Wace, The Hagiographical Works

Wace, The Hagiographical Works
Author: Jean Blacker
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2013-06-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004247688

Best known for his two chronicles, the Roman de Brut and the Roman de Rou, Wace, one of the great pioneers of twelfth-century French writing, is also the author of three hagiographical works: the Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas. The Conception is the first vernacular work to focus on the life of the Virgin Mary. Emphasising Margaret's concern for women in labour, the Margaret seemingly contributed to the saint's broad popularity. The Nicholas, with its many miracles involving children, equally played a key role in popularising its protagonist's cult. The present volume brings these works together for the first time and provides the original texts, the first translations into English, notes and substantial introductions.

A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth

A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2020-08-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004410392

A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to provide an updated scholarly introduction to all aspects of his work. Arguably the most influential secular writer of medieval Britain, Geoffrey (d. 1154) popularized Arthurian literature and left an indelible mark on European romance, history, and genealogy. Despite this outsized influence, Geoffrey’s own life, background, and motivations are little understood. The volume situates his life and works within their immediate historical context, and frames them within current critical discussion across the humanities. By necessity, this volume concentrates primarily on Geoffrey’s own life and times, with the reception of his works covered by a series of short encyclopaedic overviews, organized by language, that serve as guides to further reading. Contributors are Jean Blacker, Elizabeth Bryan, Thomas H. Crofts, Siân Echard, Fabrizio De Falco, Michael Faletra, Ben Guy, Santiago Gutiérrez García, Nahir I. Otaño Gracia, Paloma Gracia, Georgia Henley, David F. Johnson, Owain Wyn Jones, Maud Burnett McInerney, Françoise Le Saux, Barry Lewis, Coral Lumbley, Simon Meecham-Jones, Paul Russell, Victoria Shirley, Joshua Byron Smith, Jaakko Tahkokallio, Hélène Tétrel, Rebecca Thomas, Fiona Tolhurst.

Sacred Fictions of Medieval France

Sacred Fictions of Medieval France
Author: Maureen Barry McCann Boulton
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2015
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1843844141

A study of the immensely popular "lives" of Christ and the Virgin in medieval France.

Roman de Brut

Roman de Brut
Author: Wace
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2024-01-11
Genre:
ISBN: 0192871269

This volume provides an accessible, English prose translation of Wace's Roman de Brut, in which Arthur appears for the first time as king of the Britons.

Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages

Lives, Identities and Histories in the Central Middle Ages
Author: Julie Barrau
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2021-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107160804

Offers a new take on the identities and life histories of medieval people, in their multi-layered and sometimes contradictory dimensions.

Arthur, Origins, Identities and the Legendary History of Britain

Arthur, Origins, Identities and the Legendary History of Britain
Author: Jean Blacker
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2024-03-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 900469188X

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s immensely popular Latin prose Historia regum Britanniae (c. 1138), followed by French verse translations – Wace’s Roman de Brut (1155) and anonymous versions including the Royal Brut, the Munich, Harley, and Egerton Bruts (12th -14th c.), initiated Arthurian narratives of many genres throughout the ages, alongside Welsh, English, and other traditions. Arthur, Origins, Identities and the Legendary History of Britain addresses how Arthurian histories incorporating the British foundation myth responded to images of individual or collective identity and how those narratives contributed to those identities. What cultural, political or psychic needs did these Arthurian narratives meet and what might have been the origins of those needs? And how did each text contribute to a “larger picture” of Arthur, to the construction of a myth that still remains so compelling today?

An Anglo-Norman Reader

An Anglo-Norman Reader
Author: Jane Bliss
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Total Pages: 1044
Release: 2018-02-08
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1783743166

This book is an anthology with a difference. It presents a distinctive variety of Anglo-Norman works, beginning in the twelfth century and ending in the nineteenth, covering a broad range of genres and writers, introduced in a lively and thought-provoking way. Facing-page translations, into accessible and engaging modern English, are provided throughout, bringing these texts to life for a contemporary audience. The collection offers a selection of fascinating passages, and whole texts, many of which are not anthologised or translated anywhere else. It explores little-known byways of Arthurian legend and stories of real-life crime and punishment; women’s voices tell history, write letters, berate pagans; advice is offered on how to win friends and influence people, how to cure people’s ailments and how to keep clear of the law; and stories from the Bible are retold with commentary, together with guidance on prayer and confession. Each text is introduced and elucidated with notes and full references, and the material is divided into three main sections: Story (a variety of narrative forms), Miscellany (including letters, law and medicine, and other non-fiction), and Religious (saints' lives, sermons, Bible commentary, and prayers). Passages in one genre have been chosen so as to reflect themes or stories that appear in another, so that the book can be enjoyed as a collection or used as a resource to dip into for selected texts. This anthology is essential reading for students and scholars of Anglo-Norman and medieval literature and culture. Wide-ranging and fully referenced, it can be used as a springboard for further study or relished in its own right by readers interested to discover Anglo-Norman literature that was written to amuse, instruct, entertain, or admonish medieval audiences.

A Companion to Wace

A Companion to Wace
Author: Françoise Hazel Marie Le Saux
Publisher: DS Brewer
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2005
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781843840435

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