Elizabeth Archibald & David F. Johnson 
Arthurian Literature XXXII [PDF ebook] 

Arthurian Literature has established its position as the home for a great diversity of new research into Arthurian matters. It delivers fascinating material across genres, periods, and theoretical issues. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT


The essays collected here put considerable emphasis on Arthurian narratives in material culture and historical context, as well as on purely literary analysis, a reminder of the enormous range of interests in Arthurian narrativesin the Middle Ages, in a number of different contexts.

The volume opens with a study of torture in texts from Chrétien to Malory, and on English law and attitudes in particular. Several contributors discuss the undeservedly neglected Stanzaic
Morte Arthur, a key source for Malory. His
Morte Darthur is the focus of several essays, respectively on the sources of the ‘Tale of Sir Gareth’; battle scenes and the importance of chivalric kingship; Cicero’s
De amicitia and the mixed blessings and dangers of fellowship; and comparison of concluding formulae in the Winchester Manuscript and Caxton’s edition. Seven tantalizing fragments of needlework, all depicting Tristan, are discussed in terms of the heraldic devices they include. The volume ends with an update on newly discovered manuscripts of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s seminal
Historia regum Britanniae, the twelfth-century best-seller which launched Arthur’s literary career.


Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English Studies at Durham University, and Principal of St Cuthbert’s Society; David F. Johnson is Professor of English at Florida State University, Tallahassee.


Contibutors: David Eugene Clark, Marco Nievergelt, Ralph Norris, Sarah Randles, Lisa Robeson, Richard Sévère, Jaakko Tahkokallio, Larissa Tracy

Tabella dei contenuti

Wounded Bodies: Kingship, National Identity, and Illegitimate Torture in the English Arthurian Tradition – Larissa Tracy

The Place of Emotion: Space, Silence and Interiority in the Stanzaic
Morte Arthur – Marco Nievergelt

Another Source for Malory’s ‘Tale of Sir Gareth’ – Ralph Norris

‘Warre and Worshyppe’: Depictions of Battle in Malory’s
Le Morte Darthur – Lisa Robeson

Malory’s ‘Chivalric Cliques’: Public and Private
Felyshyp in the Arthurian Community – Richard Sévère

Scribal Modifications to Concluding Formulae in the Winchester Manuscript – David Eugene Clark

Heraldic Imagery in the Embroidered Tristan Narratives – Sarah Randles

Update to the List of Manuscripts of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s
Historia Regum Britanniae – Jaakko Tahkokallio

Circa l’autore

Larissa Tracy is Professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University. She has published extensively on medieval violence and its intersections with literature, law, medicine, and social identity.