Search results for ""author arthur"

Celebrate the stunning diversity of Britain's football landscape with this limited-edition postcard set of specially selected photos from Mike Bayly's best-selling book, British Football's Greatest Grounds. From grounds nestled in idyllic countryside to stadiums found amid big cities, these postcards transport you to some of the most scenic, historic and important football landmarks in Britain. From non-league to the Premier League, you'll see beautiful shots of the homes of Arthurlie, Ashton United, Aston Villa, Cambridge United, Great Yarmouth Town, Harwich & Parkeston, Hastings United, Luton Town, Maidenhead United, Mossley, QPR and Stourbridge. This outstanding collection of postcard photos, taken by acclaimed sports photographers, is sure to leave you planning a future football pilgrimage.

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In this prequel to The Standing Ground, we travel back two generations to the origins of the oppressive E-Government state that infiltrates every aspect of people’s lives in the decade following Brexit and a global pandemic. But, as the darkness overtakes Britain and other areas of Europe, the light of resistance wakes in a community that spans the Celtic outposts of Brittany and North Wales. And in a strange child, Myrddin Emrys, also known as Merlin.Weaving together Arthurian legend and exploratory fiction of the near future, The Roots of the Ground explores the human cost of a monoculture that tramples freedom and privacy and asserts with Carl Jung that:'As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.'

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Annual volume showcasing the best new work in this field. New Medieval Literatures is an annual of work on medieval textual cultures, aiming to engage with intellectual and cultural pluralism in the Middle Ages and now. Its scope is inclusive of work across the theoretical, archival, philological, and historicist methodologies associated with medieval literary studies, and embraces the range of European cultures, capaciously defined. Essays in this volume engage with widely varied themes, from confession in the domestic household to international politics and statecraft; experimental scientific knowledge, and the supernatural world of demons; canonical Arthurian romance, and scholastic theology in the vernacular; monastic historiographical visions, and geographies of pilgrimage. Investigations range from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, and from England to the Holy Land. Chrétien de Troyes's Le chevalier de la charrette and Geoffrey Chaucer's Friar's Tale are examined in new ways, and with new conclusions for their engagements with technologies of embodiment and the hermeneutics of bodily contact; Laȝamon's Brut is shown to bring the expectations of monastic historiography into the vernacular, while Reginald Pecock's radical and sophisticated vernacular theology is explicated in all its dangerous heterodoxy. Multiple narratives converge and are occluded at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; Albert the Great experiments with animals and reorients humans in the natural world; Alain Chartier strives to build a united French state. Finally, domestic, familial, and civic bonds of obligation emerge in the shared textual communities of anonymous, late-medieval confessional forms. CONTRIBUTORS: ROBYN A. BARTLETT, KANTIK GHOSH, AYLIN MALCOLM, ALASTAIR MINNIS, LUKE SUNDERLAND, JAMIE K. TAYLOR, HANNAH WEAVER, LUCAS WOOD.

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A paperback edition of a scholarly edition of a complex Arthurian myth, together with a comprehensive introduction, explanatory notes and detailed glossary. First published in 1948.

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'Sea-Fever' remains one of the most popular poems of the last century, and John Masefield one of the most popular poets, a superb spinner of yarns and ballads of tall ships, exotic seas, of the deep-rooted life of rural England, and of the great narratives of Troy and Arthurian legend. This book includes his most popular poems and a few previously uncollected rarities. All share Masefield's love of particular lives: he draws the reader into his stories with an incomparable music of language. This is a representative selection of the poems, in chronological sequence spanning his long career. The editor also provides a full introduction to his work.

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The Bookshop in Wigtown is a bookworm's idyll - with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the bookshop cat. You'd think after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to the customers by now. Don't get him wrong - there are some good ones among the antiquarian porn-hunters, die-hard Arthurians, people who confuse bookshops for libraries and the toddlers just looking for a nice cosy corner in which to wee. He's sure there are. There must be some good ones, right? Filled with the pernickety warmth and humour that has touched readers around the world, stuffed with literary treasures, hidden gems and incunabula, Remainders of the Day is Shaun Bythell's latest entry in his bestselling diary series.

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Enter the extraordinary world of Arthurian legend in an adventure overflowing with knightly chivalry, the danger of jousting and the warmth of true love. But the Legend of Parzival is more than the tale of one knight's epic journey to find the elusive Holy Grail; along the way Parzival faces a challenging journey of self-discovery. He must conquer his ignorance and pride, and learn humility and compassion before he is finally worthy of becoming a Grail Knight.This accessible prose retelling of the medieval German epic brings the wonderful story of the Arthurian knight (known variously as Parzival, Parsifal and Percival) to life for today's readers, while faithfully preserving the story, characters and tone of Wolfram von Eschenbach's thirteenth century narrative poem.In Steiner-Waldorf education, Parzival's quest is seen as a metaphor for the difficult journey through life, which speaks strongly to the adolescent, and its study is at the heart of the Class 11 curriculum. As a hugely experienced Steiner-Waldorf teacher, Robin Cook's engaging retelling will provide valuable inspiration for other teachers and students, as well as enjoyment and enrichment for all readers.

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Wide-ranging survey of a neglected but significant early German version of the Lancelot legend. Ulrich von Zatzikhoven's Lanzelet, written around the turn of the thirteenth century, has long intrigued scholars both within and outside German studies: the only remaining trace of a Lancelot legend free of the adulterousaffair with Guinevere, it has been seen both as a precursor of classical Arthurian romance in Germany, and as a post-classical imitation, and attempts to interpret it have often run foul of its contradictions. This new study takesa fresh look at its place in the history of German romance, arguing that Ulrich placed his work firmly in the Arthurian romance tradition, adopting its familiar motifs, courtly vocabulary, and idealised knightly hero, but ratherthan presenting a hero who falls from grace (as did Chrétien), his Lanzelet is truly flawless from the outset. While the repeated episodes and adventures emphasise this aspect of Lancelot, they are also related in strikingly different narrative styles, which Dr McLelland suggests are not the result of authorial incompetence, but rather a source of entertainment, and a challenge to the genre as a whole. NICOLA McLELLAND is a Lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin.

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Arguably no medieval English literary work has had as far and wide a reach as Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur; among the many adaptations are Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, and the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot. It might also be argued that the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century tradition of fantasy literature—from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to George Lucas’s Star Wars and beyond—owes much to the Arthurian tradition, rooted in English most strongly in Malory’s Morte Darthur. Yet there has been no edition that draws on the results of the past generation’s scholarship while presenting Malory’s work in a form that is at once true to the original and accessible to the modern reader.This new edition, which expands on the revised and expanded selection of Malory material that will be included in the third edition of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, is all of those things. The extensive selections include most of the material concerning Launcelot, and all of the Morte’s two final tales; the language has been partially modernized to make the text accessible to the modern reader, while retaining the flavor of the original; the text has been carefully prepared from the Winchester manuscript; and the annotations are extensive.

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This collection honours the scholarship of Professor David F. Johnson, exploring the wider view of medieval England and its cultural contracts with the Low Countries, and highlighting common texts, motifs, and themes across the textual traditions of Old English and later medieval romances in both English and Middle Dutch. Few scholars have contributed as much to the wider view of medieval England and its cultural contacts with the Low Countries than Professor David F. Johnson. His wide-ranging scholarship embraces both the textual traditions of Old English, especially in manuscript production, and later medieval romances in both English and Middle Dutch, highlighting their common texts, motifs, and themes. Taking Johnson's work as its starting point and model, the essays collected here investigate early English manuscript production and preservation, illuminating the complexities of reinterpreting Old English poetry, particularly Beowulf, and then go on to pursue those nuances through later English and Middle Dutch Arthurian romances and drama, including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, and the Roman van Walewein. They explore a plethora of material, including early medieval textual traditions and stone sculpture, and draw on a range of approaches, such as Body and Disability Theories. Overall, the aim is to bring multiple disciplines into dialogue with each other, in order to present a richer and more nuanced view of the medieval literary past and cross-cultural contact between England and the Low Countries, from the pre-Conquest period to the late-Middle Ages, thus forming a most appropriate tribute to Professor Johnson's pioneering work.

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A unique and thrilling blend of Arthurian romance and detective noir, The Cold Ever After is a unique fantasy story in the vein of Game of Thrones meets Chinatown. For fans of epic fantasy, queer romance, and hardboiled detective noir!

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New approaches to the everlasting malleability and transformation of medieval romance. The essays here reconsider the protean nature of Middle English romance. The contributors examine both the cultural unity of romance and its many variations, reiterations and reimaginings, including its contexts and engagements with other discourses and forms, as they were "rewritten" during the Middle Ages and beyond. Ranging across popular, anonymous English and courtly romances, and taking in the works of Chaucer and Arthurian romance (rarely treated together), in connection with continental sources and analogues, the chapters probe this fluid and creative genre to ask just how comfortable, and how flexible, are its nature and aims? How were Middle English romances rewritten toaccommodate contemporary concerns and generic expectations? What can attention to narrative techniques and conventional gestures reveal about the reassurances romances offer, or the questions they ask? How do romances' central concerns with secular ideals and conduct intersect with spiritual priorities? And how are romances transformed or received in later periods? The volume is also a tribute to the significance and influence of the work of Professor Helen Cooper on romance. Elizabeth Archibald is Professor of English Studies at Durham University; Megan G. Leitch is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Cardiff University; Corinne Saunders is Professor of English andCo-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University. Contributors: Elizabeth Archibald, Julia Boffey, Christopher Cannon, Neil Cartlidge, Miriam Edlich-Muth, A.S.G. Edwards, Marcel Elias, Megan Leitch, Andrew Lynch, Jill Mann, Marco Nievergelt, Ad Putter, Corinne Saunders, Barry Windeatt, R.F. Yeager

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A range of approaches (literary, historical, art-historical, codicological) to this mysterious but hugely significant manuscript. Extravagantly heterogeneous in its contents, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 86 is an utterly singular production. On its last folio, the scribe signs off with a self-portrait - a cartoonishly-drawn male head wearing a close-fitted hood - and an inscription: "scripsi librum in anno et iii mensibus" (I wrote the book in a year and three months). His fifteen months' labour resulted in one of the most important miscellanies to survive from medieval England: a trilingual marvel of a compilation, with quirky combinations of content that range from religion, to science, to literature of a decidedly secular cast. It holds medical recipes, charms, prayers, prognostications, magic tricks, pious doctrine, a liturgical calendar, religious songs, lively debates, poetry on love and death, proverbs, fables, fabliaux, scurrilous games, and gender-based diatribes. That Digby is from the thirteenth century adds to its appeal, for English literary remnants from before 1300 are all too rare. Scholars on both sides of the vernacular divide, French and English, are deeply intrigued by it. Many of its texts are found nowhere else: for example, the French Arthurian Lay of the Horn, the English fabliau Dame Sirith and the beast fable Fox and Wolf, and the French Strife between Two Ladies (a candid debate on feminine politics). The interpretationsoffered in this volume of its contents, presentation, and ownership, show that there is much to discover in Digby's lively record of the social and spiritual pastimes of a book-owning gentry family. SUSANNA FEIN is Professor of English at Kent State University. CONTRIBUTORS: Maureen Boulton, Neil Cartlidge, Marilyn Corrie, Susanna Fein, Marjorie Harrington, John Hines, Jennifer Jahner, Melissa Julian-Jones, Jenni Nuttall, David Raybin, Delbert Russell, J.D. Sargan, Sheri Smith

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Embark on an extraordinary journey through the British countryside, leading to mysterious sites, ancient wonders and legendary landscapes to uncover 50 of the most intriguing walks in Britain.Discover the Green Chapel of Arthurian legend deep in the Staffordshire moorlands. Take a magical stroll through the fairytale forest of Wistman''s Woods on Dartmoor. Marvel at the surreal rock formations of Brimham Rocks in Yorkshire, or spot the Hogwarts Express crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Scottish Highlands.With each walk ranging from two to eight miles in length and featuring beautiful photography, helpful directions and useful information, this book guarantees captivating experiences for walkers of all abilities, whether you''re a casual stroller or seasoned hiker.Short Walks to Curious Places is your key to unlocking the secrets of the British countryside. With every step, you''ll uncover the stories that shaped these extraordinary l

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A Waterstones 'Best Books of 2022: Biography' The Bookshop in Wigtown is a bookworm's idyll - with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the bookshop cat. You'd think after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to the customers by now. Don't get him wrong - there are some good ones among the antiquarian erotica-hunters, die-hard Arthurians, people who confuse bookshops for libraries and the toddlers just looking for a nice cosy corner in which to wee. He's sure there are. There must be some good ones, right? Filled with the pernickety warmth and humour that has touched readers around the world, stuffed with literary treasures, hidden gems and incunabula, Remainders of the Day is Shaun Bythell's latest entry in his bestselling diary series.

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Giants are a ubiquitous feature of medieval romance. As remnants of a British prehistory prior to the civilization established, according to the Historium regum Britannie, by Brutus and his Trojan followers, giants are permanently at odds with the chivalric culture of the romance world. Whether they are portrayed as brute savages or as tyrannical pagan lords, giants serve as a limit against which the chivalric hero can measure himself. In Outsiders: The Humanity and Inhumanity of Giants in Medieval French Prose Romance, Sylvia Huot argues that the presence of giants allows for fantasies of ethnic and cultural conflict and conquest, and for the presentation—and suppression—of alternative narrative and historical trajectories that might have made Arthurian Britain a very different place. Focusing on medieval French prose romance and drawing on aspects of postcolonial theory, Huot examines the role of giants in constructions of race, class, gender, and human subjectivity. She selects for study the well-known prose Lancelot and the prose Tristan, as well as the lesser known Perceforest, Le Conte du papegau, Guiron le Courtois, and Des Grantz Geants. By asking to what extent views of giants in Arthurian romance respond to questions that concern twenty-first-century readers, Huot demonstrates the usefulness of current theoretical concepts and the issues they raise for rethinking medieval literature from a modern perspective.

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12 classic English fairy tales and their history, from tales of dragons to Robin Hood. Folk tales and legends are an intrinsic part of English national culture. In his book, Rosalind Kerven has revived the best English fairy tales for a new generation. These are stories of giants, dragons, fairies and Arthurian Romance. Together, they form a perfect introduction to the different types of traditional stories and their place in English oral and written heritage. Each tale is linked with a specific place or county in England: 'The Dragon Castle' from Northumberland, 'The Girl Snatched By Fairies' from County Durham, 'The Princess and the Fool' from Kent and 'The Dark Moon' from Lincolnshire. The book also includes notes on each story: the history and where it came from, its development and short summaries of many related or similar stories.

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From Arthurian legend to tales of ancient China, horses have traversed the world alongside humans for centuries, and their heroic adventures are gathered here in this one-of-a-kind little encyclopedia . . . Beloved for their grace, strength, and untamed beauty, horses have always loomed large in our imaginations, featuring in mythologies across cultures and throughout history. This little encyclopedia rounds up more than 50 mythical horses from around the world, including: - Bai Long Ma, part dragon and part horse, of the Chinese classic Journey to the West- Balius and Xanthus, Achilles''s horses who fought in the Trojan War- Pegasus, a winged stallion and child of the Greek god Poseidon - Sleipnir, a war horse belonging to great Norse god Odin And so many more! With detailed illustrations throughout, this book pays tribute to some of our most formidable equine friends.

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Clare Pollard's first book for children revisits Arthurian legends in a thrilling tale of adventure and mystery. *The Untameables* turns traditional folklore on its head and forces us to think about how legends are written and whose stories get told.

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Essays on the many key aspects of medieval literature, reflecting the significant impact of Professor Derek Brewer. Derek Brewer (1923-2008) was one of the most influential medievalists of the twentieth century, first through his own publications and teaching, and later as the founder of his own academic publishing firm. His working life of some sixty years, from the late 1940s to the 2000s, saw enormous advances in the study of Chaucer and of Arthurian romance, and of medieval literature more generally. He was in the forefront of such changes, and his understandings ofChaucer and of Malory remain at the core of the modern critical mainstream. Essays in this collection take their starting point from his ideas and interests, before offering their own fresh thinking in those key areas of medieval studies in which he pioneered innovations which remain central: Chaucer's knight and knightly virtues; class-distinction; narrators and narrative time; lovers and loving in medieval romance; ideals of feminine beauty; love,friendship and masculinities; medieval laughter; symbolic stories, the nature of romance, and the ends of storytelling; the wholeness of Malory's Morte Darthur; modern study of the medieval material book; Chaucer's poetic language and modern dictionaries; and Chaucerian afterlives. This collection builds towards an intellectual profile of a modern medievalist, cumulatively registering how the potential of Derek Brewer's work is being reinterpreted and is renewing itself now and into the future of medieval studies. Charlotte Brewer is Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford; Barry Windeatt is Professor of English in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Contributors: Elizabeth Archibald, Charlotte Brewer, Mary Carruthers, Christopher Cannon, Helen Cooper, A.S.G. Edwards, Jill Mann, Alastair Minnis, Derek Pearsall, Corinne Saunders, James Simpson, A.C. Spearing, Jacqueline Tasioulas, Robert Yeager, Barry Windeatt.

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With a foreword by Iain Sinclair. London is an ancient city, whose foundation dates back literally thousands of years into the legendary prehistory of these islands. Not surprisingly it has accumulated a large number of stories, both historic and mythical, during this period, many of which, though faithfully recorded at the time, have lain almost forgotten in dusty libraries throughout the city. The Secret Lore of London is a guide to the legends, including a discussion of their importance as part of the oral tradition of Britain, combining Prehistoric, Celtic, Arthurian, Roman, Saxon and Norman levels - each of which has contributed to the many-layered life of the city. The first part contains a unique selection of essays (some printed here for the first time) by experts in their fields, each of whom possesses a unique interest in the legends of these islands, and who have written widely on associated themes. The second part of the book will consist of a Gazetteer of the sites mentioned which are still in existence, together with various other sites of associated interest, compiled by the Editor, the contributors, and members of the London Earth Mysteries Group. This part will be fully updated and extended to include many more sites. The result is a wide ranging and wholly fascinating book, with wide sales application possible. A series of appendixes will include William Stukley's extraordinary document The Brill, which relates to the ancient prehistoric sites around the area of present day St. Pancras, and excerpts from some of the best known 19th and early 20th century works on Legendary London by Lewis Spence and Harold BayleyContributors to the book are: Nigel PennickJohn MatthewsCaroline WiseCaitlín MatthewsCarol Clancy R.J. StewartBernard Nesfield-CooksonGareth KnightRobert StephensonGeraldine BeskinChesca PotterWilliam StukeleyLewis SpenceHarold BayleyAlan V. InsoleRoss Nichols

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When Philip Marsden moved to a remote, creekside farmhouse in Cornwall, the intensity of his response took him aback. It led him to wonder why we react so strongly to certain places and set him off on a journey on foot westwards to Land's End through one of the most myth-rich regions of Europe. From the Neolithic ritual landscape of Bodmin Moor to the Arthurian traditions at Tintagel, from the mysterious china-clay region to the granite tors and tombs of the far south-west, Marsden assembles a chronology of Britain's attitude to place. In archives, he uncovers the life and work of other enthusiasts before him - medieval chroniclers and Tudor topographers, eighteenth-century antiquarians, post-industrial poets and abstract painters. Drawing also on his travels from further afield, Marsden reveals that the shape of the land lies not just at the heart of our own history but of man's perennial struggle to belong on this earth.

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Text and facing page translation of key texts for the Tristan legend. These first volumes of the series Arthurian Archives present the Old French verse texts devoted to Tristan and Iseut. Authoritative critical editions are complemented by parallel translations, with introduction, variants and rejected readings, and critical notes. The Tristan tradition in medieval France is dominated by two longer poems by Beroul and Thomas, both included in these volumes; the full contents of the two volumes are: I. Béroul, TheRomance of TristranNORRIS J. LACY; Les Folies Tristan: La Folie Tristan (Berne) and La Folie Tristan (Oxford) SAMUEL N. ROSENBERG II. Thomas, Tristan STEWART GREGORY; `The Carlisle Fragment' of Thomas's Tristan IAN SHORT; Marie de France, Chevrefeuil RICHARD O'GORMAN; Tristan Ménestrel and Tristan RossignolKAREN FRESCO NORRIS J. LACY is Professor of French at the Pennsylvania State University.

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Formidable adversaries are arrayed against you. Your people stand ready. History beckons.In your hands lies the destiny of one of most storied peoples of history. Under constant threat of attack, you must conquer new lands, oversee dramatic scientific and cultural advances, and lead your people into the era of empire. Expand too rapidly, and unrest will bring your civilisation to its knees; build up too slowly, however, and you might find yourself a mere footnote of history. As one of eight radically asymmetric civilisations, you will compete to become the most dominant empire the world has ever seen.Imperium: Legends is a standalone game that contains the three most challenging civilisations in Imperium the Arthurians, Utopians, and Atlantians as well as the Egyptians, Mauryan, Minoan, Olmec, and Qin civilisations, each of which can be played against solo. It is fully compatible with Imperium: Classics for players wanting to expand their pool of civilisations ev

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What more is there to add about the Shroud of Turin? The linen cloth with the faint image of the crucified Jesus in the position of burial is perhaps more popular today than at any other time. But the Shroud unlocks for us another world, a forgotten world. The Fraud of Turin, written by Catholic writer James Day, objectively reviews the evidence for a medievalcreation, but it is written for religious believers, art lovers, and history buffs showing just how all consuming the Passion of Jesus Christ was to the medieval mind. What emerges is an epic journey with crusaders to Jerusalem's Holy Sepulcher, into Arthurian lore and the search for the Holy Grail, and across the Black Sea into mysterious Constantinople. James Day boldly sets out to find the truth of the world's most famous religious artifact.

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An exploration of the use of images in Middle English texts, tracing out what can be deduced of a theory of language. In the Middle Ages, English did not have any explicit theory or philosophy of language: philosophers wrote in Latin. This book addresses the issue. By closely analysing the images and metaphors used to describe language in MiddleEnglish texts, it explores how English writers thought language works. These images are "reverse-engineered" in an attempt to deduce what underlying theory of language could have created that image. In this way, it is possible togo beyond the clerically-educated Latin thinkers of the medieval period and try to find out what people thought in English. Taking metaphors and images from the poetry of Geoffrey Chaucer, Arthurian romances, bird debates, sermons, handbooks of exempla, and medieval dramas, the book provides new and sometimes surprising readings of such familiar texts as the House of Fame and the Morte Darthur.

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Amani is hooked on a mystery—a poem on airmail paper that slips out of one of her father’s books. It seems to have been written by her grandmother, a refugee who arrived in Jordan during the First World War. Soon the perfect occasion to investigate arises: her Uncle Hafez, an advisor to the King of Jordan, invites her father to celebrate the king’s sixtieth birthday—and to fence with the king, as in their youth. Her father has avoided returning to his homeland for decades, but Amani persuades him to come with her. Uncle Hafez will make their time in Jordan complicated—and dangerous—after Amani discovers a missing relative and is launched into a journey of loss, history and, eventually, a fight for her own life. Fencing with the King masterfully draws on King Lear and Arthurian fable to explore the power of inheritance, the trauma of displacement and whether we can release the past to build a future.

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"Every medievalist with a sense of humor has wanted to do this sort of book, but too few have. Morris Bishop gives us a delightful collection of medieval storytelling, ranging from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, in Latin, Norse, French, Spanish, Italian, and English. Recommended for all popular collections and especially for children."—Library Journal "A pleasant collection of medieval tales intended for light reading. There are the usual bits and pieces from the Arthurian legend, from the lais and the collections like the ‘Decameron,’ from saints’ lives, and from the moralized exempla of the preachers’ handbooks, all illustrating the lighter side of the extraordinarily rich tradition of medieval narrative art."—Virginia Quarterly Review From the rich store of medieval tales, Morris Bishop brings together a delightful collection of thirty-five stories. Some are romantic, some religious, some realistic, some even scurrilous. There are merry tales and moral tales, sagas, allegories, and fables. They vary widely in theme and their characters represent every class of medieval society. The tales in A Medieval Storybook vividly illustrate medieval life and thought. Above all they excel as stories, and demonstrate the high level attained by narrative art in the Middle Ages and the great gift the medieval writers had for creating lively and memorable characters. Some of the stories in the book were translated by Bishop; others were translated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Line drawings by Alison Mason Kingsbury add considerably to the charm of this collection.

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Stonehenge is woven into the earliest Arthurian legends and has been analysed by everyone from archaeologists, to town planners, to the Druids who have made it their spiritual home. By refusing to adopt one theoretical position, Rosemary Hill provides the most wide-ranging and expansive history of the megalithic structure to date, from its creation in 3000 BC to the threat of the thunderous main roads that flank it today.

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Romantic rock-perched sea-girt Tintagel is a magical place that resonates with Arthurian associations - and the archaeological reality is no less intriguing than the legend. Investigation of the site began in the 1930s, when Dr Ralegh Radford uncovered remains of buildings with significant volumes of eastern Mediterranean and North African pottery of fifth- to seventh-century date, suggesting a western British site of iconic importance in the economy of the late Antique and Byzantine world. The research presented in this book comes from renewed fieldwork carried out at this promontory site over several seasons between April 1990 and July 1999, using modern archaeological techniques, together with previously unpublished work from Radford's private archive, along with that of his architect, J A Wright. This work has demonstrated the complexity and variability of building forms and associated occupation at the site and the wide-ranging connections of Tintagel during the fi

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In The Lily and the Thistle, William Calin argues for a reconsideration of the French impact on medieval and renaissance Scottish literature. Calin proposes that much of traditional, medieval, and early modern Scottish culture, thought to be native to Scotland or primarily from England, is in fact strikingly international and European. By situating Scottish works in a broad intertextual context, Calin reveals which French genres and modes were most popular in Scotland and why. The Lily and the Thistle provides appraisals of medieval narrative texts in the high courtly mode (equivalent to the French "dits amoureux"); comic, didactic, and satirical texts; and Scots romance. Special attention is accorded to texts composed originally in French such as the Arthurian "Roman de Fergus," as well as to the lyrics of Mary Queen of Scots and little known writers from the French and Scottish canons. By considering both medieval and renaissance works, Calin is able to observe shifts in taste and French influence over the centuries.

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This selection of the best-loved and most frequently studied of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales provides a fascinating introduction to one of the great cornerstones of English literature. The General Prologue gives vivid character sketches of the colourful band of pilgrims who gather at a London inn on their way to Canterbury, while the nine tales chosen range from the noble Knight’s story of rivalry in love to the boastful Pardoner’s moral treatise, from the exuberant Wife of Bath’s Arthurian legend to the Miller’s worldly, ribald farce. Incorporating every style of Medieval narrative – bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance – the tales brought together here encompass the blend of universal human themes and individual personal detail that have fascinated readers for over 600 years.For this selection the original fourteenth-century Middle English is presented with a facing-page modern prose translation. This volume also contains a chronology, further reading and an introduction examining Chaucer’s life and work and the literary influences on the Tales.Translated and edited with an introduction by Colin Wilcockson

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It's the near future, and mankind has expanded its presence in space. Maintaining law and order beyond Earth is the responsibility of the International Space Police Force, known colloquially as the Star Cops. Their leader is Commander Nathan Spring. 1.1 Dead Air by Roland Moore. When Sonia Garrett dies during a routine moonwalk, the Star Cops suspect that her suit was sabotaged. As part of the investigation, Devis and Paul travel to an ancient space station to interview Xander O'Brien. But the reclusive meteorologist has a surprise in store. He knows exactly who killed Sonia Garrett. Aliens! 1.2 Hostile Takeover by Rossa McPhillips. A crashed shuttle with no passengers or crew on board. The murder of a gangster. The kidnapping of a space station union leader. What connects all three cases? As Nathan's team investigate, they encounter Alice Okoro, a corporate investigator for Wolfe International. What is her agenda? Is she there to hinder or help the Star Cops? 1.3 Death in the Desert by Sarah Grochala. When the sister of Lee Jones, his deceased former lover, is kidnapped from a research lab in Chad, Nathan travels to Earth to investigate in person. At the same time, Paul and Devis discover evidence that someone may have found a way to smuggle narcotics onto the Moon, bypassing drugs testing. As both investigations progress, an enemy of the Star Cops sees an opportunity to close a trap. Please note: Star Cops features some mild swearing and content which may not be suitable for younger listeners. CAST: David Calder (Nathan Spring), Trevor Cooper (Inspector Colin Devis), Linda Newton (Acting Chief Superintendent Pal Kenzy), Philip Olivier (Inspector Paul Bailey), Becky Wright (Sonia Garrett / Chef), Sean Connolly (Xander O’Brien / Soldier One), Lynsey Murrell (Alice Okoro), Graham Vick (James Winfield / Torsten Arthurton), Jason Nwoga (Professor Sani Habib / Sergeant Hamza), Billie Fulford-Brown (Kathy Marshall / Clare Jones), Sarah Lawrie (Dr Kay Jones). Other parts played by members of the cast. PLEASE NOTE: Star Cops features some mild swearing and content which may not be suitable for younger listeners.

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Revered creator LIAM SHARP cuts loose on his visually stunning masterpiece, STARHENGE: THE DRAGON AND THE BOAR! A future MERLIN travels to 5th century Britain to prevent monstrous time-travelling killer robots robbing the universe of magic! Amber Weaver's lively present-day narrative reveals how she becomes drawn into a war across time... TERMINATOR meets THE GREEN KNIGHT in this enthralling epic inspired by the ARTHURIAN sagas! Collects STARHENGE: THE DRAGON AND THE BOAR #1-6

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In Parenthesis was first published in London in 1937. I am proud to share the responsibility for that first publication. On reading the book in typescript I was deeply moved. I then regarded it, and still regard it, as a work of genius... Here is a book about the experience of one soldier in the war of 1914-18. It is also a book about War, and about many other things also, such as Roman Britain, the Arthurian Legend, and divers matters which are given association by the mind of the writer.' T.S. Eliot'This writing has to do with some things I saw, felt, and was part of ': with quiet modesty, David Jones begins a work that is among the most powerful imaginative efforts to grapple with the carnage of the First World War. Fusing poetry and prose, gutter talk and high music, wartime terror and ancient myth, Jones, who served as an infantryman on the Western Front, presents a picture at once panoramic and intimate of a world of interminable waiting and unforeseen death. And yet throughout he remains alert to the flashes of humanity that light up the wasteland of war.' W.S. Merwin

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The phenomenal success of George Lucas's first Star Wars trilogy quite simply revolutionized the cinema; but what sets Lucas's films apart from their legion of imitators is the quality of their screenplays. Lucas originally intended this trilogy to be a single film, but the epic scope of the story (combining hi-tech, sci-fi cinephilia with elements of Arthurian myth and mysticism) demanded that it be split into three.The first panel of the triptych is A New Hope. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, young Luke Skywalker leads a dull, isolated existence on his uncle's homestead. One day, two androids, C3PO and R2D2, show up bearing a message from Princess Leia, the leader of the rebel forces engaged in a struggle against the vicious tryranny of the Empire - as personified by the rasping presence of Darth Vader. The message leads Luke to realize his heritage as a Jedi Knight. He sets out on a wild adventure across the galaxy and, together with Leia and rogue pilot Han Solo, attempts to thwart the Empire by destroying its menacing base of operations: the Death Star.

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This is Not a Grail Romance provides answers to some of the most important questions surrounding the medieval Welsh Arthurian tale Historia Peredur vab Efrawc, one of the few surviving medieval Welsh narrative compositions, and an important member of the ‘Grail’ family of medieval European narratives. The study demonstrates that Historia Peredur is an original Welsh composition, rather than (as previous theories have suggested) being an adaptation of the twelfth-century French grail romance. The new analysis of the structure of Historia Peredur presented here shows it to be as complex as it has always been thought – but also more formal, and the result of intentional and intricate design. The seeming inconsistencies or oddities in Historia Peredur can be understood by reading it in its medieval Welsh cultural context, allowing the modern reader a greater appreciation of both the narrative and the culture that produced it. The University of Wales Press gratefully acknowledges the funding support of the Maartje Draak Fund from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the Utrecht University Institute for Cultural Inquiry, and of the Books Council of Wales, in publication of this book.

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Modern theoretical approaches throw new light on the concepts of face and faciality in the Roman de la Rose and other French texts from the Middle Ages. In medieval French literature, faces feature heavily as markers of identity, mood, class, status, and even humanity. The information that they convey can be strategically concealed and revealed, but they are always understood to be legible. This book explores the face as a medieval literary motif and as a modern phenomenon, charting its limits and interrogating the idea of face as a universal signifier. It examines what happens when faces are not legible, when they are found on non-human surfaces, and when they migrate across the human body. It looks at faciality in a series of texts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, moving from Arthurian tales, through the Roman de la Rose to the fabliaux, as well as examining fourteenth-century manuscripts in which faces appear as disembodied doodles. Reading these texts in conjunction with twentieth-century theories of face and faciality, and considering the ideas behind twenty-first-century face recognition technology, this book argues that faces in the popular imagination tell us less about identity than they do about how we understand and interact with the world around us.

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When the darkness rises again, the light will return wherever people stand their ground. Two years after the events of The Standing Ground, the tiny outpost of Y Tir in North Wales becomes a refuge for those who want to live without implants—permanent links to government surveillance that are threatening to dominate people’s lives again. But can Alys, Luke and Emrys thwart the growing threats of the new tech-giants whose offers of enhanced memories and virtual lives mask the erosion of privacy and even humanity? As new enemies threaten Y Tir’s existence, and old enemies emerge to sew seeds of destruction, Alys’ and Luke’s lives are put under increasing pressure. But there are also allies, not least Alys’ and Luke’s daughter, Iris, who appears to have fallen out of the mists of Greek legend and into Celtic myth. Can Iris, more strange and powerful even than Myrddin Emrys, also known as Merlin, save the day for Y Tir? Skilfully combining near-future technologies of surveillance and immersive media with Arthurian legend and Greek mythology, this story of suspense is full of convincing and extraordinary characters. A breath-taking conclusion to The Standing Ground trilogy. But does this story ever end?

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Having designed Roxy Music as an haute couture suit hand-stitched of punk and progressive music, Bryan Ferry redesigned it. He made Roxy Music ever dreamier and mellower—reaching back to sadly beautiful chivalric romances. Dadaist (punk) noise exited; a kind of ambient soft soul entered. Ferry parted ways with Eno, electric violinist Eddie Jobson, and drummer Paul Thompson, foreswearing the broken-sounding synthesizers played by kitchen utensils, the chance-based elements, and the maquillage of previous albums. The production and engineering imposed on Avalon confiscates emotion and replaces it with an acoustic simulacrum of courtliness, polished manners, and codes of etiquette. The seducer sings seductive music about seduction, but decorum is retained, as amour courtois insists. The backbeat cannot beat back nostalgia; it remains part of the architecture of Avalon, an album that creates an allusive sheen. Be nostalgic, by all means, but embrace that feeling’s falseness, because nostalgia—whether inspired by medieval Arthuriana or 1940s film noir repartee or a 1980s drug-induced high—deceives. Nostalgia defines our fantasies and our (not Ferry’s) essential artifice.

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Shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry • Longlisted for the 2023 E.J. Pratt Family Poetry AwardA CBC Best Canadian Poetry Book of 2021 Drawing on Arthurian myth, the Romantic poets, the ill-fated "Great War" efforts of the Newfoundland Regiment, modern parenthood, 16-bit video games, and Major League Baseball, these poems examine the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, both as individuals and as communities, in order to explain how and why we are the way we are. At its heart, Romantic interrogates our western society's idealized, self-deluding personal and cultural perspectives.

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Drawing on a wealth of sources from different disciplines, the essays here provide a nuanced picture of how medieval and early modern societies viewed murder and dealt with murderers. Murder - the perpetrators, victims, methods and motives - has been the subject of law, literature, chronicles and religion, often crossing genres and disciplines and employing multiple modes of expression and interpretation. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, definitions of murder, manslaughter and justified or unjustified homicide depend largely on the legal terminology and the laws of the society. Much like modern nations, medieval societies treated murder and murderers differently based on their social standing, the social standing of the victim, their gender, their mental capacity for understanding their crime, and intent, motive and means. The three parts of this volume explore different aspects of this crime in the Middle Ages. The first provides the legal template for reading cases of murder in a variety of sources. The second examines the public hermeneutics of murder, especially theways in which medieval societies interpreted and contextualised their textual traditions: Icelandic sagas, Old French fabliaux, Arthuriana and accounts of assassination. Finally, the third part focuses on the effects of murder within the community: murder as a social ill, especially in killing kin. LARISSA TRACY is Professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University. Contributors: Dianne Berg, G. Koolemans Beynen, Dwayne C. Coleman, Jeffrey Doolittle, Carmel Ferragud, Jay Paul Gates, Thomas Gobbitt, Emily J. Hutchison, Jolanta N. Komornicka, Anne Latowsky, Matthew Lubin, Andrew McKenzie-McHarg, Ben Parsons, Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar, Hannah Skoda, Bridgette Slavin, Larissa Tracy, Patricia Turning, Lucas Wood

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In this riveting fantasy adventure that VOYA called "absolutely necessary for middle grades," thirteen-year-old Jax Aubrey discovers a secret Eighth Day with roots tracing back to Arthurian legend. Fans of Percy Jackson will devour this first book in a new series that combines exciting magic and pulse-pounding suspense. When Jax wakes up to a world without any people, he assumes it's the zombie apocalypse. But when he runs into his eighteen-year-old guardian, Riley Pendare, he learns that he's really in the Eighth Day-an extra day sandwiched between Wednesday and Thursday. Some people-like Jax and Riley-are Transitioners, able to live in all eight days, while others, including Evangeline, the elusive teenage girl who's been hiding in the house next door, exist only on this special day. There's a reason Evangeline's hiding. As the descendant of the powerful wizard Merlin, her magic is highly sought by corrupt Transitioners who want to use her to destroy the seven-day world. Torn between protecting his new friend and saving the human race from destruction, Jax is faced with an impossible choice. Even with an eighth day, time is running out. Be sure to check out The Inquisitor's Mark, the spellbinding second novel in the Eighth Day series.

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Survey of the reign of Henry II, offering a range of new evaluations and interpretations. Henry II is the most imposing figure among the medieval kings of England. His fiefs and domains extended from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and his court was frequented by the greatest thinkers and men of letters of his time,besides ambassadors from all over Europe. Yet his is a reign of paradoxes: best known for his dramatic conflicts with his own wife and sons and with Thomas Becket, it was also a crucial period in the evolution of legal and governmental institutions. Here experts in the field provide significant reevaluations of its most important aspects. Topics include Henry's accession and his relations with the papacy, the French king, other rulers in the British Islesand the Norman baronage; the development of the common law and the coinage; the court and its literary milieu; the use of Arthurian legend for political purposes; and the career of the Young King Henry, while the introduction examines the historiography of the reign. CONTRIBUTORS: MARTIN ALLEN, MARTIN AURELL, NICK BARRATT, PAUL BRAND, SEAN DUFFY, ANNE DUGGAN, JEAN DUBABIN, JOHN GILLINGHAM, EDMUND KING, DANIEL POWER, IAN SHORT, MATTHEW STRICKLAND CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL and NICHOLAS VINCENT are Professors of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia.

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This volume contains the only known English version of Chrétien de Troyes's romance of the naïve knight Perceval, Sir Perceval of Galles. The work uses Perceval's ridiculous behavior as a late medieval satire of courtliness. Accompanying this tale is Ywain and Gawain, a translation of a second Chrétien poem, Le Chevalier au lion. Unlike Sir Perceval, this poem extols the virtues of chivalry and honor. These complementary works form an excellent introduction to Middle English Arthurian romance, as they include editing, glosses, introductions, and a very helpful glossary for beginning students.

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Journey to the legendary Isle of Avalon and experience the magic, mysteries, and mysticism that have inspired women through the ages. Jhenah Telyndru - the founder of the Avalonian Tradition - invites you down a unique spiritual path of healing and personal revelation built upon the beloved Avalon mythology. Explore Glastonbury's Sacred Landscape. Connect with Ceridwen, Rhiannon, and other Goddesses of Avalon. Learn the Avalonian skills of Sight and Glamour to heal wounds of the soul and unlock the sacred wisdom at the core of your being. Drawing on Celtic mythology, Arthurian legend, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists of Avalon", this transformative path empowers women everywhere to seek the Goddess within.

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Much of Scottish mythology was imported by settlers arriving from across the Irish Sea, and so Scottish mythology in large part shares its characters and tales with the mythology of Ireland, from the Ulster Cycle featuring Conchobar mac Nessa, king of Ulster, and the great hero Cúchulainn, to the adventures of Fionn mac Cumhaill. But Scotland also possesses its own folklore and tales featuring kings, water spirits, selkies, sea monsters and fairies, not to mention some Arthurian myths native to this land. From the Gaelic heroism of 'Conall Cra Bhuidhe', tales of fairy folk such as 'The Smith and the Fairies' and the classic ghost story of 'The Fiddler and the Bogle of Bogandoran', to traditional fables ('The Fox and the Wolf') and a tale of unrequited love, murder and rescue ('A Legend of Invershin'), this entertaining collection gathers the ancient myths and fairy tales featuring all manner of creatures into a uniquely Caledonian set of stories. FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

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Ideas of translation and adaptation in the middle ages investigated through the lens of the Merlin tradition. The medieval figure of Merlin is intriguing, enigmatic, and riddled with contradictions. Half human, half devil, he possesses a supernatural knowledge that allows him to prophesy the future. This book examines the reinterpretationof Merlin's character in French and Italian Arthurian literature, in which chivalric romance and political prophecy become increasingly intertwined. As the Merlin story crosses the fluid cultural and linguistic boundaries between vernacular dialects on either side of the Alps, the protagonist accumulates histories, futures, and discourses from multiple texts within his omniscient knowledge. From his first appearance in Geoffrey of Monmouth's HistoriaRegum Britanniae, through thirteenth-century French romance, to fifteenth-century Venice, Merlin is the voice of political and spiritual truths that originate beyond the sphere of human comprehension. The study also shows howthe conversion of Merlin's prophetic speech from his omniscient mind into human languages parallels the work of the medieval translator. At the same time, the transmission of the Merlin story between vernacular French and Italiandialects presents an alternative model of translation, one that relies not on the displacement of previous texts, but instead on the accretion of information from text to text. Laura Chuhan Campbell is Assistant Professor of French at Durham University.

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