2014

My dissertation addresses a significant gap in Arthurian scholarship and calls for the study of Arthurian literature as a transnational phenomenon. Inspired by postcolonial and translation theory, my dissertation research offers a new perspective on medieval Arthurian texts in the peripheries of Europe (also called "second-tier" Arthurian texts). Instead of concentrating on the canonical texts (French, English, and German), I analyze materials from the Celtic (Irish and Welsh), Scandinavian (Norwegian and Icelandic), and Iberian (Castilian and Catalan) traditions, demonstrating how these Arthurian texts played different roles in each culture and how they were shaped by, and in turn shaped, their environments. Chapters II and III introduce the ways that Celtic texts present a delicate balance between praising kings for their amazing deeds and chastising them for ultimately leading to the downfall of their people and the lands they should have protected. Thus, the Celtic texts concentrate on both Arthur and his knights as a unit. Chapter IV shifts the analysis to a transnational perspective by comparing the Arthurian texts of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes, among the most viii canonical Arthurian texts, pointing out the ways in which their uses of Arthur and his knights fit with their own historical and cultural contexts. Each text creates a different Arthur that has family resemblances to the other Arthurs. The Arthurian texts from the Iberian Peninsula concentrate on the knights, but turn them into kings, a very different interpretive move from the Arthurian texts discussed above. Chapter V discusses how Iberian courtly ideals were intertwined with ideas of chivalry and knighthood. Arthurian literature served as an example for the nobles of the Castilian and Catalan courts. The kings in these tales emulated Arthurian journeys and jousts and even imitated the behaviors of Arthur's knights. The obsession of the Iberian courts with Arthurian ideals is the subject of one of the most important critiques made by Cervantes in Don Quixote. By contrast, in Scandinavian Arthurian texts the knights take center stage. Chapter VI explores how the Arthurian texts relate to the characters of the Icelandic sagas such as Egils saga skallagrímssonar. The sagas depict Icelandic settlers interacting with the kings of Norway. A close comparison of the Icelandic sagas with the Nordic Arthurian tales reveals parallels between the relationship of Arthur to his knights and the relationship of the kings of Norway to the Icelandic Vikings. The primary parallel exists in the exaltation of those that travel (knights and Icelandic Vikings) over the kings (Arthur and the Norwegian kings). I conclude that this correlation between the sagas of the Icelanders and the Arthurian texts clarifies why Scandinavian Arthurian texts were first translated in Norway but only survive thanks to copies made in Iceland. Chapter VI also addresses the fact that the Icelandic Tristan is Spanish and fights "heathens" that pray to Mohammed, exposing the ways in which Spaniards were constructed in the north. ix My work demonstrates the transnational qualities of Arthurian tales, emphasizing the ways in which the peripheral cultures take the Arthurian motifs and transform them, while still presenting King Arthur and his knights. Moreover, my research reveals that our notions of the canonical Arthurian texts (emphasizing the English, French, and German texts) are not shaped by the literary reality of medieval texts, as Arthurian literature was present throughout the entirety of Europe. A scholarly comparison between the Arthurian material of the Iberian Peninsula and Scandinavia has not been undertaken to date. This dissertation calls for the study of Arthurian literature as a transnational phenomenon that moves beyond nationalistic points of view reflecting the perspectives of the culturally dominant modern European nations. x

Journal of the International Arthurian Society 1.1 (2013), 3-28, 2013

The intent of this essay is to survey the critical work on Arthurian literature in the North over the last twenty years or so. As the Norse heritage of the matière de Bretagne is gaining increasing interest and recognition among scholars, it nevertheless remains fairly obscure among scholars working on the other linguistic branches of Arthurian legend. Our hope is thus to provide an overview of the current scholarship on the Norse transmission, to reveal its relevance to the larger context of the European transmission of the Arthurian matter and to encourage cross-linguistic engagement with the legend as the most promising venue to gain an understanding of Arthur’s place in European literary history.

Ehumanista Journal of Iberian Studies, 2006

The story of King Arthur is well-known to everyone. How, as a child, he did not know his parentage and was fostered; how he pulled the sword Excalibur from a stone and proved himself the rightful king of Britain; how he held court at Camelot with the knights of the Round Table and married Guinevere; how he had a son with Morgan le Fay; how Guinevere betrayed him with Lancelot; how she was rescued from burning at the stake by Lancelot; and how Arthur died during the war with Mordred. That is the legend. The Arthurian legend flourished in England and France and, from there, spread to the rest of Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula. The modes of transmission of the Arthurian legend in the Iberian kingdoms are still currently debated. Castile's hegemony in the transmission of the Arthurian legend through the Plantagenets (1170) needs reevaluation. The arrival of the legend to the Iberian Peninsula is not exclusive to Castile. It is our belief that there is a need to expand the means of transmission of the legend and texts to Spain: Through the Vikings, the Plantagenets and Angevin kings, the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, and the Norman and Aragonese influence. First, however, we have to differentiate between three ways that knowledge of Arthur's tale could be transmitted: legend, folklore, and written texts. A 'legend' (Latin legenda, "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners as taking place within human history and possessing certain qualities of verisimilitude. 'Legend' can also be defined as a story that comes down from the past, and which is considered historical although not verifiable. A 'legend' includes no happenings that are outside the realm of possibility, but which may be transformed over time, in order to keep it fresh, vital, and real in appearance. The moment that an event, person, or action is labeled as a 'legend,' its authentic qualities begin to fade and recede. Legends may be transmitted orally-passed on person-to-person-or, in the original sense, through a written text; they may be crystallized in literary works that fix and affect the future direction it will take. For example, the story of the historical Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (Heroe / Historical persona) becomes the character in the Poema de mio Cid. Just like El Cid, legends that we "know" today may have their basis in historical events or characters, as has proven to be the case with King Mark of Cornwall and may also be true of King Arthur. 'Folklore' encompasses the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, legends, superstitions, and practices current among a particular ethnic population that are transmitted orally. The term was coined in 1846 when an Englishman wanted to use the term 'Anglo

The German Quarterly, 2019

the myth of king arthur stands out in literary history as having prompted one of the most productive adaptation traditions, constantly inspiring new art. stories about the legendary king and his valiant knights of the round table have been told from the early Middle ages onward in many cultures and languages, from Japanese to Hebrew, from english to German. the vast scholarship on this topic is borne out not only by the more than 1400 articles in the Mla international Bibliography database on arthurian romance, but also by the existence and popularity of the international arthurian society with its own journal, begun in 1979. the continued creation of feature films in wide release, whether box office busts or blockbusters, such as the recent King Arthur: legend of the Sword (dir. Guy richie, 2017) and The Kid who would be King (dir. Joe Cornish, 2019) demonstrate the unbrokenness of this fascination. at the beginning of this tradition stands the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095-c. 1155) who presented his audience with the first known extensive written narrative about king arthur and his knights in his historia Regum Britanniae (1136). following Monmouth, arthurian narratives were reworked repeatedly for centuries, integrating contemporaneous concepts and presenting the stories of king arthur to different audiences. in the twelfth century, the french poet Chrétien de troyes (c. 1130c. 1180/90) offered literary history's most significant reshaping of the stories. it is in his tales that one first finds a recurring theme: after solving a problem and/or fulfilling a certain task and finding a love partner, the hero brings stability to the court. following Chrétien de troyes's success, Middle-High German adaptations of arthurian material soon emerged, including stories by Hartmann von aue, Wolfram von eschenbach, and Wirnt von Grafenberg. the German tradition is comprehensively explored in Volker Mertens's Der deutsche Artusroman (1998), and the anthology The Arthur of the Germans (2011) edited by William H. Jackson and silvia ranawake. in the following pages, i analyze the mechanisms with which the creators of a German graphic novel, inspired by the Middle High German (MHG) poet Wirnt von Grafenberg (dates unknown, thirteenth century), explore the pop-cul

Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, 2015

Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures is invested in bringing together the linguistic, literary, and historical expertise to take a European approach to medieval literature. The journal aims to establish a forum both for articles which move across literatures (plural) and also, more ambitiously, to foster reflections on a more elusive, but no longer entirely absent, object, European medieval literature (singular). In line with the journal’s scope and vision to promote integrated approaches to European medieval literatures, we begin by facing head-on the multiple challenges of devising new types of narratives about medieval textual cultures. We have invited papers which take a wider regional perspective and move across medieval Europe as well as papers which bring an explicitly European perspective to more specific topics (with a tighter thematic, chronological, geographic, or linguistic focus).

M.Phil. thesis, 1984

Journal of the International Arthurian Society, 2017

2017

It is both an honor and a pleasure, not to mention a reassuring change of pace, to be invited to give a lecture named in honor of someone who not only is still very much alive but is a distinguished presence in the audience. I thank Katja, Alexandra, Ilona, and all the members of the Society for this opportunity and for all they have done to make Scandinavia a site of stimulating and ground-breaking Celtic studies. Returning to the scholar who is honored in this lecture, I am sure I speak for everyone in the profession in offering praise to Professor Emeritus Ahlqvist for all he has done for the study of Celtic languages and literatures, for all he has taught us, and for all the solutions he has offered to some of the most difficult problems one can encounter in the field. Compared to him, we are all, or at least I am, merely on the level of the white cat with the Welsh name chasing mice in the famous Old Irish poem that is the subject of Professor Ahlqvist’s contribution to a recen...