'Whoever wishes to hear about, and to know about, kings and heirs, about who first ruled England and which kings it had, Master Wace, who is telling the truth about this, has translated this.' Wace's Roman de Brut (1155) can be seen as the gateway to the history of the Britons for both French and English speakers of the time, and thus to Arthurian history, as the first complete Old French adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin History of the Kings of Britain (late 1130s), in which Arthur appears for the first time as king of the Britons. The Roman de Brut was a foundational work, an inspiration for a series of anonymous verse Bruts of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries and for the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut -- the most widely read French vernacular text on this material in medieval England -- as well as a forerunner of the Middle English Brut tradition, including Layamon's Brut (c. 1200). Wace's poem thus inaugurates and shapes Brut traditions, including Arthurian tales, in verse and in prose, in historiography and in literature, including Wace's innovation of King Arthur's Round Table. This volume contains an English prose translation of Wace's Roman de Brut, accompanied by an introduction and notes, a select bibliography, a summary of the text, a list of manuscripts, and indexes of personal and geographical names.

Roman de Brut (Oxford World's Classics)

Literature & Fiction

Burgess, Glyn S.

Wace

History & Criticism

Oxford University Press

Chretien de Troyes: Erec et Enide (Critical Guides to French Texts)

Foyles

The Lais of Marie De France: Text and Context

Marie, De France

Univ of Georgia Pr

This volume presents an analytical bibliography of twenty narrative lays written in French in the late twelfth or early thirteenth centuries — Aristote, Conseil, Cor, Desiré, Doon, Espervier, Espine, Graelent, Guingamor, Haveloc, Ignaure, Lecheor, Mantel, Melion, Nabaret, Oiselet, Ombre, Trot, Tydorel and Tyolet —seeking to provide a complete list of the editions, translations, and substantial studies which have been devoted to them over the years. The choice of the 20 poems corresponds to Donovan's The Breton Lay, the only synthesis so far available on this topic in English. Most references are accompanied by a summary which analyses their contribution to the topic under discussion, covering the item's significance and interest, and items found in works of reference and briefer studies forming part of books or articles are included where appropriate. Each individual bibliography is intended to stand independently, with full references given in each case for editions and translation; cross-references to important items found in other parts of the volume are given at the end of each bibliography. The twenty parts are preceded by a general section which lists contributions to more than one lay.Professor GLYN BURGESSteaches in the Department of French at the University of Liverpool.

The Old French Narrative Lay: An Analytical Bibliography

D.S.Brewer

The Roman de Thèbes and The Roman d'Eneas (Exeter Studies in Medieval Europe)

The two romances translated in this volume, the Roman de Thèbes and the Roman d'Eneas, form, along with the Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure, a group of texts that are of considerable importance within French and European literature and culture. Composed between c. 1150 and c. 1165, these romances create a bridge between classical tales (the Thèbes is based on the Thebaid of Statius, the Eneas on the Aeneid of Virgil) and the burgeoning vernacular romances, represented especially by Chrétien de Troyes. As a group, these three works are frequently known as the romances of antiquity (romans d'antiquité) and they introduce into French literature the dominant contemporary themes of chivalry and love. They are set against a feudal and courtly background in which themes such as war, prowess inheritance and the possession of land are crucial. As they adapt their Latin sources, these romances, especially the Eneas, exploit the works of Ovid, especially in the presentation of the theme of love, and they also make use of the principles of rhetorical composition as studied in the schools (both romances contain remarkable examples of descriptions of both people and objects). This is the first volume to contain two complete translations of the three romances of antiquity. The translation of the Roman d'Eneas is the first English translation of this text since that of John A. Yunck in 1974.

Kelly, Douglas

Liverpool University Press

Wace's Roman de Rou relates the origins of Normandy from the time of Rollo (Rou) to the battle of Tinchebray. It was commissioned by Henry II as a way of both celebrating the Norman past and justifying the right of Norman rulers to the throne of England: the accounts it gives of the early life of William the Conqueror and of the battle of Hastings, which occupy a substantial portion of the work, make it a valuable historical document as well as an important work of literature. Wace related the events partly in Alexandrines and partly in the octosyllabic rhyming couplets used by the romance writers of the day; indeed, at a time when the boundary between romance and history was blurred, he created a cast of characters and recounted a series of battles and adventures in a style worthy of any of the great masters of romance. He was also exceptionally good, like other contemporary romance writers, at realistic conversations, such as those between King Harold and his brother Gyrth before the battle of Hastings. As a historian, Wace was dedicated to the truth and willing to undertake personal research in order to verify the accuracy of his statements. As a storyteller, he had the ability to render events more dramatic by showing how they arose from the interplay of human beings. The translation, by GLYN S. BURGESS, is accompanied by full editorial notes (in collaboration with Elisabeth van Houts) and an introduction; the volume is completed by a critical essay by Professor van Houts. GLYN S. BURGESS is Emeritus Professor of the University of Liverpool; ELISABETH VAN HOUTS lectures in medieval history, University of Cambridge.

The History of the Norman People: Wace's Roman de Rou

Boydell Press

Wace's three hagiographical works, the Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas, are brought together here for the first time in a volume containing the original texts, the first translations into English, notes and substantial introductions.

Wace, The Hagiographical Works: The Conception Nostre Dame and the Lives of St Margaret and St Nicholas (Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions: Texts and Sources 3, 169)

Blacker, Jean

Ogden, Amy

Literary

Brill Academic Pub

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