The period from the twelfth century to the Wars of the Roses witnessed a dominant tradition of secular prophecy engaged with high political affairs, which this book charts, discussing the production of prophetic texts forecasting the rule of the whole of Britain by the kings of …
Although the anonymous pious Middle English romances and Sir Thomas Malory's 'Morte Darthur' have rarely been studied in relation to each other, they in fact share at least two thematic concerns, vocabularies of suffering and genealogical concerns, as this book demonstrates. By …
The Grail is one of the most enduring literary motifs in publishing history. In spite of an ever-changing world, the reading public has maintained a fascination for this enigmatic object, as well as the various adventures and characters associated with it. But the nature and rec…
The Grail is one of the most enduring literary motifs in publishing history. In spite of an ever-changing world, the reading public has maintained a fascination for this enigmatic object, as well as the various adventures and characters associated with it. But the nature and rec…
The Grail is one of the most enduring literary motifs in publishing history. In spite of an ever-changing world, the reading public has maintained a fascination for this enigmatic object, as well as the various adventures and characters associated with it. But the nature and rec…
This book examines the depiction of the non-human world in the Exeter Book Riddle Collection, investigating humanity's action with, and attitudes towards, the rest of creation using the fields of eco-criticism and eco-theology. While much scholarly attention has been given to wh…
This book examines the depiction of the non-human world in the Exeter Book Riddle Collection, investigating humanity's action with, and attitudes towards, the rest of creation using the fields of eco-criticism and eco-theology. While much scholarly attention has been given to wh…
For over a century and a half scholars have debated whether or not the legend of Robin Hood was based on an actual outlaw and, if so, when and where he lived. One view is that he was not a legend as such but a myth: an idea, rather than a person who could possibly be identified …
A comprehensive survey of one of the most important texts of the Middle Ages.
The Matter of France, the legendary history of Charlemagne, had a central but now largely unrecognised place in the multilingual culture of medieval England. From the early claim in the Chanson de Roland that Charlemagne held England as his personal domain, to the later prolifer…
The interrelation of so-called "literary" and "historical" sources of the crusades, and the fluidity of these categorisations, are the central concerns of the essays collected here. They demonstrate what the study of literary texts can do for our historical understanding of the …
A large-scale study of plantation slavery in West Africa with a focus on the nineteenth-century Sokoto caliphate, this book draws on diverse sources including oral testimony, Arabic material, and extant scholarly works about the caliphal state. Plantation Slavery in the Sokoto C…
The original audience of Beowulf was steeped in ancient Scandinavian royal legend. But for modern readers of the poem, these traditions are frustratingly obscure and confusing.0 This book argues that Beowulf is a dynastic drama centred on the fortunes of three great royal houses…
Mappae mundi (maps of the world), beautiful objects in themselves, offer huge insights into how medieval scholars conceived the world and their place within it. They are a fusion of "real" geographical locations with fantasical, geographic, historical, legendary and theological …
Readers have long been fascinated by the enigmatic figure of Melusine - a beautiful fairy woman cursed to transform into a half-serpent once a week, whose part-monstrous sons are the ancestor of several European noble houses. This study is the first to consider how this romance …
A thousand years and more ago, with Vikings ravaging the coastlines and the millennium drawing nigh, a monk named AElfric embarked on studies that would make him the most erudite, prolific, and influential author writing in English before Chaucer. What drove AElfric was no desir…