointedly, and
uncharacteristically, silent.
Anabela Pinto-Nogueira
CELTIC INFLUENCE ON ARTHURIAN ROMANCE
The main purpose of this communication is to show how Roger Sherman Loomis explains his
theory about the Celtic influence on Arthurian romance, by presenting his studies about
characters, episodes, motives that circulate inside the genre, may contribute to the study of
romance as a genre. As oral narratives, the Celtic ones weren’t romance, but when written,
they created a new genre, away from the historical latin texts. As we see it, the Loomisian
point of view contributes to the study of romance.
The Loomisian Celtic perspective prevents him of seeing what lies underneath Celtic
features, but he surely would have had a deeper work about the ‘matière de Bretagne’ if he
had been born after the structuralism had made its contribution to the enlightenment of the
literary genres.
The Middle Ages’ writers wrote down texts whose tellers, the singers of tales,
probably, were not aware of concepts as tales, novels or romance. When performed, the oral
text serves social purposes, because the collective is assembled to hear a conteur; when read
silently alone, the text serves individual interpretations and cuts its link with orality. Nine
centuries of distance from the time literature irrupted give us the knowledge to recognize the
poetical conscience of the medieval times. Loomis made no reference to the writers’ poetical
concepts of those narratives, but when he considered the Modena relief as the matrix of those
stories, he was making the way to the identification of the narrator’s status, the enunciation
declaration or the rules of speech.
This communication wants to offer its audience Roger Loomis’ theory along with its
subtle contribution of the genre that holds it. The narratives that contained the ‘matière de
Bretagne’ play a hide-and-seek game between oral tradition and formal written texts and
Loomis’ work may open a path to what was studied by others late on his life: the conteurs’
(un)conscience of the genres and their contract with tradition.
Marije Pots
THE MYSTERY OF THE ROUND TABLE IN SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is filled with what we now call Arthurian
characteristics, such as the description of a meal during the opening scene, an unwelcome
guest and a quest for the supernatural. There is, however, one characteristic missing, namely
the Round Table. The Gawain-poet seems to have been in favour of a more traditional tableseating. During the opening scene, King Arthur, his queen and several of his knights are
described as being seated at the high dais, facing all the other visitors placed at side-tables.
What would have been the Gawain-poet’s reason(s) for using this traditional table-seating
instead of the Round Table? Several possible reasons will be discussed during this paper, and
in the meantime the mystery will be unveiled.
Juliette Pourquery de Boisserin
LA MISE EN SCENE DE LA PAROLE DANS LES MINIATURES DU MANUSCRIT BN
FR. 350 DE GUIRON LE COURTOIS
Cette communication portera sur le programme iconographique du manuscrit BN fr. 350 de
Guiron le Courtois, après une rapide présentation de ce dernier.
Nous tenterons de dénouer le paradoxe qui émane de ce programme iconographique:
la parole dans l’image. En effet, la parole est plutôt une donnée abstraite, loin des exigences
d'action, de spectaculaire (dans la mesure où les miniatures sont des scènes qui s’offrent au
regard et qui doivent être frappantes pour l’imagination du lecteur) à l'œuvre dans
l’iconographie des romans de chevalerie. Comment rendre alors ce qui est a priori le plus
abstrait à représenter. L’incarnation de la parole dans les personnages peints prend en charge
cette difficulté. Et nous retrouvons ici cet aspect théâtral – déjà évoqué dans le concept de
«mise en scène» – des miniatures. Comment les personnages qui dialoguent, qui narrent, sontils figurés? Quels sont, au sein de l’image, les signes concrets de la parole? La figure centrale
du chevalier errant conditionne la mise en scène picturale de la parole. L’étude des différents
lieux traversés et de la représentation des chevaux (le cheval comme vecteur de parole,
comme «porte-parole») le montrera. Nous constaterons ainsi la fonction narrative évidente
des scènes et des lieux d’errance aventureuse dans l’iconographie de notre manuscrit. Les
chevaliers chevauchent, se croisent, se parlent. En effet, pour qu’il y ait discussion, il faut
qu’il y ait confrontation entre les personnages, qu’il y ait rencontre. Là se situe toute la
dynamique interne du roman. La rencontre génère les deux grandes tendances narratives de
l’œuvre: elle donne lieu soit à des discussions, soit à des combats (qui, généralement, se
terminent eux-mêmes par des discussions). Dans ce manuscrit, l’image préfère représenter
l’acte de parole, et cela peut surprendre dans un roman de chevalerie. Qu’est-ce que cela
signifie? Nous constaterons qu’une nouvelle métaphore se construit, à travers ce programme
iconographique original, où route et chevauchée symbolisent le récit.
Raluca L. Radulescu
POPULAR ROMANCE IN THE PERCY FOLIO MANUSCRIPT
This paper will explore the context for the reading of romances found in the Percy Folio
manuscript from the perspective of the modern editor. The variations found in other versions
of the same romances, along with the choices made by authors/scribes/editors will be
examined alongside their ‘popular’ or ‘folk-tale’ elements, with a view to revealing those
characteristics which made them more appealing to a wider audience than the one of
aristocratic and gentry households. Furthermore this paper will propose the idea that these
romances contain less challenges to the social order and more escapist elements than
traditional ones. This transformation, I suggest, can be seen as a result of the adaptation of
both form and content to an audience who was less interested in traditionally aristocratic
values (establishing and maintaining lineages and the emphasis on the chivalric code of
behaviour, to take just two examples), but rather in the entertaining value of literature as well
as possible negative views of the governing classes and their values. The issues of kingship
and social structure are tackled in ‘popular’ romances as a means to sometimes ridicule the
well-known characters of King Arthur, Guenevere, and Lancelot, in what I propose should be
seen as a negative assessment of the romance genre in a ‘popular’ environment. Examples
will be drawn from all the romances in the Percy Folio manuscript (from ‘The Grene Knight’
to ‘Boy and Mantle’ and ‘Sir Launcelot Du Lake’) and comparisons made with ‘traditional’
romances.
Sarah Randles
THE TRISTAN LEGEND IN EARLY MODERN EMBROIDERED NARRATIVE
In the Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Leipzig there are two fragments of a tablecarpet, which
together show 21 scenes from the Tristan legend, embroidered in coloured wools and silks.
The table carpet, which Marie Schuette and Sigrid Muller Christensen (1963) state originated
in Alsace, and date 1539, represents the latest remaining work in a long tradition of narrative
Tristan embroideries from the late 13th centuries. As a tablecarpet, this embroidery represents
a type of textile highly fashionable in Europe in the sixteenth century, in which the designs of
knotted oriental carpets were emulated and adapted in embroidery, usually in and for a
domestic context.
This paper will compare the way the visual narrative of the tablecarpet treats elements
of the Tristan legend with those of the earlier narrative embroideries, and the impact of the
different circumstances of production and reception of the different works, in order to assess
the tablecarpet’s significance to our understanding of the visual tradition of Tristan narrative.
Laetitia Rimpau
«DORT IL?» – «DAME, JE NE DORC PAS.»
QUELQUES ASPECTS STRUCTURELS DE LA RENCONTRE ‘FEERIQUE’
Trois chevaliers arthuriens du 12e siècle sommeillent, s’endorment et s’éveillent: Erec,
Guinglain et Lanval. Pendant cette courte période d’absence se passe quelque chose
d’extraordinaire – la rencontre avec le monde féerique, représenté par la «dame blanche».
Après le réveil, l’homme se retrouve dans une situation complètement changée: au début
d’une crise grave ou d’une phase de récompense. D’une part, c’est Erec (dans l’Erec et Enide
de Chrétien de Troyes) qui entend parler de sa ‘recreantise’ après la sieste. Guinglain (dans Le
Bel Inconnu de Renault de Beaujeu) est obligé de quitter l’île d’or après sa rêverie nocturne.
De l’autre part, Erec est libéré de son état de sommeil grâce aux cris d’Enide. Lanval (dans le
lai Lanval de Marie de France) retourne, après sa rêverie, récompensé par la fée à la ville.
Il semble que ce rapport structurel mette en lumière une certaine «logique du rêve »,
dans le sens que l’état de rêverie précède l’aventure chevaleresque. La thèse de ma
communication ira plus loin: Après la fin de l’époque courtoise ce ‘modèle’ reste valable,
aussi pour un genre différent – le roman allégorique. Deux exemples vont être discutés, Le
Roman le de Rose (1230/1270) de Guillaume de Lorris et de Jean de Meun et Le Livre du
Chemin de longue estude (1402) de Christine de Pizan.
Lisa Robeson
CRITICAL APPROACHES TO SIN IN MALORY’S MORTE DARTHUR
From its first publication, editors and critics of Le Morte Darthur have struggled to make
sense of the bewildering moral inconsistencies inherent in the behaviour of Malory’s knights.
Caxton’s Preface, with its virtues and vices jumbled together, attests this struggle. Moreover,
at times the narrative itself makes moral claims that sometimes contradict each other, and
certainly its heroes are not always condemned when they break the work’s stated moral tenets.
The purpose of this paper is to outline the most important critical approaches to the
problem of sin in Malory’s Morte Darthur and to present some implications for current
criticism and for the problem of the Round Table’s fall. Drawing on critical and editorial
reaction from Caxton to the present day, the survey will suggest that critical analyses of sin in
the Morte can be grouped roughly into five categories:
1) “The List,” or the handling of moral inconsistencies by combining a list of virtues
and vices with didactic direction;
2) “Rise and Fall,” an approach critics from Tennyson to Charles Moorman have taken
as they connect the Round Table’s destruction with its vices;
3) “The Ferocious Spirit of the Times,” a perspective favoured by Victorians who
often attributed the Round Table’s sins to the uncivilized spirit of the late Middle Ages but
described its virtues as essentially human characteristics;
4) “Virtue in Strength,” a perspective, appearing in the work of the earliest editors and
recent critics, emphasizing the idea that in Malory’s world goodness is achieved through
physical and psychological strength;
5) “Open Manslaughter and Bold Bawdrye,” the identification of two chief causes of
the fall of the Round Table as violence and desire, an approach taken by the Morte’s first noneditorial critic, Roger Ascham, and recently by Catherine Batt.
Meg Roland
ARTHUR AND THE TURKS
As Le Morte Darthur draws to a close, Arthur's remaining knights are vaguely credited with
having undertaken “many bataylles upon the myscreantes or Turkes.” The only other
reference to the “Turkes” in Morte Darthur occurs in the Roman War account, the site of
Caxton's greatest editorial involvement and the tale of violent encounter between Arthur and
Rome, including Rome's allies from the East. Based on his own prose in Chronicles of
England, Godeffroy of Boloyne, and the Lyf of Charles the Grete, it seems very likely that
Caxton inserted the term “Turkes” into Morte Darthur. In so doing, Caxton positioned Morte
Darthur as part a larger project to advance a particular ideological/linguistic representation of
the East ,thus shaping a key term by which nation and Other were defined.
Robert Rouse
“AS THE FREYNSHE BOOKE SEYTH”: THE PROBLEMATIC USE OF THE
LINGUISTIC OTHER AS TEXTUAL AUCTORITAS IN A MULTILINGUAL CULTURE.’
This paper examines the literary strategies employed by some Arthurian ‘translators’ in their
efforts to establish the authority of their texts through the use of sources in other languages,
and the question of how these strategies can be seen to operate within the multilingual reading
communities of medieval England.
Susann Therese Samples
THE ROLE OF THE COUNTER-CULTURAL IN DEFINING ARTHURIAN IDEOLOGY
IN HEINRICH VON DEM TÜRLIN’S DIU CRÔNE
The terms counter-cultural and ideology are modern, and therefore closely identified with the
twentieth-century. Ideology, especially, in cultural studies such as Said’s Culture and
Imperialism has acquired a different meaning. Nevertheless, these two terms can also be
applied with caution to medieval literature, and for the purposes of my study, to the thirteenthcentury Germanic Arthurian romance, Diu Crône.
In stark contrast to his predecessors, Hartmann von Aue and Wolfram von
Eschenbach, Heinrich portrays a less idealistic and, at times, contradictory Arthurian
ideology. Although almost all of the knights and ladies are flawed, Arthur and his court still
represent the norm for courtly and chivalric behavior in Diu Crône.
In order to study Heinrich’s depiction of Arthurian ideology, I will examine four
counter-cultural characters, two females (Armufina and Giramphiel) and two males (Gasozein
and Fimbeus), whose actions and attitudes threaten the Arthurian ideology. All four characters
share three common and significant counter-cultural or anti-Arthurian characteristics. First of
all, they either threaten or undermine the status quo, the patriarchal courtly society. Secondly,
all characters lack honor or integrity. Finally, they place the importance of self before the
good of the community. I will compare and contrast these three traits in the four characters
Heinrich’s approach to these four characters reveals the complexity and paradoxical
nature of his Arthurian ideology. While Heinrich allows Amurfina and Gawein to be
reintegrated into Arthurian society, Giramphiel and Fimbeus are defeated but – no doubt more
troubling – remain unrepentant and poised to do more harm to Arthur’s court. Again, my
study will demonstrate the Heinrich created a much more flexible Arthurian ideology which
in turn reflects his vision of courtliness.
Herbert Sarfatij
WALKING WITH TRISTAN
THE IMAGE OF “THE TRYST BENEATH THE TREE” PRINTED ON LATE MEDIEVAL
FOOT-WEAR
Archaeological investigations at different locations in the Netherlands and Belgium have
revealed parts of late medieval foot-wear (slippers of leather) ornamented with a peculiar and
special type of decoration. In all cases the image shows a man and a woman playing chess (or
any other form of board play) sitting in front of a huge tree at either side of what seems to be a
fountain. After analysis of the image I could make clear that in it a representation is given of
the well known “tryst beneath the tree”-scene from the later Tristan stories. This scene as a
solitary picture is well known in different forms, on different materials, and in different places
dispersed all over Europe, but printed on leather and particularly on slippers it was a complete
novelty. Moreover, the archaeological record shows that the area where these leather objects
were found is restricted to the river delta between the (Old) Rhine in the North (Netherlands)
and the Scheldt in the South (Belgium). Five pieces from late medieval towns and two from
villages that submerged since the late middle ages are known so far.
The paper will deal with a presentation of the image in general, the differences in
detail, and the connection with the Tristan. The inscriptions on the pieces – all bear texts –
will be discussed in short. From one of the inscriptions it is clear that there is a connection
with a literary source, i.e. with Der minnen loep by Dirc Potter. This source, however, is not a
version of the Tristan and from that arises the question whether the image that was depicted
follows an unknown text, or is the sustaining text purely following the tale of the image. This
will be a point of discussion. And a last and small part of the paper will be dedicated to the
possible meaning of ornamented dress components like these at special occasions in life and
particularly in matters of love and marriage. (Herbert Sarfatij, ‘Tristan op vrijersvoeten? Een
bijzonder versieringsmotief op Laat-Middeleeuws schoeisel uit de Lage Landen’, in: Ad
fontes; Opstellen aangeboden aan prof.dr. C. van de Kieft ter gelegenheid van zijn afscheid
als hoogleraar in de middeleeuwse geschiedenis aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, 1984, 371-400.)
Barbara N. Sargent-Baur
NARRATIVE VOICES IN BEROUL’S TRISTRAN
The Tristran story as Beroul handles it is full of voices; this is a factor contributing
importantly to the extraordinary vivacity of his narrative.
There is, first, “Berox” himself, twice called in as witness to the accuracy of the
account we readers have before us. His is the voice of unchallengeable authority, whereas
other tellers of the story are mistaken concerning Tristran’s treatment of the lepers (ll. 126570) and by implication are not to be trusted generally. “Berox” has seen the written story,
according to which never before did two people love each other so much, or pay for it so
dearly (1789-92).
This figure is presumably to be taken as identical to the general narrator whose
presence dominates the narrative, even when his characters are speaking. He explains, he
exclaims, he interjects, he curses, he keeps the reader anxious with “what/if?” asides, he
recalls past actions, he anticipates coming events.
And then there are the characters themselves, both actors and narrators. As actors they
can communicate truly or falsely what they want other characters to know and believe, as
does Yseut in the scene of her escondit: her speech is literally true, supported as it is by a
previous charade. Characters can retell from their own perspective events already
communicated to us by the narrator, as in the fourfold repetition of the first episode, the tryst
under the pine tree. The characters are explainers as well: Gornemant first fixes the severed
head of some anonymous enemy where Tristran is sure to see it upon awakening, then gives a
succinct account of what he has done (1707-46). Sometimes they can deliberately and
skillfully mislead, as do the lovers in the first preserved episode, and as does Yseut in the final
section. Tristran going to his execution lies his way from his escort into the chapel; Tristranas-leper gives a fictitious life story, and participates in the drama staged by Yseut. Even the
hermit Ogrin recommends lying as policy, speaking in one register to Tristran and writing in
another to King Mark.
My paper will look at the polyphony of voices in this complicated text.
Shigemi Sasaki
ECRITS ET VOIX NARRATIVES DANS LE ROMAN DE TRISTAN EN PROSE
Les célèbres épisodes § 39 à 45, se composent , dans leurs grands linéaments, des deux
songes: 1) celui de Galaad (§ 40, ll. 64-77) et 2) celui d’Arthur (§ 44, ll. 37-52), ainsi que de
l’écrit conservé à Kamaloot.
Entre ces premières révélations se situe celle d’une “damoisele” (§ 41, l. 50), dont
l’identité nous restera inconnue jusqu’à l’épisode § 42. Il s’agit en fait de la fille du roi de
Norgales, prise dans le Château Félon qui intercède par la suite auprès du libérateur qu’est
Galaad (§ 42). Sa présence sert à faire savoir aux cinq cents prisonnières qu’elles seront
délivrées par lui (§ 41, ll. 50-53), autre tâche qui incombe au héros proprement dit de détruire
le Château maudit (§ 40, l. 71). Le dernier paragraphe (ll. 46-60) du § 42 est consacré à faire
découvrir le nom de ce personnage et au bref rappel de son aventure, suivie de celle des trois
tentatives d’Arthur.
Avant l’arrivée du héros, la “damoisele” a averti les détenues de leur délivrance par
Galaad ainsi que la “vengance” de Dieu par son entremise, celui-ci, intrigué, leur demande:
qui avait pu le dire à la “ damoisele”. Les interrogées restent dans l’impossibilité de répondre
à sa question: “Et cil en laissent atant la parole.” (l. 60). La prédiction ,en effet, demeure
mystérieuse, dans la mesure où elle est simultanée à la mort subite de la “damoisele”. Ni “li
contes” ni le narrateur,donc, ne conduisent le récit, mais les triples annonces oniriques et
orales savamment agencées qui sont communiquées aux personnages respectifs.
Au moment du troisième échec de réfection par Arthur du Château maudit(§ 44) se
produit le songe qui le dissuade de le recommencer. La “vois” (l. 39) d’un caractère
prophétique qu’a entendue Arthur est confirmée par les “nouvelles” (l. 54) relatives à cette
entreprise. Ce n’est qu’alors qu’intervient l’écriture sur l’ordre du roi Arthur. Le roi de Gaule
assumera le rêve séculaire des Arthuriens. Le traitement complexe des jalons qui guident les
héros et les lecteurs nous invitent à reprendre de plus près le texte.
Voichita-Maria Sasu
VERS UNE NOUVELLE ETHIQUE COURTOISE
Sur la toile de fond d’un monde qui, au début du XIIIe siècle, a encore pour repères les
cérémonies, les fêtes, les tournois et l’étiquette définissant, en cohésion avec le merveilleux et
une éthique spécifique, l’idéologie du roman arthurien, se dessine un mouvement puissant qui
rend visibles des changements inhérents survenus dans cette éthique.
L’être en évolution s’oppose à un paraître immuable et les grandes lignes de l’éthique
courtoise reçoivent un nouveau contenu déterminé par de nouveaux rapports (amour/sexe,
honneur/déshonneur, fidélité/soumission, etc.), jusqu’au merveilleux dont l’intérêt se déplace,
de la manifestation de ses aspects au but de sa présence.
Cette nouvelle éthique courtoise sera poursuivie dans Les Merveilles de Rigomer, Le
Livre de Caradoc et Glinglois.
Martin Schuhmann
NEUTRALE ENGEL UND NEUTRALE ERZÄHLER - CHRÉTIEN, WOLFRAM, DIE
QUELLENANGABEN IM PARZIVAL UND TREVRIZENTS WIDERRUF
an dem ervert nû Parzivâl / diu verholnen mære um den grâl heißt es ungefähr in der Mitte von
Wolframs Parzival (453,19f.). Gemeint ist Parzivals Onkel Trevrizent, der seinem Neffen
ausführlich vom Gral erzählt. Bevor aber Wolfram nach dem zitierten Vers Trevrizent über den
Gral sprechen lässt, legt Wolfram die Quellen für seine Konzeption des Grals dar: Flegetanis, ein
Jude, hatte die Geschichte des Grals in den Sternen gesehen und sie in heidnischen Schriftzeichen
aufgezeichnet; diese Handschrift fand in Toledo ein gewisser Kyot, der dann der Überlieferung in
britannischen, französischen und irischen Chroniken nachging, bis er in Anschouwe die Wahrheit
über das Gralsgeschlecht fand.
Diese Quellenangaben hat Wolfram erfunden, wie wir heute mit einigem Recht vermuten.
Aber warum? Warum steht bei den Quellenfiktionen fast nichts über den Gral, nur etwas darüber,
wer ihn auf die Erde brachte und wer ihn jetzt bewacht? Warum lässt Wolfram seine Figur
Trevrizent etwas Ähnliches über die ersten Hüter des Grals, die neutralen Engel erzählen – und
warum lässt Wolfram das Trevrizent am Ende des Buches widerrufen?
Mein Vortrag sucht einen Lösungsvorschlag, um die vielen verschiedenen Stimmen, die
hier zu ähnlichen Themen ertönen, zusammen zu bringen: Ich möchte – methodisch unter
anderem auf Bachtin und Genette zurückgreifend – zeigen:
 wie der Autor hier die Verantwortung für Inhalte, die als fragwürdig und problematisch
empfunden werden könnten, auf verschiedene Stimmen innerhalb des Werks – Träger von
Quellenfiktionen und Figuren - verlagert;
 wie er diese Stimmen als ein Mittel benutzt, um sich von seiner vermutlichen Quelle, dem
Perceval von Chrétien de Troyes, zu distanzieren
 und wie er durch diese Aufteilung auf verschiedene Stimmen und durch Trevrizents Widerruf
es schafft, Inhalte bewusst zu machen und zu problematisieren und so für den Rezipienten
polyperspektivisch darzustellen.
Sabine Seelbach
DAZ MÎNEM NAMEN REHTE STÊ. ZUR PRODUKTIVEN ANVERWANDLUNG
LITERARISCHER KONTINGENZERFAHRUNG IM WIGALOIS WIRNTS VON
GRAVENBERG
Auch avancierte Forschung liest den Wigalois Wirnts von Gravenberg noch immer vor dem
Hintergrund der Chrétienschen ‘conjointure’ und nimmt daher vor allem die erzählerische
Emanzipation (früher: das Strukturdefizit) wahr, die inhaltlich mit einer Entproblematisierung
des Helden einhergehe. Die Auseinandersetzung mit der literarischen Tradition scheint jedoch
eine komplexere, moralphilosophische Dimension zu besitzen. Der Beitrag soll der Frage
nachgehen, ob diese Entproblematisierung tatsächlich mit Dispens vom Ethik-Diskurs der
Romane Chrétienscher Prägung gleichzusetzen ist. An ausgewählten Passagen wird vielmehr
die produktive Aufnahme der entsprechenden literarischen Erfahrung nachgewiesen und zu
zeigen versucht, daß der Wigalois lediglich eine andere Antwort auf die Probleme
menschlicher Kontingenzerfahrung in der Welt anbietet.
Martin B. Shichtman
CAMELOT: SINGING AND DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Camelot opened on Broadway in December 1960 to
sellout audiences and generally favorable reviews. It has become almost a commonplace that
the play became famous because its themes of idealism were self-consciously echoed in the
political rhetoric of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Joshua Logan’s 1967 film version of
the play, however, premiered to an America in turmoil, as the administration of Lyndon
Johnson continued to press a losing war effort in Vietnam. In the film version of Camelot, the
play’s glorifications of authority, loyalty, martial prowess, and love ring more hollow than
they did in 1960. Pressed by the weight of current events, the film is unable to sustain the
idealism of the Broadway production, and the genre of romance makes the uncomfortable
shift to irony.
Elizabeth S. Sklar
RECEPTION AND REJECTION IN “SWORD OF LANCELOT”
Sword of Lancelot, produced by Bernard Luber and starring Cornell Wilde (who also served
as director and co-producer), is arguably one of the better pre-1980’s Anglophone Arthurian
films. Released in 1963, it remains remarkably faithful to Malory’s Morte Darthur with
respect to the details of fictive history and thematics. Unlike many Arthurian films (such as its
predecessor Knights of the Round Table or its successor, Excalibur), Sword of Lancelot
eschews epic grandeur in favor of a storyline that centers upon the relationship between
Lancelot and Guinevere – indeed, it was released in the UK as Lancelot and Guinevere –
thereby achieving a coherent focus relatively rare in film treatments of the Matter of Arthur. It
presents us with a mature Arthur (Brian Ahern), credibly torn between the conflicting
demands of marital affection on the one hand and statesmanship on the other. The
performances are decent, the mise en scene is plausible, and the script is literate. If Sword of
Lancelot is not the greatest exemplar of Arthurian cinema, neither is it among the worst. It
opened to positive contemporary critical reviews, and has been favorably regarded by
subsequent film scholars. Despite its cinematic and critical successes, however, it made a
disappointing box office showing, failing to stir or draw the movie-going public. Examining
the cinematic and cultural contexts from which and into which Sword of Lancelot was issued,
this paper will argue that the lukewarm reception of this film is attributable more to the timing
of its production and release than to any inherent imperfections: simply put, Arthurian cinema
at this critical juncture was unable to address the concerns of a culture on the cusp of radical
transition.
Alison Stones
THE LANCELOT-GRAIL PROJECT
This talk outlines some of the results of the comparative text-picture analysis we began
several years ago under the heading the Lancelot-Grail Project. Our matrix is now developed
and the implementation phase is well under way. We are now able to make a number of
observations about the comparative approaches taken in our three pilot-project manuscripts in
which the differences of pictorial emphasis reflect, we think, the demands of the patrons
whose interests appear to focus in very different spheres: one copy was most likely made for a
high-ranking official for whom legal issues, legitimacy, land transfer and such were critical;
another appears to be more interested in spiritual questions and may have been a member of
the clergy, while the third copy displays an interesting relationship to the other two copies in
terms of its more limited choice of pictorial subjects overall.
Here we outline some of these major findings in relation to selected passages of the
Lancelot-Grail text, we detail the technical aspects of the structure of our web site, and we
outline our plans for the future development of the project, beginning with the Rennes and Le
Mans copies which were digitally photographed for the project in the summer of 2004.
Chantal Souchon
LE SONGE DE RONCEVAUX: PASSAGES ONIRIQUES DE LA GESTE
Elaborations mystérieuses et souvent fascinantes du merveilleux de l’œuvre médiévale, rêves
et visions s’écrivent aussi en contrepoint aux élucidations et (ré)solutions de figures
traditionnellement typisées en herméneutes. L’interprétation des récits tristaniens par exemple
l’a déjà fort bien montré en notant que “[…] l’énigme se confond avec un texte à déchiffer”
(Jean-Charles Huchet). Non pas tant ou seulement comme enclaves de l’irrationel dans
l’agencement narratif. L’énigme dont le texte onirique se fait écriture peut être vue comme
passage vers une autre rationalité.
Corrélativement à l’âpreté du fracas des armes, songes et visions, ou même
prémonitions et pressentiments, donnent à la geste son autre pensée, ou son autre violence, au
lieu même de sa dimension historique, où elle peut ainsi advenir et devenir, à l’instar de la vie
“l’ombre d’un songe” et en tant qu’accomplissement du secret ou de l’indicible, autre geste.
Joseph M. Sullivan
YOUTH IN CHRETIEN’S YVAIN, HARTMANN’S IWEIN, AND THE OLD SWEDISH
HÆRRA IVAN (1303)
Youthful indiscretion is an important leitmotif of Chrétien de Troyes’s Le Chevalier au Lion.
This paper argues that both the Middle High German and, particularly, the Old Swedish
redactors of Yvain realized the presence in Chrétien’s text of that pointed critique of youth and
took pains in their own redactions to soften it.
To prove my thesis, I conduct a comparative analysis from the three texts of several
episodes in which youth arguably leads to dire consequences. These include, for instance,
Calogrenant’s adventure. While Chrétien emphasizes the relatively large period of time that
has elapsed since Calogrenant completed that ill-fated adventure – thus highlighting the
disastrous inexperience and youth of the knight – the Old Swedish poet, for example, reduces
the impression of time passed between Calogrenant’s riding out and his retelling of the
adventure, thus eliminating the impression that Calogrenant was a particularly young knight at
the time of the adventure. By downplaying that reference to youth, the Northern poet chooses
to neutralize an item that would have led audiences to see his rehabilitated Calogrenant in the
unfavorable light into which Chrétien had originally cast him. For his part, Hartmann, retains
the impression of an extended period of time between the adventure and its retelling, but since
his Calogrenant character emerges as a much more prudent warrior than Chrétien’s
Calogrenant had been, Hartmann too diffuses any criticism of youth in the episode.
I also investigate, for example, the issue of youth in the Pesme Aventure. While in
Chrétien, it is the youthful lust for adventure of the young king from the Isle of Maidens that
arguably leads to the doleful imprisonment and exploitation of many of his female subjects,
especially in the Old Swedish reworking the king’s youth plays a lesser role. Indeed, the Old
Swedish text conspicuously fails to make a connection between the king’s youth and foolish
behavior. The choice of the Old Swedish poet here to eliminate criticism of youth accords
with the overall plan of his romance, which, in distinct contrast to Chrétien’s original, tends to
extol both the virtues of youth and the virtues of advanced years.
In my discussion, I also make passing reference to some of the other reworkings of
Yvain (e.g., the Middle English, the Old Norse, and the Welsh). Both Hartmann’s and the Old
Swedish version of the Yvain are full-length, verse redactions of Chrétien’s original. While
Hartmann’s version has long been a central object of study among Germanists, there is
surprisingly little recent research on the important Old Swedish version from 1303.
Thea Summerfield
AN AWKWARD LEGEND. TELLING KING JAMES V ABOUT KING ARTHUR
In the early years of the reign of young King James V (1528-1542) two vernacular
translations were made almost simultaneously of Hector Boece's Scotorum Historia,
published in Paris in 1527. One was in prose, the other in verse. Both works were
commissioned by the king, or people closely associated with him, both are medieval in
content and concept. In my paper I shall focus on the way in which each translator deals with
a king whose formidable reputation was irksome and problematic to the Scots: King Arthur.
Roberto Tagliani
UN TEMOIN PEU ETUDIE DE LA TRADITION TRISTANIENNE EN ITALIE: LE
TRISTANO CORSINIANO
Ma communication se propose d’explorer les raisons du faible succès de la traduction en
vulgaire du nord de l’Italie d’une célèbre partie du Roman de Tristan en prose, connue par la
critique comme Tristano Corsiniano. La traduction, concernant l’épisode du tournoi de
Louverserp (Löseth §§ 361-381), est conservée en attestation unique par le manuscrit 55.k.5
(Rossi 35) de la Bibliothèque de l’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana de Rome.
Longtemps négligé ou presque par la critique, qui l’a jugé une attestation ancillaire de
la tradition tristanienne, le Tristano Corsiniano présente des traits remarquables qui en font un
cas tout à fait intéressant dans le contexte de la circulation de la matière arthurienne en Italie:
1) son aspect linguistique, que les savants ont généralement attribué au milieu
vénitien, mais qui apparaît, à la lumière de l’analyse que je viens d’effectuer en vue d’une
nouvelle édition critique, bien plus facetté;
2) ses illustrations et ses enluminures, qui présentent des traits assez particuliers;
3) sa destination, qu’il faudrait rechercher dans un milieu moyen-bourgeois plus
interessé aux exploits chevaleresques de caractère presque épique qu'aux intrigues
sentimentales du roman courtois.
Masako Takagi
BELYNE AND BRYNE’S ROMAN CAMPAIGN: HOW IT AFFECTED CAXTON’S
TREATMENT OF THE “TALE OF KING ARTHUR AND THE EMPEROR LUCIUS”
A manuscript of the Chronicles of England, which is considered to be close to Caxton’s
exemplar, contains Belyn and Brenne’s Roman campaign, but this version is much longer
than what Caxton published in his Chronicles of England. As the version in the manuscript
contained rather a disgraceful narrative for the Britons, it seems reasonable that someone
omitted that particular part, and softened the tone of the narrative considerably. This paper
discusses through textual analysis that it must be Caxton who deliberately made this change.
In the meantime, it aims to trace how and for what reason Caxton played his role as an editor.
Isamu Takahashi
THE ‘HEROINIC’ QUEST: REGINALD HEBER’S ARTHURIAN POEMS
In England during the 1810s, Reginald Heber (1783-1826), a minor poet and Anglican priest,
composed two Arthurian poems: one is a Spenserian romance Morte D’Arthur, the other a
Christmas entertainment entitled The Masque of Gwendolen. His romance was a brave
attempt at that time to tackle the Arthurian cycle head on, but regrettably remained
unfinished. One of the probable reasons for abandoning the poem is that it has a considerably
personal theme, which reflects the dilemma(s) the author was faced with. Its story, perhaps
unusually, focuses on the psychology of Ganora (i.e., Guenevere), who is stuck in the (wellknown) love triangle. Representing Heber’s own psyche, Ganora is as it were destined to be
trapped in the predicament forever, since the original legend is decidedly bound to reach a
tragic ending. Here we can perceive a generic collision between a romance (internalized to a
great degree) and a tragedy. But it is this ‘internalization’ that afforded him a means to depict
legendary figures with a considerable vivacity, something that has often been praised by
critics as a precursor of Tennyson’s or Morris’s Arthurian characterizations. The motif of the
love triangle is nonetheless repeated in his Masque, where the heroine (note his significant
preference for a heroine) is allowed to meet a happy ending. This is of course partly due to its
source material, the Percy ballad Marriage of Sir Gawaine, but also, I would argue, because
of the genre in which the poetic drama is written. While paying an unmistakable homage to
Milton’s ‘masque’, Heber’s rather faithfully follows the mode of English pantomime. The
festive tone of Christmas pantomime seems to have enabled Heber to achieve the necessary
happy ending as well as the comic and yet convincing psychological description of the
dramatis personae – the heroine, Lady Gwendolen, among others.
Toshiyuki Takamiya
TOWARDS THE DIGITAL WINCHESTER
At the last congress held at Bangor the Round Table session called ‘After the “Malory”
Debate’ which I conducted went more than successful, focusing on the directions in which
future studies of Malory should be directed. In the second half of this session, it was
generally agreed that we still want a ‘definitive edition’ of Malory’s Morte Darthur.
Of the four editions of Malory published in the last decades, three are based on
Winchester (Vinaver, Cooper, Shepherd: those of Cooper and Shepherd are closer to student
editions than to full critical editions) and one on Caxton (Spisak and Matthews). The 1969
Penguin Classic edition, still in print, is based on the Caxton edition. Other critics are also
divided; the majority of critics use Vinaver’s edition. but Matthews is supported by Robert
Kendrick, and both C.S. Lewis and R. M. Lumiansky wrote in favour of the Caxton version.
Thus, any reader wishing to study Malory’s work in any detail, and any scholar wishing to
write on or to cite Malory’s text, will need to confront the differences between the two
versions.
With this problem in mind, I proposed to make a digital facsimile of the Winchester
MS and Caxton’s edition, which should be made available on CD-ROM, together with
transcripts from these versions and some relevant materials. This idea was unanimously
supported by the audience of the congress.
The HUMI Project of Keio University, of which I serve as Director, successfully
digitised the Winchester MS last November, thanks to permission and encouragement of the
British Library. Then Professor Peter Field, Professor Peter Robinson and myself formed a
team in applying for a research grant to make the digital Winchester facsimile come true.
There should be many different desiderata among Malory scholars who would like to
use such a facsimile as a do-it-yourself collation kit. In this Round Table session we are
expected to discuss merits of the digital facsimile and incorporate desiderata into the
completed form on the Internet and CD-ROM.
Jane H.M. Taylor
ANTIQUARIAN ARTHUR: PUBLISHING THE ROUND TABLE IN SIXTEENTHCENTURY FRANCE
Among the more popular vernacular reading-matter of the sixteenth century are the great
prose romances: Lancelot en prose, Tristan en prose, Perceforest, Ysaïe le Triste ... How were
these romances read? How did publishers introduce them to their readership? In this paper, I
shall start with Antoine Vérard’s prologue(s) to his edition of the Lancelot en prose (1488),
and use this, and the prologues to others of the late romances, to consider how it was that their
printers saw these nicely antiquarian texts.
Hélène Tétrel
L’HISTORIA REGUM BRITANNIAE EN SCANDINAVIE MEDIEVALE: NOTE SUR LA
VERSION AM 573 4TO DE LA «SAGA DES BRETONS»
La chronique Galfrédienne a été transmise en Scandinavie médiévale sous le titre Saga(s) des
Bretons, dans deux versions manuscrites principales: la version «Hauksbok», très résumée et
composée sous l’autorité de Haukr Erlendsson, éditée entre 1892 et 1896 par E. et F. Jónsson.
L’autre, non éditée encore, est représentée par le manuscrit médiéval AM 573 4to, qui est
lacunaire, et qu’on complète parfois grâce à d’autres passages conservés en copie.
Une étude de cette dernière version manuscrite permet d’éclairer considérablement les
rapports entre les différentes versions sous lesquelles l’Historia est parvenue en Scandinavie,
et surtout, les deux utilisations différentes qui en furent faites. AM 573 4to et Hauksbók
présentent en effet des divergences majeures. On pourrait résumer schématiquement la nature
de ces divergences en avançant qu’elles sont le fait d’une double réception: d’une part, une
réception «historiographique», celle de Haukr, et de l’autre, une réception plus «romanesque»,
celle d’AM 573 4to, dont la perspective rejoint sensiblement celle de nos romans.
Je m’attacherai plus particulièrement à développer les conséquences de cette double
réception, en mettant l’accent sur la version «longue» et «romanesque» de la saga, en faisant
l’étude de quelques-uns des mécanismes de l’allongement et de l’interpolation, et en
identifiant les sources lorsque cela sera possible. La partie «arthurienne», qui présente çà et là
d’évidentes connexions avec les romans bretons, offre ainsi quelques exemples intéressants
qu’il faudra comparer avec nos modèles français, tandis que d’autres passages (en particulier
«l’Enéide» et la «Brutiade») présentent des interpolations nourries de lectures antiques et de
leurs commentaires.
Neil Thomas
DIE GAWAN-FIGUR ZWISCHEN DEM CONTE DU GRAAL, PARZIVAL UND SIR
GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
Der Vortrag praesentiert in stark gekuerzter Form provisorische Ergebnisse eines
Forschungsprojekts, das eine diachrone Analyse des Ritters Gauvain/Gawan/Gawain mit
Bezug auf die ideologischen Gestaltungen des Artusstoffes auf den drei Sprachgebieten
bringen soll. Von der vielfachen Donquichotterie der franzoesischen Fassung ausgehend,
komme ich zur deutschen Bearbeitung, wo der Nebenheld dank etlichen Erneuerungen und
Amplifikationen Wolframs zum regelrechten Heilbringer avanciert (diese Rolle Gaweins wird
auch in der Crone des Heinrich von dem Tuerlin rekapituliert). Von der Vervollkommnung
der deutschen Tradition weiss das englische Gedicht wenig, wo eine teilweise Restaurierung
des quasi-absurden Helden des franzoesischen Romans zu registrieren ist, was auch als
‘Ideologie-Verlust’ ausgelegt werden koennte.
Kenneth J. Tiller
THE RISE OF SIR GARETH AND THE HERMENEUTICS OF HERALDRY
Although a series of knights wearing different-colored armor – arranged from black, to green,
to red, to blue, and again to red – is perhaps the most prominent feature of Malory’s Tale of
Sir Gareth, the significance surrounding these colors has remained a mystery, although
Bonnie Wheeler has connected them to stages in an alchemical process. However, criticism
has not yet considered how the colors of Gareth’s opponents reflect late medieval conceptions
of heraldry and how the heraldic treatises available to Malory may have played a role in his
composition of the Gareth. Examination of the Gareth in light of these treatises helps
elucidate the significance of knightly colors in Gareth and the growing importance of heraldry
to Malory’s ideology of chivalry.
My study, therefore, discusses the role of heraldry as a signification system in the Tale
of Sir Gareth. Referring to English and French heraldic manuals, with special attention to the
Tractatis de Armis by Iohannes de Bado Aureo, I argue that heraldry provides a way of
understanding the structure of Gareth and the conception of chivalry presented in the Tale. I
first discuss how the hierarchy of colors presented by Iohannes and other writers provides a
pattern for Malory to depict the increasing difficulty of Gareth’s opponents, as each represents
a higher and hence more “perfect” color. I then argue that the meanings heraldic writers
assign to specific colors signify the various chivalric values appropriated by Gareth in his
defeat of his opponents, and thus mark steps in his progress to ideal knighthood. Next, I point
to the intrusion of colors outside of the heraldic paradigm that signify breaks in the heraldic
system, and hence, potential disruptions of Arthurian chivalry. Ultimately, Malory’s use of
heraldic colors in the Gareth predicts the more complex deployment of heraldic devices in the
ensuing romance, the Tristram book.
Fiona Tolhurst
THE NARRATIVE VOICE OF GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH
Some narrative voices in the Arthurian tradition are distinctive and occasionally intrusive –
witness those of Chrétien de Troyes and Sir Thomas Malory. Others are more difficult to
define. One such voice is that of Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia regum Britanniae
since he makes relatively few editorial comments and some of the comments he does make
are difficult to interpret. Nevertheless, study of the text in its entirety reveals Geoffrey’s
attitudes as he articulates them both from within and outside the narrative frame. Analysis of
Geoffrey’s narrative voice does not tell readers all they would like to know – What exactly
did he think of Empress Matilda’s bid for the English throne that began in 1135? – but it can
tell them much about his worldview. Through the narrative about British rulers he constructs
as well as the asides and other comments he offers to his Anglo-Norman readers, several of
his attitudes emerge: peasants are unworthy substitutes for knights, civil war has been the
undoing of many a people and will be the undoing of the Anglo-Normans if they do not
achieve political unity, and the rightful and morally upstanding heir should rule-regardless of
gender. Content analysis also makes it possible for readers to make suppositions about
opinions Geoffrey probably held. For example, Geoffrey’s dedication of his book to
prominent Anglo-Norman nobles and later aside to one of them suggest his disapproval of
King Stephen’s usurpation and support of Empress Matilda’s candidacy. In addition, his
account of the reigns of early British kings and queens suggests not only his toleration but
also encouragement of female rule. The narrative voice of Geoffrey of Monmouth, therefore,
is subtle but provides crucial information about how the author wanted his Anglo-Norman
audience to read his Historia regum Britanniae.
Orsolya Tomasovszky
LA TRANSFORMATION DE L’HISTOIRE DE LA MORT DU ROI ARTHUR DE
GEOFFROY DE MONMOUTH A THOMAS MALORY
Le corpus de base est l’Historia regum Britanniae de Geoffroi de Monmouth, la Mort le roi
Artu dont l’auteur est anonyme et le Morte D’Arthur de Thomas Malory, donc le corpus se
compose de trois domaines linguistiques (latin, ancien français et moyen anglais). Après une
courte introduction qui explique le choix de thème, j’analyse les personnages principaux de
l’historiographie latine et ceux des deux romans en prose: le roi Arthur, Gauvain, son
compagnon fidèle, Lancelot, Mordred, Morgane et Guenièvre. Je compare les analyses du
sphère des actants de Historia Regum Britanniae de Geoffroi de Monmouth, celui du roman
en prose la Mort le roi Artu, et celui du Morte D’Arthur de Thomas Malory pour montrer
quelles sont les différences entre les trois textes, comment apparaissent ou disparaissent
certaines figures, comment se modifie leur importance. Enfin je fais la comparaison de la
Mort le roi Artu et le Morte d’Arthur comme deux textes de longueur égale mais séparés par
deux siècles – le 13e siècle étant encore imprégné de la courtoisie et le 15 e siècle où le déclin
de la chevalerie provoque un changement profond dans la société.
Elisa Gomes da Torre
GALAAZ ET LA JEUNE FILLE AU CASTEL BRUT. VOLONTE, RAISON, COEUR : UN
CONFLIT PHILOSOPHIQUE
On se propose d’analyser le dramatique épisode au Castel Brut dans A Demanda do Santo
Graal selon une perspective philosophique très commune au Moyen Âge, celle de la théorie
des Passions ( ou des Émotions).
On conclura que ce thème a une place centrale dans les romans – comme on peut
constater chez Tristan de Thomas d’Angleterre – surtout en concernant l’amour.
On essayera de comparer l’abordage du thème chez les philosophes et chez les
romanciers médiévaux.
Janina P. Traxler
THE LADY OR THE HORSE: THE PARADOX AT THE CENTER OF ARTHURIAN
ROMANCE
From its foundational moments, Arthurian romance struggled with a paradox which both
defined the genre and plagued it through its full history: how to blend the ideals of military
prowess and those of ‘fin amors’. Lancelot, a hero apparently inspired by Tristan, first appears
as a character defined by his struggle between the principles of knightly duty and those of
love. When the Prose Tristan appears, shortly after the Arthurian Vulgate, Tristan both
challenges the prestige of Lancelot and also forces Arthurian romance to face again the
persistent dilemma. This point is especially clear when Tristan, the knight whose
preoccupations are ill-suited to the grail quest but whose story is very deliberately attached to
the Arthurian world, must decide how to respond to Arthur’s call for his court to assemble for
the grail Pentecost. In one of the most fascinating reworkings of the Vulgate material, the
Prose Tristan recasts the entire appearance of Galahad and the grail so as to enhance the
portrait of Tristan and make him the character whose arrival allows the festivities to proceed.
Prior to his arrival at Camelot, Tristan must debate the advantages of going or staying, of
responding to Arthur’s call to adventure or staying with Iseut at Joyeuse Garde. This moment
typifies the dilemma which pervades the Arthurian world, but it also provides some fresh
twists to the dilemma. This paper will argue that the rendition of this dilemma in the Prose
Tristan has ramifications far beyond the limits of the Tristan legend, that it provides a view of
the crisis that will eventually prove most problematic for Arthur’s world. By examining
features of the Vulgate, the Prose Tristan (versions I and II), and later works such as Malory, I
will explore this ideological problem in its broader Arthurian context.
Stephanie Cain Van D’Elden
SPECIFIC AND GENERIC SCENES IN TRISTAN ILLUSTRATIONS: A MODEL
REVISITED
Both medieval written texts and illustrations contain specific scenes that immediately identify
the particular romance even out of context: Iwein caught in the portcullis, Lancelot crossing
the sword bridge, Tristan cutting out the dragon’s tongue or being recognized in the bath.
Similarly, both medieval written texts and illustrations also contain generic scenes that are
unidentifiable out of context: knights fighting or jousting, a knight rescuing a maiden, a
knight or a lady receiving a ring, even a knight fighting a giant.
First I will look at specific scenes from the Tristan story. At the sight of one of these
scenes the viewer immediately knows what the story is. From there he can infer the subject of
other scenes or possibly even envision the entire story based on the one picture.
Second I will look at specific episodes, some of which contain only generic scenes. In
the Tristan story there are six specific episodes that are easily recognizable in pictures and
text: dragon, bath, love potion, trysting, grotto, death.
Third I will look at generic scenes that clearly illustrate the action of the story but that
would not be recognizable out of context. These are perhaps the most interesting because they
point the action in a direction other than the basic specific episode outline (see above). They
broaden the scope of the narrative from courtly love to courtly intrigue.
Then fourthly I will look at generic scenes that serve as fill, that pull the action along
from one specific scene to the next, that serve mainly as decoration.
The alternation between specific and generic scenes in the structure of the romance of
Tristan and Isolde helps us understand the composer/designer/artist's approach to the story-his
intentions in rendering the story either in writing or visually-from a simple courtly tale of
bride-winning to a complex account of adultery and intrigue.
Michèle Vauthier
REFLEXIONS SUR LA VOCATION DU TRAVAIL ARTISTIQUE CHEZ CHRETIEN DE
TROYES : DE JEHAN ET THESSALA DANS CLIGES A L’ESCHACIER DU CONTE DU
GRAAL
Du point de vue strictement médiéval où l’art est entendu comme le lieu d’exercice de
l’intelligence et du corps appliqué à une matière soit technique soit verbale, l’artiste est
confondu avec l’artisan. Il en est encore ainsi pour tous les personnages de Chrétien de Troyes
montrés au labeur et pour le poète lui-même tel qu’il se présente dans chacun des prologues
de ses romans.
Notre attention s’attache ici en premier lieu aux seuls Jehan et Thessala explicitement
désignés par «ovrier» pour l’un et «maistre» pour les deux. Bien qu’ils diffèrent par leur
mode d’action, tous deux œuvrent avec une sagesse explicitement reconnue pour rétablir
l’harmonie que les passions et les vices humains avaient détruits, Par là même, ils dévoilent
les désordres du cœur des grands et travaillent à en corriger les méfaits suivant une
philosophie qui n’est pas sans rappeler celle de Jean de Salisbury.
Que l’artisan perde un tant soit peu de cette sagesse et sa vocation est déviée. Tel est
ce qui advient sous la forme de l’eschacier du Contre du Graal qui occupe la seconde partie
de notre travail. Les mains de ce personnage nous sont dites affairées à doler un bâton de
frêne, comme celles d’un sculpteur. Sa position assise en fait une figure royale. Comme il a
déjà été reconnu ailleurs, la description du reste de son corps renvoie aussi le lecteur à des
réminiscences nordiques et celtiques permettant d’apparenter l’étrange créature à un avatar du
forgeron des mythologies. Nous tentons de montrer ici comment Chrétien, à l’aide de
l’entrecroisement des mémoires, des conventions iconographiques et des jeux sémantiques,
dénonce la réalité des tendances tyranniques d’un prince dévoré par le désir de vengeance,
artisan de sa propre renommée, surfaite et mensongère.
Conformément à ce qu’il avait promis dans les lignes d’ouverture de son dernier
roman, en cet instant de la partie réservée aux aventures de Gauvain, Chrétien déploie par son
travail poétique sa vocation d’auteur engagé, dans un discours théologico politique dont il
paraît bien que le fil se déroule de conte en conte. Si, comme nous le pensons, le héros est ici
Philippe d’Alsace, le commanditaire du Conte, la question de l’identité de l’artiste se pose à
nouveau de manière aiguë.
Mihaela Voicu
«JE EST UN AUTRE». UNE FORME DE MODERNITÉ PRÉMATURÉE DANS LE
LANCELOT-GRAAL?
Pour la mentalité médiévale, soustendue par la foi chrétienne, l’«autre» est – entre certaines
limites et sous certaines conditions – le prochain qu’il faut aimer comme soi-même. En outre,
le chrétien médiéval possède une identité entière et cohérente: celle de personne créée à
l’image et ressemblance du Dieu trinitaire et intégré à une communauté de salut. Dans ces
conditions, il est impensable que le «prochain» puisse être instrumentalisé, manipulé et encore
moins que le sujet devienne «autre» par rapport à soi. Autrement dit, la mentalité médiévale
traditionnelle ne connaît pas d’aliénation, ni de soi ni d’autrui.
Or, dans le Lancelot-Graal, ravissements et oublis, manipulations habiles de l’autre ou
sa transformation en idole et jusqu’à la forsenerie mettent en question l’identité du sujet et
rendent la personne étrangère à elle même, transformant la relation de charité en rapport de
force.
Ce nouveau type de relations inter- et intra-subjectives marquerait-il un changement
d’idéologie, signalant, à la fois, une «modernité prématurée»?
Barbara Wahlen
REMANIEMENTS ET CONTINUATIONS SANS FIN. QUELQUES REMARQUES SUR
LA CLOTURE ROMANESQUE DANS LA TRADITION MANUSCRITE DE GUIRON LE
COURTOIS
Lorsque l’on s’intéresse à la tradition manuscrite de Guiron le Courtois, que l’on se perd dans
ses dédales, l’on ne peut que constater la vitalité de ce texte qui, tout au long du Moyen Age
et jusqu’à l’aube de la Renaissance, ne cesse d’évoluer. De réécriture en réécriture, il se
transforme, se poursuit, s’imprègne des autres romans, fonctionnant à la fois comme un
réservoir inépuisable de matière dans lequel puisent les compilateurs et comme une sorte de
structure d’accueil qui intègre des fragments d’autres romans arthuriens. La fin ouverte de la
vulgate du texte, fournie par le manuscrit BNF fr. 350, se prête à merveille à ces jeux infinis
de l’amplification, des remaniements et des continuations.
Dans cette communication, nous nous proposons d’analyser les modalités de ces
remaniements et les procédés de création romanesque qu’ils mettent en œuvre, en centrant
notre réflexion sur ce moment essentiel du récit qu’est sa fin. Nous nous limiterons aux
versions fort différentes qui recentrent la narration sur le personnage de Meliadus et sur son
triomphe, plus particulièrement la continuation attribuée par les manuscrits (BNF fr. 340,
BNF fr. 355, …) à Rusticien de Pise et la version particulière donnée par le manuscrit Ludwig
XV.6 du J. Paul Getty Museum, intitulé Le Roman du roy Meliadus de Leonois. Nous
terminerons par quelques réflexions sur l’imprimé qui paraît en 1528 chez Galliot du Pré,
seule version à faire mourir le récit avec son héros. Il s’agit de l’ultime tentative pour dépasser
l’inachèvement et les fins ouvertes qui caractérisent les différentes continuations. À son tour,
l’arrangeur de ce dernier Meliadus de Leonnoys remanie, compile les aventures du père de
Tristan: en tentant de les intégrer dans le cadre strict d’une biographie chevaleresque, il se
soumet à ce modèle d’écriture qui s’impose à la fin du Moyen Âge.
Lori J. Walters
MORE BREAD FROM STONE:
WALWEIN AS A FIGURE OF PLENITUDE IN THE FRENCH, DUTCH, AND ENGLISH
TRADITIONS
In an earlier study, “Making Bread from Stone: The Roman van Walewein and the
Transformation of Old French Romance” (Arthurian Literature XVII), I examined Penninc’s
play on Matthew’s telling of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes [13-15].
An even more relevant comparison is with On Christian Teaching, in which Augustine
interprets the loaves and fishes as the material which he hopes to bring to fruition in the hearts
of his audience. Penninc adapts this and other Augustinian metaphors in transforming the
flawed figure of Gauvain in the later Old French tradition into the exemplary Middle Dutch
character Walewein. He thus appeals to what I see as the widespread use of Arthur’s nephew
as a figure of rhetorical and ethical plenitude. As defined by Jane Taylor, the notion of
plenitude, ultimately deriving from the Bible, Augustine, and Orosius, explains the impulse to
completeness that can be seen in the development of large verse romance collections
containing figures of plenitude, conceived either as objects, such as the Round Table or the
Grail, or as characters, such as Lancelot, Perceval, or Gauvain. Beginning his vernacular
career in Wace as Arthur’s nephew, vassal and advisor, Walwein proved to be a particularly
fertile source of reflection on the theme of the need for wisdom and eloquence in kings and
counselors. My discussion will touch upon the following texts and compilations:
I. The French Tradition
A. Wace’s Brut
B. Chrétien’s Lancelot and Perceval
C. BNF fr. 794, BNF fr. 1450, Chantilly 472
II. The Dutch Tradition
A.Walewein
B. The Lancelot Compilation
III. The English Tradition
A. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
B. Brit. Lib., Cotton MS, Nero A.x, containing (in order) Pearl, Cleanness,
Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Charlotte Ward
BEVIS OF HAMPTON’S ARTHURIAN AFFILIATIONS
It would be hard to surpass the popularity of Bevis of Hampton in European romance. From an
Anglo-Norman version, ca. 1200, it passed into continental French in the thirteenth century,
Welsh prose 1250-75, five different Middle English versifications in the fourteenth century,
Old Norse prose in the fourteenth century, Irish prose in the fifteenth century, Dutch prose
printed 1502, Italian verse of the thirteenth century and prose of 1491, Yiddish poetry in
1501, Russian in the sixteenth century, Rumanian in 1881.
Although classified as an “English” rather than an “Arthurian” legend in J. Burke
Severs, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English (New Haven: Connecticut Academy of
Arts and Sciences. 1967), the central theme of a princess’s love for an exiled hero could
derive from Chrétien de Troyes’s Cligès. The 1330 Auchinleck Middle English version adds a
fight with the dragon of Cologne, that is said to be greater than any contest by Lancelot. In
Robert Manning’s Story of England 1338, Bevis is actually called an Arthurian knight.
Reasons for his appeal beyond local Southampton pride will be analyzed: humor, colloquial
language, far-flung adventures, topoi borrowed from diverse sources. The very
unpretentiousness of this energetic hero has been responded to by diverse linguistic and ethnic
groups, who are spurred to exercise their own creativity. Bevis can be seen as a foil to the
more courtly figures of romance, but never demeaned. He passes beyond linguistic boundaries
as a figure in tapestries as well.
Logan E. Whalen
THE LAI DE JOIE AS INTERTEXT IN CHRETIEN DE TROYES’ EREC ET ENIDE
During the Joie de la Cort episode near the end of Chrétien de Troyes’ Erec et Enide the
narrator informs the audience that those preparing to disarm Erec sang in unison a song about
the “Joie,” and that the ladies composed a lai they named Lai de Joie, “Et les dames un lai
troverent / Que le Lai de Joie apelerent” (6179-80). This lai participates here in the generic
interplay prevalent throughout Chrétien’s first Arthurian romance as he consistently evokes
the three fundamental matières of medieval French literature: matière de Bretagne, matière de
Rome, and matière de France. Jean-Marie Fritz and others have noted that narrative
references to these sources suggest not only Chrétien’s clerical erudition, they also
demonstrate his ability to implement the moult bele conjointure cited in his prologue to Erec
et Enide as he coalesces disparate matter into a unified whole.
This paper focuses on the intertextual implications of generic relationships within Erec
et Enide and examines the rapports between this episode and a similar one in the epilogue of
Chievrefoil, a lai by Marie de France, Chrétien’s most famous contemporary. The title and
implicit theme of Chrétien’s Lai de Joie recalls the lai that Tristan composed for Iseut to
commemorate their clandestine reunion in the forest near Tintagel, “Pur la joie qu’il ot eüe /
… / pur les paroles remembrer, / Tristram ki bien saveit harper, / en aveit fet un nuvel lai”
(107-13). Furthermore, the discourse surrounding Chrétien’s reference to the lai composed by
the ladies in celebration of Erec’s victory echoes that found in Marie’s account of the meeting
between the two lovers in her text, the former insisting that, “je vos en dirai la some” (6166),
while the latter states that, “Ceo fu la sume de l’escrit” (61).
Bonnie Wheeler
MASTERING HUMILIATION IN ARTHURIAN ROMANCE
This paper is part of a larger project about what I term medieval ‘humiliation narratives’. In
those medieval cultures grounded in ideologies of honor, how did men (from clerks to kings,
all of whom were imbricated in chivalric systems) manage their reputations? Chivalric
ideologies typically require honorable behavior and reward military success. How in
particular do the armigerous classes express slippages between expectation and performance?
How did knights erase the stigma of shame?
Contemporary readers locate systemic anxiety in that gap, since medieval knights
relentlessly ranked themselves and each other in an unstable hierarchy in which failure was
inevitable. I am interested in how Arthurian writers represent such failures. Male gender
performance was always a high-wire act for the Arthurian knight: it required balance and a
keen sense of one's hierarchical situation. I argue that humiliation is a crucial political weapon
that was used to sustain and subvert male gender norms. In this paper, I am interested
particularly in ways that Chrétien’s and Malory’s ambitious Arthurian knights (such as Yvain
and Sir Gareth) exquisitely deflect humiliation.
Kevin S. Whetter
THE GENRE OF THE STANZAIC MORTE ARTHUR
In his classic essay on the nature of mediaeval romance, Erich Auerbach observed that “the
matière de Bretagne apparently proved to be the most successful medium for the cultivation
of [the knightly] ideal”. With its focus on Arthurian knightly adventure and narrative matière
inherited from the close of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, the English stanzaic Morte Arthur is
usually classified as a romance, one that seems ably to fulfil Auerbach’s paradigm. The
poem’s opening lines, for instance, herald a tale of “aunturs” and tournaments, and the
poisoned apple episode joyfully concludes the first part of the poem with the malefactors
punished and the court honouring Launcelot “with all their might”. Such chivalric adventures
coupled with the rescuing of ladies are central to romance matière. Even more than does his
French source, however, the English poet drastically modifies his romance materials by
emphasising not happy resolutions, but a decidedly secular and tragic theme. The result is the
deaths of most of the principal characters and a profound sense of loss. These latter events are
ultimately too sombre and disturbing to qualify as romance. Consequently, the stanzaic Morte
should rather be considered a generic hybrid best termed tragic romance, one that
considerably influenced the sen of Malory’s Arthuriad.
Clara Wille
LES IMPRIMES DU COMMENTAIRE DU PSEUDO-ALAIN AUX PROPHETIE MERLINI
DE GEOFFROY DE MONMOUTH
Au centre de l’Historia regum Britannie, Geoffroy de Monmouth arrête le cours de son
histoire pour donner la parole au prophète autochtone Merlin qui prédit, dans une longue série
de vaticinations, le destin des Bretons et de leur terre jusqu’au jugement dernier. Ces
prophéties ont provoqué d’emblée de nombreux commentaires, parmi lesquels celui qu'on a
attribué à Alain de Lille, composé au XIIe siècle. Il s'agit là de l’un des rares commentaires
complets à ce célèbre texte. Nous connaissons aujourd'hui trois manuscrits de ce commentaire
– dont le plus ancien date du XIIe siècle – et trois imprimés. Le but de cette étude est
d'examiner les imprimés du commentaire des Prophetie Merlini du pseudo-Alain – publiés
trois fois à Francfort dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle – et leur rapport aux trois
manuscrits connus, afin de déterminer les paramètres qui varient dans la mise en page du
texte: l’imprimerie, par exemple, rend possible l’usage de caractères spécifiques pour
distinguer le commentaire du texte, de même que le découpage des prophéties en unités se fait
désormais de manière différente. Mais c’est aussi une façon d’étudier, par delà ces
changements, les constantes qui vont du Moyen Age au XVIIe siècle.
Andrea M.L. Williams
THE RHETORIC OF THE AVENTURE: THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF HOMILY IN
THE FRENCH GRAIL ROMANCES
If we follow the evolution of the Grail romance genre in 12th- and 13th-century France, it
becomes rapidly apparent that, during this period, there is an increasingly didactic tone to the
works. In particular, the great prose romances of the 13th century, La Queste del Saint Graal
and the Perlesvaus, display more-or-less overt instructional tendencies, with the didactic
intent being made explicit in the adoption of a narrative framing device that, in rhetorical
terms, constitutes a logos in the form of an “external proof”, in each case represented by an
appeal to an auctoritas.
Jürgen Wolf
MEHR FICTA ALS FACTA?
BEOBACHTUNGEN ZUR ‘ANDEREN’ ARTUSÜBERLIEFERUNG IN DEUTSCHLAND
In der zweiten Hälfte des 12. Jahrhunderts avanciert der britische Gründungsheros Artus mit
samt seinen Rittern und der (gerade erfundenen) Tafelrunde zu einer historischen u n d
literarischen Größe ersten Ranges. Chrétien de Troyes ist es, der aus der historia schließlich
die bald grenzenlos erfolgreichen höfischen Besteller formt.
Noch vor der Jahrhundertwende fertigte Hartmann von Aue mit dem Erec eine erste
deutsche Chrétien-Übersetzung an. Bald darauf folgte sein Iwein. Wolframs von Eschenbach
Parzival, Ulrichs von Türheim Cliges und mittelbar Ulrichs von Zatzikhoven Lanzelet
belegen in den folgenden Jahrzehnten ein lebhaftes Interesse an den Werken Chrétiens. Die
im Westen noch weit erfolgreicheren chronistischen Texte um Artus konnten in Deutschland
jedoch keinen Fuß fassen. Auch die Chrétienschen Artusepen wurden nicht in der für die
französische Tradierung typischen Zyklusform und schon gar nicht in den beliebten, mit
historiographischen oder heilsgeschichtlichen Werken verquickten Sammlungsverbünden
adaptiert. Übernommen wurden in sich geschlossene Handlungsketten um separierte
ritterlich-ideale Protagonisten wie Yvain, Erec oder Perceval. Eine Artus-historia im Sinne
eines Teils der Weltgeschichte interessierte - obwohl in Umrissen bekannt - nicht. Die
arturische Welt verliert damit in Deutschland ihre historische Relation. Dieses Faktum wirkt
sich nachhaltig auf Tradierungs- und Gestaltungsmuster aus, denn nun fehlen dynastischhistorische Beweggründe, die am ehesten einen besonders ehrfurchtsvollen Umgang mit den
Texten hätten motivieren können. Artusüberlieferung in Deutschland unterscheidet sich damit
grundsätzlich von Artusüberlieferung im Westen. Die Folgen für die literarische
Ausgestaltung des Stoffs und dessen mediale Umsetzung waren gravierend.
Diese kultur- wie literarhistorischen Unterschiede gilt es anhand der deutschen
Artusüberlieferung herauszupräparieren, um in einem dreischrittigen Analysemodell die
deutlich sichtbaren medialen und literarischen Folgen auf breitester Basis
(Gesamtüberlieferung) zu diskutieren:
I.
Interkultureller Werktransfer (frz.- dt.)
II.
Bearbeitungsprofile und Buchmuster in Deutschland
III.
Die kulturhistorischen Bedingungen der Artusrezeption in Deutschland und
ihre Folgen auf Bücher und Texte
Charlotte A. T. Wulf
ARTHUR’S CHANNEL CROSSING IN THE CHRONICLES
In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia, when Arthur returns from his wars on the continent to
battle Mordred and his army, he lands at Rutupiae (Richborough). Wace, however, places
Arthur’s landing in a different location in his Roman de Brut, and two questions emerge from
this: first, why does Wace change the location? Is it, as Ivor Arnold suggests, because the port
of Richborough was silted up by the twelfth century? The second question is more difficult to
answer. About half the known Wace manuscripts have Sandwiz (Sandwich) as the landing
site, which makes sense, as it is the nearest port to Richborough, about 3 km or so to the
south; but nearly half have Romney, and one manuscript, MS C, has Totnes as Arthur’s
landing site. Sandwich and Romney, two of the Cinque Ports, are both in Kent, but Totnes is
in Devon. Why does this variation in landing sites exist, and what does it mean?
Lawman clearly used one of the Romney Wace manuscripts as the major source for
his Brut, as the Caligula MS puts the landing site at Romerel and the Otto MS at Romelan.
However, different variations can be found in other chronicles that are based on Geoffrey’s
Historia and Wace’s Roman de Brut. I plan to study these variations and try to establish a
correlation between Arthur’s diverse landing sites and what is known about the chronicles and
the different manuscripts as to the approximate time and location of each one. This
information may help us to better understand not only the relationship among the various
chronicles but also the degree of individuality among the authors and even the scribes.
Juan Miguel Zarandona
THE PSEUDO-MEDIEVAL MODERN GRAILS BY PALOMA DÍAZ-MAS (1984) AND
UMBERTO ECO (2000) COMPARED: FROM MEDIEVAL HOPE TO MODERN PARODY
This paper will compare, study in some detail, and unify (if possible) Pan-Latin European
Arthurian writers who have dealt with the Grail myth in modern times. Latin must be
understood as referring to those individuals writing in one of the many (majority or minority)
Latin or Romance languages of Europe: French, Italian, Spanish, Galician-Portuguese,
Calatan, Romanian, etc. I could have chosen any other motif, argument or character, but this
has been my favourite choice for the purposes of this presentation.
After introducing the similarities, differences and peculiarities of each writer involved
and their Grail work, the paper will also try to emphasize the relevance and individual
defining characteristics of the treatment of Arthurian subject matters, of which the Grail is
one, typical of their Southern Latin European devotees, as opposed to those treatments with a
Celtic or Germanic background. Perhaps the phenomenon can be envisioned as a stereotypical
scale ranging from ‘open joy of life’ versus ‘misty dark mystifications’? The results of this
inquiry are still very open and undefined.
It will also devote some time to those extremely deformed parodies of the myth, such
as the Spanish Paloma Díaz-Mas’s short novel El rapto del Santo Grial (1984) and Umberto
Eco’s Baudolino (2000), especially its Chapter 22, entitled: “Baudolino perde il padre e trova
il Gradale”. Both writers and both books share a comical recreation of the Middle Ages and
Arthurian ideals, as well as the humorous parody of its most sacred and mythical symbols. Is
the Grail myth not close to their feelings, or native or familiar enough to them, as Latin
Europeans, to take much care to respect it properly and as it deserves?
Many challenging hypotheses indeed.
PLENARY LECTURES
1: Ad Putter:
Arthurian Ideologies: The Case of Gerald of Wales
2: Matthias Meyer:
From Drops in the Snow, Drinks on the Porch, Baths in the Sun.
Transformations and Transfigurations of Blood in German Arthurian
Romances
3: Richard Trachsler:
La voix et le visage. L’auteur dans les manuscrits enluminés
4. Martine Meuwese:
Crossing Borders. Text and Image in Arthurian Manuscripts’
ROUND TABLES
1. Dreams/Rêves
Chair: Taijiro Amazawa
Contributors:
 Ayumi Yokoyama, ‘La particularité des prophéties de Merlin - Grandeur et misère de
son omniscience’
 Yuri Fuwa, ‘Arthur’s dreams: from Dragon to Fortune’
 Taijiro Amazawa, ‘L’inexplicabilité du songe de Cahus dans Perlesvaus’
 Tomie Inoué
 Laetitia Rimpau, ‘ ‘Dort-il?’ – ‘Dame, je ne dorc pas.’ Quelques aspects structurels de
la rencontre féerique’
2. Malory: Towards the Digital Winchester
Chair: Toshiyuki Takamiya and Raluca Radulescu
Contributors:
 Takako Kato, ‘Digital Winchester as an Enhanced Re-source: High Resolution Images
and Markup of the Text’
 Peter Field
3. Ideology
Chair: Bonnie Wheeler
Contributors:
 Bonnie Wheeler, ‘Mastering Humiliation in Arthurian Romance’
 Kathleen Coyne Kelly, ‘Ideologies of Anxiety in Malory’s Morte Darthur’
 Andrew Lynch, ‘Beyond Cowardice’
4. Paradigmes
Chair: Alain Corbellari
Contributors: Alain Corbellari, Jean-Jacques Vincensini, Richard Trachsler, Aurélie
Kostka, Friedrich Wolfzettel
5. Cinema Arthuriana
Chair: Kevin J. Harty
 Susan Aronstein, ‘ ‘The Rome You Speak of Doesn’t Exist’: National Identity and
Ideological Confusion in Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur’
 Elizabeth Sklar, ‘Reception and Rejection in Sword of Lancelot’
 Martin Shichtman, ‘Camelot: Singing and Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano’
 Donald Hoffman, ‘First Knight (1995): An American Gigolo in King Arthur’s Court;
or 007 ½’
 Laurie Finke, ‘ ‘You Don’t Vote for Kings’: King Arthur and Medieval Political
Theory in Monty Python and the Holy Grail’
 Kevin Harty, ‘ ‘Reel’ Images of the Grail Knight’
6. Multilingualism and Arthurian Literature
Chair: Erik Kooper
 Elisabeth Archibald, ‘Arthur in Latin’
 Keith Busby, ‘Multilingualism and the Geography of the Arthurian Codex’
 Robert Rouse, ‘“As the Freynshe Booke Seyth”: the problematic use of the linguistic
other as textual auctoritas in a multilingual culture’