Classical Mythology and Arthurian Romance: A Study of the Sources of Chrestien de Troyes' 'Yvain' and other Arthurian Romances. Charles Bertram Lewis

Speculum ◽  
1934 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-337
Author(s):  
John J. Parry
Author(s):  
Felicitas Hoppe

Felicitas Hoppe gives an introduction to the art of adapting medieval poetry that is in itself a poetic work. In 2008, Hoppe adapted Hartmann von Aue’s Arthurian romance Iwein into a highly successful young adult novel. She speaks about this experience and about the art of adapting medieval literature more generally: about encountering popular images of knights looking like ladies and about inverted gender roles in Hartmann’s romance; about history as produced by wishes; about finding Iwein by chance in a bookshop and being captivated by its beauty; about the romance’s surprising timelessness in its psychologically astute characterisation, its sensible rationality and its uncompromising morality; about the dialectic between boredom and adventure, between the desire to grow up and the fear of growing up in all good children’s books (and Arthurian romances); about the relationship between honour and masculinity in the romance code of values; about Iwein’s insistence on physicality; and about narrative techniques for modernising the text (including the introduction of Iwein’s companion, the lion, as the narrator). As a whole, Hoppe’s piece is a remarkably sensitive analysis of how and why aspects of medieval literature exert a fascination on creative minds. It compellingly demonstrates the wealth of insights that adaptors of medieval texts gain, which can complement and inspire those of literary critics.


Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 527-534
Author(s):  
Anindita Naha ◽  
Anindita Naha ◽  
Dr. Mirza Maqsood Baig

The expedition on Malory’s Morte d’Arthur emphasis on the masculine activity of chivalry—fighting, questing, ruling— while parallelly reflects the chivalric enterprise as impossible in absence of the feminine in a subjugated position. The medieval romance text of Malory differs from other Arthurian romance literature in the explicit legislation (as opposed to implicit coding) of chivalric values, most notably in the swearing of the Pentecostal Oath, an event unique to Malory’s text. This paper emphasis on the way the institution of the Oath defines and sharpens specific ideals of masculine and feminine gender identities in the Arthurian community, arguing that a compulsion to fulfill these ideals drives the narrative of the Morte d’ Arthur forward to its inevitable ending. Thus, the function of gender in the Morte d’Arthur can only be adequately explored in a book that traces in depth the development of gender constraints from the beginning of the “Tale of King Arthur” to the “Day of Destiny” and its aftermath. One reason the Morte d’Arthur merits a sustained study in terms of gender is due to its status as the most comprehensive and sustained medieval treatment of the Arthurian legend by a single author. This text is about the famous fiction stories about legendary King Arthur, his life and death predominantly compose the spine of Malory’s tale. There are, as well, other passages and tales, in which Arthur is not in the centre of the plot. Stories were translated by Malory from French models, reflects the major branch of author’s all sources. most famous fiction stories about legendary King Arthur, whose life and death predominantly compose the spine of Malory’s tale. There are, as well, other passages and tales, in which Arthur is not in the centre of the plot.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliette Wood

AbstractThis article presents a survey of the work of Jessie Weston and examines her role in the development of Arthurian studies in the first half of the twentieth century. In her considerable output of articles, editions, and retellings of Arthurian romance tales, Weston attempted to establish links between major themes in medieval Arthurian romances and the ancient traditions of the Celts. These speculations reached their height in her most famous and most controversial book,


PMLA ◽  
1932 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Buchanan

Amid the controversial winds that blow about the region of Arthurian studies it is agreeable to have a few solid rocks of irrefutable argument. Professor Kittredge in his Study of Gawain and the Green Knight has demonstrated beyond all question two highly important points: first, that the theme of the Beheading Test, which occurs in Arthurian romances, French, English, and German, from about 1180 to about 1380, is derived from an Irish tradition actually existent in a MS. written before 1106; secondly, that the latest of these romances in date of composition is closer in many ways to the original Celtic form than is the earliest. It is well for students to ponder these facts when the authority of Foerster and Bruce is invoked to deny the presence of a strong Celtic element in Arthurian romance, and when some scholars seem to accept as an axiom the principle that if the same motif occurs in two romances, the later borrowed it from the earlier. Indeed, a whole history of the Grail legend has been constructed on this simple but often delusive formula.


1934 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 415
Author(s):  
Howard R. Patch ◽  
Charles Bertram Lewis

AJS Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-401
Author(s):  
Rella Kushelevsky

Evidence of Jewish readerships for French literature in the Middle Ages, particularly romances, has been accumulating. This article focuses on a recently discovered tale from Italy, copied in Hebrew in MS JTS Rab. 1164, as a prism through which to explore the cultural interactions between Jewish and Christian society in Italy of the early Renaissance. I first analyze the Jewish tale, which I posit has an affinity with the Arthurian romanceYvain, The Knight of the Lionby Chrétien de Troyes, and expound on the thematic and poetic links between the two stories. I then examineYvain’s reception in Italy as part of a broader phenomenon involving the acceptance, copying, adaptation, and assimilation of French romances in Italy into vernacular Italian. Finally, I present the story and the factors that played a role in its reception in the context of Italian Jewish society. The entirety of the review offers an overall portrait of the story's reception as a unique socioliterary phenomenon shared by Jews and non-Jews alike in Italy in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-70
Author(s):  
Manuel Braun ◽  
Nora Ketschik

Abstract This article discusses the question of how complex the narrations of Arthurian romances are by comparing them to the ‘simple form’ of fairy tales. In order to achieve this, we identify properties of the European folktale, which we then compare with an Arthurian text corpus consisting of Hartmann von Aue’s ‘Erec’ and ‘Iwein’ as well as Wolfram von Eschenbach’s ‘Parzival’. The typological investigation is carried out using data-driven methods, primarily Social Network Analysis, and focuses on various aspects of characters. By doing this, we gain an in-depth understanding of the relationships between Arthurian romances and fairy tales and of the differences within the genre of the Arthurian romance itself. We show that the results of statistical analysis refuse clear interpretation, thus providing new insights into the well-known objects.


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