{"product_id":"the-knight-the-cross-and-the-song-crusade-propaganda-and-chivalric-literature-11001400-the-middle-ages-series-9780812248968","title":"The Knight the Cross and the Song Crusade","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Knight, the Cross, and the Song\u003c\/i\u003e offers a new perspective on the driving forces of crusading in the period 1100-1400. Although religious devotion has long been identified as the primary motivation of those who took the cross, Stefan Vander Elst argues that it was by no means the only focus of the texts written to convince the warriors of Western Christianity to participate in the holy war. Vander Elst examines how, across three centuries, historiographical works that served as exhortations for the Crusade sought specifically to appeal to aristocratic interests \u003ci\u003ebeyond\u003c\/i\u003e piety. They did so by appropriating the formal and thematic characteristics of literary genres favored by the knightly class, the \u003ci\u003echansons de geste\u003c\/i\u003e and chivalric romance. By using the structure, commonplaces, and traditions of chivalric literature, propagandists associated the Crusade with the decidedly secular matters to which arms-bearers were drawn. This allowed them to introduce the mutual ob\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The Knight, the Cross, and the Song cleverly illustrates how, from the early flowerings of of the chivalric age to the late fourteenth century, across northern France to the Near East, a burst of historical writing and storytelling was created to appeal specifically to the aristocratic interests of the knightly class and convince them to take up the cross.\" * \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] carefully researched study, providing a wealth of useful material and some much needed discussion of neglected texts. The enduring and elusive appeal of crusading ideals will continue to preoccupy scholars in years to come.\" * \u003ci\u003eModern Philology\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Stefan Vander Elst offers valuable insights into how Crusade narratives were composed and how they may have been received by medieval audiences. His discussion of the influence of imaginative literature on what is now regarded as factual literature is illuminating.\" * Helen J. Nicholson, Cardiff University *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405729702231,"sku":"9780812248968","price":48.6,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780812248968.jpg?v=1730493423","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-knight-the-cross-and-the-song-crusade-propaganda-and-chivalric-literature-11001400-the-middle-ages-series-9780812248968","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}