Arthuriana for Summer 2021 on Race and the Arthurian Legend

 A belated post. 

The most recent number of Arthuriana (for Summer 2021) was a special issue on "Race and the Arthurian Legend." Further details ate available from the journal's website at http://arthuriana.org/access/31-2Contents.html. 

Table of Contents

(31.2)

Introduction  

Richard Sévère 3

The Fragile Giant 

Wan-Chuan Kao 9 

Romans, Celts, and ‘Others’: Residual Colonial Models and Race in Contemporary Arthurian Novel

Amelia A. Rutledge 40 

 

Writing Arthur’s Shadow and Speaking Otherwise  

Matthew Xavier Vernon 61

 

Broken Dreams: Medievalsim, Mulataje, and Mestizaje in the Work of Alejandro Tapia y Rivera

Nahir I. Otaño Gracia 77 

 

‘Many straunge synges and tokyns’: The Affective Power of Sir Thomas Malory’s Palomides

Kavita Mudan Finn 108 

An Arthurian Empire of Magic, and its Discontents: An Afterword

Geraldine Heng 124

 

THE ROUND TABLE:  

News and Notes from the North American Branch 139  

[ View Article ] [ Subscribers Only ]  

   

REVIEWS  

C. Girbea, M. Voicu, I. Panzaru, C. Anton, and A. Popescu, eds., Miroirs arthuriens entre images et mirages: Actes du XXXIVe Congrès de la Societé Internationale Arthurienne

Amy E. Brown 170

 

Ann Howey, Afterlives of the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat

Roger Simpson 171 

 

Anna Karin, Männliche Hauptfiguren im ‘Tristan’ Gottfrieds von Strassburg. Characterisierung, Konstellation und Red  

Charles Taggart 173 

 

Tim William Machan and Jón Karl Helgason, eds., From Iceland to the Americas: Vinland and Historial Imagination

David F. Johnson 175 

 

Joanne Parker and Corinna Wagner, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism  

Kevin J. Harty 177 

 

 

CFP Fair Unknowns: Extending the Corpus of Arthurian Texts (9/30/21; NeMLA Baltimore 3/10-13/2022)

CFP Fair Unknowns: Extending the Corpus of Arthurian Texts

Sponsored by the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

For the 53rd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

To convene at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, Baltimore, Maryland, from 10-13 March 2022

Proposals due by 30 September 2021

The Arthurian tradition has existed for over 1500 years, yet we still know only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true size of the corpus of Arthurian texts. Many works from earlier periods have been neglected, and new works continue to appear each year. It is our contention that all of these can be as interesting as those texts continually turned to by Arthurianists; please, help us in expanding our view of the canon. 

Call for Papers

Arthurianists excel at locating and cataloging representations of the Matter of Britain, and, as bibliographers, comicsographers, discographers, and filmographers, we have done much to expand our knowledge of the ways creators have made use of the tradition. However, our knowledge of the corpus still remains incomplete. An untold number of Arthurian texts from older eras remain missed by previous investigations (whether ignored, forgotten, or lost), while perhaps just as many are too new to have yet been the focus of critical analysis. Both omissions create unfortunate gaps in building a full history of the Once and Future King and those that surround him. A more complete picture of the reception of the legend is important for our understanding of how and why stories of Arthur and his court continue to be retold and can offer fresh insight to aid our teaching and research. The goal of this panel, then, is to create a nexus where the Arthurian past and present (and perhaps future) can meet in a space where we can set them into the larger context of the Matter of Britain and discuss and debate what makes them worth adding to the canon and how they can build and/or (re)shape of our critical understanding of Arthurian texts today.

Potential questions for discussion:

• Is it worth maintaining a canon of Arthurian texts? 

• Are value-laden terms like “Lesser Arthuriana” useful critical tools?

• What Arthurian texts have yet to be discovered by scholars?

• What Arthurian texts have been unjustly neglected?

• What new Arthurian texts have been produced recently?

• How does your text fit into/engage with the larger Arthurian tradition?

Submissions should be made directly into NeMLA’s conference management program at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/19480. Potential presenters will need to create an account with NeMLA to submit a proposal (including a presentation title, brief abstract--not more than 250 words--of some talking points addressing our major questions, academic bio, and AV needs)and to become members of NeMLA should their proposal be accepted for the session. Notice of acceptance will be made after 1 October 2021. Please go to the website nemla.org for details about session types and presenter guidelines.

Please address any other questions to the session organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com. We also welcome suggestions for resources (in print or online) that might be of value to the panel and its audience. 

Online Event: SWORD STONE TABLE: King Arthur’s Court Reenvisioned 8/3/2021

Hoping this works. The original is complex.




SWORD STONE TABLE: King Arthur’s Court Reenvisioned

August 3 • 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm



Featuring Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices editor Jenn Northington and contributors Alexander Chee, Maria Davahna Headley, Daniel Lavery and Nisi Shawl in conversation with Dr. Dorsey Armstrong

With A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain gave his own time travel twist to the Arthur legend. With Sword Stone Table, a whole new generation of writers bring their own takes on Arthur, Merlin, Mordred, Guinevere ,and Lancelot.

From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table, comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings. Here you’ll find the Lady of the Lake reimagined as an albino Ugandan sorceress and the Lady of Shalott as a wealthy, isolated woman in futuristic Mexico City; you’ll see Excalibur rediscovered as a baseball bat that grants a washed-up minor leaguer a fresh shot at glory and as a lost ceremonial drum that returns to a young First Nations boy the power and the dignity of his people. There are stories set in Gilded Age Chicago, ’80s New York, twenty-first century Singapore, and space; there are lesbian lady knights, Arthur and Merlin reborn in the modern era for a second chance at saving the world and falling in love—even a coffee shop AU.

Brave, bold, and groundbreaking, the stories in Sword Stone Table will bring fresh life to beloved myths and give long-time fans a chance to finally see themselves in their favorite legends.

Sword Stone Table features stories by:

Alexander Chee • Preeti Chhibber • Roshani Chokshi • Sive Doyle • Maria Dahvana Headley • Ausma Zehanat Khan • Daniel M. Lavery • Ken Liu • Sarah MacLean • Silvia Moreno-Garcia • Jessica Plummer • Anthony Rapp • Waubgeshig Rice • Alex Segura • Nisi Shawl • S. Zainab Williams

FREE program, but donations are gratefully accepted. REGISTER HERE.

Copies of Sword Stone Table signed by the editorsare available for purchase through the Mark Twain Store; proceeds benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum. Books will be shipped after the event. We regret that we are NOT able to ship books outside the United States as it is cost-prohibitive to do so.

————————–

About the Editors & Authors:

Swapna Krishna: https://www.swapnakrishna.com/bio

Jenn Northington: https://jennirl.com

Alexander Chee: https://www.alexanderchee.net

Maria Davahna Headley: https://www.mariadahvanaheadley.com

Nisi Shawl: http://www.nisishawl.com

Daniel Lavery: https://slate.com/author/danny-m-lavery


Our moderator: Professor Dorsey Armstrong



Professor Dorsey Armstrong—a specialist in medieval English literature—joined the Purdue faculty in 2002, where she currently serves as Head of the English Department. The holder of an A.B. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from Duke University, she also taught at Centenary College of Louisiana and at California State University, Long Beach. Her research interests include medieval women writers, late-medieval print culture, and the Arthurian legend, on which she has published extensively. In addition to numerous articles published in journals such as Exemplaria and Arthurian Literature, chapters in various academic books, and serving as co-editor for several scholarly essay collections, she is the author of Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (University Press of Florida, 2003), Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript (Parlor Press, 2009) and Mapping Malory: Regional Identities and National Geographies in Le Morte Darthur (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014; co-authored with Kenneth Hodges). In January 2009, she became editor-in-chief of the academic journal Arthuriana, which publishes the most cutting-edge research on the legend of King Arthur, from its medieval origins to its enactments in the present moment.

Winner of numerous teaching awards—including Purdue’s Murphy Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction—Professor Armstrong has also written and taped several lecture series for The Teaching Company/The Great Courses. These include: “The Medieval World”; “Turning Points in Medieval History”; “Analysis and Critique: How to Engage With and Write About Anything”; “Great Minds of the Medieval World”; “1215: A Year That Changed History”; “King Arthur: History and Legend”; and “The Black Death: the World’s Most Devastating Plague.” Additionally, she has produced two short lecture series for Audible–one on “Powerful Medieval Women” and another on “Medieval Myths and Mysteries.” She currently sits on the executive and advisory boards for numerous scholarly and academic entities, the Bonnie Wheeler Fellowship, and the International Arthurian Society. She is currently at work editing a volume on Approaches to Teaching the Arthurian Tradition for the Modern Language Association.


Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign and its Travelers Arts Impact Grant program, with major support from The Travelers Foundation. For more information call 860-247-0998 or visit marktwainhouse.org

+ GOOGLE CALENDAR+ ICAL EXPORT

CFP Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Brut (9/15/21; ICMS 2022)

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Brut-ICMS 2022

deadline for submissions: 

September 15, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

International Lawman's Brut Society

contact email: 

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/07/12/interdisciplinary-approaches-to-the-brut-icms-2022

This session calls for papers that explore ways to incorporate the Brut—Layamon’s Brut and its analogues—into interdisciplinary studies, seeking to situate the Brut in a broader academic and pedagogical context.  How can the Brut, a text that has traditionally defied categorization, provide a way to introduce the interdisciplinary nature of medieval studies?  How might different disciplinary approaches broaden the appeal of a medieval historical poem to twenty-first century students and readers?  The session encourages proposals on teaching the Brut as part of an interdisciplinary curriculum.  We welcome studies that combine traditional academic disciplines, such as history, literature, and art, but we also look for papers that approach the Brut from new perspectives, including, for instance, media and popular culture studies.  

Please submit proposals (250-300 word) to the ICMS submissions website (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi) by September 15.

Please direct any questions to:

Kenneth Tiller

Professor of English

University of Virginia-Wise

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

cfp Language, Space, and Place in the Brut (9/15/21; ICMS 2022)

Language, Space, and Place in the Brut-ICMS 2022

deadline for submissions: 

September 15, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

International Lawman's Brut Society

contact email: 

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/07/12/language-space-and-place-in-the-brut-icms-2022

Scholarship on the Brut has begun to reexamine the role of space and place in the text’s presentation and readers’ reception of insular history.  The Brut texts provide fertile grounds for such discussions, as much of the legendary history documented in the Brut involves reshaping and redefining insular territory, including descriptions of the island and its wonders, the construction of cities and castles, the renaming of places and cities by rulers and conquerors, among others.  This session seeks proposals that further the critical conversation about territorial and textual space and its relation to language in the Brut and in its analogues.  We are particularly interested in proposals that examine ways the Brut texts engage medieval concepts of space and place: how is space defined, perceived, and navigated in the Brut?  How does Layamon’s own sense of place or space inform his identity?  Possible topics include: local space in the Brut, boundaries and territorial limits, text as space, Layamon in his West-Midlands context. 

Please submit proposals (250-300 word) to the ICMS submissions website (https://icms.confex.com/icms/2022am/cfp.cgi) by September 15.

Please direct any questions to:

Kenneth Tiller

Professor of English

University of Virginia-Wise

kjt9t@uvawise.edu

Arthuriana Spring 2021 Contents

The latest issue:

Arthuriana, Vol. 31, No. 1

Spring 2021

Source: http://www.arthuriana.org/access/31-1Contents.html.

(The journal can be purchased from the press and viewed at Project MUSE. It is also archived on JSTOR behind a moving wall.)

Table of Contents

‘Truth as They Heard’: Fama in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur
Louis J. Boyle	3
The Second Coming of King Arthur: Conspirituality, Embodied Medievalism, and the Legacy of John F. Kennedy
Ellie Crookes	32
The Romance Forests of Medieval Iceland
Maj-Britt Frenze	56
Love out of Measure: Comparing Malory’s Palomides and Lancelot
Dana Omirova	78
Winner of the ‘Fair Unknown’ Award
They ‘Laȝed . . . Þoȝ Þey Lost’: Laughter in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Jennifer Fast	92
REVIEWS
Simon Armitage, Pearl: A New Verse Translation
Ryan Buchanan Allen	116
María Odette Canivell Arzú, Literary Narratives and the Cultural Imagination: King Arthur and Don Quixote as National Heroes
Juan Miguel Zarandona	117
Glenn D. Burger and Rory G. Critten, eds., Household Knowledges in Late-Medieval England and France
Wesley Chihyung Yu	119
Benjamin A. Saltzman, Bonds of Secrecy: Law, Spirituality, and the Literature of Concealment in Early Medieval England
Craig R. Davis	121
Charles Russell Stone, The roman de toute chevalerie: Reading Alexander Romance in Late Medieval England
Su Fang Ng	122

Arthuriana Winter 2020

Catching up:

Arthuriana, Volume 30, Number 4

Winter 2020

Source: http://www.arthuriana.org/access/30-4Contents.html.

 

Table of Contents

‘I rebel against the story. I am sure the half of it was never told us’: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ ‘The True Story of Guenever’ and Nineteenth-Century Women in the Literary Marketplace
Virginia Blanton and Jennifer Phegley	3
The Hero and Severed Heads: Moral Display in the Prose Lancelot
David S. King	26
Colgrevaunce’s Supposed Shame in Ywain and Gawain
Ryan Naughton	41
Malory’s ‘Fyne Force’: Motion in Le Morte Darthur
Thomas Schneider	56
REVIEWS
Valerie Hansen, The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began
Jonathan Good	70
Carissa M. Harris, Obscene Pedagogies: Transgressive Talk and Sexual Eduation in Late Medieval Britain
Amanda Joan Wetmore	73
Kevin J. Harty, ed., Medieval Women on Film: Essays on Gender, Cinema and History
Susan Aronstein	74
Joachim Heinzle, Wolfram von Eschenbach: Dichter der ritterlichen Welt
Judith Benz	76
Stephen Rayne, dir., Xcalibur, The Musical
Kevin J. Harty	78

Rejected Again by Kalamazoo

I am sorry to report that our proposed sponsored session on "Fair Unknowns: [Re]Claiming Popular Representations of the Matter of Britain" was rejected for inclusion in the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies.

The rationale for our dismissal was as follows:

Your proposal was rejected because its content was duplicated by other Arthuriana proposals that were more strongly conceptualized. The Committee believes that the subject of the Matter of Britain proposed by the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain can be addressed by papers submitted to those other sessions. 

 

The response is, in part, a valid critique. While there are a number of Arthurian-related sessions that were accepted, the majority appear limited in scope, both in terms of their temporal context and media focus--aspects we were concerned with widening. As our blog title denotes, King Arthur seems to be forever. The Arthurian tradition spans the past, present, and future. Focusing on the Arthuriana of now (as seems the plan of many of the accepted sessions) may fill Zoom rooms, but it doesn't help to explore (and hopefully start to fill) the gaps in our knowledge, as was our intent. Therefore, please be on the lookout for a related call, where we hope to continue our work elsewhere.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Founder, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain 

Guest Post - Mediavilla on Legendborn

Deonn, Tracy. Legendborn. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2020. The Legendborn Cycle 1. 501 pages. Hardcover: $18.99, ISBN 9781534441606.

 

Bree Matthews, a Black sixteen-year-old high-schooler, is about to start a pre-college residential program at UNC-Chapel Hill when she becomes embroiled in the machinations of a secret society, called “Legendborn,” made-up of students who are all blood descendants of King Arthur and his most trusted Knights of the Round Table. The Legendborn are on the verge of fighting an epic good-vs.-evil battle, known as Camlann, coming soon to campus. But not all is as it seems. The more Bree learns about the Legendborn, the more she suspects a connection to her mother’s recent death and so, with the help of Nick Davis, Arthur’s heir apparent, begins to investigate the group’s darker magical side. Along the way, she discovers her own magical powers, called “rootcraft,” which she traces back to her enslaved ancestors.

 

To become more familiar with the Legendborn ethos, Bree decides to train as a squire and, in so doing, becomes romantically involved with Nick. She also suddenly finds herself strangely attracted to Selwyn, Nick’s “Merlin” and protector, who recognizes in her a kindred spirit. Could Bree be destined to play an important role in the upcoming battle of Camlann even though she is not Legendborn?

 

Though overly complicated, the majority of the story is conveyed through dialog and so moves rather quickly. Nevertheless, the nearly 500-page book is too long by half, especially whenever Bree is tutored on the history of the Legendborn. Too much extraneous detail that, in the long run, has little to do with the plot. Furthermore, unlike other recent young adult novels set in Arthurian times, Legendborn takes place in the present-day, which demands more than a passing suspension of disbelief. Do the residents of UNC truly not hear the climactic battle that occurs on campus at the end of the book? And how does Bree find time to study between falling in love with Nick and training to become a squire?

 

Still, the novel remains compelling thanks to the author’s mostly subtle nods to the racial disparity Bree encounters as she struggles to become part of Nick’s all-too-White world. Ultimately, this is a contemporary—and extremely timely—parable about White privilege, told through the first-person eyes of a Black teenager descended from slaves. As Bree is acutely aware, the only people of color she sees at the Legendborn’s lodge are the servants who work for the students. Though she does not try to intentionally shatter the group’s color barrier, this is exactly what she eventually does. Looking gorgeous in a borrowed gown, she approaches the upscale club where a posh Legendborn gala is being held. “All right, sis,” the appreciative Black doorman says. They then knowingly smile at each other as Bree triumphantly enters the event (p. 401).

 

An “Instant New York Times Bestseller,” Legendborn was named to several “best books” lists of 2020/21, including YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), School Library Journal, Bookpage, New York Public Library, Indigo, BuzzFeed, and Amazon. Plus was named the winner of the American Library Association’s Coretta Scott King “John Steptoe Award for New Talent” in 2021. This book is recommended for all readers who enjoy contemporary adaptations of the Arthurian canon. A Legendborn sequel is in the works.

 

Cindy Mediavilla

 

Cindy Mediavilla is a retired public librarian who has collected, read and written about Arthurian fiction for more than 40 years. Her publications include Arthurian Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1999), "From 'Unthinking Stereotype' to Fearless Antagonist: The Evolution of Morgan le Fay on Television" (Arthuriana 25:1), and an article on Arthurian romance in Encyclopedia of Romance Fiction (2018). Cindy's MLS and PhD are from UCLA, where she also taught as a lecturer for 16 years.

 

 

CFP King Arthur in the Middle Ages and Beyond (7/09/21, 9/16-18/21)

King Arthur in the Middle Ages and Beyond; 7/09, 9/16-18

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/05/15/king-arthur-in-the-middle-ages-and-beyond-709-916-18

deadline for submissions: July 9, 2021

full name / name of organization: 

Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies, University of Virginia-Wise

contact email:  kjt9t@uvawise.edu

This session is part of the 34th annual Medieval-Renaissance Conference, sponsored by the Center for Medieval-Renaissance Studies at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, September 16-18, 2021.  It welcomes proposals about all topics related to King Arthur as a figure in literature, history, and art.  The panel is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches, such as the character of Arthur in romance and history, or in art and literature.  We also welcome proposals on:

• Arthur in the Early Modern period
• Arthur in Europe
• Receptions of the Arthur story in non-Western cultures
• Representations of Arthur in film, television, graphic fiction, and digital media
• Arthur in the contemporary classroom

Please submit 250-300 word abstracts for papers, or 150-200 word panel proposals, plus abstracts, to Kenneth Tiller, Professor of English, University of Virginia-Wise, kjt9t@uvawise.edu, by July 9th. 

Papers and panels may be presented in person or virtually via Zoom

Last updated May 20, 2021

26th IAS Congress Cancelled

 A quick update on the XXVIth Congress of the International Arthurian Society scheduled to convene at Catania University, Italy, this July: 

Due to the persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic, the XXVIth Arthurian Congress of the IAS is cancelled

CFP Arthurian Medievalism (Spec Issue of Journal of the International Arthurian Society; 11/30/21)

Cross-posted:

Call for Papers: Special Issue of the Journal of the International Arthurian Society on Arthurian Medievalism

The Journal of the International Arthurian Society (JIAS) welcomes submissions for a special issue (2022, volume 10) on Arthurian medievalism, or post-medieval adaptations, re- imaginings and recreations of medieval Arthurian texts, artefacts and spaces (real or imagined). The guest editors seek especially interdisciplinary and co-disciplinary explorations of how Arthurian myth makes meaning in a range of media, including (but not limited to) literary texts, television, film, games, visual arts, architecture, commodity culture, experiential medievalism, the heritage sector and geographical spaces.

Submissions from all categories of scholars, including postgraduate students, early career researchers and independent scholars are welcome, as are submissions from non-members of the Society.

Submissions must be between 7,000 and 10,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) and must follow the guidelines for submission for JIAS, which follow the MHRA style guide. Submissions (essay, short bio and abstract) should be sent electronically to the guest editors of the special issue, Dr Renée Ward (rward@lincoln.ac.uk) and Dr Andrew Elliott (aelliott@lincoln.ac.uk), no later than 30 November 2021.

Arthuriana Special Issue for Fall 2020

Here are the contents for the Fall 2020 number of Arthuriana. It presents a special issue, edited by Leah Haught and Leila K. Norako, on the theme of "Assembling Arthur".

As usual, the articles can be accessed by subscribers on the journal website (at http://www.arthuriana.org/access/30-3Contents.html) and to researchers on Project MUSE. 

  

Introduction: Assembling Arthur
Leah Haught and Leila K. Norako	3
Studies in Medieval Stargazing
Sarah M. Anderson	8
Beginning and Ending with Arthur: Reading Arthurian Romance ‘Compilationally’ in Two Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts
Rebecca Pope	50
The Paratexts of 15–17th Century Editions of the Morte Darthur Informed by Compilational Design
David Eugene Clark	68
Assembling the Fragments in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur
D. Thomas Hanks, Jr.	101
REVIEWS
Christopher Michael Berard, Arthurianism in Early Plantagent England from Henry II to Edward I
Matthew Giancarlo	122
Susanna Fein, ed., Interpreting MS Digby 86: A Trilingual Book from Thirteenth-Century Worcestershire
Daron Burrows	124
Nerys Anne Jones, Arthur in Early Welsh Poetry
Kevin R. Kritsch	126
Ann Marie Rasmussen, Rivalrous Masculinities: New Directions in Medieval Gender Studies
Emily Houlik-Ritchie	128
Adrian P. Tudor, The Knight and the Barrel (Le Chevalier au Barisel)
Linda Marie Rouillard	130

Guest Post: Mediavilla on The Camelot Rising Trilogy, Books 1 and 2

 

White, Kiersten. The Guinevere Deception.  Delacorte Press, 2019. The Camelot Rising Trilogy 1. 339 pages. Hardcover: $18.99, ISBN: 9780525581673. Paperback: $10.99, ISBN: 9780525581703.

 

 - - -. The Camelot Betrayal. Delacorte Press, 2020. The Camelot Rising Trilogy 2. 370 pages. Hardcover: $18.99, ISBN: 9780525581710. 

 

Guinevere is 16 years old when she marries Arthur, two years her senior. Though they have never met, the king welcomes her with open arms while the people of Camelot look on and cheer. Still, nothing is as it seems. As soon becomes apparent, theirs is merely a marriage of convenience arranged by Arthur’s mentor, Merlin, who was banished from Camelot many years before. Instead of a “real wife,” Guinevere, who has magical powers of her own, was sent by Merlin to protect the king from his enemies. Instead of saving Arthur, however, Guinevere is, more often than not, the one needing rescue as she foolishly follows her misguided impulses into danger in hopes of foiling threats against the king. Coming to her aid is usually Arthur’s older nephew Mordred, an enigmatic character for whom the queen finds herself having inexplicable feelings.

 

In a recent online bookstore event, bestselling author Kiersten White proclaimed that, because every Arthurian writer adds his or her own spin to the legend, there no longer is an Arthurian “canon.” Indeed, she herself takes every opportunity to shatter tradition by introducing unexpected plot elements. The Tristan-Isolde-Mark love triangle, for instance, is depicted here as a secret romance between Isolde and her handmaid Brangien. Likewise, Lancelot, the queen’s knight, is eventually revealed to be a woman, who may or may not be in love with Guinevere. As for Arthur, before marrying the queen, he had a short-lived affair with Elaine, the sister of Maleagant, who kidnaps Guinevere to avenge Elaine’s death during childbirth. The names may be the same, but White obviously takes pleasure in adding her own special twist to an age-old saga.

 

Although both books are written in third-person, all action is seen and interpreted (often wrongly) through Guinevere’s naïve eyes. One might think the point here is to view the usually male-dominated story through a strong feminist lens. But with Arthur constantly gone, managing the business of Camelot, Guinevere is mostly left to her own ill-conceived devices that usually lead to trouble. Instead of an intelligent, masterful heroine, the reader is left with a young, inexperienced queen who listens to her heart more than she does common sense—resulting, not surprisingly, in yet another abduction at the end of the second book, setting the scene for the trilogy’s third volume, The Excalibur Curse, due to be published in 2021.

 

Lots of unanswered questions one hopes will be resolved by the end of book #3: Who exactly is Guinevere? Is Merlin good or evil? Which side is Mordred on? And will Arthur and the queen finally consummate their marriage? Recommended for young adults who are unfamiliar with the traditional Arthurian story.

 

 

Cindy Mediavilla

 

Cindy Mediavilla is a retired public librarian who has collected, read and written about Arthurian fiction for more than 40 years. Her publications include Arthurian Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography (Scarecrow Press, 1999), "From 'Unthinking Stereotype' to Fearless Antagonist: The Evolution of Morgan le Fay on Television" (Arthuriana 25:1), and an article on Arthurian romance in Encyclopedia of Romance Fiction (2018). Cindy's MLS and PhD are from UCLA, where she also taught as a lecturer for 16 years.

 

Arthuriana Summer 2020

My apologies for the belated post. I believe this issue arrived during the fall, but I am just remembering to post on it now.

 

Here are the contents for the Summer 2021 number of Arthuriana. It offers a good balance of scholarship on medieval and modern texts, including an updated look on film by Kevin J. Harty.

As usual, the articles can be accessed by subscribers on the journal website and to researchers on Project MUSE.

 

Table of Contents
(30.2)

 
http://www.arthuriana.org/access/30-2Contents.html

Baldwin of Britain, His Vows, and the Chivalric Ideal in the Avowing of King Arthur
Roger Dahood	3
Reconciling the Uncanny: Forgiveness, Caritas, and Compassion for Malory’s Palomides
Annie Lee Narver	20
From Camelot to China, or, ‘A History or Moral Tale About a Young Sir Gabein’s Marvelous Adventures Illustrating Divine Providence’
Annegret Oehme	48
Reading the Grail: Parodic Metafiction in Patricia McKillip’s Kingfisher
Amelia A. Rutledge	73
The 2019 Loomises Lecture
James Bond, A Grifter, A Video Avatar, and a Shark Walk into King Arthur’s Court: The Ever-Expanding Canon of Cinema Arthuriana
Kevin J. Harty	89
REVIEWS
Glenn D. Burger and Holly Crocker, eds., Medieval Affect, Feeling, and Emotion
Jennifer Sisk	122
Kellyann Fitzpatrick, Neomedievalism, Popular Culture, and the Academy: From Tolkien to Game of Thrones
Shiloh Carroll	124
Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan and Erich Poppe, eds., Arthur in the Celtic Languages: The Arthurian Legend in Celtic Literatures and Traditions
Georgia Henley	126
John Marshall, Early English Performance: Medieval Plays and Robin Hood Games, Shifting Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies
Kevin J. Harty	128
Elly McCausland, Malory’s Magic Book: King Arthur and the Child, 1862-1980
Ann F. Howey	129
Gail Orgelfinger, Joan of Arc in the English Imagination, 1429-1829
Kevin J. Harty	131
Julie Ormelanski, Symptomatic Subjects, Bodies, Medicine, and Causation in the Literature of Late Medieval England
Anita Obermeier	133
Heather J. Tanner, ed., Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400: Moving Beyond the Exceptionalist Debate
Elizabeth Kinne	134

 

Guest Post: Dan Nastali Reviews By Force Alone

Tidhar, Lavie. By Force Alone. Tor/Tom Doherty Books, 2020. 416 pages, $27.99. ISBN: 9781250753458.

This is a dark fantasy novel that retells the traditional Arthurian story, from Uther Pendragon’s taking the kingship of Britain to Arthur’s final battle at Camlann, with incidents and characters drawn from a wide range of medieval sources. Here you will find new treatments of the familiar figures at every turn, but unless your tastes run to the grim and gory, you may have some difficulty digesting this version. The story is set in a post-Roman Britain more fully conceived than that of most Dark Age historical and fantasy novels, and the action shifts, not always smoothly, between the natural and supernatural worlds. Both offer more than a little gratuitous ugliness in the form of mutilation, murder, cannibalism, general bad behavior and rather too much excrement.

The McGuffin in this story is the grail—here a skystone or UFO that fell to earth in Uther’s reign and which somehow became both the source of gold and radioactive mutations, but that’s just one of many original takes. The sword in the stone, the Lady in the Lake, the Questing Beast, the Green Knight, even Glastonbury Well are given new and typically perverted twists, because this is not a novel that loves the tradition. It is basically a series of incidents hung on the bare bones of the legend. Britain and Fairyland coexist uneasily here. Londinium, the setting for much of the early story, is a mess of Roman remains, crime-ridden slums and mob-ruled trades—a sordid, cheerless place. The castles of the other world are not much better.

Arthur, when we meet him (and who never develops much distinctive character) leads a teenage protection racket and a round table of petty thieves and drug dealers before taking charge of the city and dealing with rival kings. Merlin, the offspring of a human and some unidentified unhuman, is a major figure throughout, but one whose powers and motives are never well-defined or of great consequence. The same is true of other supernatural creatures—Nimue, Morgause, Morgan, Cath Palug—who interfere with the mere mortals apparently by whim.

Guinevere is here a leader of a girl gang, Sir Kay the obligatory gay, Owain and Agravain are thugs, and so on. Lancelot has perhaps the most developed character through an elaborate back story which has him serving his master, Joseph of Arimathea, but there is little that distinguishes even Lancelot as a distinct personality. The dialogue of all of them, as well as the voice of the narrator, is in the naughtiness mode of teenage boys. The obscenities are so plentiful that any shock value has been wrung out of them by chapter two, so thereafter there’s little effect at all.

Tidhar is a cut above the writers of most modern fantasy in his descriptive abilities and understanding of the historical background of his tale, and he is a writer of solid prose. He incorporates, often unobtrusively, allusions not only to obscure medieval material, but also to Greek and Roman philosophers, Biblical writing and early Christian apocrypha, and even, if you’re attentive, to T.S. Eliot and Kurt Vonnegut. The book has its admirers—the back of the jacket is covered in favorable quotes—and when the writing is good, I tend to become a slow reader. I’m also always interested in new treatments of the legend, but with By Force Alone, I found myself rushing to its end.

Dan Nastali

Independent scholar

Kansas City, MO