Knights of the Round Table: Knighthood in History vs. Medieval Arthurian Literature Part 2
Fredderica Krehbiel
Citation: Krehbiel, Fredderica. “Knights of the Round Table: Knighthood in History vs. Medieval Arthurian Literature Part 2.” The Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture, February 10th, 2023. cmsmc.org/publications/knights-of-the-round-table-1.
Abstract: Part Two of this three-piece serialization, which compares fictional knights to their real-life counterparts living around the same time and place as when the legends were written. Primarily, this is in England and France from the mid-twelfth to the early fourteenth centuries. This analysis discusses the ways the literature from this period created an ideal knight that, while inspired by the knights living during this time, was very different. Furthermore, this paper explores the influence this literature had on knights and their culture. Part two explains the enduring popularity of Arthuriana, a term used to refer to writings and material related to legends of King Arthur. Arthur has appeared consistently in medieval sources dating back to at least the 9th century, if not earlier. Using these primary sources, it’s possible to create a chronology for the Arthurian legend, from this first reference down to the 19th century. This chronology explains how the story developed over the medieval period and how Arthurian influence continues today.
Keywords: knighthood, medieval literature, Arthuriana, feudalism, courtly love, chivalry
Arthuriana: A Chronology
The stories of King Arthur and his court were created over centuries by writers who used mythology and history to make their own creations.[1] According to author Rodney Castleden, King Arthur has been reimagined through the lens of different authors [2] Even though his knights were most prominent in the tales, the King himself remained the most integral part of the Arthurian legend. King Arthur and Camelot are synonymous with the Middle Ages and have been featured in almost every form of media, from animation to advertisements. For many, Walt Disney’s 1963 film, The Sword in the Stone, was the first and most significant interpretation of the legend.[3] This film was loosely based on T.H. White’s 1958 book The Once and Future King, rather than medieval source material.[4]
By the time White was writing, the character of Arthur and much of the general plot had been consistent since the 15th century. This is largely due to Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Mort D'arthur, a book written in 1485 that unified a jumbled and very old Arthurian tradition into a single text. It had survived because it comprehensively and compactly told the entire tradition in one narrative.[5] According to Malory, Arthur was the legendary king of Britain, and his court was filled by a circle of knights who sat at a round table in his castle Camelot. In Le Mort D'arthur Arthur becomes king of Britain when he “lightly and fiercely” pulls an enchanted sword from a stone put in place by the wizard Merlin.[6] King Arthur filled his court with many knights, the most famous of which is Lancelot du Lac, who is described in the text as the “noblest knight living.”[7] Lancelot has an affair with Queen Guinevere, King Arthur’s wife, which fractures the knights and brings about King Arthur’s downfall. In the final battle, Arthur is killed by his nephew and sometimes son, Sir Mordred.[8]
The Arthurian tradition has made an impact on British culture, which carries on throughout its history. Because the Arthurian legend has been retold in so many different ways over such a long period of time, one may wonder about the story’s origins, and in fact some have wondered whether King Arthur had a basis in history. Stories about King Arthur started throughout the British Isles since at least the 9th century, though some speculate even earlier, in the 6th century.[9] One of the first places he appears is in the Battle of Badon, which appears in many of the earliest records. A mid-fifth century monk and historian named Gildas wrote the only contemporary account of the Anglo-Saxon invasions.[10] Gildas goes into detail in his description of the battle between the Saxons and the Britons, led by Arthur, partly because he was born in the same year and witnesses were supposedly available.[11] However, Gildas doesn’t mention Arthur by name in his account of this battle, which is unusual as his work was very emphatic regarding the failings of the Britons and their kings. According to one expert, “Gildas does not say who the British commander was, or whether the British were besiegers or besieged. No doubt that was partly because his deepest convictions are already decided by God, so historical facts were not very important.”[12]
Arthur is first definitively named as a participant in Badon in the Annales Cambriae, a record of Welsh history compiled in manuscripts from the 13th century, but likely written much earlier with some of the earliest records dating to the fifth century.[13] Arthur only appears in two lines of the record, which don’t reveal much about Arthur or where he came from and doesn’t even refer to him as a king. These two lines are the basis for the entire King Arthur legend. The chronicle says that in 516 someone named Arthur carried the cross at the Battle of Badon.[14] “The Battle of Badon, in which Arthur carried the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ for three days and three nights on his shoulders and the Britons were the victors.”[15] The next entry, dated to about 537, is just as vague: “The battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut [Mordred] fell: and there was plague in Britain and Ireland.”[16]
The king’s career is first discussed in greater depth in Historia Brittonum, a book written around 828 that is often attributed to Nennius, a Welsh monk.[17] While some of the book has a historical basis, its references to dragons and its poetic style put the reliability of the text into question; because of the scarcity of sources from that period, the book is still useful according to Castleden.[18] Historia Brittonum offers a series of battles Arthur supposedly fought against the Saxons, with the Battle of Badon being the twelfth.[19] Interestingly, Nennius refers to Arthur as dux bellorum, a Latin term for war leader, which can also be used to describe a king.[20]
From the twelfth century onwards, Arthurian legend became more prominent in English writing. Part of this can be attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth, and his work, History of the Kings of Britain, written around 1136.[21] Monmouth’s contemporaries and modern readers acknowledge that some of the literary sources referenced in The History of the Kings of Britain were invented by Monmouth himself.[22] For example, Monmouth references what he calls a “very ancient book” but he never divulges the author or the title of the account which serves as his main source for Arthur.[23] Monmouth introduced or referenced many elements of the legend, including Arthur’s Excalibur, which he calls Caliburn; Arthur’s status as a king; the Isle of Avalon; and Arthur’s eventual resurrection, which drew from pre-existing Celtic traditions at the time.[24] Another notable addition to the legend by Monmouth is the figure of Merlin, who appears to provide assistance to various British kings in Monmouth’s History.[25] Historian Rodney Castleden said of the wizard, “Merlin comes across as a magical semi-pagan figure, while Arthur is a Christian hero.”[26] King Arthur’s treatment in Monmouth’s writing is one of the most complete, taking up chapters as opposed to the two lines seen in the Annales Cambriae. Arthurian expert Geoffrey Ashe calls this a “flowering of the legend.”[27]
Some experts have said Monmouth’s History was a reaction to the aftermath of various invasions of Britain, but depending on the source, it was either in support of or in opposition to the threat of colonization looming over Wales in the early 12th century.[28] According to medievalist Barbara Harvey, “In 1136, at about the time Geoffrey was writing his History, the Welsh were seizing the chance offered by the death of Henry I to shake off the rule he had imposed upon them.”[29] There are many interpretations of Monmouth’s History. Some have argued it is an appeal to the Anglo-Norman rulers for unity, or an “illustrious genealogy” of these rulers, or even to express Monmouth’s Breton or Welsh sympathies.[30] Those who argue in favor of Monmouth’s book as a pro-Welsh history argue that Monmouth was a Breton patriot who promoted, as medievalist Michael Faletra put it, a “pan-Celtic alliance” by glorifying the Bretons of the ancient past and by extension the Welsh.[31] Monmouth used Welsh influences and legends to help write his Arthur, and according to medieval literature expert Victoria Flood, intended for his vision of Arthur to serve as a symbol for the Welsh.[32] However, Arthur became a symbol of the Anglo-Norman monarchy.[33] Henry II in particular associated himself with the Arthurian tradition: he wanted to compare himself to Arthur, who had complete dominion over Britain, to justify his control of the island.[34] Henry II was so interested in the legend that he searched for Arthur’s supposed tomb in Glastonbury Abbey.[35]
The History of the Kings of Britain marked an important development in Arthuriana as Arthur became less a historical character and more of a literary figure. The twelfth century saw a proliferation of Arthurian texts. Robert Wace’s Roman de Brut, written around the 1150’s, was an elaborate French translation of Monmouth’s History, and introduced the now famous Round Table.[36] Wace’s Arthur was aligned with the French ideals of chivalry; this Arthur was, as historian Frances Gies puts it, “ the paragon of knighthood, in the tradition of the romances.”[37]Arthur became a part of a larger trend in medieval literature: the burgeoning genre of Romance which made medieval literature increasingly secular. Romances, which originally meant poems written in French rather than Latin, was the genre of poetry concerning courtly manners and chivalric culture.[38] According to literary scholar Eugene Vinaver, “Love interest and the pursuit of adventures unrelated to any common aim thus displaced the theme of the defence of Christendom and the preoccupation with feudal warfare.”[39] In this new genre, Arthur also changed. King Arthur was pushed into the background as the focus of the Arthurian canon now shifted to the knights.[40] This is not surprising considering that the troubadours who wrote these romances were either knights themselves or worked in their service.[41] This shift was finalized in the work of French poet Chretien de Troyes, who wrote around the 1170’s. His five romances: Erec et Enide, Cliges, Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart, Yvain and Perceval, all featured a different knight of Arthur’s court rather than the king himself.
Chretien de Troyes added the character of Lancelot, as well as his affair with Guinevere, who had been briefly referenced in Monmouth’s History. By the end of the 12th century, they became integral parts of the legend.[42] [43] The romances represented many aspects of the secular knightly lifestyle from tournaments to heraldry.[44] De Troyes’ Lancelot was, like Wace’s Arthur, the exemplar of knighthood, as were all of the knights-errant in De Troyes’ poetry, according to the author. He seemed eager to instruct readers to follow in his protagonists' examples, with characters going on lengthy, edifying asides on the nature of love and courtesy.[45] Courtly love and chivalry were introduced through the 12th century romances purely as a literary ideal.[46] Romance literature dominated the Arthurian canon for the rest of the medieval period, ultimately compiled in Malory’s Le Morte D’arthur in 1485.
By the time Malory was writing, in the later 15th century, Arthuriana had been around for centuries and left a mark on medieval culture. This impact was perhaps most strongly felt among the knights, who wanted to emulate the prestige of knights in romances, through pageantry and writing.[47] For example, Arnold de Guine, an early 13th century Flemish nobleman and lord , called upon the Arthurian tradition in the chronicle of his life, even requesting to be trained by Phillip of Flanders, who was praised by Chretien de Troyes himself in his romance Perceval.[48] Chretien says of Flanders: “Count Philip of Flanders, who surpasses Alexander, whom they say was so great.”[49] The fact that Arnold de Guine sought to learn under Philip of Flanders after the book was written speaks to the reputation of Arthurian literature. The romances made knighthood glamorous; even King Henry II wanted to emulate Lancelot by asking for the King of Scotland to knight him.[50]
Arthuriana had seeped into tournaments, which became known as round tables, that copied the pageantry of those in the fictional Camelot.[51] One 1279 round table had about one hundred damsels and one hundred knights riding to the grounds while singing.[52] Arthurian romance often uses the tournament as a theme, as it did in de Troyes’ romances. Beginning in the 13th century, the nobility was using fantasy as inspiration for tournaments; Edward I in 1284 had participants take on Arthurian roles during the games.[53]
In the Middle Ages, King Arthur and Camelot were glorified and were a patriotic symbol of England and its rulers.[54] Fiction often serves as a representation of culture, as historian Erich S. Gruen aptly puts it: “people strove to articulate their special qualities with reference to the dominant [culture]...”[55] In the early 12th century the newly minted Norman rulers of England were looking for a past to hold onto; The History of the Kings of Britain fulfilled this need by tracing English history back to its legendary ancient origins, all the way back to the Trojan War.[56] According to Higham, Arthuriana “provided the new Anglo-Norman kings with a predecessor of heroic size, a great pan-British king in a long line of monarchs capable of countering contemporary pressures for decentralization, as had occurred in France, and reinforcing claims of political superiority over the Celtic lands.”[57] The reign of King Arthur, for the British monarchy of the Middle Ages set a royal precedent as well as serving as propaganda.
Some scholars have argued for the existence of a real, historical King Arthur. Much of this argument is built on the appearance of Arthur in a series of sometimes dubious, historical accounts. R.S. Loomis, one of the foremost authorities on Arthurian literature said, “There is a certain amount of early material dealing with him, but the difficulty lies in distinguishing what is, if anything, history from what is legend.”[58] According to some, sources such as the Annales Cambriae, Gildas and Nennius are an earnest attempt to record history, which supposes the actual existence of the legendary king.[59] Historians in favor of the existence of a historical Arthur have pieced together a theory on his identity: a military leader who lived in the sixth century during the Anglo Saxon invasions.[60] Medievalist Kemp Malone argued that perhaps the historical Arthur lived earlier, and wasn’t even British; in his 1925 book he pointed to a second century Roman commander, Lucius Artorius Castus, as a historical prototype for Arthur.[61] In the century that Arthur supposedly lived, there was an increase in the name Arthur in records from the Celtic regions of the British Isles, suggesting the presence of a figure these people were named after, as noted by linguist Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson.[62] There is no conclusive evidence as to whether Arthur existed, because of the breadth of representations of Arthur and a lack of contemporary records.[63] Higham says that, “The likeliest origin was a military leader of repute in Roman Britain who had become legendary...”[64]
The 19th century saw a rediscovery of Arthuriana, as well as all things medieval, as a source of symbolism.[65] King Arthur was used to express ideas of England's past, as well as to present certain aspects as an ideal of English identity such as virility and Christian faith.[66] The Pre-Raphaelite art movement of the 19th century reinvigorated interest in the Middle Ages, and Arthur especially.[67] The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of artists that wanted to return to the “moral and descriptive truthfulness” they felt characterized art before the renaissance, that is, medieval art.[68] They were especially concerned with narrative in their paintings, with scenes from Shakespeare and contemporary poetry dominating their paintings.[69] This renewed attention to medieval themes was reflected in the works of writers and historians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, the basis of Disney’s Sword in the Stone, demonstrated this continued popularity.
According to Arthurian Experts Beverly Taylor and Elisabeth Brewer, “despite an external and internal landscape apparently hostile to romance, Arthur returned to English literature after more than three hundred years with an intensity remarkable for both the quality and quantity of works produced.”[70] In fact, this period saw much scholarly debate on the historicity of Arthur; in the beginning of the Victorian period, much of the debate was wrapped up in ideas of Anglo-Saxon superiority.[71] “After the Second World War, the British King Arthur who had famously triumphed over Germanic invaders in the Dark Ages was widely, but not always consciously, reconstructed as a historical icon for post-war British society.”[72] As late as 1997, Scottish politicians recreated Arthur’s famous sword in the stone as a means to express Britishness During the United Kingdom General Election. [73]
To the modern reader, Arthur has come to represent not only British ideals but also the medieval period as a whole. Through Arthuriana, the Middle Ages are both a faraway time, yet accessible to the imagination of the viewer.[74] Arthuriana evokes a nostalgia that idealizes the past with modern longings and values.[75] The legend of King Arthur is still incredibly popular, and has been reimagined in musicals such as Camelot, television shows such as BBC’s Merlin and loosely in Marvel Comics superhero title Excalibur. Arthur has come a long way from his first mention in the Annales Cambriae.[76] The continued popularity of Arthur could be explained simply in its reinvention, but it is still familiar and nostalgic despite reimagining, using the same symbols and scenes to communicate new messages than the work before.[77]
Arthuriana survives centuries because it is reinvented, with authors using the tradition in new ways to communicate new meanings.[78] As Arthurian expert Dan Nastali notes: “every Arthurian work represents, to some degree, a personal response to the received material, and each work reinvigorates the tradition, for better or for worse, by placing before the public yet another object to respond to.”[79]
Endnotes
[1] A. E. Redgate, "Arthur." In The Oxford Companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, and Robert Crowcroft. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/oupoxford/arthur/0?institutionId=288
[2] Rodney Castleden, King Arthur: The Truth Behind the Legend, (Routledge Books, London: 2002), 1.
[3] Michael Torregrossa, "Merlin Goes to the Movies: The Changing Role of Merlin in Cinema Arthuriana." Film & History 29, no. 3-4 (1999): 54. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2148492?accountid=14171.
[4] Kevin J. Harty,"CINEMA ARTHURIANA: TRANSLATIONS OF THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND TO THE SCREEN." Arthurian Interpretations 2, no. 1 (1987): 103. Accessed February 5, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27868632.
[5] "Morte Darthur, Le." In The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, ed. by Ian Ousby. 2nd ed. (Cambridge,Cambridge University Press, 2000.) http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupliteng/morte_darthur_le/0?institutionId=288
[6] Thomas Malory, Le Mort D’arthur, (New York: Race Point Publishing, 2017), 7.
[7] Malory 2017,106.
[8] Amy Varin, "Mordred, King Arthur's Son." Folklore 90, no. 2 (1979): 167-77. Accessed January 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1259595.
[9] Howard Wiseman, “The Derivation of the Date of the Badon Entry in the Annales
Cambriae from Bede and Gildas,” Parergon 17, no. 2, (Jan 2000): 2, https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2000.0072.
[10] E.A. Thompson, “Gildas and the History of Britain,” Britannia 10, (1979)
[11] J.C. Russel,” Arthur and the Romano-Celtic Frontier” Modern Philology 48, no. 3 (Feb. 1951), 148.
[12] P.J.C. Field, “Arthur’s Battles,” Arthuriana 18, no. 4 (2008), 4.
[13] Howard Wiseman, “The Derivation of the Date of the Badon Entry,” 1.
[14] “Annales Cambriae,” Internet History Sourcebook, Fordham University, accessed Jan 10, 2019,https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/annalescambriae.asp.
[15] “Annales Cambriae,” Internet History Sourcebook.
[16] Internet History Sourcebook, “Annales Cambriae.”
[17] N.J. Higham, King Arthur: Myth-Making and History, (London: Routledge Books, 2000), 10.
[18] Castleden 2002, 17.
[19] John Moris, trans. “Excerpt from Nennius' Historia Britonum, Arthur's Battles Against the Saxons.” Project Camelot, Rochester University, 1980. Accessed Dec. 30, 2020, https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/arthurs-battles-against-the-saxons.
[20] Edward Donald Kennedy et al., King Arthur:A Casebook, (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996) 29.
[21] Geoffrey Ashe, ""A Certain Very Ancient Book": Traces of an Arthurian Source in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History." Speculum 56, no. 2 (1981): 301. Accessed February 12, 2020. doi:10.2307/2846937.
[22] D. R. Howlett, “The Literary Context of Geoffrey of Monmouth: An Essay on the Fabrication of Sources," Arthuriana 5, no. 3 (1995): 66. Accessed January 16, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27869123.
[23] Ashe 1981, 301.
[24] Victoria Flood, “Arthur’s Return to Avalon: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Development of the Legend,” Arthuriana 25, no. 2 (2015),85 accessed Jan. 10, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/24643472.
[25] Lucy Allen Paton, "Notes on Merlin in the "Historia Regum Britanniae" of Geoffrey of Monmouth." Modern Philology 41, no. 2 (1943), 90. Accessed Jan. 8, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/433972.
[26] Castleden 2002, 34.
[27] Ashe 1981, 323.
[28] Higham 2002,218.
[29] Barbara F Harvey, The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: 1066-C.1280. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 184.
[30] Paul Dalton, “The Topical Concerns of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britannie: History, Prophecy, Peacemaking, and English Identity in the Twelfth Century." Journal of British Studies 44, no. 4 (2005): 689.
[31] Michael A. Faletra, "Narrating the Matter of Britain: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Norman Colonization of Wales." The Chaucer Review 35, no. 1 (2000): 61.
[32] Flood 2015, 84-86.
[33] Nicholas Vincent, "HENRY II." History Today, 12,(2004). 47. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/202816753?accountid=14171.
[34] Vincent 2004, 47.
[35] Harvey 2011, 184.
[36] Harvey 2011, 187.
[37] Frances Gies, The Knight in History (New York: Harper and Row, 1984), 75.
[38]Jay Ruud, "medieval romance." In Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, by Jay Ruud. 2nd ed. Facts On File,2014.http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofmedieval/medieval_romance/0?institutionId=288
[39] Eugene Vinaver, The Rise of Romance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971,) 1.
[40] Kennedy et al 1996, 29.
[41] Gies 1984, 49.
[42] Susann Samples. "GUINEVERE: A RE-APPRAISAL." Arthurian Interpretations 3, no. 2 (1989): 106.
[43] Lori J. Walters et al., Lancelot and Guinevere: A Casebook, (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), 3.
[44] Maurice Keen, Chivalry, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984), 91,135.
[45] Sidney Painter, French Chivalry, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1964), 131.
[46] Vinaver, The Rise of Romance, 32.
[47] Keen 1984, 200.
[48] Keen 1984, 19.
[49] Chretien De Troyes, Arthurian Romances (London: Penguin Books, 1991), 381.
[50] Keen 1984, 68.
[51] Ruth Huff Kline, “The Influence of Romances on Tournaments of the Middle Ages." Speculum 20, no. 2 (1945),204.
[52] Huff Cline 1945, 407.
[53] Phillip E. Bennet, Sara Carpenter and Louise Gardiner,"CHIVALRIC GAMES AT THE COURT OF EDWARD III: THE JOUSTING LETTERS OF EUL MS 183." Medium Aevum 87, no. 2 (2018), 308,http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2326815657?accountid=14171.
[54] Beate Schmolke-Hasslemann, The Evolution of Arthurian Romance: The Verse Tradition from Chretien to Froissart, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 285.
[55] Erich S. Gruen, "Cultural Fictions and Cultural Identity." Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 123 (1993): 14. doi:10.2307/284321.
[56] Maureen Fries, "The Arthurian Moment: History and Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia Regum Britannie"." Arthuriana 8, no. 4 (1998), 90.. www.jstor.org/stable/27869401.
[57] Higham 2002, 223.
[58] R.S. Loomis et al., Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1959.) 1.
[59] Field 2008, 21.
[60] Mary Williams “King Arthur in History and Legend,” Folklore 73, no. 2 (1962), 73. Accessed January 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1258608.
[61] Higham 2002, 12.
[62] Loomis et al.1959, 3.
[63] Geoffrey Ashe, "The Origins of the Arthurian Legend." Arthuriana 5, no. 3 (1995), 1. Accessed January 21, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27869122.
[64] Higham 2002, 97.
[65] Beverly Taylor, and Elisabeth Brewer. The Return of King Arthur: British and American Arthurian Literature since 1900. Suffolk, (UK: Boydell and Brewer Limited, 1983), 1.
[66]Stephanie L. Barczewski, Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.), 2.
[67] Inga Bryden, "All Dressed Up: Revivalism and the Fashion for Arthur in Victorian Culture." Arthuriana 21, no. 2 (2011): 33. Accessed March 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23238239.
[68] "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood." In The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of British Art, ed. by David Bindman, and Nigel J. Morgan. (London:Thames & Hudson, 1988.) http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/thba/pre_raphaelite_brotherhood/0?institutionId=288
[69] “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.” In the Thames & Hudson Dictionary of British Art.
[70] Taylor and Brewer 1983, 15.
[71] Higham 2002, 10.
[72] Higham 2002, 36.
[73] Alan MacColl “King Arthur and the Making of an English Britain,” History Today, 03, 1999. 7, http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/202814393?accountid=14171.
7.
[74] Leah Haught, "Performing Nostalgia: Medievalism in "King Arthur `` and’ ‘Camelot ``.'' Arthuriana 24, no. 4 (2014), 121.
[75] Helen Dell, "Nostalgia and Medievalism: Conversations, Contradictions, Impasses." Postmedieval 2, no. 2 (Summer, 2011), 116.
[76] Castleden 2000, 3.
[77] Lorraine K. Stock, "Reinventing an Iconic Arthurian Moment: The Sword in the Stone in Films and Television." Arthuriana 25, no. 4 (2015): 67.
[78] Michael W. George,"Arthuriana as Living Tradition." Arthuriana 15, no. 4 (2005) ,15.
[79] Dan Nastali, and Phil Boardman. "Searching for Arthur: Literary Highways, Electronic Byways, and Cultural Back Roads." Arthuriana 11, no. 4 (2001), 120.
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Rosenwein, Barbara H. A Short History of the Middle Ages, 197-240. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2014.
Douglas, Sarah “Knighthood as it Was, Not as We Wish it Were”, Origins, Miami and Ohio State History Departments. January 2011, Accessed Nov. 27, 2019. https://origins.osu.edu/review/knighthood-it-was-not-we-wish-it-were
Harvey, Barbara ed. A Short Oxford History of the British Isles: The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Duby, Georges. William Marshall: The Flower of Chivalry. Translated by Richard Howard. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984
Duby, Georges. The Chivalrous Society. Translated by Cynthia Postan. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977
Gies, Frances. The Knight in History. New York: Harper & Row, 1984.
Reynolds, Susan. Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Keen, Maurice. Chivalry. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.
Smith, Katherine Allen. "Saints in Shining Armor: Martial Asceticism and Masculine Models of Sanctity, Ca. 1050-1250." Speculum 83, no. 3 (2008): 572-602. www.jstor.org/stable/20466282.
"Knights." In Encyclopedia of Warrior Peoples & Fighting Groups, edited by Paul K. Davis, and Allen Lee Hamilton. 3rd ed. Grey House Publishing, 2016. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/greywarrior/knights/0?institutionId=288
Bachrach, Bernard S. "Medieval Siege Warfare: A Reconnaissance." The Journal of Military History 58, no. 1 (1994): 119-33. doi:10.2307/2944182.
Hollister, C. Warren. "The Norman Conquest and the Genesis of English Feudalism." The American Historical Review 66, no. 3 (1961): 641-63. doi:10.2307/1846968.
Crosland, Jessie. William the Marshal: The Last Great Feudal Baron. London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1962
Duby, Georges.William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.
Bloch, Marc. Feudal Society. 2 vols. Trans. L.A. Manyon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
Freed, John B. "Nobles, Ministerials, and Knights in the Archdiocese of Salzburg." Speculum 62, no. 3 (1987): 575-611. doi:10.2307/2846383.
Mitchell, Linda E. "The Lady Is a Lord: Noble Widows and Land in Thirteenth-Century Britain." Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 18, no. 1 (1992): 71-97. www.jstor.org/stable/41298944.
Bullough, Vern L. "Medieval Concepts of Adultery." Arthuriana 7, no. 4 (1997): 5-15. www.jstor.org/stable/27869285.
Prestwich, Michael. "Miles in Armis Strenuus: The Knight at War." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5 (1995): 201-20. doi:10.2307/3679334.
Duby, Georges. Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages. trans. Jane Dunnet. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.
Duby, Georges. The Knight, The Lady, and The Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France.trans. Barbara Bray. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983
Stuard, Susan Mosher. “Introduction.” In Women in Medieval Society. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976.
Phillips, Kim M. Medieval Maidens : Young Women and Gender in England, 1270-1540 .Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2003.
Gravdal, Kathryn. "Chrétien De Troyes, Gratian, and the Medieval Romance of Sexual Violence." Signs 17, no. 3 (1992): 558-85. www.jstor.org/stable/3174623.
Stuhmiller, Jacqueline. "”Iudicium Dei, Iudicium Fortunae": Trial by Combat in Malory's "Le Morte Darthur"." Speculum 81, no. 2 (2006): 427-62. www.jstor.org/stable/20463717.
Painter, Sidney. French Chivalry, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1964.
Curry, Anne, "heraldry." In The Oxford Companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, and Robert Crowcroft. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press., 2015. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/oupoxford/heraldry/0?institutionId=288
"Roland." In The Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature, edited by Marion Wynne-Davies. 2nd ed. Bloomsbury, 1997. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/blit/roland/0?institutionId=288
Ruud, Jay. "chanson de geste." In Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, by Jay Ruud. 2nd ed. Facts On File, 2014. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofmedieval/chanson_de_geste/0?institutionId=288
JONES, C. W., T.V.F Brogan, T.V.F BROGAN, P. DAMON, and C. BROWN. "Medieval Poetry." In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, edited by Roland Green, Stephen Cushman, and Clare Cavanagh. 4th ed. Princeton University Press, 2012. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/prpoetry/medieval_poetry/0?institutionId=288
Finlayson, John. "Definitions of Middle English Romance." The Chaucer Review 15, no. 1 (1980): 44-62. Accessed March 2, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25093739.
HELLER, S. (2012). Medieval romance. In R. Green, S. Cushman, & C. Cavanagh (Eds.), The Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics (4th ed.). Princeton University Press. Credo Reference: http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/prpoetry/medieval_romance/0?institutionId=288
Ruud, Jay. (2014). medieval romance. In Encyclopedia of medieval literature by Jay Ruud,(2nd ed.). Facts On File. Credo Reference: http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofmedieval/medieval_romance/0?institutionId=288
Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, "Fictions of the Female Voice: The Women Troubadours," Speculum 67, no. 4 ( 1992): 865-891. Accessed February 13, 2020. doi:10.2307/2863471.
Ruud, Jay. "lay." In Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, by Jay Ruud. 2nd ed. Facts On File, 2014. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofmedieval/lay/0?institutionId=288
Wright, L. M. "Misconceptions concerning the Troubadours, Trouvères, and Minstrels." Music & Letters 48, no. 1 (1967): 35-39. Accessed March 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/733150.
Curry, A. (2015). heraldry. In J. Cannon, & R. Crowcroft (Eds.), Oxford quick reference: The Oxford Companion to British history (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press, Inc. Credo Reference: http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/oupoxford/heraldry/0?institutionId=288
McGlynn, Sean. "Pueri Sunt Pueri: Machismo, Chivalry, and the Aggressive Pastimes of the Medieval Male Youth." Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 42, no. 1 (2016): 88-100. Accessed March 7, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24720618.
Dunn, Caroline. "The Language of Ravishment in Medieval England." Speculum 86, no. 1 (2011): 79-116. Accessed March 2, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/41105501.
Gweneth Whitteridge. "The Identity of Sir Thomas Malory, Knight-Prisoner." The Review of English Studies, 24, no. 95 (1973): 257-65. Accessed March 2, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/514968.
Fanni Bogdanow. "The Love Theme in Chrétien De Troyes's "Chevalier De La Charrette"." The Modern Language Review 67, no. 1 (1972): 50-61. Accessed March 5, 2020. doi:10.2307/3722385.
T. A. Shippey. "The Uses of Chivalry: "Erec" and "Gawain"." The Modern Language Review 66, no. 2 (1971): 241-50. Accessed March 1, 2020. doi:10.2307/3722880.
Bryson, Michael, and Arpi Movsesian. "The Troubadours and Fin’amor: Love, Choice, and the Individual." In Love and Its Critics: From the Song of Songs to Shakespeare and Milton’s Eden, 121-94. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017. Accessed feburary 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1sq5vd6.8.
KESSELRING, K.J. "No Greater Provocation? Adultery and the Mitigation of Murder in English Law." Law and History Review 34, no. 1 (2016): 199-225. Accessed March 2, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24771507.
Russell, Jeffrey B. "Courtly Love as Religious Dissent." The Catholic Historical Review 51, no. 1 (1965): 31-44. Accessed March 7, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25017609.
Ormrod, W. M. "KNIGHTS OF VENUS." Medium Aevum 73, no. 2 (2004): 290-305,
Taylor, A.B. An Introduction to Medieval Romance, London, Heath Cranton Limited: 1971
Saul, Nigel. Chivalry in Medieval England. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2011.
Saul, Nigel. Age of Chivalry: Art and Society in Late Medieval England, London: Brockhampton Press. 1995
Rowbotham, John Frederick. The Troubadours and Courts of Love. Detroit, MI: Singing Tree Press, 1969
Walters, Lori J. ed. Lancelot and Guinevere: A Casebook. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, 1996.
Thompson, E. A. "Gildas and the History of Britain." Britannia 10 (1979): 203-26. Accessed January 3, 2020. doi:10.2307/526057.
Torregrossa, Michael. "Merlin Goes to the Movies: The Changing Role of Merlin in Cinema Arthuriana." Film & History 29, no. 3-4 (1999): 54-65, http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2148492?accountid=14171.
Harty, Kevin J. "CINEMA ARTHURIANA: TRANSLATIONS OF THE ARTHURIAN LEGEND TO THE SCREEN." Arthurian Interpretations 2, no. 1 (1987): 95-113. Accessed February 8, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27868632.
Higham, N.J. King Arthur: Myth-Making and History. London: Routledge, 2002.
Castleden, Rodney. King Arthur: The Truth Behind the Legend. London: Routledge, 2000
Field, P.J.C. "Arthur's Battles." Arthuriana 18, no. 4 (2008): 3-32. Accessed January 14, 2020.
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Vincent, Nicholas. "HENRY II." History Today, 12, 2004. 46, http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/202816753?accountid=14171.
Williams, Mary. "King Arthur in History and Legend." Folklore 73, no. 2 (1962): 73-88. Accessed January 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1258608.
Ashe, Geoffrey. "The Origins of the Arthurian Legend." Arthuriana 5, no. 3 (1995): 1-24. Accessed January 21, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27869122.
Howlett, D. R. "The Literary Context of Geoffrey of Monmouth: An Essay on the Fabrication of Sources." Arthuriana 5, no. 3 (1995): 25-69. Accessed January 26, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27869123.
Levilson C. Reis. "Clergie, Clerkly Studium, and the Medieval Literary History of Chrétien De Troyes's Romances." The Modern Language Review 106, no. 3 (2011): 682-96. Accessed January 20, 2020. doi:10.5699/modelangrevi.106.3.0682.
Harvey, Barbara F. The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries: 1066-C.1280. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Varin, Amy. "Mordred, King Arthur's Son." Folklore 90, no. 2 (1979): 167-77. Accessed January 14, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/1259595.
Russell, J. C. "Arthur and the Romano-Celtic Frontier." Modern Philology 48, no. 3 (1951): 145-53. Accessed January 14, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/435384.
Wiseman, Howard. “The Derivation of the Date of the Badon Entry in the Annales Cambriae from Bede and Gildas.” Parergon 17, no. 2. (Jan. 2000): 1-10, https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2000.0072.
Flood, Victoria. "Arthur's Return from Avalon: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Development of the Legend." Arthuriana 25, no. 2 (2015): 84-110. Accessed January 14, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/24643472.
Paton, Lucy Allen. "Notes on Merlin in the "Historia Regum Britanniae" of Geoffrey of Monmouth." Modern Philology 41, no. 2 (1943): 88-95. Accessed January 14, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/433972.
Furtado, Antonio L. "GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH: A SOURCE OF THE GRAIL STORIES." Quondam Et Futurus 1, no. 1 (1991): 1-14. Accessed January 14, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27870102.
Gruen, Erich S. "Cultural Fictions and Cultural Identity." Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-) 123 (1993): 1-14. Accessed January 17, 2020. doi:10.2307/284321.
MacColl, Alan. "King Arthur and the Making of an English Britain." History Today, 03, 1999. 7, http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/202814393?accountid=14171.
Fries, Maureen. "The Arthurian Moment: History and Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia Regum Britannie"." Arthuriana 8, no. 4 (1998): 88-99. Accessed January 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27869401.
Cline, Ruth Huff. "The Influence of Romances on Tournaments of the Middle Ages." Speculum 20, no. 2 (1945): 204-11. Accessed January 7, 2020. doi:10.2307/2854595.
Bennett, Philip E., Sarah Carpenter, and Louise Gardiner. "CHIVALRIC GAMES AT THE COURT OF EDWARD III: THE JOUSTING LETTERS OF EUL MS 183." Medium Aevum 87, no. 2 (2018): 304-42, http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2326815657?accountid=14171.
Barczewski, Stephanie L. Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Taylor, Beverly, and Elisabeth Brewer. The Return of King Arthur: British and American Arthurian Literature since 1900. Suffolk, UK: Boydell and Brewer Limited, 1983.
Haught, Leah. "Performing Nostalgia: Medievalism in "King Arthur" and "Camelot"." Arthuriana 24, no. 4 (2014): 97-126. Accessed January 20, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/44697478.
Dell, Helen. "Nostalgia and Medievalism: Conversations, Contradictions, Impasses." Postmedieval 2, no. 2 (Summer, 2011): 115-26, http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/883069313?accountid=14171.
Nastali, Dan, and Phil Boardman. "Searching for Arthur: Literary Highways, Electronic Byways, and Cultural Back Roads." Arthuriana 11, no. 4 (2001): 108-22. Accessed January 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27869688.
Stock, Lorraine K. "Reinventing an Iconic Arthurian Moment: The Sword in the Stone in Films and Television." Arthuriana 25, no. 4 (2015): 66-83. Accessed January 19, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/44697440.
George, Michael W. "Arthuriana as Living Tradition." Arthuriana 15, no. 4 (2005): 14-18. Accessed January 22, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27870713.
Edward Donald Kennedy et al., King Arthur: A Casebook. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996.
Schmolke-Hasselmann, Beate. The Evolution of Arthurian Romance: The Verse Tradition from Chretien to Froissart, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Vinaver, Eugene. The Rise of Romance Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
"Morte Darthur, Le." In The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, ed. by Ian Ousby. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/cupliteng/morte_darthur_le/0?institutionId=288
Redgate, A. E."Arthur." In The Oxford Companion to British History, edited by John Cannon, and Robert Crowcroft. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/oupoxford/arthur/0?institutionId=288
Ashe, Geoffrey. ""A Certain Very Ancient Book": Traces of an Arthurian Source in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History." Speculum 56, no. 2 (1981): 301-23. Accessed February 8, 2020. doi:10.2307/2846937.
Dalton, Paul. "The Topical Concerns of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae: History, Prophecy, Peacemaking, and English Identity in the Twelfth Century." Journal of British Studies 44, no. 4 (2005): 688-712. Accessed February 10, 2020. doi:10.1086/431937.
Faletra, Michael A. "Narrating the Matter of Britain: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Norman Colonization of Wales." The Chaucer Review 35, no. 1 (2000): 60-85. Accessed February 9, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25096117.
Ruud, Jay. "medieval romance." In Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature, by Jay Ruud. 2nd ed. Facts On File, 2014. http://ezproxy.purchase.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/fofmedieval/medieval_romance/0?institutionId=288
SAMPLES, SUSANN. "GUINEVERE: A RE-APPRAISAL." Arthurian Interpretations 3, no. 2 (1989): 106-18. Accessed February 11, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/27868663.
BRYDEN, INGA. "All Dressed Up: Revivalism and the Fashion for Arthur in Victorian Culture." Arthuriana 21, no. 2 (2011): 28-41. Accessed March 17, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23238239.