A Franconian Knight at King Arthur's Court: Regional Identity and Medieval Iconography in Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Glücksritters Wigalois (2011)

Abstract

Wigalois, son of Gawein, is perhaps not the most famous of King Arthur's knights, but his story has been retold many times, in German and Yiddish, in medieval manuscript and modern forms. Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Glücksritters Wigalois () offers an adaptation of the Middle High German Wigalois (1210/20) as a graphic novel that provides a powerful example of reworking medieval texts for a younger and broader audience, both increasing the interest in medieval narratives and in the manuscripts as material objects. The theoretical framework of Adaptation Studies allows for a critical analysis of the text that does not assume the medieval Wigalois as original, best version of the text. The exploration of this graphic novel will also show, however, that its creators focus more on references to the Middle Ages than on the potential a new adaption offers and, in consequence, present their readers with a white‐washed version of the Middle Ages.