The working criticism for Movements III–V.
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ed. Norris J. Lacy & Joan Tasker Grimbert, A Companion to Chrétien de Troyes (2005) Next
The state of the questions on all five romances.
Assigned in
Unit 15
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ed. Douglas Kelly, The Romances of Chrétien de Troyes: A Symposium (1985) Specialist
An older but still-useful gathering, strongest on Erec and the shape of the early romances.
Assigned in
Unit 13
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ed. Roberta L. Krueger, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance (2000) Next
The form itself: audiences, manuscripts, courtly love and its discontents.
Assigned in
Unit 13 ·
Unit 14
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ed. Norris J. Lacy, Douglas Kelly & Keith Busby, The Legacy of Chrétien de Troyes (1987–88) Specialist
What the Continuations, the German poets, and the prose cycles each made of an unfinished poem.
Assigned in
Unit 16
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ed. Carol Dover, A Companion to the Lancelot-Grail Cycle (2003) Next
The Vulgate's composition, design, manuscripts, and afterlife, chapter by chapter.
Assigned in
Unit 20 ·
Unit 23
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Fanni Bogdanow, The Romance of the Grail: A Study of the Structure and Genesis of a Thirteenth-Century Arthurian Prose Romance (1966) Specialist
The Post-Vulgate reconstructed from its scattered witnesses — heroic philology.
Assigned in
Unit 23
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ed. Will Hasty, A Companion to Wolfram's Parzival (1999) Next
The standard English collection on Wolfram.
Assigned in
Unit 18
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Joachim Bumke, Wolfram von Eschenbach (8th ed. 2004) Specialist
The standard German handbook — the fullest single guide to the scholarship, for readers with the language.
Assigned in
Unit 18
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ed. Derek Brewer & Jonathan Gibson, A Companion to the Gawain-Poet (1997) Next
The standard collection for Unit 25.
Assigned in
Unit 25
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J. S. Mackley, Sir Gawain and the Ritual Process (2017) Next
A recent reading of Gawain through van Gennep and Turner — useful, and a fair test of whether the ritual frame earns its keep. Free in full.
Assigned in
Unit 25
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P. J. C. Field, The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Malory (1993) Specialist
The biography, and the case for the Newbold Revel Malory that the field now generally accepts.
Assigned in
Unit 27
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ed. Elizabeth Archibald & A. S. G. Edwards, A Companion to Malory (1996) Next
The first generation of standard essays.
Assigned in
Unit 28
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ed. Megan G. Leitch & Cory J. Rushton, A New Companion to Malory (2019) Next
The second, and the better starting point today.
Assigned in
Unit 27 ·
Unit 29
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ed. J. A. W. Bennett, Essays on Malory (1963) Specialist
The 1963 collection that shaped the response to Vinaver.
Assigned in
Unit 27
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C. S. Lewis, The English Prose Morte , Essays on Malory, ed. J. A. W. Bennett (1963) Next
The essay in that collection everyone still quotes — the case for the whole book, made in prose worth the reading on its own.
Assigned in
Unit 28
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Sandra Ness Ihle, Malory's Grail Quest: Invention and Adaptation in Medieval Prose Romance (1983) Specialist
What Malory did to the Queste, adaptation by adaptation. Behind Unit 28.
Assigned in
Unit 28
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ed. & trans. Judith Weiss, Wace's Roman de Brut: A History of the British (2002) Next
Edition and facing translation: the standard way to read Wace in English.
Assigned in
Unit 10
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ed. Michael D. Reeve, trans. Neil Wright, The History of the Kings of Britain: An Edition and Translation of De gestis Britonum (2007) Specialist
The critical edition and translation of Geoffrey that supersedes all others.
Assigned in
Unit 7
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ed. Siân Echard, The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature (2011) Specialist
The survey volume for the Latin tradition — Geoffrey in context, and the chroniclers who believed or refused him.
Assigned in
Unit 7
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ed. Martin Biddle, King Arthur's Round Table: An Archaeological Investigation (2000) Specialist
An entire interdisciplinary volume on one piece of furniture — and a model of how to date an object and read its politics.
Assigned in
Unit 12
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ed. James P. Carley, Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian Tradition (2001) Specialist
The abbey, the grave, and the manufacture of Arthurian tradition, documented.
Assigned in
Unit 12 ·
Unit 19
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ed. Peter H. Goodrich & Raymond H. Thompson, Merlin: A Casebook (2003) Next
Merlin across the whole tradition, in essays: the best single gathering on the figure.
Assigned in
Unit 9 ·
Unit 19
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ed. Edward Donald Kennedy, King Arthur: A Casebook (1996) Specialist
The companion casebook on Arthur himself, strongest on the Tudor afterlife.
Assigned in
Unit 30
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ed. A. C. Hamilton, The Spenser Encyclopedia (1990) Specialist
For Unit 30: what Spenser's allegorical Arthur owes to, and withholds from, the medieval matter.
Assigned in
Unit 30
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Karen Pratt, The Cistercians and the Queste del Saint Graal , Reading Medieval Studies 21 (1995), 69–96 (1995) Specialist
Tests the standard Cistercian attribution of the Queste, and finds it more complicated. Free in full.
Assigned in
Unit 21
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Rupert Taylor, The Political Prophecy in England (1911) Specialist
The old survey of English political prophecy — dated, unreplaced in scope, and free in full.
Assigned in
Unit 8
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Victoria Flood, Prophecy, Politics and Place in Medieval England (2016) Specialist
The modern treatment: prophecy as a political technology, from Geoffrey to the Wars of the Roses.
Assigned in
Unit 8
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Howard R. Patch, The Goddess Fortuna in Mediaeval Literature (1927) Specialist
The wheel that turns under the Mort Artu and both English Mortes, traced through the whole Middle Ages. Free in full.
Assigned in
Unit 22 ·
Unit 26
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trans. Patrick K. Ford, The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales (1977; rev. 2019) Next
The translation to set beside Davies, with an introduction that argues for the tales as mythological survivals.
Assigned in
Unit 4
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ed. Norris J. Lacy, Early French Tristan Poems (1998) Specialist
The Tristan fragments edited and translated together — the way to see Béroul and Thomas as one problem.
Assigned in
Unit 17