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Arthurian Interpretations 15.2-16.1, 1.1-4.2;
Quondam et Futurus: A Journal of Arthurian Interpretations 1.1-3.4
Arthuriana 4.1-present
Abstracts of Journal Articles
Editor Emeritus Henry Hall Peyton III compiled the first 'Author Index ' for the journal
with a full set of 'Abstracts ' to the journal in all its previous incarnations:
Arthurian Interpretations
Quondam et Futurus
Quondam et Futurus: A Journal of Arthurian Interpretations
Since 1994 the Arthuriana staff has been responsible for the index entries and abstracts.
Entries are current to Vol. 22, issue 2.
These abstracts are prepared in alphabetical order according to the author 's surname, and
reviews are listed under the name of the reviewer.
Ackerman, Felicia. '"Every man of worshyp": Emotion and Characterization in Malory
's Le Morte Darthur.' Arthuriana 11.2 (Summer 2001): 32-42
Abstract: Le Morte Darthur has characters who are believable as coherent
individuals.(FA)
-----. Rev. of The Knight without the Sword: A Social Landscape of Malorian Chivalryby
Hyonjin Kim. Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001).
-----. Rev. of The Genesis of Narrative in Malory 's Morte Darthur by Elizabeth
Edwards.Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002).
-----. Rev. of Catherine Batt, Malory 's Morte Darthur: Remaking Arthurian
Tradition.Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring 2004): 92.
-----. Rev. of Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur by
Dorsey Armstrong. Arthuriana 14.4 (Winter 2004): 77-78.
------. '‘I may do no penaunce’: Spiritual Sloth in Malory’s Morte.' Arthuriana 16.1
(Spring 2006): 47-53.
Abstract: The concept of spiritual sloth offers a useful way of looking at
Malory’sMorte. (FNA)
------. '"I love nat to be constrayned to love": Emotional Charity and Maloryπs
World.'Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 21-24.
Abstract: The concept of emotional charity offers a useful way of thinking about
Maloryπs Morte, and vice versa. (FNA)
------. 'Your charge is to me a plesure': Manipulation, Gareth, Lynet, and Malory.
Arthuriana 19.3 (Fall 2009): 8-14
Abstract: Analytic philosophy offers a new perspective for viewing Gareth’s
manipulation of Lynet in Malory’s Morte Darthur. (FNA)
Adams, Jeremy duQ. Rev. of Medieval France: An Encyclopedia. Ed. William W.
Kibler and Grover A. Zinn. Arthuriana 7.1 (Spring 1997): 137-38.
------. Rev. of Sub-Roman Britain(AD 400-600): A Gazetteer of Sites. By Christopher A.
Snyder. Arthuriana 8.2 (Summer 1998): 142-43.
-------. Rev. of Reconstructing Camelot: French Romantic Medievalism and the
Arthurian Tradition by Michael Glencross. Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 109-112.
Adderley, C.M. Rev. of Continuations: Essays on Medieval French Literature and
Language in Honor of John L. Grigsby. Ed. Norris J. Lacy and Gloria TorriniRoblin. QetF1.4 (Winter 1991): 81-84.
-------. 'The Best Thing for Being Sad: Education and Educators in T.H. White 's The
Once and Future King. ' QetF 2.1 (Spring 1992): 55-68.
Abstract: Education is the theme which most clearly gives The Once and Future
Kingits structure. 'The Sword in the Stone ' describes the education which makes
the idealistic pursuit of Utopia possible. Merlyn educates the Wart in such a way
that he can see the faults inherent in society. When Arthur is king, he tries very
hard to rectify these faults, by channeling might for right. 'The Queen of Air and
Darkness ' describes how a neglected education can destroy the potential of that
Utopia, for later in the novel Mordred, himself a product of Morgause 's neglect,
is able to use the unique personalities reinforced by this absence of definite
education to his own ends. 'The Ill-Made Knight ' describes not merely the best
example of the Utopian ideal, but also, paradoxically, the means by which it will
be destroyed, for it is Lancelot 's illicit love which gives Mordred the tool he
needs. This destruction is narrated in the final volume, 'The Candle in the Wind. '
From a chaotic and much-neglected childhood education, White has
constructed The Once and Future King to illustrate the importance of education
for good--or for evil. (CMA)
-------. Rev. of An Index of Themes and Motifs in Twelfth-Century French Arthurian
Poetry. By E. H. Ruck. QetF 2.3 (Fall 1992): 71-73.
-------. Rev. of Arthur and Tristan: On the Intersection of Legends in German Medieval
Literature. By William C. McDonald. QetF 2.4 (Winter 1992): 73-76.
-------. Rev. of The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory. By P.J.C. Field. Arthuriana 4.3
(Fall 1994): 276-78.
-------. Rev. of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance. By Ad
Putter. Arthuriana 6.3 (Fall 1996): 83-86.
-------. Rev. of Le Morte Darthur or the Hoole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble
Knyghts of the Rounde Table: Authoritative Text, Sources and Backgrounds, Criticism.
By Stephen H.A. Shepherd, ed. Arthuriana 14.4 (Winter 2004): 96-98.
Alama, Pauline J. 'A Woman in King Arthur 's Court: Wendy Mnookin 's Guenever
Speaks . ' QetF 2.2 (Summer 1992): 81-88.
Abstract: The best-known female perspective on Arthurian legend, Marion
Zimmer Bradley 's The Mists of Avalon, takes the viewpoint of the king 's sister,
Morgaine, freeing the legendary sorceress from her traditional villainous role.
In Guenever Speaks, Wendy Mnookin takes the part of another marginalized
character, and allows her to speak through a series of unrhymed 'persona poems '
that free Arthur 's adulterous wife from being defined by her adultery. The poems
explore incidents in Malory 's Le Morte Darthur through Guenever 's eyes, from
her longed-for marriage to Arthur until her death in a nunnery. As she grows and
ages--losing a child, a husband, and a lover, but gaining self-awareness-Guenever must struggle to make a place for herself in a man 's world of power,
warfare, and chivalric honor. Mnookin 's relationship to Arthurian tradition seems
to parallel Guenever 's struggle. She follows Malory 's plot to the letter, but
creates a female space between the lines of this male-authored epic just as
Guenever must find a place for her desires within the constraints of a maledefined society. (PJA)
Allen, Mark. 'The Image of Arthur and the Idea of King. ' AInt 2.2 (Spring 1988): 1-16.
Abstract: Arthur 's representative value as a king is an index to his popularity in
Western tradition. As the role of king changed historically, so changed the Arthur
of literature, reflecting social and political developments in metaphorical, literary
portraits. And like many literary reflections of history, Arthur encapsulates more
than just the social and political past: he also reflects interpretations of this past,
providing means both to survey historical kingship and to epitomize modern
understanding of what kingship implies. (MA)
Allen, Rosamund. 'Eorles and Beornes: Contextualizing Lawman 's Brut.
' Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 4-22.
Abstract: This essay considers contexts of Lawman 's Brut, which constructs an
idealized monarchy through its presentation of King Arthur, whose behavior
closely resembles that of the loyal William Marshal, earl of Pembroke. (RA)
-------. 'Reading Malory Aloud: Syntax, Gender, and Narrative Pace. ' Arthuriana 13.4
(Winter 2003): 71-85.
Abstract: This essay explores the contrast between the paratactic syntax of
narrative action and the hypotactic syntax of speakers reflecting on situations.
(RA)
Alvarez, B.. Rev. of The Decameron: First Day in Perspective. Elissa Weaver,
ed.Arthuriana 14.3 (Fall 2004): 109-110.
-------. Rev. of The Cross That Dante Bears: Pilgrimage, Crusade, and the Cruciform
Church in the Divine Comedy. By Mary Alexander Watt. Arthuriana 16.1 (Spring 2006):
86-88.
Amer, Sahar. Rev. of The Court and Culture of Diversity. Eds. Evelyn Mullaly and John
Thompson. Arthuriana 9.2 (Summer 1999): 78-79.
Amey, Michael D. 'Constructing a Perilous Chapel: Contesting Power Structures in
Naomi Mitchison 's To The Chapel Perilous. ' Arthuriana 14.3 (Fall 2004): 69-80.
Abstract: This article investigates the construction of hegemonic discourses and
the resistance to those discourses depicted in Naomi Mitchison 's Arthurian
novel, To the Chapel Perilous. (MDA)
Amtower, Laurel. Rev. of Gender and Text in the Later Middle Ages. Jane Chance
ed.Arthuriana 7.1 (Spring 1997): 146-47.
Anderson, James E. Rev. of A Beowulf Handbook. By Robert J. Bjork and John D.
Niles.Arthuriana 8.2 (Summer 1998): 143-45.
Anderson, Judith H. Rev. of Allegory and Violence. By Gordon Teskey. Arthuriana 7.4
(Winter 1997): 125-28.
-------. Rev. of 'The Faire Queene ' and Middle English Romance: The Matter of Just
Memory. By Andrew King. Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 131.
Anderson, Michael W. 'The honour of bothe courtes be nat lyke'" Cornish Resistance to
Arthurian Dominance in Malory.' Arthuriana 19.2 (Summer 2009): 42-57.
Abstract: Malory explores the strengths and weakness of Arthurian chivalry
in The Book of Sir Tristram by contrasting Cornwall with Camelot. (MWA)
Andersen, Oliver, and Glenn Marin. 'An Analysis of Queen of the Summer Stars by
Use of the Literary Profundity Scale. ' QetF 2.1 (Spring 1992): 82-97.
Abstract: The publication of Guinevere, the third volume of Persia Woolley 's
Arthurian trilogy, has promoted heightened interest in this recent retelling of the
story of Arthur and his Round Table. Although all three books in the trilogy are
highly suitable for use in the contemporary classroom, Queen of the Summer
Stars, the second book of the series which recounts Arthurian themes from the
point of view of Queen Guinevere, lends itself unusually well to a consideration
of these works as teaching materials. (OA)
Archibald, Elizabeth. Rev. of The Malory Debate: Essays on the Texts of Le Morte
Darthur. By Anne Marie D 'Arcy. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 164-165.
Arden, Heather. Rev. of Reconstructing Camelot: French Romantic Medievalism and
the Arthurian Tradition. By Michael Glencross. Arthuriana 7.1 (Spring 1997): 152-54.
-------. Rev. of The Love Debate Poems of Christine de Pizan By Barbara K.
Altmann.Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 117-18.
Arden, Heather and Kathryn Lorenz. 'The Harry Potter Stories and French Arthurian
Romance.' Arthuriana 13.2 (Summer 2003): 54-68.
Abstract: This article explores the varied medieval elements in the popular novels,
as well as deeper narrative connections with Arthurian romance, particularly
exploring parallels between the Harry Potter tales and Chrétien de Troyes’
Perceval. (HA/KL)
Armstrong, Dorsey. Rev. of Wisdom and the Grail: The Image of the Vessel in
the Queste
del Saint Graal and Malory 's Tale of the Sankgreal. By Anne Marie D
'Arcy. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 123-124.
-------. 'Introduction: Laughing at Camelot. ' Arthuriana 14.4 (Winter 2004): 3-4.
-------. Rev. of King Arthur and the Myth of History. By Laurie A. Finke and Martin B.
Shichtman. Arthuriana 15.2 (Summer 2005): 68-71.
-------. 'The (Non-)Christian Knight in Malory: A Contradiction in
Terms?' Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 30-34.
Abstract: An analysis of the figures of Sir Palomides and Sir Galahad in Maloryπs
Morte Darthur reveals that both the non-Christian and the ultra-Christian knight
pose similar threats to the Arthurian social order. (DA)
Aronstein, Susan . Rev. of The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf
to Buffy. Martha W. Driver and Sid Ray, eds. Arthuriana 15.2 (Summer 2005): 67-68.
Arthur, Geoffrey. [Poem] 'On Reading that the Hero of a Lost Romance "went to
Morgana's Castle, but we do not know what befell him there." ' Arthuriana 4.1 (Spring
1994): 18.
-------. [Poem] 'The Queena's Maundy. ' Arthuriana 4.3 (Fall 1994): 271-73.
Ashe, Geoffrey. 'The Origins of the Arthurian Legend. ' Arthuriana 5.3 (Autumn 1995):
1-24.
Abstract: After prolonged debate, the search for the 'historical Arthur ' remains
inconclusive, because of the nature of the evidence which historians take into
account. Possibilities arise, however, from evidence of another kind. Literary
inquiry can lead towards historical insight and identify an Arthur-figure who has
been noticed at various times, but not adequately considered. (GA)
Ashley, Kathleen.Rev. of The Medieval Theater of Cruelty: Rhetoric, Memory,
Violence.By Jody Enders. Arthuriana 10.4 (Winter 2000): 72-75.
Ashton, Gail. 'The Perverse Dynamics of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
' Arthuriana15.3 (Fall 2005): 51-74.
Abstract: This article turns a queer eye upon Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to
suggest that categories are continually elided through the workings of a perverse
dynamics whose touchstone is not Gawain and the Green Knight as the title might
indicate, but the semi-visible character of Morgan. (GA)
Astell, Ann W. Rev. of Re-visioning Gower. By R.F. Yeager. Arthuriana 10.2
(Summer 2000): 118-120.
Badir, Patricia. Rev. of Medieval Saints: A Reader by Mary-Ann Stouck,
andMedieval Hagiography: An Anthology by Thomas Head. Arthuriana 11.4
(Winter 2001).
-------. Rev. of Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in the York Corpus
Christi Plays. By Sarah Beckwith. Arthuriana 12.4 (Winter 2002): 101-102.
Barban, Judith. Rev. of Oaths, Vows and Promises in the First Part of the French
Prose Lancelot Romance. By Lisa Jefferson. Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring 1998): 85-86.
Bardsley, Sandy. Rev. of A Slice of Life: Selected Documents of Medieval Peasant
Experience By Edwin Brezette DeWindth. Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 98-100.
Barczewski, Stephanie. Rev. of Camelot in the Nineteenth Century: Arthurian
Characters in the Poema of Tennyson, Arnold, Morris, and
Swinburne. Arthuriana11.2 (Summer 2001): 78-79.
Barefield, Laura D. Rev. of Gendering the Crusades. Susan B. Edgington and
Sarah Lambert, eds., Arthuriana 14.3 (Fall 2004): 99-100.
-------. Rev. of Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Eds. Katharina A.
Wilson and Nadia Margolis. Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 109-110.
Bartlett, Anne C. 'Cracking the Penile Code: Reading Gender and Conquest in the
AlliterativeMorte Arthure. ' Arthuriana 8.2 (Summer 1998): 56-76.
Abstract: The Alliterative Morte Arthure encompasses a wide range of erotic
configurations that derive meaning by conflating the languages of love and war.
This essay examines the poem 's representations of late medieval English erotic
practices and codes. (ACB)
-------. Rev. of Medieval Conduct. Kathleen Ashley and Robert L.A. Clark,
eds., Arthuriana12.3 (Fall 2002): 109-111.
Batt, Catherine. 'Malory and Rape. ' Arthuriana 7.3 (Fall 1997): 78-99.
Abstract: This essay uses literary, legal, and historical contexts for rape to
illuminate how and why Malory forcefully deploys such issues in his focus on
Lancelot in Le Morte Darthur. (CB)
Beal, Rebecca S. 'Arthur as the Bearer of Civilization: The Alliterative Morte Arthure, ll.
901-19. ' Arthuriana 5.4 (Winter 1995): 33-44.
Abstract: In the Alliterative Morte Arthure, Arthur 's armor marks him as a
product of his civilization, the antithesis of the lawlessness embodied in the giant
of Mont St. Michel. The arming scene both elevates Arthur morally and
establishes his civilization 's primacy over that of the Romans. (RSB)
Beatie, Bruce A. 'Arthurian Films and Arthurian Texts: Problems of Reception and
Comprehension. ' AInt 2.2 (Spring 1988): 65-78.
Abstract: A mediator between delight and challenge lies in the Arthurian film, a
genre that has as a whole been ignored both by Arthurian scholars and film critics,
though infrequently Arthurian films have been the object of much critical
attention. Since 1921, twenty- seven theatrical and television films have used the
tales of King Arthur and his knights either as direct source or as background.
Many of these films can serve to illustrate directly the problems posed by
conventions and preconceptions. As phenomena of the popular culture with which
media-oriented students are familiar, they also provide a more immediate and
profound means of access to the sometimes difficult works of the Arthurian
literary tradition which, at least to the modern student, are clearly phenomena of
'high ' culture. (BAB)
Beattie, Blake. Rev. of A Short History of the Middle Ages. Barbara H.
Rosenwein.Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 157-159.
Bednar, Maryanne R.. Rev. of The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp. By
Rick Yancey. Arthuriana 17.3 (Fall 2007): 124-125.
Bell, Kimberly. 'Merlin as Historian in Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum
Britannie. ' Arthuriana 10.1 (Spring 2000): 14-26.
Abstract: Geoffrey of Monmouth uses the figure of Merlin to reveal
metafictional levels of meaning in the HRB in order to foreground the historian 's
role in shaping perceptions of history. (KB)
Benkov, Edith J. Rev. of Jaufre: An Occitan Arthurian Romance. Trans. and ed. Ross G.
Arthur. Arthuriana 4.1 (Spring 1994): 90-92.
Benson, C. David. Rev. of 'Songes of Rechelesnesse ': Langland and the
Franciscans. By Lawrence M. Clopper. Arthuriana 10.1 (Spring 2000): 132-33.
Berthelot, Anne. 'Merlin and the Ladies of the Lake. ' Arthuriana 10.1 (Spring 2000):
55-82.
Abstract: The figure of Merlin has in most texts a close relationship with a feminine
character, either Morgue or the Lady of the Lake. While Morgue is often depicted as
a negative figure, the Lady of the Lake is described as a positive force in the
Arthurian world.Technically, however, both characters tend to replace Merlin as the
embodiment of magic and wisdom in the 13th century romances. (AB)
-------. Rev. of Pour un tombeau de Merlin: Due barde à la poésie modern. By Yves
Vadé.Arthuriana 18.3 (Fall 2008): 92.
-------. Rev. of La Mesnie Hellequin en conte et en rime: Mémoire mythique et poétique
de la recomposition. By Karin Ueltschi. Arthuriana 20.3 (Fall 2010): 130-31.
-------. Rev. of La légende du roi Arthur, 550–1250. By Martin Aurell. Arthuriana 20.4
(Winter 2010): 99-100
Besserman, Lawrence. Rev. of A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500.
Vol. 9: XXII, XXIII and XXIV. Gen.Ed. by Albert E. Hartung. Arthuriana 5.1 (Autumn
1995): 84-87.
Bisson, Lillian M.. Rev. of Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan.
Colin Morris and Peter Roberts, eds. Arthuriana 14.3 (Fall 2004): 103-104.
Blacker, Jean. 'Where Wace Feared to Tread: Latin Commentaries on Merlin 's
Prophecies in the Reign of Henry II. ' Arthuriana 6.1 (Spring 1996): 36-52.
Abstract: Political rather than aesthetic considerations led Wace to omit Merlin 's
prophecies from the Roman de Brut (c. 1155). Anti-Norman overtones in John of
Cornwall 's Prophetia Merlini (c. 1153-54) suggest that Wace 's fears of
presenting political apocalyptic to a royal audience may not have been unfounded.
(JB)
-------. Rev. of Codex and Context: Reading Old French Verse Narrative in
Manuscript.By Keith Busby. Arthuriana 14.2 (Summer 2004): 85-87.
-------. 'Anglo-Norman Verse Prophecies of Merlin.' Arthuriana 15.1 (Spring 2005): 1125.
-------. Rev. of Les prophéties de Merlin et la culture politique (XIIe – XVIe siècle). By
Catherine Daniel. Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010):101-02.
Blaetz, Robin. Rev. of For Fear of the Fire: Joan of Arc and the Limits of Subjectivity.
Francoise Meltzer. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 143-144.
Blanch, Robert J. 'George Romero 's Knightriders: A Contemporary Arthurian
Romance. 'QetF 1.4 (Winter 1991): 61-69.
Abstract: Written and directed by George A. Romero, Knightriders provides a
serious twentieth-century portrait of medieval life, a rendition of Arthurian lore as
a living legend. Representing a unique cinematic vision of a contemporary
Camelot, Romero 's movie focuses upon an itinerant performing troupe, which
supports itself by staging medieval/Renaissance fairs in numerous Pennsylvania
towns. Such pageants include artisans displaying their wares, musicians playing
medieval airs, and armored jousters-bikers riding steel steeds (Harley-Davidsons
and Yamahas), not horses. (RJB) [co-author: Julian N. Wasserman.]
-------. Rev. of The Arthurian Myth of Quest and Magic. Ed., William E.
Tanner.Arthuriana 6.2 (Summer 1996): 113-115.
-------. 'Fear of Flyting: The Absence of Internal Tension in Sword of the
Valiant and First Knight. ' Arthuriana 10.4 (Winter 2000): 15-32. (Co-author: Julean N.
Wassamon)
Abstract: Despite the dramatic potential inherent in their Arthurian subject
matter, Sword of the Valiant and First Knight are films which fail with both audiences
and critics precisely because both films fail to include the internal tensions which are
present in their respective medieval sources. (RJB/JNW)
-------. Rev. of Timeline. By Michael Crichton. Arthuriana 10.4 (Winter 2000): 69-71.
-------. Rev. of Gawain and the Green Knight. Films for the Humanities and
Sciences.Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 124-126.
Blanchard, Laura. Rev. of The Arthurian Tradition: The Myths and Realities of
Arthurian Legends. Arthuriana 8.4 (Winter 1998): 171-173.
Blanton, Virginia. '‘Don’t worry, I won’t let them rape you’: Guinevere’s Agency in
Jerry Bruckheimer’s King Arthur. ' Arthuriana 15.3 (Fall 2005): 91-112.
Abstract: By examining the production and reception of Knightley's Guinevere
in King Arthur, this essay demonstrates how the portrayal addresses a
contemporary audience. (VB)
-------.'‘…the queen in Amysbery, a nunne in whyght clothys and black…’: Guinevere’s
Asceticism and Penance in Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur' Arthuriana 20.1 (Spring 2010):
52-75.
Abstract: This essay examines Malory’s presentation of Guenevere’s ascetic choices as
abbess and considers how her behavior resonates with the choices of royal widows like
Eleanor of Provence and her patronage of Amesbury. (VB)
Blanton-Whetsell, Virginia. Rev. of Cultures of Piety: Medieval English Devotional
Literature in Translation Eds, Anne Clarke Bartlett and Thomas H.
Bestul. Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 104-105.
Bliss, Jane. 'Prophecy in the Morte Darthur.' Arthuriana 13.1 (Spring 2003): 1-16.
Abstract: Prophecy, as narrative structure, is mediated through numerous
prophetic voices, and illustrates a theme of human will struggling against God’s
will and against Fate. (JB)
Blumreich, Kathleen M. Lesbian Desire in the Old French Roman de
Silence. Arthuriana7.2 (Summer 1997): 47-62.
Abstract: Eufemie, representative of 'natural ' heterosexuality, is praised and
rewarded for her behaviors. Eufeme, the embodiment of 'unnatural ' lesbian
desire, is executed for her heretical deviancy. (KMB)
-------. 'Strategies for Teaching the Roman de Silence'. Arthuriana 12.1 (Spring 2002):
92-100.
Abstract: As its title suggests, this piece offers a variety of strategies for teaching
theRoman de Silence. Included here are ideas for small group, whole class, and
research assignments.(KB)
Boardman, Phil. 'Searching for Arthur: Literary Highways, Electronic Byways, and
Cultural Back Roads.' Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001): 108-122.
Abstract: The Arthurian Annals project has been a fifteen-year effort to document
the Arthurian tradition in English from the beginning of the fifteenth century
through the year 2000. Including but extending far beyond familiar literary works,
the Annalsdemonstrate that the vitality of the legend resides as much in the
products of popular culture as in the great works of Arthurian literature. The
research employed is described as well as some lessons learned about the
transmission of the tradition. (DN and PB)
Bogdanow, Fanni. 'A Little Known Codex, Bancroft ms. 73, and its Place in the
Manuscript Tradition of the Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal. ' Arthuriana 6.1 (Spring
1996): 1-21.
Abstract: The extant mss. of the Vulgate Queste fall into two broad families, a
and b. By far the largest number of mss. belong to family a. The Bancroft
ms.(formerly Phillips 4377 and for a long time unavailable to scholars), derives
from family b and is closely related to B.N. fr. 342. (FB)
-------. "Intertextuality and the Problem of the Relationship of the First and Second
Versions of the Prose Tristan to the Post-Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal, third part of
thePost-Vulgate Roman du Graal." Arthuriana 12.2 (Summer 2002): 32-68.
Abstract: There is a close relationship between the Post-Vulgate Queste and
theQueste incorporated into the 'Second Version ' of the Prose Tristan (Tr. II).
Textual evidence would suggest that the compiler of Tr. II incorporated large
sections of the P-V Queste (FB).
Bolduc, Michelle 'Images of Romance: The Miniatures of Le Roman de Silence.
'Arthuriana 12.1 (Spring 2002): 101-112.
Abstract: If the manuscript illuminations of chivalric romance are typically active
and courtly, those of the Roman de Silence visually highlight the romance 's
preoccupation with language and gender.(MB)
Bollard, John K. 'Theme and Meaning in Peredur. ' Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 7392.
Abstract: This article examines the episodic and thematic development of the
WelshPeredur, proposing that the longer version of the White and Red Books is a
unified tale concerned directly with such themes as courtesy, fame, and love.
(JKB)
Bolton, Maureen. Rev. of Sheba 's Daughters. Whitening and Demonizing the Saracen
Woman in the Medieval French Epic. By Jacqueline DeWeever. Arthuriana 9.1 (Spring
1999): 149-50.
Boos, Florence. 'William Morris, Robert Bulwer-Lytton, and the Arthurian Poetry of the
1850s. ' Arthuriana 6.3 (Fall 1996): 31-53.
Abstract: This essay examines parallels between William Morris 's 1858 The
Defence of Guenevere and Robert Edward Bulwer Lytton 's
1855 Clytemnestra, The Earl 's Return and Other Poems and explores reasons for
Morris 's turn from Arthurian to other medieval romances in his later poetry.
(FSB)
Boulanger, Jennifer. 'Righting History: Redemptive Potential and the Written Word in
Malory. ' Arthuriana 19.2 (Summer 2009): 27-41.
Abstract: The written word in Malory’s Morte Darthur, in the form of tomb
inscriptions and letter writing, has the power to affect redemption among the
characters, author, and readers of the text. (JB)
Boyd, David L. 'Sodomy, Misogyny, and Displacement: Occluding Queer Desire in Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight. ' Arthuriana 8.2 (Summer 1998): 77-114.
Abstract: By the late fourteenth century, the institution of chivalry had already
lost much of its social value. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight attempts to defend
chivalric ideals by blaming their decline on external forces: queer male behavior
and desire that derives from the deceits and wiles of women. (DLB)
Brasington, Bruce C.Rev. of Ireland and the Grail By John Carey. Arthuriana 19.1
(Spring 2009): 79-81
Brandsma, Frank. 'Hot Pursuit? Interlace and the Suggestion of Spatial Proximity in
Chrétien de Troyes 's Yvainand in the Old French Prose Lancelot. ' Arthuriana 14.1
(Spring 2004): 3-14.
Abstract: In Arthurian romance, narrative action often takes place in two or more
locations simultaneously. The suggestion of spatial proximity is crucial to the
narrative technique of both Yvain and the interlaced tale of the Prose Lancelot, as
an analysis of episodes in which knights are pursued demonstrates. (FB)
Brasington, Bruce C.Rev. of The Historical Source Book For Scribes By Michelle
P. Brown and Patricia Lovett. Arthuriana 11.1 (Spring 2001): 112-13.
-------. Rev. of The Historical Source Book for Scribes. By Michelle P. Brown and
Patiricia Lovette. Arthuriana 11.1 (Spring 2001): 112-13.
Braun, Michele D.Rev. of The Merriest Knight: The Collected Arthurian Tales of
Theodore Goodridge Roberts. By Mike Ashley. Arthuriana 12.4 (Winter 2002): 100101.
Breeze, Andrew. Rev. of Glastonbury Abbey. By James P. Carley. Arthuriana 7.2
(Summer 1997): 137-38.
-------. 'Caxton 's Prologue to Malory and the Welsh Brut. ' Arthuriana 9.3 (Fall
1999): 49-51.
Abstract: The Mysterious 'Welsh books ' on Arthur mentioned by Caxton in his
preface to Malory were probably Welsh translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth
's History of the Kings of Britain. (AB)
-------. 'The Awntyrs off Arthure, Caephilly, Oysterlow, and Wexford. ' Arthuriana 9.4
(Winter 1999): 63-68.
Abstract: References in The Awntyrs off Arthure to Kirfre , Vlstur Hall, Wayford, and
Waterford have puzzled scholars , but they may be identified as Caerphilly and
Oysterlow in South Wales, and Wexford and Waterford in Ireland. If so, they provide
evidence to associate the poem with the young duke of York (d.1460), who was
linked with the first three of these places, either directly or via his guardian. (AB)
-------. ' Sir John Stanley (c. 1350-1414) and the Gawain-poet. ' Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring
2004): 15-30.
Abstract: Evidence from dialect, the Garter, the Wirral, southern France, and
aristocratic life, suggest the Gawain-poet was perhaps John Stanley. His
correspondence may confirm this. (AB)
-------. 'The Battle of Camlan and Camelford, Cornwall. ' Arthuriana 15.3 (Fall 2005):
75-90.
Abstract: The river Camel in north Cornwall has interested Arthurian scholars thanks
to its supposed links with Arthur's last battle of Camlan. On this a study of comment
from the sixteenth century onwards reveals growing skepticism; many now conclude
that, even if a battle was fought at Camlan in 537, gaining a permanent place in
Welsh tradition, there are no historical grounds to associate it with Arthur.(AB)
Brewer, Derek. Rev. of Enabling Love: In Search of Lost Sensibility. By C. Stephen
Jaeger. Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 124-128.
Brodman, Marian Masiuk. 'Terra Mater-Luxuria Iconography and the Caradoc Serpent
Episode. ' QetF 2.3 (Fall 1992): 38-45.
Abstract: In the Livre de Caradoc symbolic connotations associated with the
nurturing mother are underscored by the exposed breast and the milk in which the
maiden Guinier sits. She clearly gives Caradoc new life and is diametrically
opposed to his adulterous mother and his father who are responsible for Caradoc
's constriction. The maiden 's virginity, a prerequisite for the cure, blots out the
ultimate cause of Caradoc 's suffering, the wanton sexual behavior of his mother.
Life-giving sacrifice obliterates the death-bearing punishment. (MMB)
Brown, Emerson, Jr. Rev. of Approaches to Teaching the Arthurian Tradition. Ed.
Maureen Fries and Jeanie Watson. Arthuriana 4.1 (Spring 1994): 84-87.
Brown, James. Rev. of Wirnt von Gravenberg’s Wigalois: Intertextuality and
Interpretation. By Neil Thomas. Arthuriana 15.4 (Winter 2005): 76-77.
------.'Envisioning Salvation: An Ecumenical Ekphrasis in Wirnt von Gravenberg’s
Wigalois. ' Arthuriana 20.3 (Fall 2010): 6-20.
Abstract: In his only known romance, Wigalois, Wirnt von Gravenberg uses ekphrasis as
a vehicle for articulating religious tolerance as well as differences between medieval
Christians and Muslims, and offers an alternative image to what easily could have been
an overly simplified, one-dimensional conception of Muslims during the period of the
Crusades. (JHB)
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. Rev. of La Destre et la senestre: Etude sur le Conte du
Graal de
Chrétien de Troyes. By Barbara N. Sargent-Baur. Arthuriana 12.2 (Summer 2002): 162163.
------. Rev. of Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours. By Fredric L.
Cheyette. Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring 2004): 94-95.
Brumlik, Joan. 'The Knight, the Lady, and the Dwarf in ChrÈtien 's Erec. ' QetF 2.2
(Summer 1992): 54-72.
Abstract: The ugly dwarf is perhaps already at ChrÈtien 's time a stock performer
in romance, one whose function it is to provoke strife and draw the knight into an
adventure, as in later romances. In Erec, however, the dwarf is not simply a bit
player in a single episode. The Yder trio is central to the action for most of
the premiers vers,with ChrÈtien 's development of their return to court a
prolonged play on the theme of three-in-one. His use of the dwarf as the
personification of the challenge informs most of Eric 's adventures. Equally
innovative is ChrÈtien 's use of Guivret, the dwarf-knight, ultimately emblematic
of Erec 's coming of age within the medium of pure adventure, so that without
anger, without any reason for his action, he instinctively accepts the challenge of
the Joie, revealing the full distance traveled by the uncertain knight who first
faced Yder 's challenge. (JB)
Bryan, Elizabeth J. 'Truth and the Round Table in Lawman 's Brut. ' QetF 2.4 (Winter
1992): 27-35.
Abstract: Even though it contains one of the earliest descriptions of the origin of
the Round Table, Lawman 's Brut never actually calls the table 'round. ' Lawman
's table is, however, marvelous. Drawing the story from his primary source, Wace
's Roman de Brut, usually considered the earliest appearance of the Round Table,
Lawman elaborated on Wace 's version in well known ways. The effect of
Lawman 's embellishment is to dramatize the Round Table as the solution to a
problem, which is diagnosed after the fact by a woodworker to be hierarchical
positioning at the dinner table. Lawman retains from Wace 's narrative a followup commentary on whether stories about the Round Table and King Arthur are
truth or lies, but Lawman 's commentary says something rather different from
Wace 's. The version of the origin of the Round Table in Lawman 's Brut is in fact
a rather sophisticated meditation on history, narrative, and truth in which Lawman
uses the table as a metaphor or model for the possibilities of true history. (EJB)
-------. 'Theoretical Approaches to Lawman 's Brut. ' Arthuriana 10.2 (Summer 2000):
3-5.
Buchelt, Lisabeth C. Rev. of The Scots and Medieval Arthurian Legend. Rhiannon
Purdie and Nicola Ryan, eds. Arthuriana 16.4 (Winter 2006): 107-108.
Buckman, Ty. Introduction (with Charles Ross): 'An Arthurian Omaggio to Michael
Murrin and James Nohrnberg. Arthuriana 21.1 (Spring 2011):3-6.
-------. '‘Arthurian Torsos’ and Professor Nohrnberg’s Unrepeatable Experiment. '
Arthuriana 21.1 (Spring 2011): 39-45.
Abstract: This essay identifies the ‘unrepeatable experiment’ that is at the core of James
Nohrnberg’s critical work, especially The Analogy of The Faerie Queene, by following
his reading of Arthur in the early part of the poem to the appearance of the Blatant Beast
at the end. (TB)
Bugge, John. Rev. of Medieval Literature, Style, and Culture: Essays by Charles
Muscatine. Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 114-16.
Bullough, Vern L. 'Medieval Concepts of Adultry ' Arthuriana 7.4 (Winter 1997): 5-15.
Abstract: Medieval society based its response to adultery on Germanic and
Roman law codes, but was in fact more liberal than either. Unlike its
predecessors, medieval canon and secular law recognized the responsibility of
both parties, rather than of just the woman, in the offense. St. Thomas Aquinas
argued that it was a breach of trust. (CMA)
Burgwinkle, William.Rev. of Proverbs in Medieval Occitan Literature. By Wendy
Pfeffer. Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 90-91.
Burns, E. Jane. 'Devilish Ways: Sexing the Subject in the Queste del Saint Graal.
'Arthuriana. 8.2 (Summer 1998): 11-32.
Abstract: Amid the standard cast of knights and ladies at King Arthur 's court, the
devil in the Queste del Saint Graal disrupts rigid social and linguistic categories
of masculinity and femininity, subverting the regulatory, heterosexual norms that
typically govern both ecclesiastical and courtly cultures in thirteenth-century
France. (EJB)
Burr, Kristin L. Rev. of The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles
Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. By Timothy B. Husband. Arthuriana 19.4
(Winter 2009): 76-77.
Buschinger, Danielle. 'Les ProblËmes de la Traduction des Textes MÈdiÈvaus
Allemands dans les Langues Modernes. ' Arthuriana 4.3 (Fall 1994): 224-32.
Abstract: By comparing the first two lines of Wolfram von Eschenbach
's Parzival with ll. 163ff of Hartmann von Aue 's Gregorius, this essay offers not
only an interpretation of Wolfram 's work but an analysis of some problems
confronting the contemporary translator of medieval texts. (DB)
Busse, Claire M..Rev. of Chaucer to Shakespeare, 1337-1580. Sunhee Kim
Gertz.Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 129-130.
Butler, James A.Rev. of The Victorians. Ed. Malcom Warner, Anne Helmreich, and
Charles Brock. Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 112-13.
Calabrase, Michael. Rev. of Writing East: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. By
Ian Macleod Higgins. Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 130-32.
Calkin, Siobhain Bly. 'Violence, Saracens, and English Identity in Of Arthour and of
Merlin'. Arthuriana 14.2 (Summer 2004): 17-36.
Abstract: This essay examines the visions of Arthur and England advanced by
Saracen-Christian violence in Of Arthour and of Merlin, and considers their
pertinence to a fourteenth-century audience. (SBC)
Callahan, Christopher. 'Lyric Discourse and Female Vocality: On the Unsilencing
of Silence'. Arthuriana 12.1 (Spring 2002): 123-131.
Abstract: The practice of lyric allows both Silence and Nicolete of chantefable
fame to transcend the limits of gender, by validating both their male and female
personae at once. Whether purely literary convention or reality, this
empowerment is characteristic of medieval lyric discourse. (CC)
Carey, Stephen Mark. 'Chartrian Influence and German Reception: Dating the
Works of Chrétien de Troyes. ' Arthuriana 20.3 (Fall 2010): 2-44.
Abstract: By examining the triangular relationship between the works of Chrétien de
Troyes, Alain de Lille, and the German reception of French Romance, this essay argues
for the acceptance of the dates proposed in Claude Luttrell’s Creation of the First
Arthurian Romance (1974) as the standard for the composition of Chrétien’s oeuvre.
(SMC)
Carley, James P. 'Polydore Vergil and John Leland on King Arthur: The Battle of the
Books. 'AInt 15.2 (Spring 1984): 86-100.
Abstract: In the period after his death, John Leland was himself considered a very
great authority on all aspects of the British past, and his literary remains were
treasured objects. In his career as antiquary and topographer, he developed a
passion for the past-- closely linked with a pride in the present-- quite unlike that
of his predecessors. His treatment of the Arthurian legend is the first example of a
new way of looking at Arthur, one in which the medieval romances have given
place to a 'topo-chrono-graphicall ' mode. Leland sees a new kind of romance in
historical fact, the myth buried in loving description of actual landscape. His
adulation of Arthur as a man and his attraction to contemporary geography as a
witness to the hero 's reality prefigure many elements of the Renaissance
Arthurian revival. (JPC)
-------. Rev. of Arthurian Literature VIII and Arthurian Literature IX. Ed. Richard
Barber.QetF 1.1 (Spring 1991): 78-80.
Carlson, David R. Rev. of Essays on Ricardian Literature in Honour of J.A. Burrow.
Eds. A.J. Minnis, Charlotte C. Morse, and Thorlac Turville-Petre. Arthuriana 9.1 (Spring
1999): 155-57.
Carlson, John Ivor. 'Translating the Alliterative Morte Arthure into a Digital Medium:
The Influence of Physical Context on Editorial Theory.' Arthuriana 20.2 (Summer 2010):
28-44.
Abstract: This article examines the impact of a modern digital edition of the
Alliterative Morte Arthure on editorial rationale, arguing that a change in physical
context entails a deep change in the analytical context within which the poem is
perceived. More precisely, I will illustrate the ‘dynamic’ potential of a digital edition,
which allows an editor or reader to accommodate multiple reading texts reflecting
different degrees of editorial certainty, and thus constitutes a significant advance
compared to more traditional methods of presentation. Ultimately the possibility of
contemplating such plural, open-ended and provisional possibilities within the context
of a digital edition of the Morte Arthure widens the range of editorial and interpretive
interaction with the text itself. (JIC)
Carr, Annemarie Weyl. Rev. of From Byzantium to Modern Greece: Medieval Texts
and Their Modern Reception. By Roderick Beaton. Arthuriana 20.2 (Summer 2010).
Carruthers, Leo. Rev. of Gold-hall and Earth-dragon: Beowulf as Metaphor. By Alvin
A. Lee. Arthuriana 10.2 (Summer 2000): 113-15.
Cartwright, Kent. Rev. of Christian Humanism in the Late English Morality Plays by
Dorothy H. Brown. Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001).\
Cassagnes-Brouguet. Rev of The Illustrated Lancelot Prose: Essays on the Lancelot of
Yale 229. By Elizabeth Moore Willingham. Arthuriana 20.1 (Spring 2010): 103.
Castor, Helen. Rev. of The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory. By P.J.C. Field.
Arthuriana 4.3 (Fall 1994): 274-76.
Cavallo, Jo Ann. 'Corcodiles and Crusades: Egypt in Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato and
Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. ' Arthuriana 21.1 (Spring 2011):85-96.
Abstract: Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso take quite
opposite approaches to the Crusading ideology found in Carolingian epic. This article
probes these differences by comparing their respective development of the episode of the
magus Orilo/Horrilo at Damietta and its surrounding narrative context. (JC)
Cawsey, Kathy. 'Merlin 's Magical Writing: Writing and the Written Word in Le Morte
Darthur and the English Prose Merlin ' Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 89-102.
Chance, Jane. Rev. of Bodytalk: When Women Speak in Old French Literature. By E.
Jane Burns. Arthuriana 5.4 (Winter 1995): 111-13.
-------. Rev. of Before the Closet: Same- Sex Love from 'Beowulf ' to 'Angels in America.
'By Allen J. Frantzen. Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 125-29.
-------. Rev. of God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle
Ages.Barbara Newman. Arthuriana 14.2 (Summer 2004): 100-102.
-------. Rev. of From Plato to Lancelot: A Preface to Chrétien de Troyes. By K. SarahJane Murray. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2008. Pp. xxii, 317; 11 blackand-white illustrations.
Chase, Carol. Rev. of The Book of Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny. Ed. Richard W.
Kaeuper and Elspeth Kennedy. Arthuriana 10.4 (Winter 2000): 80-82.
Cherewatuk, Karen. 'The Saint 's Life of Sir Launcelot: Hagiography and the
Conclusion of Malory 's Morte Darthur. ' Arthuriana 5.1 (Spring 1995): 62-78.
Abstract: Malory 's version of the death of Sir Lancelot amplifies the religious
component of his inherited story. When seen against a backdrop of popular
hagiography, especially The Golden Legend, one can see that Malory casts
Lancelot as an exemplar of Christian conversion and repentance. (KC)
-------. 'Born-Again Virgins and Holy Bastards: Bors and Elyne and Lancelot and
Galahad. ' Arthuriana 11.2 (Summer 2001): 52-64.
Abstract: Despite the ethic of the Sankgreal, the presence of fathers and their
illegitimate sons has positive features and, in Lancelot, suggests a tragic play of
emotions. (KC)
-------. Rev. of Essays on English Literature and Languages in Honor of Shunichi
Noguchi. Eds. Masahiko Kanno, Masahiko Agari, and Gregory K.
Jember. Arthuriana8.3 (Fall 1998): 108-109.
-------. Rev. of Malory 's Grail Seekers and Fifteenth-Century English Hagiography. By
Alfred Robert Kraemer. Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 132-133.
-------. Rev. of The Knight without the Sword:A Social Landscape of Malorian
Chivalryby Hyonjin Kim. Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001).
-------. 'An Introduction to Aural Malory: Sessions and Round Tables.
' Arthuriana 13.4 (Winter 2003): 3-13.
Abstract: This introduction explains how the project 'Reading Malory Aloud,
Then and Now ' was born and anticipates some of the lessons of voicing and
hearing Le Morte Darthur. (KC)
-------. Rev. of A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Ed. Carol
Dover. Arthuriana14.3 (Fall 2004). 97-99.
-------. 'Maloryπs Launcelot and the Language of Sin and Confession.
' Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 68-72.
Abstract: Malory takes Launcelot through two stages of the sacrament of penance,
contrition, and confession in the Sankgreal, but delays the third stage of
confession until the penitentπs satisfaction proves equal to his sin and earns him
salvation. (KC)
------. Rev. of Re-Viewing Le Morte Darthur. K.S. Whetter and Raluca L.
Radulescu.Arthuriana 16.4 (Winter 2006): 119-121.
------. Rev. of The Fortunes of King Arthur. By Norris J. Lacy, ed. Arthuriana 17.3 (Fall
2007): 100-101
------. Becoming Male, Medieval Mothering, and Incarnational Theology in Sir Gawain
and the Green Knight and the Book of Margery Kempe. Arthuriana 19.3 (Fall 2009): 1524
Abstract: References to the Nativity and the suffering of Christ reveal that
gendered behaviors help Margery but hinder Gawain in fully accepting
incarnational devotion. (KC)
Chickering, Howell. Rev. of Sealed in Parchment: Rereadings of Knighthood in the
Illuminated Manuscripts of ChrÈtien de Troyes. By Sandra Hindman. Arthuriana 5.1
(Spring 1995): 83-84.
-------. Rev. of 'Strong of Body, Brave and Noble ': Chivalry and Society in Medieval
France. By Constance Brittain Bouchard. Arthuriana 9.1 (Spring 1999): 146-148.
-------. Rev. of Public reading and the Reading Public in Late Medieval England and
France. By Joyce Coleman. Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 107-108.
Chism, Christine. 'Friendly Fire: The Disastrous Politics of Friendship in the Alliterative
Morte Arthure.' Arthuriana 20.2 (Summer 2010): 66-88.
Abstract: This article counterposes the Alliterative Morte Arthure with the late
fourteenth-century court of Richard II to explore the politics of royal friendship,
patronage, and chivalric noriture, arguing that the poem responds to the
contemporaneous politicization of the king’s love. The Morte Arthure pursues the
disastrous consequences of the politics of friendship for Arthur and his court as a way of
thinking through the passionate political coalitions whose repeated engagement brought
down the Lords Appellant, the protégés of Richard II, and eventually the king himself.
(CC)
-------. Rev. of Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic
Literature. By Sahar Amer. Arthuriana 20.2 (Summer 2010).
Christensen, Peter G. Rev. of Chaucer at Large: The Poet in the Modern
Imagination by Steve Ellis. Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001).
Christoph, Siegfried. 'Hospitality and Status: Social Intercourse in Middle High German
Arthurian Romance and Courtly Narrative. ' Arthuriana 20.3 (Fall 2010): 45-64.
Abstract: Within medieval German Arthurian romance and courtly narrative leading
nobles actively cultivate hospitality and jealously guard their roles within this
fundamental social institution. In these texts ideas about hospitality center on notions of
power and status, and hospitality becomes an important expression of the implicit rules
governing social discourse. (SC)
Christopher, Joe R. [Poem] 'Cibus Narrantibus. ' AInt 1.1 (Fall 1986): 75.
-------. 'A Second View of Castleview. ' QetF 3.3 (Fall 1993): 66-76.
Abstract: In 1990 Gene Wolfe published a novel, Castleview, which was reviewed
rather negatively the next year by Algis Budrys in The Magazine of Fantasy and
Science Fiction. Because Wolfe 's novel was a delight when read soon after
publication, and since Budrys is usually a perceptive reviewer, attention must be
devoted to a few aspects of Castleview to show that the book is not as obscure as
Budrys makes it out to be. The structure of the novel is an imitation of the
traditional Arthurian entrelacement. (JRC)
Church, Lori A. Rev. of Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Recent Research.
Ed. Norris J. Lacy. Arthuriana 7.1 (Spring 1997): 142.
Cichon, Michael. Insult and Redress in Cyfraith Hywel Dda and Welsh Arthurian
Romance.Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 27-43.
Abstract: This article, treating the laws in their context as well as specific legal
references in the romances, examines the transactional nature of insult and redress as
portrayed on medieval Welsh law and literature. The laws contain commentary on
hierarchy and behavior, and the narrative show to some extent how the laws worked.
Both shed light on the values of the society that produced the literature. (MC)
Clark, Robert L. A. 'Queering Gender and Naturalizing Class in the Roman de
Silence'.Arthuriana 12.1 (Spring 2002): 50-63.
Abstract: A queer reading allows us to see how the text 's sodomitic moments not
only serve to destabilize sex-gender categories but also point to a more general
anxiety about the coherence of categories of race and class. Noble birth emerges as
the only stable referent, the only work of Nature not undone by Nurture. (RLAC)
Clarke, Catherine A.M. Rev. of The Art of Words: Bede and Theodulf. By Paul
Meyvaert. Arthuriana 20.1 (Spring 2010): 107-08.
Clarkson, Tim. Rev. of Armourers. By Matthias Pfaffenbichler. Arthuriana 6.3 (Fall
1996): 88-89.
-------. Rev. of Chronicles of the Vikings: records, memorials, and myths. By R.I. Page.
Arthuriana 7.1 (Spring 1997): 134-135.
-------. Rev. of The Arthuriad of Catamandus By Fredrick Lees. Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring
1998): 105-106.
Classen, Albrecht. Rev. of The Poetics of Authorship in the Later Middle Ages. The
Emergence of the Modern Literary Persona. By Burt Kimmelman. Arthuriana 10.1
(Spring 2000): 140-42.
-------. Rev. of Daily Life in the Late Middle Ages By Richard Britnell. Arthuriana 9.4
(Winter 1999): 118-19.
-------. Rev. of The Horse in the Middle Ages By Ann Hyland. Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter
1999): 132-33.
-------. Rev. of Anger 's Past. The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages. Ed.
Barbara H. Rosenwein. Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 137-38.
-------. Rev. of Till Eulenspiegel, His Adventures. By Paul Oppenheimer, ed. and
trans.Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 146-147.
-------. 'Courtliness and Transgression at Arthur’s Court with Emphasis on the Middle
High German Poet Neidhart and the Anonymous Verse Novella Mauritius von Craûn. '
Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010): 3-19.
Abstract: Despite all efforts by courtly poets to maintain the impression of stability and
continuity within the courtly world, by the early thirteenth century individual texts such
as the poems by Neidhart and the anonymous verse narrative Mauritius von Craûn signal
transgression of the ideal of courtly love. These texts undermine traditional courtly
values, thus illustrating how much the Arthurian world lacked any real strategies to
combat moral and ethical threats affecting aristocracy at large. (AC)
Clifton, Nicole. 'Of Arthour and of Merlin as Medieval Children’s
Literature.' Arthuriana13.2 (Summer 2003): 9-22.
Abstract: This comparison of the Middle English Auchinleck manuscript’s
romance Of Arthour and of Merlin to its Old French source suggests that this
poem is the earliest instance of Arthurian children’s literature in English. (NC)
Cochran, Rebecca. 'Swinburne 's Concept of the Hero in The Tale of Balen . ' AInt 1.1
(Fall 1986): 47-53.
Abstract: Swinburne 's The Tale of Balen (1896) is more than a retelling of
Malory 's episode. In it Swinburne attempted to impart to the Balen legend the
dignity of classical tragedy, with its accent on inexorable fate. The Tale of
Balen serves as a successful rebuttal of Tennyson 's 'Balin and Balan ' because
Swinburne adhered closely to his medieval sources and restored Balin 's dignity.
In addition, by 'purifying ' Malory 's Balen episode, Swinburne achieved
something of the tragic sublimity at which he aimed in his retelling of the legend.
Swinburne 's tightening of the diffuse medieval narrative and his enhancement of
the value and intensity of Balen 's courageous deeds raised to tragic stature a
figure who did not fare so well in either Malory or Tennyson. Swinburne created
his own deterministic version of Balen 's tragic life, without destroying the
medieval spirit of the tale. (MLD)
-------. 'Edwin Arlington Robinson 's Arthurian Poems: Studies in Medievalisms?
' AInt 3.1 (Fall 1988): 49-60.
Abstract: Alice Chandler, along with Walter Pater and J.H. Shorthouse before her,
recognizes the differences between the use of medieval material and a
medievalism which reveres and attempts to reconstruct the Middle Ages. While
some works which employ a medieval subject may possess great merit, they may
still not serve as examples of medievalism. Edwin Arlington Robinson 's Merlin,
Lancelot, and Tristram are just such modern adaptations which do not constitute
medievalism, even though they are arguably the best of their kind in the twentieth
century. (MLD)
-------. Rev. of Arthur, The Greatest King: An Anthology of Modern Arthurian Poetry.Ed.
Alan Lupack. AInt 3.2 (Spring 1989): 138-40.
-------. Rev. of Legendary Britain: An Illustrated Journey. By Bob Stewart and John
Matthews. AInt 4.2 (Spring 1990): 85-87.
-------. Rev. of The Arthurian revival in Victorian Art. By Debra N. Mancoff. QetF 1.1
(Spring 1991): 94-97.
-------, and Sam Umland. Rev. of The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights
of the Round Table. Composer Rick Wakeman. QetF 1.2 (Summer 1991): 88-91.
-------. Rev. of Camelot Regained: The Arthurian revival and Tennyson 1800-1849. By
Roger Simpson. QetF 1.4 (Winter 1991): 88-91.
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome & the Members of Interscripta. 'The Armour of an Alienating
Identity. ' Arthuriana 6.4 (Winter 1996): 1-24.
Abstract: This essay examines the construction of masculinity in medieval
culture. Heroism and sanctity organize the masculine body into a cultural
coherence that is always both powerful and fragile. Identity in the Middle Ages
depends upon an array of changing phenomenam from medical theory and
manner of dress to martial activity and relation to other gendered bodies. (JJC)
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Rev. of Drama and Resistance: Bodies, Goods, and
Theatricality in Late Medieval England. By Claire Sponsler. Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall
1998): 100-101.
Coleman, Joyce. Rev. of Reading Romance: Literary, Psychology, and Malory 's 'Le
Morte D 'Arthur '. By Margaret duMais Svogun. Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 144.
-------. 'Reading Malory in the Fifteenth Century: Aural Reception and Performance
Dynamics 'Arthuriana 13.4 (Winter 2003): 48-70.
Abstract: This article explores the external and internal evidence that Malory
wrote theMorte for public reading, then speculates about how such a reading
session would proceed. (JC)
Collette, Carolyn P.. Rev. of Chaucer and Langland: The Antagonistic Tradition. By
John M. Bowers. Arthuriana 17.4 (Fall 2007): 119.
Collins, Frank. 'A Semiotic Approach to ChrÈtien de Troyes 's Erec et Enide. ' AInt 15.2
(Spring 1984): 25-31.
Abstract: With a model, discoverable after an actantial study of the premiers vers,
there comes an important new argument to advance in favor of the view that the
principal theme of Erec et Enide is the couple 's discovery, together, of ChrÈtien
's lasting ideal of chivalry. It is not just a model, concocted after the fact to fit the
desired interpretation. It is one which properly takes into account Erec 's speech
before the adventure of the Joie de la Cour by joining Erec and Enide together in
the role of subject, and it allows the reader to join in the discovery of an ideal that
is truly worthy of being the object in this rich Arthurian romance. (FC)
Combs, Annie. 'From Quest to Quest: Perceval and Galahad in the Prose Lancelot.
'Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 7-30.
Abstract: The Lancelot 's long-standing 'internal contradiction ' is generated by a
long-term strategy that not only authorizes a double reading, but also holds the
key to the work 's mysterious construction of Lancelot 's genealogy. (AC)
Conlee, John. 'Warwick Deeping's Uther and Igraine. ' Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001):
88-95.
Abstract: In Uther and Igraine, Warwick Deeping creates an elaborate narrative
context for the tale of Uther Pendragon's great love for Igraine, the wife of
Gorlois, the Duke of Tintagel. Deeping thoroughly re-inscribes the novel's three
main characters, and in so doing anticipates several developments in Arthurian
fiction that we tend to associate more with the second half of the twentieth
century, especially with the novels of Mary Stewart and Marion Zimmer Bradley.
(JC)
Cooper, Helen. 'Lancelot's Wives. ' Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 59-62.
Abstract: In a German romance of Anglo-Norman origin, a fifteenth-century
chronicle and a sixteenth-century potboiler, Lancelot takes the role not of
adulterous lover but of suitor and husband. (HC)
-------. 'Malorys for Teaching and Reading (The Round Table).' Arthuriana 20.1 (Spring
2010): 95-99.
Cooper, Lisa H.. 'Bed, Boat, and Beyond: Fictional Furnishing in La Queste del Saint
Graal. ' Arthuriana 15.3 (Fall 2005): 26-50.
Abstract: The Siege Perilleux, the Round Table, and the Bed of Solomon function
in theQueste del Saint Graal not only as narratological devices but also, and
despite the tale's insistence on their spiritual meaning, as forceful reminders of the
material world and the materiality of the text itself. (LHC)
-------. Rev. of The Object and the Cause in the Vulgate Cycle. Miranda
Griffin. Arthuriana16.4 (Winter 2006): 88-89.
Coote, Lesley. Rev. of Prophecy, Politics and the People in Early Modern
England.Ed.Tim Thornton Arthuriana 17.3 (Fall 2007): 120-121.
Cor, M. Antonia. Rev. of The Pendragon Chronicles: Heroic Fantasy From the Time of
King Arthur. Ed. Mike Ashley. QetF 2.3 (Summer 1992): 74-76.
-------.Rev. of The Romance of Perlesvaus. By Jessie L. Weston. Ed. Janet
Grayson. QetF1.1 (Spring 1991): 97-100.
Corbellari, Alain. 'Love's Ruses and Traps in Late Arthurian Literature: A Reading of
Pierre Sala's Tristan et Lancelot.' Arthuriana 19.1 (Spring 2009): 20-31.
Abstract: Reconsidering from a surprisingly modern perspective the relationships
among the great Arthurian knights Pierre Sala's Tristan et Lancelot reflects the
crisis in values characteristic of late medieval literature. (AC)
Cormier, Raymond. [Poem] 'LÈgende Arthurienne . ' AInt 2.2 (Spring 1988): 79.
-------. Rev. of The Envy of Angels: Cathedral Schools and Social Ideals in Medieval
Europe, 950-1200. By C. Stephen Jaeger. Arthuriana 5.1 (Autumn 1995): 105-106.
-------. Rev. of Wace 's Roman de Brut: A History of the British. Ed. and Trans. Judith
Weiss. Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 125-128.
------. Rev. of Le Roman de Brut: the French Book of Brutus. Arthur Wayne Glowka,
trans.Arthuriana 16.4 (Winter 2006): 115-117.
Couch, Julie Nelson. 'Howard Pyle’s Story of King Arthur and His Knights and the
Bourgeois Boy Reader.' Arthuriana 13.2 (Summer 2003): 38-53.
Abstract: This analysis of Howard Pyle’s use of genre-based exclusions to
construct an American bourgeois boy reader challenges the accepted idea that The
Story of King Arthur and His Knights presents a truly democratized Arthurian
world. (JNC)
-------. 'Introduction: Tom Hanks, The Voice of Malory.' Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer
2006): 5-7.
Crawford, Deborah K.E. 'St Joseph and Britain: The Old French Origins
' Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 1-20.
Abstract: The association of Joseph of Arimathea with the grail and Britain in
earlyArthurian romance was caused by the identification of the grail as a blood
relic. Afurther association with Joseph would have been virtually automatic, since
Joseph and the Crucifixion story were already part of popular tradition. (DKEC)
Crawford, Deborah. Rev. of St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury or The Apostolic
Church of Britain. By Lionel Smithett Lewis. Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 107-108.
Crocker, Holly A. Rev. of Medieval Go-Betweens and Chaucer's Pandarus. By
Gretchen Mieszkowski. Arthuriana 18.3 (Fall 2008): 83.
Crofts, Thomas Howard. Rev. of Latin Arthurian Literature. Mildred Leake
Day. Arthuriana16.4 (Winter 2006): 85-87.
-------.'The Occasion of the Morte Arthure: Textual History and Marginal Decoration in
the Thornton MS.' Arthuriana 20.2 (Summer 2010): 5-27.
Abstract: The physical make-up of the Morte Arthure section of Lincoln Cathedral MS
91 is rich in information about Robert Thornton’s copying, and understanding, of the
alliterative poem. The illustrations that accompany the Morte—including an amateur
‘frontispiece’ added much later—form an attentive and evolving response to the poem.
(THC)
Crosbie, Christopher J. 'Sexuality, Corruption, and the Body Politic: The Paradoxical
Tribute of The Misfortunes of Arthur to Elizabeth I. ' Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 27-43.
Abstract: Thomas Hughes 's The Misfortunes of Arthur pays homage to Elizabeth I
through its eclectic use of Arthurian traditions and by examining the corrupted
sexuality of the body politic. (CJC)
Curley, Michael J. 'Arthurian Literature of the Middle Ages: A National Endowment for
the Humanities Summer Seminar for Secondary School Teachers. ' Arthuriana 4.4
(Winter 1994): 392-401.
Curtis, Jan. 'Byzantium and the Matter of Britain: The Narrative Framework of Charles
Williams 's Later Arthurian Poems. ' QetF 2.1 (Spring 1992): 28-54.
Abstract: In his later Arthurian cycle, Taliessin Through Logres and The Region
of the Summer Stars, Charles Williams defines a theology of physical beatitude in
the language of dogma and myth. His earlier poetic version of the 'palpable god '
and 'grace transformed to matter ' is now articulated by the character of Arthur 's
court and the sixth-century Welsh poet, Taliessin, whose vision of the Empire
defines the inscape of the Divine City and the possibility of realizing the
expectation of heaven. Helping to fulfill that possibility is the task entrusted to
Taliessin, who is called upon to know the Empire, to rescue Arthur at Badon and
to stand by Arthur in building the kingdom of Logres. The cornerstone of
Williams 's version of the Arthurian myth is the Grail. The protector, visionary,
and poet of the Arthurian realm is Druid-born Taliessin through whom Williams
envisions the Empire and the preparation of Logres for the Parousia. (JC)
-------. 'Charles Williams 's "The Sister of Percivale": Towards a Theology of Theotokos.
'QetF 2.4 (Winter 1992): 56-72.
Abstract: The later Arthurian poems dramatize Charles Williams 's theology of
the 'holy and glorious flesh ' and tell a tale of an age-long quest in which man 's
proper function is the mortal maternity of God. In Taliessin Through
Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, Williams follows in pain and sorrow
and woeful adventure the soul 's fulfillment and betrayal of its proper function as
Theotokos, the mortal maternity of Godhead, and Keeper of the Holy Grail. (JC)
-------. 'A Confluence of Pagan-Celtic and Christian Traditions in Charles Williams 's
"Bors to Elayne: The Fish of Broceliande." ' Arthuriana 6.1 (Spring 1996): 96-111.
Abstract: Bors 's love song addresses Elayne in the Celtic tradition of poet as
prophet and in the Christian tradition of seeker of God for whom romantic love is
an elaborate conceit for the divine revelation.(JC)
Curtis, RenÈ L. 'The Perception of the Chivalric Ideal in ChrÈtien de Troyes 's Yvain.
' AInt3.2 (Spring 1989): 1-22.
Abstract: ChrÈtien 's most biting sarcasm in Yvain is directed against the knights
of Laudine 's court and not those of Arthur 's. He depicts their cowardliness with
much humor. These courtiers are very different from Arthur 's knights, for not one
of them would take up shield or lance to defend the fountain, thus suggesting that
cowardice and lack of initiative are what ChrÈtien abhors most of all. The picture
of Laudine 's court in fact shows up Arthur 's standards and values in a very
favorable light, and gives a clear picture of what are ChrÈtien 's priorities. The
idea of knighthood dedicated to the service of others which Yvain embraces in the
second part of the romance is no doubt the chivalric ideal which ChrÈtien is
propagating in the Chevalier au Lion, but nowhere does he imply in the text that
this is in any way divergent from the Arthurian ideal. (RLC)
-------. 'Physical and Mental Cruelty in the Lais of Marie de France. ' Arthuriana 6.1
(Spring 1996): 22-35.
Abstract: Though it is commonly assumed that Marie 's Lais depict a harmonious
society in which tenderness prevails, this essay demonstrates that her Lais abound
with vicious characters, often thwarted lovers, showing that Marie is clear-sighted
enough to see that Love can corrupt as well as ennoble.(RLC)
Dahmen, Lynne. 'Sacred Romance: Silence and the Hagiographical Tradition.
' Arthuriana12.1 (Spring 2002): 113-122.
Abstract: The tradition of vitae, specifically of crossdressing female saints, serves
as an important source and point of reference for this didactic romance.(LD)
-------.Rev. of The Matter of Identity in Medieval Romance. Phillipa Hardman,
ed.Arthuriana 14.2 (Summer 2004): 93-94.
Davidson, Roberta. 'Prison and Knightly identity in Sir Thomas Malory 's Morte
Darthur. 'Arthuriana 14.2 (Summer 2004): 54-63.
Abstract: Due to his incarceration, Malory was forced to solve the problem of
proving knightly identity when the knight is unable to express that identity
physically. He redefines the nature of knightly action as internal prowess. (RD)
-------. 'Reading Like a Woman in Malory’s Morte Darthur.' 16.1 Arthuriana (Spring
2006): 21-33.
Abstract: Women characters’ position as involved spectators facilitates their use
as readers and teachers in Morte Darthur. Malory’s use of these characters to
model the act of reading reflects his own position as a redactor and involved,
analytical reader of his sources. (RD)
-------. 'The Reel Arthur: Politics and Truth Claims in Camelot, Excalibur and King
Arthur.' 17.2 Arthuriana (Summer 2007): 62-84.
Abstract: Filmmakers use King Arthur as a platform for their own agendas and as
a figure of hope. Examination of three works reveals a range of implicit and
explicit politics. (RD)
-------. Rev. of Arthuriana Writers: A Bibliographical Encyclopedia. Laura Cooner
Lambdin and Robert Thomas Lambdin, eds. Arthuriana 18.3 (Fall 2008): 81.
-------. 'Parke Godwin and the Lessons of History.' Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010): 20-30.
Abstract: Authors of historical fiction claim that their work restores a narrative of
meaning to the past, and that it recovers the experiences of those individuals or groups
who have been excluded from the formal historical record. This two-fold function is
particularly important to Parke Godwin, who suggests that, to recreate the past, the
storyteller must be willing both to utilize and to go against the historical record. He
positions himself as a kind of ‘pagan,’ resurrecting an older, more ‘authentic’ world to
which he postulates Arthur belonged. (RD)
Davis, Alex. Scenes of Instruction in Renaissance Romance. By Jeff Dolven. Chicago
and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. 281.
Day, David D. Rev. of A Beowulf Handbook. By Robert J. Bjork and John D.
Niles.Arthuriana 8.2 (Summer 1998): 143-145.
Day, Mildred Leake. 'Scarlet Surcoat and Gilded Armor: The Literary Tradition of
Gawain 's Costume in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and De ortu Waluuanii.
' AInt 15.2 (Spring 1984): 53-58.
Abstract: The red surcoat and golden armor that Gawain wears in Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight are the result of the working and re-working of the Gawain
materials by many poets. The Gawain-poet has created from this complex of tales
a work that is tradition and art, both contributing to the poem 's suspense and
development. When the poet garbs his hero in red and gold, he also clothes him in
the glory of his past exploits, reminding all who know the stories how magnificent
Gawain 's career has been. Nothing is more poignant than the scene on New Year
's when Gawain, once more dressed in full regalia, wraps the green lace over his
red surcoat. He literally wears the iconography for the ensuing action. Moments
later he flinches from the axe blow, and the Green Knight declares, 'Thou art not
Gawayn. ' As the green girdle compromises the red surcoat, so has Gawain 's
behavior compromised his identity. He rides forth with the green girdle obliquely
across the red surcoat and pentangle like a bar sinister. (MLD)
-------. 'Sir Gawain and the Greek Fire: The Impact of Technology on the Heroic
Imagination inDe ortu Waluuanii. ' AInt 1.1 (Spring 1986): 12-18.
Abstract: The episode in the romance De ortu Waluuanii where Sir Gawain must
leap aboard a pirate ship attacking with Greek fire--unique in Arthurian literature-may be one of the earliest examples of the impact of changed military weaponry
on the heroic imagination. Because the structure of De ortu is a fully developed
hero tale, the place and function of the episode can be examined in that context;
and its significance in defining the culture hero of the twelfth century may be
explored. Gawain confronts the new technology of the Greek fire as the adventure
immediately precedes his true challenge, single combat for Jerusalem.
Structurally, it is the final danger before the ultimate quest. Gawain must face the
real horror, the weapon which was demoralizing the Crusaders, who actually
fought to defend Jerusalem. Only after meeting this last test is Gawain qualified to
act as champion for Empire and Faith. Gawain meets the challenge, destroys the
weapon, and goes forth to protect Jerusalem. He is a true culture hero of his time
and a man worthy to replace Arthur as the supreme knight of Britannia. Gawain
must attack the seaman operating the machine, an anonymous figure far removed
from the evil genius who created it. Once the new technology of Greek fire and
gunpowder become the menace, the heroic age has ended. (MLD)
-------.Rev. of The Household of the Grail. By John Matthews. QetF 1.2 (Summer 1991):
81-84.
-------. Rev. of The Magical Quest: The Use of Magic in Arthurian Romance; Magical
Thought in Creative Writing: The Distinctive Roles of Fantasy & Imagination in Fiction;
Traditional Romance and Tale. By Anne Wilson. QetF 1.4 (Winter 1991): 91-93.
-------.Rev. of 'An Extraordinary Assortment of Irregularities ': The Celtic Literature of
Defeat. By Charles Moorman. Quondam et Futurus: AInt 3.1 (Spring 1993): 72-74.
Dean, Christopher. 'The Many Faces of Merlin in Modern Fiction. ' AInt 3.1 (Fall
1988): 61-78.
Abstract: Mary Stewart 's attempt to make Merlin totally human does not really
work; nevertheless her novels are a significantly new way of presenting Merlin;
for she has blazed an original trail that others will follow. But the most inventive
use of Merlin as opposed to just a new presentation of the traditional character is
that in Firelord by Parke Godwin. Combining traditional elements of Merlin as
prophet, teacher, and divinely-inspired agent of the gods, Godwin makes Merlin
totally a figment of Arthur 's imagination seen only by him and no one else. In
this way Arthur 's character can be shown in its complexity by externalizing the
debates and conflicts in his mind as well as showing his hopes and dreams. Yet at
the same time this method demonstrates how Arthur is pushed along a
predetermined path that he cannot avoid and how in the last resort he is no more
than a pawn in the hands of fate. (CD)
Delany, Sheila. Rev. of Chaucer 's Open Books: Resistance to Closure in Medieval
Discourse. By Rosemarie P. McGerr. Arthuriana 9.3 (Fall 1999): 122-23.
Denton, Jeannette Marshall 'An Historical Linguistic Description of Sir Thomas
Malory 's Dialect. ' Arthuriana 13.4 (Winter 2003): 14-47.
Abstract: Late Middle English sound changes may have shaped Malory 's
northeastern Warwickshire dialect and that of his upper-class London audience.
(JMD)
Dentzien, Nicole. 'Hans Sachs’s Arthurian Chastity Test.' Arthuriana 13.1 (Spring 2003):
43-65.
Abstract: Using Hans Sachs’s ehbrecher brugk as an example, this essay
demonstrates the development of the bridge chastity-test motif in German
literature from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, concentrating on changes in
transmission and reception. (ND)
De Bundel, Katty 'Hi sette sijn vechten an hare minne: Love and Adventure in Die
Wrake van Ragisel ' Arthuriana 15.2 (Summer 2005): 26-38.
Abstract: Die Wrake van Ragisel, as it appears in the Middle Dutch Lancelot
compilation, is an adaptation of an older translation into Middle Dutch of the Old
French La Vengeance Raguidel. This article reads Die Wrake van Ragisel as a
parody of the traditional themes of worldy chivalry and love. To this end special
attention is paid to changes vis-à-vis the original and the consequences these have
for our interpretation of the romance. The resulting reading argues for a
meaningful role ofDie Wrake van Ragiselwithin the compilation as a whole.
(DFJ)
De Weever, Jacqueline. Rev. of The Arthurian Name Dictionary. By Christopher W.
Bruce. Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 119-21.
-------. Rev. of Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality & Demonology in the Middle Ages. By
Dyan Elliott. Arthuriana 10.4 (Winter 2000): 71-72
-------. Rev. of Mastering Aesop: Medieval Education, Chaucer, and His Followers. By
Edward Wheatley. Arthuriana 11.1 (Spring 2001): 132-33.
-------. Rev. of Women, Patronage, and Self-Representation in Islamic Societies. By D.
Fairchild Ruggles, ed.. Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring 2004): 114-116.
-------. Rev. of Women Medievalists and the Academy. Ed. Jane Chance. Arthuriana 16.2
(Summer 2006): 98-100.
-------. 'Introduction: The Saracens as Narrative Knot. ' Arthuriana 16.4 (Winter 2006): 49.
-------. Rev. of Boundaries in Medieval Romance. By Neil Cartlidge. Studies in Medieval
Romance. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2008. Pp. x 198.
Dick, Ernst S. 'The German Gawein: Diu Cr(TM)ne and Wigalois. ' AInt 15.2 (Spring
1984): 11-17.
Abstract: Gawein 's function as a new type of hero in courtly romance is also that
of an anti-Parzival. Like Parzival, he is once portrayed in the likeness of an angel.
At the same time, his value as a hero, his tiure, is also compared with the value of
gold. He is perfect, but capable of purification. No doubt Gawein 's mythic stature
is meaningfully strengthened in Diu Cr(TM)ne, but so is his potential as a perfect
knight with an individualized record of chivalrous achievements. His emergence
as a protagonist is completed. (ESD)
Dittmar, Mary Lynne. 'A Psychologist Responds to "A Little Acknowledged Theme."
' QetF1.4 (Winter 1991): 36-38.
Abstract: Peter Meister 's 'mirror ' between shadow and persona, as manifested in
the rapists and heroes of the courtly romance, is complemented by a mirror
between male characters and their animas, as projected onto women. It is worth
investigating the extent to which this 'little acknowledged theme ' of rape
underlies the plot construction in other examples of this literature. In any case,
Meister 's analysis of this aspect of the courtly romance results in the
transformation of the heroic quest from an endeavor of noble origin to the visible
aspect of a more complex pattern which is inherently violent toward women.
(MLD)
Dobyns, Ann. 'Introduction: Rhetorical Approaches to Malory 's Morte Darthur. ' Coarthured by Anne Laskaya. Arthuriana 13.3 (Fall 2003): 3-9.
Doherty, John J. '"A land shining with goodness": Magic and Religion in Stephen R.
Lawhead 's Taliesin, Merlin, and Arthur. ' Arthuriana 9.1 (Spring 1999): 57-66.
Abstract: Religion is a common theme in science fiction and fantasy. Stephen R.
Lawhead 's fantasy Pendragon Cycle tells of the conflict between Christian and
pagan religions, in which the outcome is the Christian Arthurian realm of the
Kingdom of Summer. (JJD)
Donahue, Dennis P. 'The Darkly Chronicled King: An Interpretation of the Negative
Side of Arthur in Lawman 's Brut and Geoffrey 's Historia. ' Arthuriana 8.4 (Winter
1998): 135-147.
Abstract: Analysis of Arthur in Geoffrey 's HRB, Lawman 's source once
removed, and of Lawman 's theme of good counsel suggests that Lawman
intended a dark portrait of Arthur. (DPD)
Donavin, Georgiana. 'Elaine 's Epistolarity: The Fair Maid of Astolat 's Letter in Malory
'sMorte Darthur. ' Arthuriana 13.3 (Fall 2003): 68-82.
Abstract: This essay argues that Malory employs dictaminal conventions from the
medieval letter writing tradition to construct a feminist subjectivity in the figure
of Elaine of Astolat. (GD)
Doner, Janet R. 'Illuminating Romance: Narrative, Rubric, and Image in Mons, BU
331/206, Paris, BN, fr. 1453, and Paris, BN, fr. 12577. 'Arthuriana 9.3 (Fall 1999): 327.
Abstract: Close examination of MSS PSU of the Continuation-Gauvain reveals
distinctive patterns of narrative-rubic-image relationships. Certain tensions among
these elements may be attributable to technical aspects of the production process.
(JRD)
Dosanjh, Kate. 'Rest in Peace: Launcelotπs Spiritual Journey in Le Morte Darthur.
'Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 63-67.
Abstract: When read in relation to Launcelotπs encounter with the Grail,
Launcelotπs death can be interpreted as a triumphant assurance of heavenly peace,
despite the tone of loss that marks the scene. (KD)
Douglass, Rebecca M. 'Missed Masses: Absence and the Function of the Liturgical
Year in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. ' QetF 2.2 (Summer 1992): 20-27.
Abstract: The movement of Sir Gawain is structured around two simultaneous
temporal schemes: what we might call 'natural time '--the progress of the seasons-and the liturgical calendar, the ecclesiastical 'seasons. ' The poem seems to call
equal attention to both from its beginning, thereby establishing a tension between
the ideological structures they seem to represent: the world of Christianity and the
world of faerie. The poem is deeply uneasy with the role of the church in society,
and this discomfort is reflected in the failures and flaws of the Christian structure,
both of the calendar itself and of the rituals observed by Gawain. (RMD)
Dover, Carol R. Rev. of Aucassin et Nicolete: The poetry of Gender and Growing
Up in the French Middle Ages. By Roger Pensom. Arthuriana 11.1 (Spring 2001):
123-25.
-------. Introduction. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 4-6.
Downes, Jeremy M. Rev. of The Epic Hero By Dean A. Miller. Arthuriana 11.2
(Summer 2001): 85-86.
Draper, Simon. Rev. of Gildas’s De Excidio Britonum and the Early British Church.
Studies in Celtic History 26. By. Karen George. Arthuriana 20.2 (Summer 2010).
Drukker, Tamar. 'Vision and History: Prophecy in the Middle English
Prose BrutChronicle ' Arthuriana 12.4 (Winter 2002): 25-49.
Abstract: The Middle English prose Brut follows the biblical tradition of
incorporating prophecy in its historical narrative. Merlin 's prophecy forms an
important part of the chronicle though it is set apart from the rest of the work.
(TD)
Dutton, Marsha L.. 'The Staff in the Stone: Finding Arthur’s Sword in the Vita
Sancti Edwardi of Aelred of Rievaulx ' Arthuriana 17.3 (Fall 2007): 3-28.
Abstract: The source for the story of Arthur’s drawing the sword that would make
him king seems likely to be a miracle involving Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester,
his episcopal staff, and a saintly king’s tomb, found in Aelred of Rievaulx’s Vita
Sancti Edwardi, Regis et Confessoris. (MLD)
Echard, Siân. Rev. of Approaches to Teaching the Arthurian Tradition. Ed. Maureen
Fries and Jeanie Watson. Arthuriana 4.1 (Spring 1994): 80-83.
-------. Rev. of Glamorous Sorcery: Magic and Literacy in the High Middle Ages. By
David Rollo. and Magic in Medieval Romance from Chretien de Troyes to Geoffrey
Chaucer. By Michelle Sweeney. Arthuriana 11.3 (Fall 2001): 138-139.
-------. Rev. of The Arthur of the English. By W.R.J. Barron, ed. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall
2002): 112-113.
-------. 'Seldom does anyone listen to a good exemplum: Courts and Kings
in Torec and Die Riddere metter Mouwen.' Arthuriana 17.1 (Spring 2007): 79-94.
Abstract: This essay examines the use of outsider characters in the Middle Dutch
romances of Torec and the Riddere metter Mouwen. It draws on the deployment
of similar characters in two Latin romances, the Historia Meriadoci and De Ortu
Waluuanii, to show a shared interest, across the Dutch and Latin texts, in
courtliness and right rule. (SE)
-------. Rev. of Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain. An Edition
and Translation of the ‘De gestis Britonum’ [Historia Regum Britanniae]. By
Michael D. Reeve. Trans. by Neil Wright. Arthuriana 20.3 ( Fall 2010): 129.
Edain. [Poem] 'Nimue: Song For Myrddyn. ' QetF 2.3 (Fall 1992): 69-70.
Edsall, Mary Agnes. Rev. of After Augustine: The Meditative Reader and the Text by
Brian Stock. Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001).
Eliason, Eric. Rev. of Alliterative Revivals by Christine Chism. Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring
2004): 98.
Elliott, Andrew B. R. Rev. of Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the
Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Settings. By Martha
W. Driver and Sid Ray. Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010): 103.
Epp, Garrett. Rev. of Chaucer and Costume: The Secular Pilgrims in the General
Prologue by Laura F. Hodges. Arthuriana 11.4 (Winter 2001).
Erler, Mary C. Rev. of Reading Families: Women 's Literate Practice in Late Medieval
England. By Rebecca Krug. Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring 2004): 107-109.
Everhart, Deborah. 'The Round Table. ' Arthuriana 4.1 (Spring 1994): 70-75.
-------. 'The Round Table. ' Arthuriana 4.2 (Summer 1994): 196-99.
-------. '"Arthurnet" Digest. ' Arthuriana 4.4 (Winter 1994): 387-91.
-------. Rev. of The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in
Translation.Ed. by James J. Wilhelm. Arthuriana 5.1 (Autumn 1995): 94-95.
-------. "Learner-Centered Arthurian Course Design." Arthuriana 15.4 (Winter 2005): 2430.
Abstract: Students who take Arthurian courses are generally self-selected and
highly motivated. By channeling this energy into learner-centered outcomes, we
provide opportunities for students to understand Arthurian materials deeply while
developing valuable lifelong learning skills. (DE)
Faletra, Michael. Rev. of New Directions in Arthurian Studies. Ed. Alan
Lupack;Arthuriana 13.3 (Fall 2003): 124-125.
-------. Rev. of Inventing Medieval Landscapes: Senses of Place in Western Europe. John
Howe and Michael Wolfe, eds. Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring 2004): 101-102.
Falsani, Teresa Boyle. 'Parke Godwin 's Guenevere: An Archetypal Transformation.
' QetF3.3 (Fall 1993): 55-65.
Abstract: In many contemporary retellings of the Arthurian legends, the character
of Guenevere seems to be breaking out of her narrow archetypal role. An
archetypal analysis of Parke Godwin 's Guenevere, as depicted in his 1984
novel, Beloved Exile, reinforces a general tendency by modern writers such as
Mary Stewart, Thomas Berger, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Persia Woolley to portray
Guenevere as far more complex and sympathetic than her sketchily depicted and
often unidimensional medieval counterpart. (TBF)
Fanger, Claire. Rev. of Medieval Mythography V olume II: From the School of Chartres
to
the Court at Avignon, 1177-1350. By Jane Chance. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 122-123.
Farrell, Eleanor M. Rev. of Arthur, High King of Britain. By Michael Morpurgo; Black
Horses for the King. By Anne McCaffrey; and Passager. By Jane Yolen. Arthuriana 7.1
(Spring 1997): 163-64.
Farrell, Thomas J. 'Life and Art, Chivalry and Geometry in Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight. ' AInt 2.2 (Spring 1988): 17-33.
Abstract: In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, even Gawain cannot make the
pentangle mean what it is supposed to mean: that is why its symbolism is
necessarily problematic. The poet 's decision to disrupt the poetically perfect
alliteration in his description of the hero acts as a bridge between the ideal
expressed by the geometric figure on Gawain 's shield and the moral imperfection
of his actions. Gawain 's failure is a failure of knighthood itself. Yet, Arthurian
society is reunited by a device which can signify a higher level of knighthood than
it possessed at the beginning of the poem. (TJF)
-------. "The Clash of Genres at the Siege of Benwick." Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006):
88-93.
Abstract: In åThe Siege of Benwick,π Maloryπs generic shift from romance to
epic validates Gawainπs determination to fight to the death rather than
Launcelotπs consistent deferral of their conflict. (TJF)
Farrier, Susan E. 'Erex saga and the Reshaping of ChrÈtien 's Erec et Enide. ' AInt 4.2
(Spring 1990): 1-11.
Abstract: The medieval writer who put ChrÈtien 's Erec et Enide into Old Norse
faced a problem not shared by many other contemporary translators. Arthurian
material came to Iceland at a time when the indigenous saga tradition was
flourishing, and those Icelandic literary works differed markedly in both subject
matter and style from their European counterparts. Therefore the writer of Erex
saga had to perform a kind of cultural translation, making the story
comprehensible to an audience both unfamiliar with the fairly common European
conception of courtly love--or to use a less disputed term,fin amors--and
unaccustomed to the intrusive narrator found in many medieval romances. (SEF)
Fehrenbacher, Richard. 'The Domestication of Merlin in Malory 's Morte Darthur.
' QetF3.4 (Winter 1993): 1-16.
Abstract: In the Tale of King Arthur, Malory attempts to legitimize Arthur 's reign
by rewriting his enigmatic source, the Old French prose Merlin, just as the houses
of York and Lancaster attempted to rewrite the compromised texts of English
dynastic and legendary history in order to legitimize theirs. Thus both projects are
palimpsests--histories written over previous histories. And these projects, also like
palimpsests, oftentimes do not quite manage to erase the underlying texts--texts
whose earlier, infuriatingly contradictory accounts manage to bleed through in
most unsettling ways, causing both projects ultimately to fail. The regnal
genealogies constructed by the warring houses of late medieval England and the
legendary history rewritten by Thomas Malory both fail to furnish the
legitimizing power they are called upon to provide, and thus Rev.eal a deep
cultural anxiety concerning not just the genealogical projects of the English royal
house, but the use of history as a legitimating device. (RF)
Feinstein, Sandy. 'Losing Your Head in Chretien 's Knight of the
Cart. ' Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 45-62.
Abstract. In Chretien 's Lancelot,beheading serves as a complex sexual, political,
and religious image representing power, particularly the power of speech. (SF)
Fenster, Thelma. Rev. of Arthurian Literature by Women. Ed. Alan Lupack and
Barbara Tepa Lupack. Arthuriana 10.2 (Summer 2000): 115-16.
Ferlampin-Archer. Rev. of Perceforest, première partie. Edition critique. By Gilles
Roussineau. Arthuriana 20.1 (Spring 2010): 109.
Field, P.J.C. 'Caxton 's Roman War. ' Arthuriana 5.2 (Summer 1995): 31-73.
Abstract: Malory 's Morte Darthur is the most famous of all Arthurian books, but
very different views of it have been implied in recent disputes about the
relationship between its two oldest surviving texts. This essay argues that the two
texts derive independently from a lost archetype, and that an understanding of the
process of derivation makes it possible to come closer than ever before to what
Malory himself wrote. (PJCF)
-------. Rev. of Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500. By Anthony
Emery. Arthuriana 9.1 (Spring 1999): 154-55.
-------. Rev. of Malory 's Book of Arms: The Narrative of Combat in Le Morte DarthurBy
Andrew Lynch. Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring 1998): 93-95.
-------. Rev. of Prose Merlin. By John Conlee. Arthuriana 9.4 (Winter 1999): 121-22.
-------. 'Malory and His Scribes. ' Arthuriana 14.1 (Spring 2004): 31-42.
Abstract: The most authoritative edition of the Morte Darthur suggests that the
scribes of the unique manuscript were faithful copyists who sometimes made
mechanical errors. The essay argues (with examples) that they also made
conscious changes to their copy. (PJCF)
-------. 'Malory and Cardiff.' Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer 2006): 45-48.
Abstract: When Maloryπs life and his book are considered together, it appears
that he probably visited Cardiff and thought of it as an unexpectedly Arthurian
locality. (PJCF)
-------. 'Arthur's Battles.' Arthuriana 18.4 (Winter 2008): 3-32.
Abstract: A handful of early documents bearing on the question of Arthur's
existence look like serious efforts to preserve historical information. If read
properly, they can, among other things, answer the question of whether or not
Arthur really existed. (PJCF)
-------. Rev. of King Arthur: History and Legend. By John and Caitlín Matthews. London:
Folio Society, 2008. xxiv, 296 pp.
Findon, Joanne. Rev. of From Ireland Coming: Irish Art from the Early Christian to
the Late Gothic Period and Its European Context. Ed. Colum
Hourihane. Arthuriana13.3 (Fall 2003): 117-118.
Finke, Laurie A., and Martin B. Shichtman. 'No Pain, No Gain: Violence as Symbolic
Capital in Malory 's Morte d' Arthur. ' Arthuriana 8.2 (Summer 1998): 115-33.
Abstract: Romances like Malory 's Morte d' Arthur endorse a sexual economy of
structured violent exchanges in which masculinity is built around the continual
circulation of women and wealth as rewards for sanctioned violence. (LAF &
MBS)
------. Who's Your Daddy?: New Age Grails Arthuriana 19.3 (Fall 2009): 25-33
Abstract: In Raising a Modern-Day Knight: A Father’s Role in Guiding His Son
to Authentic Manhood, Robert Lewis, Pastor-at-Large for the Fellowship Bible
Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, incorporates a new age mythopoetic analysis of
castrated masculinity doused with buckets of non-denominational Christianity to
argue that, by following the child-rearing examples of medieval knights, twentyfirst century fathers can prepare their sons for clear, inspiring, biblically grounded
lives. This article interrogates the absences around which such medieval fantasies
of knighthood cohere. (LF and MBS)
Finke, Laurie. Rev. of Medieval Studies. A Special Issue of New Literary
History. Ed. D. Vance Smith and Michael Uebel. Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring 1998): 102103.
-------. Rev. of Empire of Magic: Medieval Romance and the Politics of Cultural
Fantasy.By Geraldine Heng. Arthuriana 15.2 (Summer 2005): 71-73.
-------. Rev. of Reading Medieval Culture: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Hanning. eds.
Robert M. Stein and Sandra Pierson Prior. Arthuriana 16.1 (Spring 2006): 83-84.
-------. Rev. of Postcolonial Approaches to the European Middle Ages: Translating
Cultures. Ed. Ananya Jahanara Kabir and Deanne Williams. Arthuriana 16.2 (Summer
2006): 105-107.
-------. Rev. of Mass Market Medieval: Essays on the Middle Ages in Popular
Culture. By David W. Marshall, ed. Arthuriana 17.3 (Fall 2007): 105-106.
-------. Rev. of Reality Fictions: Romance, Hisotyr, and Governmental Authority, 10251180. By Robert M. Stein. Arthuriana 18.3 (Fall 2008): 90.
Fitzhenry, William . 'Comedies of Contingency: Language and Gender in the Book of
Sir Tristram. ' Arthuriana 14.4 (Winter 2004): 5-16.
Abstract: Verbal interactions between female and male characters in
Malory’s Book of Sir Tristram suggest that language and gender converge to
challenge chivalric ideals of self-sufficiency. (WF)
Fleissner, Robert F. 'Sir John Falstaff Atilt with Sir Gawayne: A Mock-Arthurian
reversal. 'AInt 1.1 (Fall 1986): 35-38.
Abstract: Sir Gawayne and The Merry Wives of Windsor, sharing a legacy of
English comic works, bear comparison typologically. Sir John and the Green
Knight Bercilak rank together as fertility figures. Both tales are remarkable to
correlate in terms of the major theme of subterfuge. Implications of cuckoldry
appear in the two adventures. In each enterprise the latent cuckold achieves his
vengeance on the knight in a light-hearted way. Sir Gawayne is barely nicked; Sir
John is simply cudgeled, dumped in the Thames, and finally scorched a bit by
tapers. Both can be interpreted mythically as initiation rites. Both have been
strongly associated with the Order of the Garter: Sir Gawayne ends with a
quotation from the motto of the Order; in turn, The Merry Wives of Windsor is
usually considered to have been first produced for a Garter investiture, Sir John 's
initiations duly parodying those of the Order. Yet the differences must also be
considered. Whereas Sir Gawayne stresses the mainstream of courtly love, the
Windsor comedy is, among other things, a burlesque of such conventionality.
Both works seem to owe their common moral elements to the English tradition of
the morality play. (MLD)
Fleteren, Frederic. Rev. of Basic Issues in Medieval Philosophy Eds. Richard N.
Bosley and Martin M. Tweedale. Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 108-110.
Flannery, Mary. Rev. of Naming and Namelessness in Medieval Romance. By Jane
Bliss. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2008. Pp. xii 253.
Forhan, Kate L. Rev. of Beasts of Love: Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amour
and a Woman’s Response by Jeanette Beer. Arthuriana 15.2 (Summer 2005): 64-65.
Forsman, Deanna. Rev. of Medieval Concepts of the Past: Ritual, Memory,
Historiography. Eds. Gerd Althoff, Johannes Fried, and Patrick J.
Geary. Arthuriana13.3 (Fall 2003): 111-112.
Fowler, David C. 'The Quest of Balin and the Mark of Cain. ' AInt 15.2 (Spring 1984):
70-74.
Abstract: If the quest of the sorrowing knight undertaken by Balin is indeed the
quest of Cain, then the higher meaning of this doomed undertaking becomes more
recognizable, and the purpose of the ecclesiastical writer much clearer. Balin
chooses the path of the murderer, leading to blood feud, revenge, and death, the
exact opposite of the path chosen by Galahad. (DCF)
---------. Rev. of The Unholy Grail. By Brigitte Cazelles. Arthuriana 7.2 (Summer 1997):
138-40.
Fox-Friedman, Jeanne. 'Howard Pyle and the Chivalric Order in America: King Arthur
for Children. ' Arthuriana 6.1 (Spring 1996): 77-95.
Abstract: Howard Pyle 's Arthuriad is peculiarly American in character. Pyle was
drawn to the Middle Ages because he wished to recuperate its primitive simplicity
as a model for an intense and authentic experience of life. (JFF)
---------. Rev. of Bloody Good: Chivalry, Sacrifice, and the Great War. By Alan J.
Frantzen. Arthuriana 14.4 (Winter 2004): 86-87.
Fraioli, Deborah. Rev. of The Interrogation of Joan of Arc. By Karen
Sullivan.Arthuriana 10.3 (Fall 2000): 122-24.
Francis, Christina. 'Playing with Gender in Arthur, King of Time and Space. '
Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010): 31-47.
Abstract: By developing characters with unstable and changeable sex identification, Paul
Gadzikowski creates an Arthurian world with fluid gender boundaries in his webcomic
Arthur, King of Time and Space. The effect of this fluidity is a cast of Arthurian
characters that continuously confronts sex and gender stereotypes, inviting audiences to
reconsider their own assumptions about sex and gender. (CF)
Frank, Roberta. Rev. of Norse Romances. Ed. Marianne E.
Kalinke. Arthuriana 10.4 (Winter 2000): 78-80.
Franson, Craig. Rev. of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. By J. R. R. tolkien. Ed.
Christopher Tolkien. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. Pp.
377.
Fredell, Joel. Rev. of Textual Situations: Three Medieval Manuscripts and Their
Readers
. By Andrew Taylor. Arthuriana 12.4 (Winter 2002): 109-111.
Freedman, Paul. Rev. of City and Spectacle in Medieval Europe. Ed. Barbara A.
Hanawalt and Katheryn L. Reyerson. Arthuriana 6.3 (Fall 1996): 86-88.
Frese, Dolores Warwick. 'Augustinian Intrusions in the Queste del Saint Graal:
Converting 'Pagan Gold' to Christian Currency' Arthuriana 18.1 (Spring 2008): 3-21.
Abstract: Galahad's literary debut in the Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal displays
ley-lines extrapolated from Augustine's biography, theology, semiotic theory, and
polemical controversies, suggesting that this retro-fitted prose fiction can be read
productively as a specifically Augustinian confection. (DWF)
Fries, Maureen. Rev. of The Passing of Arthur: New Essays in Arthurian Tradition. Ed.
Christopher Baswell and William Sharpe. AInt 3.2 (Spring 1989): 141-46.
-------. 'What Tennyson Really Did to Malory 's Women. ' QetF 1.1 (Spring 1991): 44-55.
Abstract: Tennyson 's use of Malory 's Morte Darthur in his Idylls of the King has
heretofore earned little but unhelpful and dismissive notice, although the contrast
between the medieval and the Victorian author 's treatment of Arthurian females
is both interesting and instructive. Utilizing a schema to analyze feminine roles as
heroic and counter-heroic as well as heroinic reveals how Tennyson 's masculinist
bias bowdlerizes Malory 's tragedy by focusing it almost entirely on female guilt.
All of the women of the Idylls are one-sided rather than complex; female heroes,
such as Lyonet, cease to exist; female counter-heroes, such as Vivien, exhibit a
pronounced weakening of power; and female heroines are either ineffective, like
Elaine and Enid, or overguilty, like Guinevere, bearing a brunt of agency their
perceived instrumentality does not warrant. Whatever his worth to the (male)
Victorian ethos, Tennyson must be seen as working contrary to, and contradictory
of, feminine (to say nothing of feminist) values. (MF)
-------. Rev. of Letters to Lalage: The Letters of Charles Williams to Lois Lang-Sims. By
Glen Cavaliero. QetF 1.2 (Summer 1991): 92-95.
-------. 'The Impotent Potion: On the Minimization of the Love Theme in the Tristan en
Proseand Malory 's Morte Darthur. ' QetF 1.3 (Fall 1991): 75-81.
Abstract: The power of the Arthurian material to draw to itself discrete fictions
and adapt them to its ethos has never been satisfactorily explained, but it is a fact
of literary history. The originally independent career of Lancelot is a prime
example of the same phenomenon. Modern authors, notably Thomas Berger in his
novel Arthur Rex, have been able to use the old magical motif with much of its
original meaning: there Tristan and Isolde 's enslavement to the potion serves as
explicit contrast to the self-willed illicit relationships of others. But for the
author(s) of the Tristan en Prose and Malory, the pull of late medieval practice-including analogy in general, and entrelacement in particular--mandated the
relegation of the love potion to its now impotent function. (MF)
-------. 'From the Lady to the Tramp: The Decline of Morgan le Fay in Medieval
Romance. 'Arthuriana 4.1 (Spring 1994): 1-18.
Abstract: Morgan le Fay 's career in medieval Arthurian romance moves from a
connector of life with healing in the Vita Merlini into a connector of death with
illicit sex and wrongful imprisonment in most subsequent works, and produces a
more male-friendly variant in the Lady (Ladies) of the Lake--climaxing for both
figures in Malory 'sMorte Darthur--revealing male Arthurian authors as
increasingly unable to image powerful women in positive terms. (MF)
-------. Rev. of Arthurian Literature XIII. Ed. James P. Carley and Felicity
Riddy.Arthuriana 5.1 (Autumn 1995): 102-105.
----------. Rev. of The Return of King Arthur: The Legend through Victorian Eyes. By
Debra N. Mancoff. Arthuriana 7.1 (Spring 1997): 156-58.
----------. Rev. of Literary Nominalism and the Theory of Rereading Late Medieval Texts:
A New Research Paradigm. Ed. Richard J. Utz. Arthuriana 7.2 (Summer 1997): 147-48.
---------. 'Gender and the Grail. ' Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring 1998): 67-79.
Abstract: Earlier images of Arthurian women emerge in new configurations in
Malory 's version of the Grail Quest. Perceval 's sister, a guide and helper to the
knights, ends in a self-chosen, bloody sacrifice. Guinevere contributes to the
failure of the homosocial ideal. (MF)
-------. 'Women, Power, and (the Undermining of) Order in Lawman 's Brut.
' Arthuriana 8.3 (Fall 1998): 23-32.
Abstract: Lawman 's additions and alterations to the sources of his Brut suggest
that he intended to show the dangers of women 's escaping their gender
limitations. (MF)
-------. 'The Arthurian Moment: History and Geoffrey 's Historia regum Britannie. '
Arthuriana 8.4 (Winter 1998): 88-99.
Abstract: Geoffrey 's need to find a suitable noble ancestor for his Norman
patrons led to his blending of native history and legend with an imported
fabulized past to create the figure of Arthur. (MF)
-------. Rev. of Lancelot-Grail: the Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate
in Translation, vol III. Ed. Norris J. Lacy. Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring 1998): 86-91.
-------. Rev. of A Companion to Malory. Ed. Elizabeth Archibald and A.S.G.
Edwards.Arthuriana 8.1 (Spring 1998): 95-97.
Frye, Susan C. Rev. Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the
Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Settings. By Martha
W. Driver and Sid Ray. Arthuriana 20.4 (Winter 2010): 104-05.
Fulton, Helen. 'A Woman 's Place: Guinevere in the Welsh and French Romances.
' QetF 3.2 (Summer 1993): 1-25.
Abstract: In the long history of the Arthurian legends, from the early medieval
Welsh folktales to the nineteenth and twentieth-century revivals, the character of
Guinevere is known most familiarly as the faithless queen of King Arthur. The
role of the faithless queen is a medieval stereotype, striking at the basis of
patriarchal power which includes the control of women and their sexual and
reproductive capabilities. In the earliest Arthurian legends, however, the character
of Guinevere appears as Arthur 's chaste and loyal wife. (HF)
Fuog, Karin E.C. 'Imprisoned in the Phallic Oak: Marion Zimmer Bradley and Merlin 's
Seductress. ' QetF 1.1 (Spring 1991): 73-88.
Abstract: Marion Zimmer Bradley intended a feminist agenda, and to a large
extent she succeeds in it. Yet at its deepest level, The Mists of Avalon is subsumed
by the patriarchal society in which Bradley lives. In pursuing the goal of granting
women recognizable power, Bradley only manages to establish a different
phallocentric power structure and leaves intact a divisive conception of power.
Nimue breaks the patriarchal, phallocentric moulds, but must die to do so.
Phallocentric, patriarchal power structures are not only the only power structures
the audience will recognize as viable, they are also the only models available to
Bradley. Like Merlin, feminist texts are imprisoned in an oak, an oak of phallic
and patriarchal structures. Yet the character of Nimue allows some hope that these
texts may someday break free, and may learn to do so without having to die.
(KECF)
Furnish, Shearle. Rev. of Tradition and Belief: Religious Writing in Late AngloSaxon England. Clare A. Lees. Arthuriana 12.3 (Fall 2002): 142-143.
Furtado, Antonio L. 'Geoffrey of Monmouth: A Source of the Grail Stories. ' QetF 1.1
(Spring 1991): 1-14.
Abstract: An early work which can be called the 'proto Peredur ' can be identified
as the source of the Elidurus episode found in Geoffrey of Monmouth 's twelfthcenturyHistoria regum Britanniae, which predates ChrÈtien 's Perceval.
Ultimately, the Elidurus episode in Geoffrey constitutes the basic narrative which
later inspired a broad spectrum of symbolic meaning and archetypal themes: the
legend of the Holy Grail. (ALF)
------. 'The Arabian Nights: Yet Another Source of the Grail Stories? ' QetF 1.3 (Fall
1991): 25-40.
Abstract: Studies involving The Arabian Nights must cope with serious
difficulties. Until now, scholarly consideration of the surviving manuscripts has
not resulted in a standard text of general acceptance. Proper names vary widely
and their spelling is affected by the language of the translation. There is not even
an agreement on which stories can be ascribed to the collection, and in a few
cases the same story is told differently in separate editions. Along the years, not
only were new stories added but it is likely that some of the ancient stories were
changed. Thus we do not know with certainty what the text extant, at the time
when ChrÈtien 's Perceval was written, looked like. Moreover, unless documents
to the effect are found, we cannot consider as formally proven that ChrÈtien ever
read (or heard) these stories. On the other hand, the striking similarities of the two
works cannot easily be dismissed. ChrÈtien may have taken and recast materials
from The Arabian Nights, just as the unknown authors had earlier felt free to
incorporate Homer 's episode of Polyphemus in the third voyage ofSindbad the
Sailor. Literary creation does not recognize geographical frontiers. (ALF)
-------. Rev. of The Romances of Alexander. Trans. Dennis M. Kratz. QetF 1.4 (Winter
1991): 84-88.
------. '"Arthur Had an Affair with an Amazon"--Says Senator Carucius.' QetF 2.3 (Fall
1992): 31-36.
Abstract: As a civilized man who despised the 'Barbarians,' Alexander had a
surprising faith in augurs, soothsayers, and other charlatans. He also believed in
the value of dreams. He dreamed of a dragon. In short sequence occur, ending
with this dream, several incidents which may be said to have Arthurian overtones.
If indeed Arthur comes from Alexander and everything else corresponds, then it is
a mathematical truth that the island of Avalon must correspond to the island
where the Amazons were reported to live. Another source that Geoffrey has
probably exploited is Arrian, who says that Alexander had promised to go one day
to the island of the Amazons, to engender a child in their queen. This encourages
a belief that the island may be related to the isle of Avalon. (ALF)
------. 'A Source in Babylon. ' QetF 3.1 (Spring 1993): 38-59.
Abstract: ChrÈtien 's death left no way to tell whether a happy outcome would
ensue for his Perceval. But agreeing with the Christian belief that sins are
forgiven to repentant men, we see the young Perceval coming to rescue the aging
King, stumbling once, but ready to try again. If Perceval had dared to ask 'who is
served from the grail? ' a second implicit question would have to be answered as:
'why we--the Rich Fisher King and myself--are not also served? ' In
the Fisherman and the Jinni, a second opportunity seems to be allowed as in the
Perceval story. (ALF)
------. 'From Alexander of Macedonia to Arthur of Britain. ' Arthuriana 5.3 (Autumn
1995): 70-86.
Abstract: As Geoffrey of Monmouth prepared to write the chapter on king Arthur
which would culminate his Historia Regum Britanniae, he faced a disheartening
difficulty: there was almost nothing in the authentically Celtic sources about
Arthur. His basic structural and episodic models may have been supplied by
historical and legendary biographies of Alexander of Macedonia, written in the
first three centuries of the Christian era. This essay is a brief account of how
Geoffrey, emulating Plutarch, extended the famous pair of world conquerors-Alexander and Caesar--to compose a triad with the imperishable king of the
Britons. (ALF)
------, and Paulo A.S. Veloso 'Folklore and Myth in The Knight of the Cart.
' Arthuriana6.2 (Summer 1996): 28-43.
Abstract: The Knight of the Cart is far from being a straightforward knightly
adventure. In this essay, we propose to uncover its underlying folktale structure,
which in turn leads to a comparison with a tale in the same generic class, having
an analogous subject matter (matiere) but opposite orientation (san) - the Indian
epic Ramayana . (ALF/PASV)
-------. Rev. of Paganism in Arthurian Romance. By John Darrah. Arthuriana 5.3
(Autumn 1995): 133-135.