The Fringes of Arthurian Fiction

Abstract

In 1980, Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann published her groundbreaking study Der arthurische Versroman von Chretien bis Froissart.1 According to its subtitle, the monograph was devoted to the ‘Geschichte einer Gattung’ (the history of a genre) – an indication repeated in the main title of the splendid English translation of the work.2 Although The Evolution of Arthurian Romance suggests a broad treatment of Arthurian literature, Schmolke-Hasselmann’s discussion is in fact limited to French texts. This equation of Arthurian literature with French Arthurian literature has been, as is well known, a widespread phenomenon in international Arthurian scholarship until quite recently. Norris Lacy has termed this emphasis on French texts ‘scholarly “gallocentrism”’.3 The publications listed yearly in the Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian Society convey the impression that the concept of Arthurian literature awakens in the Arthurian community first and foremost associations with the corpus of French romances, and, to a lesser degree, with English and German texts.4 While the dominance of scholarship on French narratives is understandable in the light of the position of French literature at the beginning of the genre’s history and the sheer size of the corpus, the particular interest devoted to English and German texts over the years can in all