Arthurian Literature XLI

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.

This volume covers a wide range of materials, whether judged by national or linguistic literary traditions, time period, or critical methodology. It begins with the winning Brewer Prize essay (for an early career scholar): in this case, an investigation of transgender possibilities in the Grisandole episode from the Old French Suite du Merlin. Subsequent essays examine what can be gleaned of the legend of Melwas from surviving medieval and early modern Welsh tradition; the vexed question of Chrétien de Troyes' attitude to marriage; and the ways in which the authors of the Middle English Sir Percyvell and Middle Dutch Moriaen adapt and complete Chrétien's Conte du Graal. The volume closes with two different studies of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. The first presents an argument for a continuation of Lollard concerns into the fifteenth century, concerns that run throughout Malory's Arthuriad. The second re-opens the question of the provenance of William Caxton's copy-text for Malory's Morte, proposing that it was Anthony Wydeville, the brother-in-law of King Edward IV, who provided Caxton with his copy-text manuscript - as he designed the striking red-letter names visible today in the layout of the Winchester manuscript.