Fruits of the most recent research on the thirteenth century in both England and Europe. The articles collected here reflect the continued and wide interest in England and its neighbours in the years between Magna Carta and the Black Death, with many of them particularly seeking to set England in its European context.There are three main strands to the volume. The first is the social dimension of power, and the norms and practice of politics: attention is drawn to the variety of roles open to members of the clergy, but also peasants and townsmen, and the populace at large. Several chapters explore the manifestations and instruments of social identity, such as the seals used by the leading elites of thirteenth-century London, and the marriage practices of the Englisharistocracy. The third main focus is the uses of the past. Matthew Paris, the most famous chronicler of the period, receives due attention, in particular his changing attitude towards the monarch, but the Vita Edwardi Secundi's portrayal of Thomas of Lancaster and the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut are also considered. Janet Burton is Professor of Medieval History at University of Wales: Trinity Saint David; Phillipp Schofield is Professor of Medieval History at Aberystwyth University; Bjoern Weiler is Professor of History at Aberystwyth University. Contributors: J.R. Maddicott, Phillipp Schofield, Harmony Dewez, John McEwan, Joerg Peltzer, Karen Stoeber, Olga Cecilia Mendez Gonzalez, Sophie Ambler, Joe Creamer, Lars Kjaer, Andrew Spencer, Julia Marvin, Olivier de Laborderie

Epitomises what is best in Arthurian scholarship today. ZEITSCHRIFT FUER ROMANISCHE PHILOLOGIE This latest issue of Arthurian Literaturecontinues the tradition of the journal, combining critical studies with editions of primary Arthurian texts. Varied in their linguistic and chronological coverage, the articles dealwith major areas of Arthurian studies, from early French romance through late medieval English chronicle to contemporary fiction. Topics include Beroul's Tristan, Tristan de Nanteuil, the Anglo-Norman Brut, and the Morte, while an edition of the text of an extrait of Chretien's Erec et Enide prepared by the eighteenth-century scholar La Curne de Sainte-Palaye offers important insights into both scholarship on Chretien, and our understanding of the Enlightenment. The volume is completed with an encyclopaedic treatment of Arthurian literature, art and film produced between 1995 and 1995, acting as an update to The New Arthurian Encyclopedia.Contributors: RICHARD ILLINGWORTH, JANE TAYLOR, CARLETON CARROLL, MARIA COLOMBO TIMELLI, RALUCA RADULESCU, JULIA MARVIN, NORRIS LACY, RAYMOND THOMPSON.

Selection of the latest research in Arthurian studies. The essays in this volume present the most recent fruits of Arthurian scholarship, on texts from Perlesvaus to Albrecht's Jüngerer Titurel and the Prose BrutChronicle, together with a detailed examination of the role of Micheau Gonnot's Arthuriad in the evolution of Arthurian romance. The volume also includes an investigation of Arthurian prophecy and the deposition of Richard II. It is completed with an encyclopaedic treatment of Arthurian literature, art and film produced between 1999 and 2004, acting as a continuing update to The New Arthurian Encyclopedia. Contributors: BEN RAMM, FANNI BOGDANOW, ANNETTE VOLFING, HELEN FULTON, JULIA MARVIN, RAYMOND H. THOMPSON, NORRIS J. LACY

First modern text and translation of the prose Brut chronicle, the most popular secular vernacular work of the middle ages. First composed in Anglo-Norman French around the end of the thirteenth century, the anonymous prose Brut chronicle became the most popular secular vernacular work, and the most widespread Arthurian work, of the later middleages in England: repeatedly expanded, revised, and translated, it remained influential for centuries. Yet it has been little studied, in part because of the lack of any full modern edition. This edition of the Oldest Versionof the prose Brut, running from the fall of Troy to the death of Henry III in 1272, provides the Anglo-Norman text with facing-page translation and textual apparatus, a comprehensive introduction, and extensive explanatorynotes. It makes new contributions, on, for example, the identification and classification of the manuscripts, the identification and analysis of the sources [far more varied and numerous than had been previously recognised], andthe probable circumstances of the chronicle's composition. It will enable scholars to make full use of this remarkable resource for the study of Arthurian tradition, contemporary visions of British history, popular thought about society and government in late-medieval England, and the history of reading itself. Professor JULIA MARVIN teaches at the University of Notre Dame.

First full-length interpretive study of the prose Brut tradition, setting its manuscript context alongside textual analysis. The prose Brut chronicle was the most popular vernacular work of the late Middle Ages in England, setting a standard for vernacular historical writing well into the age of print, but until recently it has attracted little scholarly attention. This book combines a study of the chronicle's sources, content, and methods of composition, with its manuscript contexts. Using the Anglo-Norman Oldest Version as a touchstone, it investigates the chronicle's social ideals, its representation of women, and its distinctive versions of such elements of British history as the Trojan foundation myth, the ruin of the Britons, the Norman Conquest, and Arthur and Merlin, arguing that its humane, populist vision demands reassessment of medieval popular understandings of British history, and of the presumed dominance of imperialism, next-worldly piety, misogyny, and a taste for violence in late-medieval culture. The book also analyses evidence for the production of the Anglo-Norman Brut, and examines the ways in which its makers and users reconstructed British history through manuscript context, ordinatio and apparatus, annotationand illustration. Julia Marvin is a Fellow of the Medieval Institute and Associate Professor in the Program of Liberal Studies at the University of Notre Dame.