Search results for ""Author Norris J. Lacy""

12th-century French retellings and variations of the story of Tristan and Iseut. The strong and enduring appeal of the Arthurian legends shows no signs of abating, yet many medieval Arthurian texts remain unedited or printed in editions no longer available, while comparatively few of them have been translatedinto English, thus making them inaccessible to the scholarly or general audience unable to read them in the original. The Arthurian Archives series addresses these problems, aiming to provide authoritative critical editionswith parallel translation of essentialtexts for Arthurian studies; each text will be accompanied by a brief introduction, variants and rejected readings, and critical notes. This first volume offers a collection of the French Tristan texts prior to the Prose Tristan; of particular importance is the recently-discovered Thomas fragment, here edited Ian Short. Contents: Béroul, The Romance of Tristan (Norris Lacy); Thomas, Tristan (Stewart Gregory); `The Carlisle Fragment' of Thomas's Tristan (Ian Short) Marie de France, Chevrefeuil (Richard O'Gorman)The Folie Tristan de Berne and the Folie Tristan d'Oxford (Samuel N. Rosenberg)

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The Death of Arthur brings the Vulgate Cycle to its tragic ending. It opens with the aftermath of the Grail quest, and the king's attempts to revive the much depleted Round Table. But at this point the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere intensifies, and comes into the open when Agravain succeeds in catching them in the act. Lancelot saves the queen from the stake, and flees with her to his castle of Joyous Gard, which is besieged by Arthur. The final pages recount Arthur's death at the hands of his illegitimate son Mordred, and the deaths of Lancelot and Guinevere. For a full description of the Vulgate Cycle see the blurb for the complete set.

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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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The Quest of the Holy Grail adds a spiritual dimension to the adventures of Arthur's knights. Galahad replaces Lancelot as the central figure, though he appears and disappears so often that many of the knights are engaged in a quest to find him rather than the Grail. The central concept of the Grail was never accepted by the Church, and the Quest remains a secular romance which can be interpreted as a spiritual allegory. This is done by the hermits who appear throughout the story, pointing out the meaning of each adventure. The adventures have a strong element of the magical and otherworldly, and the story is more closely structured than Lancelot, with the accomplishment of the Grail adventure by Galahad, Perceval and Bors as its centre and culmination. For a full description of the Vulgate Cycle see the blurb for the complete set.

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The revised version of The Quest of the Holy Grail gives a greater role to Perceval, and introduces a number of knights not found in the Vulgate; but the largest change is that much of the story of Tristan (and of his rivalPalamedes) is incorporated into the story. The achievement of the Grail quest centres on Galahad's healing of Pellehan, which has to be accomplished before the knights can reach the Grail itself. The Death of Arthur is little more than a relatively brief postscript, bringing the story of the adventures of the kingdom of Logres to an end; Lancelot and Guenevere are revealed as lovers, and Arthur fights both Lancelot and then the Romans. Despite thisvictory, he is betrayed and killed by Mordred, as has been foreshadowed from the outset of the new material. The romance ends with king Mark of Cornwall's death when he attempts to kill Lancelot and Bors at the hermitage to whichthey have retreated. For a full description of the Post-Vulgate Cycle see the blurb for the complete set.

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AlthoughThe History of the Holy Grail opens the Vulgate Cycle, it was added after the events described in Lancelot and The Quest of the Holy Grail were already an established part of the Arthurian story. It is, in Hollywood terms, a `prequel', and relates the story of the Grail from its first appearance at the Crucifixion up to the point where it is placed by Alain, the Fisher King, in the castle of Corbenic, whose inhabitants then await the arrival of the chosen Grail knight. Many points in the narrative are designed to foreshadow or to explain the later adventures connected with the Grail, but it also draws on the stories in the apocryphal gospels and other legends of the crucifixion such as the story of Veronica, as well as unrelated material such as the story of Hippocrates. But it also provides many details about the Grail itself which are not found anywhere else. It is less chivalric in tone from the subsequent books of the Vulgate Cycle, and relatively few copies of the original survive. For a full description of the Vulgate Cycle see the blurb for the complete set.

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Chapter by chapter summary of the contents of the Vulgate Cycle and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, providing an invaluable outline of them both. The most comprehensive account of the story of Arthur, the Round Table and the Grail is to be found in the work known as Lancelot-Grail or the Vulgate Cycle. It tells the story of the Arthurian world from the events of theCrucifixion, where the Grail originated, to the death of Lancelot after the destruction of the Round Table. It draws in many different strands, from the pseudo-historical stories about Arthur to the romances of chivalric adventureand the spiritual quest for the Grail. It consists of five works: the longest is Lancelot, a kind of chivalric history of the Round Table, which leads into the quest for the Grail and Arthur's death. The first two books were added later, and provide an account of events up to Arthur's birth. Not long after the cycle was completed, another writer retained the first two books of the Vulgate cycle but recast the last three books with a rather different emphasis; this version is known as the Post-Vulgate Cycle, and is one of the main sources used by Sir Thomas Malory. This volume contains a complete chapter by chapter summary of the contents of the Vulgate Cycle and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, providing an invaluable outline of them both. The narrative structure of these romances is frequently difficult to follow, as the action cuts from one character to the next and back again - a conscious technique ofinterlacing themes [entrelacement] which is used to heighten suspense and engage the reader's attention. The summaries make it easier to track the adventures of a given knight or the recurrence of a particular theme. The name index is keyed to chapters, so can be used with both the summary text in this volume and the full text in the previous volumes.

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The idea of the quest, crucial to Arthurian literature, investigated in texts, manuscripts, and film. The theme of the quest in Arthurian literature - mainly but not exclusively the Grail quest - is explored in the essays presented here, covering French, Dutch, Norse, German, and English texts. A number of the essays trace the relationship, often negative, between Arthurian chivalry and the Grail ethos. Whereas most of the contributors reflect on the popularity of the Grail quest, several examine the comparative rarity of the Grail in certain literatures and define the elaboration of quest motifs severed from the Grail material. An appendix to the volume offers a filmography that includes all the cinematic treatments of the Grail, either as central theme or minor motif. This book will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers fascinated by the Arthurian and Grail legends. CONTRIBUTORS: NORRIS J. LACY, ANTONIO FURTADO, WILL HASTY, RICHARD TRACHSLER, MARIANNE E. KALINKE, MARTINE MEUWESE, DAVID F. JOHNSON, PHILLIP BOARDMAN, CAROLINE D. ECKHARDT, P.J.C. FIELD, JAMES P. CARLEY, RICHARD BARBER, KEVIN J. HARTY

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Lancelot is the central romance of the Vulgate Cycle, in which the chivalric elements in Arthur's court come to the fore. These chivalric elements contain the seeds of Arthur's destruction and the dissolution of the Round Table, as Lancelot's love for Guinevere undermines his bond to Arthur; the tension between love, prowess and loyalty is the undercurrent of the long romance which describes the exploits which he performs in her service. It also includes many stories which are chivalric adventures largely unrelated to the main theme, and uses the device of interweaving these stories to form a huge stream of narrative. This series of episodic pictures leads ultimately to the birth of Lancelot's son Galahad, who is destined to become the hero of the Grail. Parts three and four of Lancelot begin with the episode of the false Guinevere, in which Guinevere is accused of being an impostor; Lancelot is then abducted and imprisoned by Morgan le Fay, who out of hatred for Arthur intends to reveal their love to the king. When he escapes, Guinevere is abducted by Meleagant, and Lancelot has to rescue her. In the course of these adventures, the Grail appears for the first time: Lancelot comes to the Burning Tomb, where he learns that his sins will prevent him from succeeding in the Grail Quest; and Gawain reaches the Grail Castle, but fails the test. For afull description of the Vulgate Cycle see the blurb for the complete set.

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One of the most important medieval authors studied in historical and literary context. Chrétien de Troyes is arguably the creator of Arthurian romance, and it is on his work that later writers have based their interpretations. This book offers both crucial information on, and a comprehensive coverage of, all aspectsof the work of Chrétien de Troyes - the literary and historical background, patronage, his influence on other writers, manuscripts and editions of his work and, at the heart of the volume, major essays on his themes, techniques and artistic achievements in each of his compositions; the contributions, all from leading experts in Chrétien and related studies, have been commissioned especially for this volume and are designed to remain accessible to studentswhile also addressing specialists in Arthurian studies and Chrétien de Troyes. They reflect the most current critical and scholarly views on one of the greatest of medieval authors. CONTRIBUTORS: JOHN W. BALDWIN, JUNE HALL MCCASH, LAURENCE HARF-LANCNER, NORRIS J. LACY, DOUGLAS KELLY, KEITH BUSBY, PETER F. DEMBOWSKI, ROBERTA L. KRUEGER, DONALD MADDOX, SARA STURM-MADDOX, JOAN TASKER GRIMBERT, MATILDA TOMARYN BRUCKNER, TONY HUNT, RUPERT T. PICKENS, ANNIE COMBES, MICHELLE SZKILNIK, EMMANUELE BAUMGARTNER

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This collection of 13 critical essays examines short comedic tales from the 13th and 14th centuries, commonly known as the medieval French fabliaux. Each essay focuses on a different aspect of common fabliaux humor, as illustrated by a scholarly analysis of one or several original texts. This title covers topics such as: the frequent use of bacon as humorous symbolism; the use of comedic rhyme; and the common ""virgin miracle"" tale. Throughout, contributors attempt to provide a serious analysis of the fabliaux without losing sight of the tales' original comedic content and appeal.

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