In a bid to preserve and enhance Avebury's famous stone circle, a policy was in force from the 1930s to the 1970s that sanctioned the demolition of properties within the monument, including medieval cottages. Avebury is the subject of one of the 34 parish histories that comprise this volume introducing the landscape and people of the eastern borderland of Wiltshire, encompassing most of the Marlborough Downs, Savernake Forest, the Kennet and Upper Bourne Valley and the principal town of Marlborough.

Marlborough and Eastern Wiltshire

Chandler, John H.

Charlton, Michael [Illustrator]

Hobnob Press

The King of Tars, an early Middle English romance (ca. 1330 or earlier), emphasizes ideas about race, gender, and religion. It is a short poem whose purpose is to highlight and celebrate the power of Christianity, and yet it defies classification. It is neither a saint's life or a romance, nor a political drama or a miracle tale; rather it is a story inseminated by all of these genres. As a hagiographic work, its focus on temporal situations, especially political stability and inheritance, distracts the audience from the dream-vision and miracles on which the plot relies; as a romance, its focus on a female protagonist, rather than a male, seems oddly out of place. It is only when the various generic categories are layered together that the poem is best understood. Its role as entertainment is undeniable, but that entertainment thinly veils didactic intent. Many of the effects and plot developments--the transformations, namelessness of the principal characters, and exotic setting in the East--should be read through the lens of religious instruction. An early variant of the Constance tale, whose most famous English versions are told by Gower's Genius in the Confessio Amantis and Chaucer's Man of Law, the poem addresses religious interests through rhetorical trappings that parse, reinforce, educate, and entertain simultaneously.

The King of Tars (Teams Middle English Texts)

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Medieval Institute Publications

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Books by Chandler, John H.