The Fortunes of King Arthur by Norris J. Lacy (review)

Abstract

256 Reviews romances constructed a national identitybased on the claim that ithad been a legal GoldenAge. Most Middle English rewritings of French romances have been undervalued as abridged versions adapted to less cultured audiences. Phillipa Hardman engages in a reappraisal of Sir Tristrem, whose importance she reassesseswithin the tradition.As she convincingly argues, it isa skilfulinstance of abbreviatio, meant foran English audience familiarwith both legend and genre. Not only does itsdiptych structure before and after the love drink -allow Hardman to suggest themore relevant name Tristrem and rsoude, it also makes sense of some alleged weaknesses and rearrangements. The question raised by Elizabeth Archibald 'Did Knights Have Baths?' tentatively considers the issue of medieval bathing and recalls thepaucity of themotif in Middle English romances. Derek Brewer relieson his own reviewofJaeger's Ennobling Love (I999) toexplore the transformationsof 'fin'amor'.After reiterating that thenew development of heterosexual love isnot due to the collapse of a long tradition of homosexual love between males of the nobility,he testshis own view, based on C. S. Lewis, in a wide surveyofMedieval English romances. Neil Cartlidge and Nancy Mason Bradbury both address gender. Cartlidge draws on a well-documented corpus to explore SirGowther'sscandalous storyofwomen's impreg nation by the devil, and the frictionbetween clerical culture and vernacular audience; and Bradbury successfully examines female roles in the late fourteenth century (shift from private to public, queenly intercession, and promotion of 'common profit') in Athelston. Roger Dalrymple discusses symbolic functions of the renditions of giant slaying inTorrent of Portyngale, and observes themovement away from that topos toother cultural encounters. The finalessay,byHelen Cooper, deals with the legend of Thomas of Erceldoune and his prophecies, and highlights thesignificanceof itsnumerous rewrit ings, most notably in The FaerieQueene. Corinne Saunders's selection demonstrates that the vitality of medieval England's romances (Middle English and Anglo-Norman) is rooted in itsexceptional variety of cultural encounter; and that the intricacy of many layers classical, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, French, Celtic; lay and clerical generated a highly complex situation that affectedmany aspects of the genre. Her own expertise inmedieval English romances and thehistoryof ideas isjustifiably matched by thequality of contributions evident in this volume, which emerged from the Eighth Biennial Conference on Romance in MedievalEngland(Durham 2002). UNIVERSITY OF LIEGE JULIETTEDOR The Fortunes of KingArthur.Ed. byNoRRisJ. LAcy. Arthurian Studies, 64. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. 2005. XVi+ 23I PP. ?45. ISBN:978-I-84384-06i-9. The Goddess Fortuna dominates thisbook. Her influenceonArthur's career is revisited inmedieval narratives inLatin, Welsh, French, English, Norse, Italian, and German, and his literaryfate is traced from theearliest records to the twenty-first century inboth written and pictorial form.Some parts of thiscollective volume of thirteenessays, nine originally delivered at a conference at Pennsylvania State University in 2002, cover YES, 38.I & 2, 2008 257 ground familiar to scholars but very cogently summarized here. Undergraduate and postgraduate students will find these resume's helpful, while for those experiencing Arthurian overload theyformawelcome aide memoire. But new light isalso cast on the familiar,while entire chapters offer new research or information valuable to those working in a differentarea of Arthurian studies. The three sections of thebook deal with Arthur as a historical and literaryconstruct; the effectof events mainly unfortunate on Arthur and his court; and hismodifi cation in later medieval and modern imagination. Fortune isa topic inall threesections: Sian Echard examines the topic in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia in the Latin original, and theFirstVariant andWelsh versions by focusingon theLeir episode; Norris J.Lacy's chapter considers Fortune injudgemental treatmentsofArthur's behaviour in a range of textsincluding Icelandic; Neil Thomas analysesArthur's continuing fortunes in laterGerman romances. In the second section,Alison Stones's long essay 'Illustration and theFortunes ofArthur' includes among many illustrationsfour images of Fortune's wheel thoughwithout explaining why in twoof these thewheel seems tobe turning anticlockwise; it isa pity that thepoor black-and-white reproduction of coloured origi nals makes the illustrations indistinct in thischapter. Romance and itsrelation to chronicle form another strand in the collection, which begins with Christopher Snyder's clear exposition of kingship in theHistoria Brittonum. W R.J. Barron's posthumous chapter explores cultural change in theEnglish Arthurian tradition fromLa3amon toSir Gawain...