Further events in the Visualizing Camelot series;
Welcome to King Arthur Forever: The Matter of Britain Lives, a blog sponsored by The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain. Our mission, first laid out in 2000, is to embrace the full corpus of the Arthurian tradition and to promote study, discussion, and debate of representations of the legends in all their forms as produced from the Middle Ages through the contemporary moment (and beyond).
To me, methought, who waited with a crowd,
There came a bark that, blowing forward, bore
King Arthur, like a modern gentleman
Of stateliest port; and all the people cried,
"Arthur is come again: he cannot die."
"Morte d'Arthur" (1842)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
There came a bark that, blowing forward, bore
King Arthur, like a modern gentleman
Of stateliest port; and all the people cried,
"Arthur is come again: he cannot die."
"Morte d'Arthur" (1842)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Friday, November 8, 2024
UPDATE Teaching the Arthurian Tradition (12/1/2024; Illinois Medieval Association Symposium 1/17/2025)
------------------------------
Deadline for Proposals: December 1
Session: 2:00 pm (Central) January 17, online via Zoom
The Arthurian Tradition(s) is often most students’ first and only exposure to the Middle Ages. Exposure often comes from films that students have seen: Fuqua’s King Arthur (2004), Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), and Lowery’s Green Knight (2021). What students learn from a course or unit on the Arthurian Tradition(s) is often very different from filmed depictions. This session seeks papers that explore issues, opportunities, and innovations in teaching the Arthurian Traditions(s). We welcome all aspects of teaching Arthuriana.
Submit full session proposals or paper proposals (no more than 300 words) to mwgeorge.51@gmail.com no later than December 1, 2024.
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Michael W. Hollis-George
Executive Director
Illinois Medieval Association
Professor of English
Millikin University
mwgeorge.51@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/illinoismedieval
Twitter: @IllinoisMediev1
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Notice Visualizing Camelot Series Continues
My thanks to Barbara Lupack for sharing this:
VISUALIZING CAMELOT
An Exhibition from the Collection of Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack
At the University of Rochester
Visualizing Camelot, a library-wide exhibition that runs until early December, 2024, explores the diverse ways that the stories of King Arthur’s Camelot have been imagined, reimagined, and visualized—both in high culture (paintings, drawings, illustrated books) and in popular culture (film, toys, games, comic books, cartoons, dishware, product names, business logos, etc). More than 350 items, including numerous original works of art, are on display. The exhibition is free and open to all. There is also a digital version of the exhibition, which can be accessed at Welcome · Visualizing Camelot · RBSCP Exhibits (rochester.edu)
Among the fall events that will be held in conjunction with the exhibition is a series of lectures. On September 19, 2024, at 5:00 p.m., Dr. Dorsey Armstrong, professor at Purdue University and editor of the journal Arthuriana, will speak about “Questing after the Questing Beast: Representing the Beast Glatisant from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period.” Her presentation will be held on-site at the Robbins Library of Rush Rhees Library and will also be Zoomed (registration for the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/vGeGMsZTyVmwMkiUA). On October 24, 2024, internationally-acclaimed artist Anna-Marie Ferguson, illustrator of the Cassell edition of Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, will speak about “Illustrating the Arthurian Legends: A Conversation with Artist Anna-Marie Ferguson.” Held on-site at the Robbins Library of Rush Rhees Library, the presentation will also be Zoomed (registration for the Zoom link: https://forms.gle/7v33aDh3QXg4caYb9.)
The presentations are free and open to all. Please check back for other Visualizing Camelot fall events and activities. We hope that you will visit the exhibition and join us for some or all of the events!
September 19, 2024, 5:00 p.m. EST. Robbins Library.
“Questing after the Questing Beast: Representing the Beast Glatisant
from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period.”
Registration for Zoom link: https://forms.gle/vGeGMsZTyVmwMkiUA
Presented by Dr. Dorsey Armstrong, Professor at Purdue University
The Questing Beast (or the Beast Glatisant [Barking Beast])—a strange creature with the head and neck of a serpent, the body of a leopard, the haunches of a lion, and the feet of a hart—is the subject of quests by a number of Arthur’s knights, including King Pellinore, Sir Palamedes, and Sir Percival. Dr. Armstrong will explore the representations of the Questing Beast from the medieval to the modern.
Dr. Armstrong has written and lectured extensively on the Arthurian legends. Author of Gender and the Chivalric Community in Malory's Morte d'Arthur (2003) and a modern English translation of Malory's Morte Darthur (2009), she serves as Editor-in-Chief of Arthuriana and sits on the board of directors of TEAMS.
Dr. Armstrong’s presentation is the first of several fall events and lectures in conjunction with the Visualizing Camelot exhibition. Please check back for updates.
October 24, 2024, 5:00 p.m. EST. Robbins Library.
“Illustrating the Arthurian Legends:
A Conversation with Artist Anna-Marie Ferguson.”
Registration for Zoom link: https://forms.gle/7v33aDh3QXg4caYb9
Internationally acclaimed author and Illustrator of Legend: the Arthurian Tarot and its accompanying book, A Keeper of Words, Anna-Marie Ferguson is also the illustrator of the 2010 Cassell edition of Malory’s Le Morte d’ Arthur. She holds the distinction of being the first woman artist ever to illustrate a complete Malory. Her interest in mythology and history is longstanding, and her art draws on the magic and legends of her birthplace in the historic New Forest of Southern England and the vast landscapes and natural beauty of Alberta, Canada, where she currently resides.
Please check back for updates on other fall events and lectures in conjunction with the Visualizing Camelot exhibition.
VISUALIZING CAMELOT
Upcoming Fall Exhibition Events and Programs
All presentations will be held on-site at the Robbins Library @ Rush Rhees Library
and will also be Zoomed. Please check back for updates. Hope you will join us!
Dr. Margaret Sheble, ACLS “Leading Edge” Fellow,
will speak about representations of the Lady of Shalott.
When: November 15, 3 pm EST
Where: Robbins Library and Zoom
Registration for Zoom link: TBA
Dr. Pamela Yee, University of Rochester,
will speak about the Arthurian Legends and Vietnam
When: November 21, 5 pm EST
Where: Robbins Library and Zoom
Registration for Zoom link: TBA
Wednesday, September 4, 2024
CFP More than The Green Knight: Exploring the Ongoing Tradition of Adapting and Appropriating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (hybrid) (9/15/2024; ICMS Kalamazoo 5/8-10/2025)
More than The Green Knight: Exploring the Ongoing Tradition of Adapting and Appropriating Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (hybrid)
Sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture; International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB); International Pearl-Poet Society
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Joseph M. Sullivan, and Amber Dunai
60th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
Hybrid event: Thursday, 8 May, through Saturday, 10 May, 2025
Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2024
Session Information
Released in 2021, David Lowery’s film The Green Knight thrust the medieval romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight into the spotlight like never before and attracted the attention of viewers and critics across the globe. Scholars of medieval literature and film have also been inspired by the film’s release, and there is now a flourishing field of The Green Knight Studies as displayed in articles, books, conferences, essays, special issues, and themed sessions. However, all of this attention on Lowery’s work creates a limited understanding of the full post-medieval afterlife of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
We propose this session as a counter to the flurry of attention on Lowery’s work. The Green Knight is merely one example of a much wider array of adaptations of the story that began in the sixteenth century with The Greene Knight and continues to this day with comics, drama, fiction, film, games, illustration, music, opera, picture books, radio broadcasts, and television programming. Beyond these, aspects of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight have been appropriated by many creative artists and integrated into their own creations in various media. Collectively, these adaptations and appropriations make up a rich textual tradition for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that now extends over five centuries and deserves more notice.
Our intent in this session is twofold:
- First, to uncover what we lose by focusing on Lowery’s film outside of the larger context of adaptation and appropriations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
- Second, to highlight what can be added to the larger fields of Arthurian Studies and Pearl-Poet Studies by widening our view of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to include further or other adaptations and appropriations of the text in our research and teaching.
Submissions should address at least one (if not both) of the following questions:
- What other adaptations and appropriations do we miss by focusing on Lowery’s film?
- What do we gain (for the disciple, our students, and/or ourselves) when we look beyond it?
Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.
Submissions will also be considered as part of an essay collection on the theme.
Submission Information
The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex. Be advised that submissions cannot be accepted through email. Rather, access the direct link in Confex to our session at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/paper/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6431. You can also view the full Call for Papers list at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.
Within Confex, proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author's name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).
Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.
If you need help with your submissions, the Congress offers some resources at the Participating in the Congress page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/participating-congress. Click to open the section labeled “Propose a Paper” and scroll down for the Quick Guide handouts.
Be advised of the following policies for participating in the Congress:
You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for one session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables and poster sessions, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator or performer) in more than three sessions.
Further details on the Congress’s Policies can be found at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.
A reminder: Presenters accepted to the Congress must register for the full event. The registration fee is the same for on-site and virtual participants. For planning, the cost for the previous year’s event is posted at the Congress’s Registration page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration.
If necessary, the Medieval Institute and Richard Rawlinson Center at Western Michigan University offer limited funding to presenters. These include both subsidized registration grants and travel awards. Please see the Awards page at the Congress site for details at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
CFP Apocalyptic Arthuriana (A Roundtable) (virtual) (9/15/2024; ICMS Kalamazoo 5/8-10/2025)
Apocalyptic Arthuriana (A Roundtable) (virtual)
Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa and Joseph M. Sullivan
60th International Congress on Medieval Studies
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
Hybrid event: Thursday, 8 May, through Saturday, 10 May, 2025
Please Submit Proposals by 15 September 2024
Session Information
The Arthurian story is one of rise, fall, and promised return.
In this panel, we’d like to focus, in part, on the end of Camelot to explore the events and interactions that caused its downfall in texts both medieval and post-medieval.
Related to this, we are also interested in tales from across the ages that move Arthurian elements across space and time, where, as once and future devices and figures, the relics and members of Arthur’s court are pitted against new threats endangering the realm and/or the world at large.
Thank you for your interest in our session. Please address questions and/or concerns to the organizers at MedievalinPopularCulture@gmail.com.
Guiding Questions
- How do notions of loss, catastrophe, and/or calamity figure into Arthurian narratives (past or present)?
- What are the affordances of the Arthurian corpus in theorizing about calamity in a range of contexts (medieval to present)?
- Who causes the fall of Camelot? Why? How?
- Who survives the fall of Camelot? Why? How?
- Which devices and figures are revived? When? Where? Why?
- What/Who do these revived devices and figures face in new eras and places?
Submission Information
The process for proposing contributions to sessions of papers, roundtables and poster sessions for the International Congress on Medieval Studies uses an online submission system powered by Confex. Be advised that submissions cannot be accepted through email. Rather, access the direct link in Confex to our session at https://icms.confex.com/icms/2025/round/papers/index.cgi?sessionid=6421. You can also view the full Call for Papers list at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/call.
Within Confex, proposals to sessions of papers, poster sessions and roundtables require the author's name, affiliation and contact information; an abstract (300 words) for consideration by session organizer(s); and a short description (50 words) that may be made public. Proposals to sessions of papers and poster sessions also require a title for the submission (contributions to roundtables are untitled).
Proposers of papers or contributions to roundtables for hybrid sessions should indicate in their abstracts whether they intend to present in person or virtually.
If you need help with your submissions, the Congress offers some resources at the Particpating in the Congress page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/participating-congress. Click to open the section labeled “Propose a Paper” and scroll down for the Quick Guide handouts.
Be advised of the following policies for participating in the Congress:
You are invited to propose one paper (as a sole author or as a co-author) for one session of papers. You may propose a paper for a sponsored or special session or for the general sessions, but not both. You may propose an unlimited number of contributions to roundtables and poster sessions, but you will not be scheduled to actively participate (as paper presenter, roundtable discussant, poster author, presider, respondent, workshop leader, demonstrator or performer) in more than three sessions.
Further details on the Congress’s Policies can be found at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/policies-guidelines.
A reminder: Presenters accepted to the Congress must register for the full event. The registration fee is the same for on-site and virtual participants. For planning, the cost for the previous year’s event is posted at the Congress’s Registration page at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/registration.
If necessary, the Medieval Institute and Richard Rawlinson Center at Western Michigan University offer limited funding to presenters. These include both subsidized registration grants and travel awards. Please see the Awards page at the Congress site for details at https://wmich.edu/medievalcongress/awards.
For more information about the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, please see our website at https://kingarthurforever.blogspot.com/. For more information on the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB), please see our website at https://www.international-arthurian-society-nab.org/, and do consider becoming a member of the society.
Thursday, August 8, 2024
CFP Teaching the Arthurian Tradition(s) (11/1/2024; IMA Symposium 1/17/2024)
Teaching the Arthurian Tradition(s)
deadline for submissions:
November 1, 2024
full name / name of organization:
Illinois Medieval Association
contact email:
mwgeorge.51@gmail.com
source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/08/02/teaching-the-arthurian-traditions
Deadline for Proposals: November 1
Session: 2:00 pm (Central) January 17, online via Zoom
The Arthurian Tradition(s) is often most students’ first and only exposure to the Middle Ages. Exposure often comes from films that students have seen: Fuqua’s King Arthur (2004), Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017), and Lowery’s Green Knight (2021). What students learn from a course or unit on the Arthurian Tradition(s) is often very different from filmed depictions. This session seeks papers that explore issues, opportunities, and innovations in teaching the Arthurian Traditions(s).
Submit full session proposals or paper proposals (no more than 300 words) to mwgeorge.51@gmail.com no later than November 1, 2024.
Last updated August 8, 2024
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Out Now Arthuriana for Summer 2024
The latest number of Arthuriana was released this month. Access can be purchased from their website. You can also view the issue at Project MUSE if you have a subscription to the repository.
Table of Contents
(34.2)
Sister’s Son: Aspects of Mordred and the Avunculate in La Morte le Roi Artu and the Stanzaic Morte Arthur
Jessika Brandon
Representing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Michael Eden
Tweaking the Tradition: Gawain as Perceval in David Lowery’s The Green Knight
Mark Rasmussen
Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini as Trauma Narrative
Karen Winstead
In Memoriam: Dan Nastali
Phillip C. Boardman
REVIEWS
Lindy Brady, The Origin Legends of Early Medieval Britain
Helen Fulton
Jo Ann Cavallo, The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Monteo (1184–1947): The Paladins of France in America
Joseph Farrell
Kathy Cawsey and Elizabeth Edwards, eds., The Broadview Anthology of Medieval Arthurian Literature
Alan Lupack
Melissa Ridley Elmes and Evelyn Meyer, eds., Ethics in the Arthurian Legend
Kenneth Hodges
Roberta L. Krueger, The New Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance
Usha Vishnuvajjala
Cecilia Lampp Linton, The Knight who Gave us King Arthur: Sir Thomas Malory, Knight Hospitaller
P.J.C. Field
J.P.T. Slevin, ed., and L. Lockyer, trans., The History of Alfred of Beverley
Jacqueline M. Burek
Friday, June 14, 2024
New from D S Brewer - Arthurian Literature 39 for 2024
Arthurian Literature XXXIX: A Celebration of Elizabeth Archibald
Edited by Megan G Leitch and Kevin S Whetter
Full details, preview, and ordering information at https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843847182/arthurian-literature-xxxix/.
TITLE DETAILS
190 Pages
23.4 x 15.6 cm
Series: Arthurian Literature
Series Vol. Number: 39
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Hardcover
9781843847182
June 2024
£70.00 / $115.00
(ebook also available)
DESCRIPTION
"Delivers fascinating material across genres, periods, and theoretical issues." TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
This volume is a special issue dedicated to Professor Elizabeth Archibald, who has had such an impact on, and made so many significant contributions to, the field of Arthurian Studies. It maintains its tradition of diverse approaches to the Arthurian tradition - albeit on this occasion with a particular focus on Malory, appropriately reflecting one of Professor Archibald's main interests.
It starts with the essay awarded this year's D.S. Brewer Prize for a contribution by an early career scholar, which considers the little-known debt owed by early modern sailors to Arthurian knighthood and pageantry. The essays that follow begin with a wide-ranging account of manuscript decorations and annotations in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia, before turning to the Evil Custom trope in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Further contributions explore the formalities of requests and conditions in Malory's '"Tale of Gareth", emotional excess and magical transformation in several scenes across the Morte Darthur, tensions between public and private and self and identity in Malory's "Sankgreal", and friction between the (external and imposed) law and (internal and subjective but honourable) code of chivalry, especially apparent in Malory's final Tales. The last article examines the ways in which Mordred's origins in modern Arthurian fiction build on Malory's false, or forgotten, promise to relate Mordred's upbringing. The volume closes with a short tribute to Elizabeth Archibald, highlighting her leadership in the field and her encouragement of scholarly collaboration and community.
CONTENTS
1. The Derek Brewer Essay Prize: Playing Arthur: Making the Elizabethan Mariner - Felicity Brown
2. Ignoring Arthur: Patterns of (In)Attention in Manuscripts of Latin Histories - Siân Echard
3. 'Þe place þat ȝe prece to ful perelous is halden': The Evil Custom in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - David F. Johnson
4. 'aske bettyr, I counseyle the': Requests, Conditions, and Consent in Malory's 'Sir Gareth of Orkney' - Hannah Piercy
5. Supernatural Transformation in Malory's Le Morte Darthur - Natalie Jayne Goodison
6. Personal Piety and 'semyng outeward': Self and Identity in Thomas Malory's 'Tale of the Sankgreal' - Martha Claire Baldon
7. Evil Will and Shameful Death: Revisiting Law in Malory's Morte Darthur - Elizabeth Edwards
8. The Return of the Return of Mordred - Cory James Rushton
Recent from D S Brewer - Arthurian Literature 38 for 2023
Arthurian Literature XXXVIII
Edited by Kevin S Whetter and Megan G Leitch
Full details, preview, and ordering information at https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843846475/arthurian-literature-xxxviii/.
TITLE DETAILS
342 Pages
23.4 x 15.6 cm
3 b/w
Series: Arthurian Literature
Series Vol. Number: 38
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Hardcover
9781843846475
April 2023
£75.00 / $115.00
(also available as an ebook)
DESCRIPTION
Arthurian Literature has established its position as the home for a great diversity of new research into Arthurian matters. It delivers fascinating material across genres, periods, and theoretical issues. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
This issue offers stimulating studies of a wide range of Arthurian texts and authors, from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, among which is the first winner of the Derek Brewer Essay Prize, awarded to a fascinating exploration of Ragnelle's strangeness in The Weddyng of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnelle. It includes an exploration of Irish and Welsh cognates and possible sources for Merlin; Bakhtinian analysis of Geoffrey of Monmouth's playful discourse; and an account of the transmission of Geoffrey's text into Old Icelandic. In the Middle English tradition, there is an investigation of material Arthuriana in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, followed by explorations of shame in Malory's Morte Darthur. The post-medieval articles see one paper devoted to the paratexts of sixteenth-century French Arthurian publishers; one to eighteenth-century Arthuriana; and one to a range of nineteenth-century rewritings of the virginity of Galahad and Percival's Sister. Two Notes close this volume: one on Geoffrey's Vita Merlini and a possible Irish source, and one on a likely source for Malory's linking of Trystram with the Book of Hunting and Hawking in an early form of The Book of St Albans.
CONTENTS
1. Animals at the Feast: Strange Strangers and Courtly Power in The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle - C. M. Palmer
2. The Kindred of a Boy without a Father: Merlin's British Forebears and Irish Cousins -John Carey
3. Geoffrey of Monmouth's Subtle Subversion: Active Double-Voiced Discourse in the Historia regum Britanniae - Vanessa K. Iacocca
4. 'Cornwall, up in the North': Geography and Place Names in the Source of the Old Icelandic Brut - Hélène Tétrel
5. Enacting Arthurianism in the Order of the Garter and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' - Matt Clancy
6. Deviants and Dissenters: Theorizing Shame and Punishment in Malory's Morte - Richard Sévère
7. Loyalty and Worshyp in Conflict in Malory's Lancelot - Manabu Agari
8. Emotional Inheritance in Malory's Morte Darthur: Shame and the Lott-Pellinore Feud - Karen Cherewatuk
9. Navigating and Indexing Arthurian Romance in Benoît Rigaud's Edition of Lancelot du Lake (1591) - Jane H. M. Taylor and Leah Tether
10. 'A great many strange puppets': Queen Caroline, Merlin's Cave, and Symbolic Arthurianism in the Age of Reason - Amy Louise Blaney
11. 'How Galahad Regained his Virginity: Dead Women, Catholicism, and the Grail in Nineteenth-Century British Poetry' - Kenneth Hodges
12. 'Merlin's Woodland House: Irish Cosmology in the Vita Merlini?' - Jennifer Lopatin and A. Joseph McMullen
13. Malory and the Book of St Albans - P. J. C. Field
Catching Up - Arthurian Literature 35 for 2020
Arthurian Literature XXXV
Edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson
Full details, previews, and ordering information at https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781843845454/arthurian-literature-xxxv/.
TITLE DETAILS
227 Pages
23.4 x 15.6 cm
5 b/w illus.
Series: Arthurian Literature
Series Vol. Number: 35
Imprint: D.S.Brewer
Hardcover
9781843845454
June 2020
$115.00 / £75.00 (also available as an ebook)
DESCRIPTION
The continued influence and significance of the legend of Arthur are demonstrated by the articles collected in this volume.
The rich vitality of both the Arthurian material itself and the scholarship devoted to it is manifested in this volume. It begins with an interdisciplinary study of swords belonging to Arthurian and other heroes and of the smiths who made them, assessed both in their literary contexts and in "historical" references to their existence as heroic relics. Two essays then consider the use of Arthurian material for political purposes: a discussion of Caradog's Vita Gildae throws light on the complex attitudes to Arthur of contemporaries of Geoffrey of Monmouth in a time of political turmoil in England, and an investigation into borrowings from Geoffrey's Historia in a chronicle of Anglo-Scottish relations in the time of Edward I, a well-known admirer of the Arthurian legend, argues that they would have appealed to the clerical élite. Romance motifs link the subsequent pieces: women and their friendships in Ywain and Gawain, the only known close English adaptation of a romance by Chrétien, and the mixture of sacred and secular in The Turke and Gawain, with fascinating alchemical parallels for a puzzling beheading episode. This is followed by a discussion of the views on native and foreign sources of three sixteenth-century defenders of Arthur, John Leland, John Prise and Humphrey Llwyd, and their responses to the criticisms of Polydore Vergil. In twentieth-century reception history, John Steinbeck was an ardent Arthurian enthusiast: an essay looks at the significance of his annotations to his copy of Malory as he worked on his adaptation, The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights. The volume moves to even more recent territory with an exploration of the adaptations of Malory and other Arthurian writers that occur in the comic books by Geoff Johns about Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, King of Atlantis. The book is completed by a reprint of a classic essay by Norris Lacy on the absence and presence of the Grail in Arthurian texts from the twelfth century on.
CONTENTS
Arthurian Swords I: Gawain's Sword and the Legend of Weland the Smith - Richard Barber
Rex rebellis et vir pacificus: Civil War and Ecclesiastical Peacekeeping in the Vita Gildae of Caradog of Llancarfan - Andrew Rabin
Once and Future History: Textual Borrowing in an Account of the First War of Scottish Independence - Christopher Michael Berard
'Me rewes sore': Women's Friendship, Affect and Loyalty in Ywain and Gawain - Usha Vishnuvajjala
The Sacred and the Secular: Alchemical Transformation in The Turke and Sir Gawain - Natalie Goodison
'The native place of that great Arthur': Foreignness and Nativity in Sixteenth-Century Defences of Arthur - Mary Bateman
John Steinbeck's 'Wonder-Words' - Elaine Treharne and William J. Fowler
The Once and Future King of Atlantis: The Arthurian Figure in Geoff Johns's Aquaman: Death of a King - Carl B. Sell
Arthur and/or the Grail - Norris J. Lacy
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Arthuriana for Spring 2024
The latest number of Arthuriana is out. Access can be gained by subscription to the journal or from Project Muse. Contents follow.
Table of Contents
(34.1) (Spring 2024)
‘Bi þat watz Gryngolet grayth and gurde with a sadel’: Characterizing Gringolet in Old French and Middle English Romances
Marisa Mills
‘The forme to the finisment fuldes ful selden’: A Comparison of David Lowery’s Screenplay and His 2021 Film Adaptation The Green Knight
Dennis Tredy
* THE 2023 LOOMISES LECTURE *
Environmental Realism in the Arthurian Forest of Adventure.
Michael W. Twomey
ANNOUNCEMENTS
An Invitation to Consider a Potential Arthur-Figure Memorial Stone.
Guye Pennington
THE ROUND TABLE: NEWS FROM THE IAS-NAB
REVIEWS
Gillian Adler and Paul Strohm, Alle Thyng Hath Tyme: Time and Medieval Life
Marie Schilling Grogan
Gloria Allaire and Julie Human, eds., Courtly Pastimes
Tara Foster
Jeffrey John Dixon, Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail
Phillip C. Boardman
Elis Gruffydd, Tales of Merlin, Arthur, and the Magic Arts: From the Welsh Chronicle of the Six Ages of the World
Peter H. Goodrich
Annegret Oehme, The Knight Without Boundaries: Yiddish and German Arthurian Wigalois Adaptations
Jonathan Seelye Martin
Joseph Taylor, Writing the North of England in the Middle Ages: Regionalism and Nationalism in Medieval English Literature
Ann M. Martinez
Marion Turner, The Wife of Bath: A Biography
Kathleen Forni
Christopher Vaccaro, ed., Painful Pleasures: Sadomasochism in Medieval Cultures
James C. Staples
Monday, April 29, 2024
Notice Re-Creating Camelots at Kalamazoo 2024
Re-Creating Camelot? Community-Building in Arthurian Studies (A Roundtable) (Virtual)
59th International Congress on Medieval Studies (you must register to attend)
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI)
Virtual Session
Session 474: Saturday, 11 May 2024, from 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Co-Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and
International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Co-Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Joseph M. Sullivan, Univ. of Oklahoma
Presider: Carl B. Sell, Univ. of Pittsburgh
(This session will be recorded.)
Paper 1:
“There Are One or Two Changes I'd Like You to Consider”: The Elusive Attempts to Revise Lerner and Lowe’s Camelot in Contemporary America
Jarrod DePrado, Sacred Heart University
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Paper 2:
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Drew Narayanan is a PhD Candidate in Art History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His dissertation project focuses on the “Sultan of Babylon” as historical and fantastical racialized construction in 14th and 15th century Latin Christian manuscripts. He has also won a prize for his peer-reviewed article titled “Sir Palamedes the Indelibly ‘Saracen’ Knight: Heraldry, Monstrosity, and Race in Fifteenth-Century Arthurian Romance Manuscripts.”
Paper 3:
Pronouns: he, him, hine, hisse, hes, him-seluen
Notice Creating Camelots at Kalamazoo 2024
Creating Camelot(s): The Idea of Community in Arthurian Texts (Virtual)
59th International Congress on Medieval Studies (you must register to attend)
Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, MI)
Virtual Session
Session 425: Saturday, 11 May 2024, from 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Co-Sponsored by Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and
International Arthurian Society, North American Branch (IAS/NAB)
Co-Organizers: Michael A. Torregrossa, Bristol Community College, and Joseph M. Sullivan, Univ. of Oklahoma
Presider: Karen Casey Casebier, Univ. of Tennessee–Chattanooga
(This session will be recorded.)
Paper 1:
Kissing King Arthur: The Threat of Discord in Chrétien's Erec et Enide and Hartmann's Erec
Jennifer Schmitt Carnell, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library
Paper 2:
Worship and Noyse: Chivalric Identity and the Formation of Emotional Communities in Malory's Morte Darthur
Victoria E Dikeman, Ohio State Univ.
Paper 3:
The Broadway 2023 Camelot Revival: A Hollow Retelling of the Legend?
Hope E Koonin, Independent Scholar
Thursday, April 18, 2024
CFP Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Conference (4/20/2024; Nancy, France/hybrid 11/21-22/2024)
CFP: Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Source: https://medievalisms.org/cfp-tradition-and-innovation-in-sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/
We are pleased to announce a call for papers for an upcoming conference on “Tradition and Innovation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” to be held in Nancy (France) on 21-22 November 2024. This conference will be held in hybrid mode.
Conference Theme: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has captivated readers for centuries with its complex narrative, moral dilemmas, and poetic excellence. The conference seeks to explore the dynamic interplay between tradition and innovation within the text, examining how the poem, but also the works derived from it and the scholarship devoted to it, draw upon established traditions while introducing novel elements.
The first axis of our inquiry focuses on the poem itself. While it is steeped in the traditions of Arthurian romance and Middle English poetry, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight departs from them and frustrates expectations in significant ways, both in terms of its content and its form. This exploration aims to shed light on the creative ways in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight navigates established literary norms, both adhering to tradition and introducing innovative elements within its narrative structure and thematic content.
The second axis of our inquiry focuses on the many works inspired by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This includes rewritings, translations, and visual interpretations that grapple with the tension between fidelity to the original and the impulse to reimagine the narrative within contemporary contexts. From modern language adaptations to artistic representations, we seek to understand how the poem’s essence endures through the transformative lens of subsequent generations.
We invite proposals for individual papers (20 minutes). Please submit abstracts (250-300 words) along with a brief bio to Colette.Stevanovitch@univ-lorraine.fr by 20 April. Include your name, institutional affiliation, contact information, and any audiovisual requirements.
Monday, April 8, 2024
Visualizing Arthur April 2024 Events and Flier
Download the flier here.
Visualizing Camelot
An Exhibition from the Collection of Drs. Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack
At the University of Rochester
Visualizing Camelot, a University of Rochester River Campus Libraries exhibition from the collection of Drs. Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack, explores the ongoing appeal of the Arthurian legends in England and America. The exhibition—which opened on March 7, 2024, with remarks from the Lupacks, a reception, and a tour of the exhibition—reveals the diverse ways that the stories of Camelot have been imagined and visualized, both in high culture (paintings, drawings, illustrated books) and in popular culture (film, toys, games, comic books, cartoons, dishware, product names, business logos, etc.). The exhibition, which includes more than 350 items (many of them unique), runs from the first to the fourth floor of Rush Rhees (from the Friedlander Lobby to Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation and to the Robbins Library). Visualizing Camelot is free and open to all, and a wide array of programming relating to the exhibition is planned throughout 2024.
Among the opening week’s events was a presentation by Dr. Kevin Whetter, Acadia University, on “Why Are There So Few Illustrations in Mediaeval English Arthurian Manuscripts? The Non-Visual Camelot.”
Upcoming next month is a presentation by Dr. Kevin J. Harty, La Salle University, on April 19. Dr. Harty’s topic is “James Bond, A Grifter, A Video Avatar, and a Shark Walk into King Arthur’s Court: The Ever-Expanding Canon of Cinema Arthuriana.” The presentation will also be livestreamed. If interested, please register at the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Lr0nRKZLfJZQl3ynshHWUWiHu1I3o6vG07-fkbaKOgY/edit
(or contact Dr. Anna Siebach-Larsen at annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu.)
A digital exhibit Visualizing Camelot and an exhibition catalogue will follow by the end of April. A host of other activities and events are scheduled for summer and fall, 2024.
We hope that you will join us, in person or on-line, to tour Visiting Camelot and to participate in some of the exhibition events.
About the Lupacks
Dr. Alan Lupack, a noted Arthurian scholar and former director of the Robbins Library, is author or editor of numerous Arthurian studies, including Arthur, The Greatest King; Arthurian Drama; Modern Arthurian Literature; New Directions in Arthurian Studies; and The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend.
Dr. Barbara Tepa Lupack, the former academic dean at SUNY and New York State Public Scholar (2015-2018), is author or editor of more than 25 books, including The Girl’s King Arthur; King Arthur’s Crown; Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children; and the recently published The Othering of Women in Silent Film.
The Lupacks have lectured and published widely on Arthurian topics. Together, they created The Camelot Project, a popular and award-winning database of texts, images, and information about the Arthurian legends, and coauthored studies such as Arthurian Literature by Women, Illustrating Camelot, and the award-winning King Arthur in America.
For More Information About the Exhibition: please contact Anna Siebach-Larsen, Director of the Robbins Library, at annasiebachlarsen@rochester.edu.
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Out Now - Roman de Brut in Oxford Worlds Classics Edition
Roman de Brut
WaceTranslated by Glyn S. Burgess and with an Introduction and Notes by Jean Blacker
Full details from the publisher's website at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/roman-de-brut-9780192871268.
Paperback
Published: 11 April 2024
320 Pages
7.7 x 5.1 inches
ISBN: 9780192871268
Oxford World's Classics
Provides an easily accessible English prose translation of the first complete Old French adaptation (1155) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1130-40), in which Arthur appears for the first time as king of the Britons
Accompanied by extensive critical apparatus, including a summary of the text, a glossary, a list of manuscripts, and an index of personal and geographical names
Description
'Whoever wishes to hear about, and to know about, kings and heirs, about who first ruled England and which kings it had, Master Wace, who is telling the truth about this, has translated this.'
Wace's Roman de Brut (1155) can be seen as the gateway to the history of the Britons for both French and English speakers of the time, and thus to Arthurian history, as the first complete Old French adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin History of the Kings of Britain (late 1130s), in which Arthur appears for the first time as king of the Britons. The Roman de Brut was a foundational work, an inspiration for a series of anonymous verse Bruts of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries and for the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut -- the most widely read French vernacular text on this material in medieval England -- as well as a forerunner of the Middle English Brut tradition, including Layamon's Brut (c. 1200). Wace's poem thus inaugurates and shapes Brut traditions, including Arthurian tales, in verse and in prose, in historiography and in literature, including Wace's innovation of King Arthur's Round Table.
This volume contains an English prose translation of Wace's Roman de Brut, accompanied by an introduction and notes, a select bibliography, a summary of the text, a list of manuscripts, and indexes of personal and geographical names.
Author Information
Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool. He has translated the three twelfth-century romances of antiquity and the Roman de Rou of Wace (2002). In 1990 he was made a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques and he is an honorary President of the International Courtly Literature Society. His most recent books are Twenty-Four Lays from the French Middle Ages (2016; with Leslie C. Brook), The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure (2017; with Douglas Kelly), and The Roman de Thèbes and the Roman d'Eneas (2021; with Douglas Kelly).Jean Blacker is Emeritus Professor of French, Kenyon College. Her more recent publications include Wace, The Hagiographical Works: The Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas (2013), with Glyn S. Burgess, and Amy V. Ogden, Court and Cloister: Essays in the Short Narrative in Honor of Glyn S. Burgess (2018), with Jane H. M. Taylor. Her work focuses on the protean uses of King Arthur in Anglo-Norman, Continental French, and Latin historiography of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, focusing on the interconnections between foundation myths, competing claims of identity, and cultural imperialism in the legendary history of Britain.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
JIAS 2023
Journal of the International Arthurian Society
Volume 11 Issue 1
September 2023
Publicly Available September 7, 2023
Titelseiten
Page range: i-iv
Open Access September 7, 2023
‘Que nus contes de ce n’amende’: Chrétien de Troyes and the assertion of copyright
Keith Busby, Leah Tether
Page range: 1-18
More
Open Access September 7, 2023
Arthurian intertexts: Le Roman de Laurin, the First Continuation of Perceval and the Prose Tristan
Corin Corley
Page range: 19-44
More
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Acheflour and Blauncheflour: Mothers and Wives in Sir Percyvell of Galles and Sir Tristrem
Aude Martin
Page range: 45-59
More
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Petrine Failings and Broken Pentangles: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’s Chivalric Felix Culpa
Arielle McKee
Page range: 60-82
More
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Eric fighting in Guatemala. Adaptation and proximation of medieval Arthurian literature in Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Erec y Enide
Carlos Sanz Mingo
Page range: 83-104
More
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Von den nahtweiden. Mythologische Subtexte in der Crône Heinrichs von dem Türlin
Christoph Schanze
Page range: 105-128
More
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
The Transmedial Knights of the Round Table: Character-Based Worldbuilding in the Manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes
Caitlin G. Watt
Page range: 129-151
More
Obituary
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023Mary Dewey (1947–2023)
Linda Gowans, Alison Rawles
Page range: 152-153
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Gilles Eckard (1949–2022)
Alain Corbellari
Page range: 154-155
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Amanda Hopkins (1962–2022)
Emma Campbell
Page range: 156-157
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Freda Humble (1922–2022)
Sue Bennett, Linda Gowans
Page range: 158-158
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Ian Lovecy (1947–2022)
P. J. C. Field
Page range: 159-160
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Roger Simpson (1938–2022)
Alan Lupack, Barbara Tepa Lupack, Kevin J. Harty
Page range: 161-162
Notices
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023XXVIIth International Arthurian Congress, Aix-en-Provence, France, 11–18 July 2024
Page range: 163-163
Requires Authentication September 7, 2023
Biennial JIAS Essay Prize Competition 2024–25
Page range: 164-164
Arthuriana Winter 2023
Arthuriana 33.4
Table of Contents
Guenevere’s Raptus-Sanctus Triumphs in Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur
D. Thomas Hanks, Jr.
Abstract:
Generally speaking, scholars of Malory's Morte Darthur have given Guenevere bad press. Terms like 'shrew' and 'virago' have been often applied, while her agency has been largely ignored or minimized. Recently, however, scholars have begun to reconsider her characterization and even her agency. Analysis of her response to Meleagant's attempted raptus, however, has been minimal; likewise minimal has been discussion of her response to Lancelot both with respect to Meleagant and to Lancelot's late and apparently marital desire. Both men become wholly subject to Guenevere's subtle but masterful agency. [DTH, Jr,]
Dramatic Spectacle in LaƷamon: The Brut’s Direct Speeches, Aestheticized Violence, and Gendered Historical Reenactments
Johanna Alden
Abstract:
This article explores the phenomena of dramatized direct speech and public performative spectacle within LaƷamon's Brut. In examining the text's largely historically unexplored dramatic dimensions, the piece also engages with the way that speech and performance are politicized and gendered in the Brut.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Launch of ‘The So What’: public-facing, digital publication focusing on the ‘whys’ and ‘so whats’ of medieval studies and pedagogy
Bonnie Wheeler Fellowship
Arthuriana Shop
REVIEWS
Heather Blurton and Dwight F. Reynolds, eds., Bestsellers and Masterpieces: The Changing Medieval Canon
Katherine Oswald
Andrew Breeze, The Historical Arthur and the Gawain Poet: Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions
Richard Firth Green
Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, creators, Mrs. Davis, (eight-part miniseries)
Susan Aronstein and Laurie Finke
Carolyne Larrington, The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think
Tim William Machan
Tim William Machan, English Begins at Jamestown
Kevin J. Harty
John Matthews, The Great Book of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table: A New Morte D’Arthur
Alan Lupack
Charlie Samuelson, Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature
Megan Moore
Eva Von Contzen and James Simpson, eds., Enlistment: Lists in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
Michael Van Dussen
Arthuriana Fall 2023
Arthuriana 33.3 (Fall 2023)
Table of Contents
Special Issue: Who Gets to Be Legendary?
Guest edited by Margaret Sheble
Introduction: Why Can’t Mermaids Be Ethnically Diverse? Legends and Legend-Making in Arthurian Studies
Richard Sévère
White Merlin: A Modern Misconception about the Legendary Merlin
Tzu-Yu Liu
Abstract:
Different from the predominantly white Merlins on both big and small screens today, Merlins in medieval legends are never described as having white skin. In fact, in various texts Merlin is specifically depicted as a dark-skinned character capable of making legendary accomplishments. The few Merlins of color onscreen have informed our understanding of Merlin as a legendary character in various ways, and more diverse representations of Merlin onscreen could help to dispel the misconception that the legendary Merlin is by default white. (TL)
‘Why is he Indian?’: Missed Opportunities for Discussing Race in David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021)
Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan
Abstract:
This article explores the depiction of Gawain in The Green Knight (2021). Despite having cast Dev Patel in the starring role, the film avoids any substantive discussion of race in Camelot. By trading in optical diversity alone, it deploys BIPOC bodies without ever telling their stories. (TDN)
Towards Narrative Plenitude: Asian Representation in Young Adult Arthurian Fantasy
Pamela M. Yee
Abstract:
This article examines how two authors of Asian descent tackle the problem of 'narrative scarcity' for marginalized writers in their Young Adult Arthurian texts: Williams' 'The Quay Stone' posits the relationship between colonizer/colonized as akin to domestic abuse, while Chupeco's A Hundred Names for Magic series integrates Eastern and Western myths. (PY)
Who is Asking?: Afro-Arthurian Legend-Making in N.K. Jemisin’s Far Sector
D’Arcee Charington Neal
Abstract:
Whether an Arthurian knight, a Green Lantern, or a Legendborn, one cannot have a legacy without first becoming a legend. In N.K. Jemisin's graphic novel Far Sector (2020) Sojourner 'Jo' Muellein's story as both community activist and guardian echoes, reinvents, and reimagines Arthurian romances through the lens of Afrofuturism; further, this fantastical remix challenges white supremacist modes of oppressive comic tradition by foregrounding racial and gendered identities. Making a legend is not about whom society has agreed to be the answer. Instead, such ideals lie with whoever asks the question. (DCN)
REVIEWS
Victoria Coldham-Fussell, Miriam Edlich-Muth, and Renée Ward, eds., The Arthurian World
Dan Nastali
Louise D’Arcens and Andrew Lynch, eds., International Medievalism and Popular Culture
Kevin J. Harty
Patrick Del Luca, Chevalerie et royauté dans le roman d’Erec de Hartmann van Aue
Ann Mccullough
Megan Moore, The Erotics of Grief: Emotions and the Construction of Privilege in the Medieval Mediterranean
Charles-Louis Morand-Métiver