The Historical Arthur and the Gawain Poet : Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions (Studies in Medieval Literature)

Breeze, Andrew

Lexington Books（2023/02発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 164 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781666929546
• DDC分類 942.014

Full Description

The Historical Arthur and The Gawain Poet: Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions delves into the origins of Arthur and reveals the author of the famous Gawain Manuscript. Its first part contains evidence for the Arthur of film and legend as a real person, a Celtic commander (not a king) who fought battles in North Britain during the terrible volcanic winter of 536-7, before dying a hero's death in a conflict on Hadrian's Wall. Its second part moves on to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an Arthurian poem on magic, near-death, and near-seduction. Its author has always been unknown, but Dr. Breeze uses arguments of the US scholar Ann W. Astell to date the text to 1387 and name the poet as Sir John Stanley (d. 1414), a Cheshire and Lancashire grandee. He can now be recognized as an artist of genius, comparable to Chaucer himself. What is said in this book on John Stanley and his circle thus allows the greatest advance in Arthurian Studies since 1934, when Walter Oakeshott discovered the Winchester Malory amongst manuscripts of an English school library.

Contents

Preface
Part 1: Arthur
Chapter One: The Historical Arthur
Chapter Two: Arthur Dux Bellorum and Welsh Penteulu "Chief of the Royal Warband"
Part Two: The Gawain Poet and His School
Chapter Three: Was Sir John Stanley (d. 1414) the Gawain Poet?
Chapter Four: 1387: Year of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Chapter Five: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Predates Pearl
Chapter Six: Italy, Pearl, St Erkenwald, and Sir William Stanley
Chapter Seven: Place-Names and Politics in The Awntyrs off Arthure
Bibliography
About the Author