Sponsored Session - NeMLA Fair Unknowns

The 53rd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Saturday, 12 March 2022 -- Track 17 (01:30-03:00 PM EST)

17.5 Fair Unknowns: Extending the Corpus of Arthurian Texts (Roundtable)

Sponsored by The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain (https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/)

Chairs: Carl Sell, Lock Haven University; Michael Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

Location: Dover A (Media Equipped)



Paper 1

"Gonzalo Torrente-Ballester's La saga/fuga de J. B. (1972): A Unique Arthurian Novel"

Juan Miguel Zarandona, University of Valladolid, Spain

In 1972, the Spanish writer Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (1910-1999) published a novel that surprised Spanish-language readers and that has been regarded as one of the ten best Spanish novels of the 20th century: La saga/fuga de J. B. Full of fantasy and provided with an acid sense of humour, it satirizes the long tradition of nationalist Galician writers whose texts that have been struggling to turn his home region, Galicia, into a full Celtic nation from the 19th century onwards in clear contrast with the rest of Spain. In other words, the matter of Britain or Arthurian legends had been made to take root in Galicia before, but never had such an ironic text as La saga/fuga de J. B. been published. Torrente Ballester was granted all possible Spanish literary prizes and rewards during his lifetime. He also enjoyed a strong popular reception thanks to film and television adaptations of his works. However, La saga/fuga de J. B., for example, has never been translated into English. It has only been translated into French and Portuguese. Consequently, it can be termed a fair unknown dealing with Arthur, Merlín or the Round Table beyond doubt. An Arthurian text that has been unjustly neglected by English-speaking audiences and denied inclusion in the corpus of English-language translated Arthuriana. This paper will make an attempt to remedy this neglect.



Juan Miguel Zarandona-Fernández. Doctor for the University of Zaragoza, Spain, in English Studies. Professor of the Department of Translation Studies, University of Valladolid at Soria, Spain. Teaching experience in English Studies and general and specialized translation: English-Spanish Legal and Business Translation. General research interests: Literary Translation, History and Translation, Cultural Studies and Translation. Specific research interests: Arthurian Studies, African Studies, Utopian Studies. Many papers and lectures in international conferences. Many articles, reviews, translations, book chapters, and research books published. Editor of the Hermeneus Review on Translation Studies. Editor of Vertere: series of monographs on Translation. Editor of Disbabelia: series on unknown translations (www.uva.es/hermeneus). Promoter of two research groups: Afriqana (www.afriqana.org) and Clytiar (www.clytiar.org).



Paper 2:

"Grail Knights and Green Lords: Gilles le Breton and the Knights of Bretonnia in Warhammer"

Carl Sell, Lock Haven University

Games Workshop and Black Library, the UK-based game producers and publication house of the Warhammer worlds, respectively, have never been shy about their appropriations of mythic contexts for their storylines in both the fantasy setting of the Warhammer Old World and the science fiction setting Warhammer 40,000. In fact, game designers and writers have worked together since the dual companies’ inception to craft coherent worlds that have mirror mythologies to our own with recognizable characters—sometimes in name, but mostly in deeds and in narrative arcs via the novels and tabletop game storylines. As Games Workshop and Black library are in the UK, it seems rather obvious that King Arthur, arguably Britain’s most famous mythic hero, should make an appearance in these settings as well. Indeed, Arthurian content is appropriated throughout the Warhammer worlds, but the most accessible analogue comes from Warhammer Fantasy’s Old World. The land of Bretonnia, a rough analogue of Britain and France rolled into one, is founded upon the principles of Arthurian kingship, as first set forth by Gilles le Breton, also called “Gilles the Uniter.” Gilles surrounds himself with his group of Companions, loyal warriors who fight by his side in his famous “Twelve Great Battles”—a legacy taken straight from Geoffrey of Monmouth and Nennius and given to Gilles, who is set up as the Arthurian figure of Bretonnia very early. Eventually, Gilles and his Companions meet “The Lady,” the lake goddess of Bretonnia, who shows them the Grail. Gilles rules Bretonnia in peace and unity until he is “killed” and sent across a lake to the Otherworld to dwell with the Lady, or so his Grail Knights believe. In reality, Gilles returns as the Green Knight, revealing his identity only during the End Times, when the Old World is overwhelmed by Chaos, and Bretonnia needs its greatest king once more. Warhammer clearly uses established Arthurian myth to ground its own character, Gilles, to create a narrative arc that not only makes sense to the Old World, but also feels familiar for players of the game and for readers of the novels. While the target audience is predominantly UK-based, Warhammer is growing ever more popular here in the US, and King Arthur is just as prevalent here and he is in his homeland. By using appropriated Arthurian material, I argue that Warhammer is able to rely on previously established narrative constructs to tell a familiar tale and use source texts that allow players and readers to feel a level of familiarity and comfort with the characters before they have ever opened a book.



Dr. Carl B. Sell is the TRIO SSS Interim Program Director at Lock Haven University. Carl’s research explores appropriations of Arthurian legend narratives, characters, and themes in popular culture as an extension of the medieval adaptive tradition. He serves as a member of the advisory boards for The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture and the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, and he is the author of various film and literature reviews on medievalist and scholarly blogs and his own website, as well as journal articles and book chapters on Arthurian topics and DC’s Aquaman.



Paper 3:

"Once, Future, and Ongoing"

Hannah Montgomery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Calling BBC’s Merlin (2008-2012) wildly inaccurate is an understatement. Magic is illegal, Arthur was raised as a prince, Guinevere and Merlin are servants, Gwaine and Mordred are unrelated to Arthur, and Lancelot is long dead by the final battle. Stripping the legend of its Christianity, the Holy Grail becomes a relic of an outlawed, vaguely druidic “Old Religion.” But, do these inaccuracies matter? This beloved tale, with a fan base still actively calling for a sixth season or a movie, is still of a king and his knights trying to create a more just land and his death at the hands of one of his knights. After all, even authoritative Medieval texts vary widely, and some late Medieval romances are only “Arthurian” due to a brief appearance of Arthur, Lancelot, or Gwaine. Furthermore, the medieval Arthurian legend is likely a Welsh legend heavily influenced by French feudal court culture. Tennyson and White’s tales are widely accepted texts, although not part of the Medieval corpus, and both drastically update the material for their contemporary sensibilities.

I argue that, rather than a corpus of old texts, the Arthurian tradition is ongoing and constantly modifying the base story, with its questions of justice and loyalty, for the present ideals, allowing these virtues to be continually investigated and promoted through a familiar and beloved tale. Once and future, the story of Arthur’s attempt to make a more just kingdom, while navigating complex loyalties, is not medieval, but universal and ongoing.



Hannah Montgomery is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her specialization is late medieval Middle English Romances, with a focus on questions of loyalty and friendship.



Paper 4:

"Perpetuating and Disrupting the Arthurian Canon: Portrayals of Morgan le fay and Merlin"

Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

I will examine how the ideals, laws, and anxieties of the societies in which the adaptations of Arthurian Legend were produced as well as variations in translations and blending of sources have led to the changes that have occurred in the representations of both Merlin and Morgan le Fay. These differences are clearly visible in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s “The life of Merlin,” Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, BBC’s television series Merlin as well as the comic book series Dark Knight of the Round Table, Unholy Grail, Dracula Versus King Arthur, and Wonder Women Second Genesis.



Rachael Warmington is an instructor at Seton Hall University. She earned her English B.A. from Montclair State University, English M.A. from Seton Hall University, her MFA at CUNY City College and is ABD at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Rachael is the editor-in-chief of the academic journal, Watchung Review. She is also on the advisory board of the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture. Rachael is currently writing her dissertation which focuses on themes of Arthurian Legend in medieval texts and in contemporary literature, film and television adaptations and appropriations and how these themes create the space that challenges oppression in its various forms, but have also been used to perpetuate racism, sexism and religious intolerance.



Paper 5:

"Gawain Without the Sir in The Green Knight"

Susan Austin, Landmark College

In the 2021 film, The Green Knight, that Gawain’s name does not appear in the title as it does in the source it adapts, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is perhaps the first hint that this film is not what anyone familiar with the original would expect. This Gawain is not the model of chivalry that he is in the source, quite the opposite. In this film, he has to go on a dangerous quest – instigated by his mother – to learn honor and perhaps earn knighthood. This paper will explore how the film rewrites Arthurian legend to give women much more power and the Church much less.



Susan Austin is an associate professor of English at Landmark College, the premiere college for neuordiverse students. She edited and contributed to Arthurian Legend in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries, a collection of essays based on her 2018 NeMLA round table. Her second edited volume, War, Espionage, and Masculinity in British Fiction, is also based on a NeMLA panel and due out this summer.