Carol Dover 
A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle 

Arthur and the grail stories appeared in this French prose cycle together for the first time; scholars explore its social, historical, literary and manuscript contexts and account for its enduring interest.


The early thirteenth-century French prose
Lancelot-Grail Cycle (or
Vulgate Cycle) brings together the stories of Arthur with those of the Grail, a conjunction of materials that continues to fascinate the Western imagination today. Representing what is probably the earliest large-scale use of prose for fiction in the West, it also exemplifies the taste for big cyclic compositions that shaped much of European narrative fiction for three centuries.


A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle is the first comprehensive volume devoted exclusively to the
Lancelot-Grail Cycle and its medieval legacy. The twenty essays in this volume, all by internationally known scholars, locate the work in its social, historical, literary, and manuscript contexts. In addition to addressing critical issues in the five texts that make up the
Cycle, the contributors convey to modern readers the appeal that the text must have had for its medieval audiences, and the richness of composition that made it compelling. This volume will become standard reading for scholars, students, and more general readers interested in the
Lancelot-Grail Cycle, medieval romance, Malory studies, and the Arthurian legends.


Contributors: RICHARD BARBER, EMMANUELE BAUMGARTNER, FANNI BOGDANOW, FRANK BRANDSMA, MATILDA T. BRUCKNER, CAROL J. CHASE, ANNIE COMBES, HELEN COOPER, CAROL R. DOVER, MICHAEL HARNEY, DONALD L. HOFFMAN, DOUGLAS KELLY, ELSPETH KENNEDY, NORRIS J. LACY, ROGER MIDDLETON, HAQUIRA OSAKABE, HANS-HUGO STEINHOFF, ALISON STONES, RICHARD TRACHSLER.


CAROL DOVERis associate professor of French and director of undergraduate studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Innehållsförteckning

Chivalry, Cistercianism and the
Lancelot-Grail Cycle – Richard Barber

The Making of the
Lancelot-Grail Cycle – Elspeth Kennedy ***

A Question of Time: Romance and History – Richard Trachsler

The
Lancelot-Grail Cycle and the
Post-Vulgate Cycle – Fanni Bogdanow

Interlace and the Cyclic Imagination – Douglas Kelly

The Gateway into the
Lancelot-Grail Cycle: L’Estoire del Saint Graal –

The
Merlin and its Continuations – Annie Combes

The Book of Lancelot – Carol Dover

Varied Repetitions: Prose and Verse
Charrette – Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner

La Queste del Saint Graal: from
semblance to
veraie semblance – Emmanuèle Baumgartner

The Sense of an Ending:
La Mort le roi Artu – Norris J. Lacy

’Mise en page’ in the French
Lancelot-Grail: The First Hundred and Fifty Years of the Illustrative Tradition – Alison Stones

The
Lancelot-Grail Cycle in England: Malory and his Predecessors – Helen Cooper

Lancelot in Italy – Donald L Hoffman

Lancelot in Germany – Hans-Hugo Steinhoff

The Spanish
Lancelot-Grail Heritage – Michael Harney

Neither Sublime Nor Galant: The Portuguese
Demanda do Santo Graal – Haquira Osakabe

The Lancelots of the Lowlands – Frank Brandsma

Manuscripts of the
Lancelot-Grail Cycle in England and Wales: Some Books and their Owners – Roger Middleton

Selective Bibliography – Carol Dover

Om författaren

RICHARD BARBER has had a huge influence on the study of medieval history and literature, as both a writer and a publisher. His first book on the Arthurian legend appeared in 1961, and his major works include The Knight and Chivalry (winner of the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971), Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, The Penguin Guide to Medieval Europe and The Holy Grail: the History of a Legend which was widely praised and was translated into six languages.