Five Middle English Arthurian Romances [Paperback]

The poems in this collection will give the reader an appreciation of both the distinctiveness and the variety of the medieval English Arthurian tradition and highlight some of this important chapter in Arthurian legend literature. The Middle English stories are different in style and structure to the later French romances, composed in poetic forms that derive from native English traditions. The Stanzaic Morte Arthuris the earliest version of the Lancelot-Guinevere story in English; The Awyntas off Arthure at the Terne Wathelynis a serious moral poem while the story of the Avowing is a tail-rhyme romance. The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnellis a strongly folkloric variation of Chaucers Wife of Baths Taleand Syre Gawene and the Carle of Carlyleis an alternative version of the testing of Gawain. Originally published in 1991, the translator gives an introduction to each poem as well as a general introduction about the development of the Arthurian poetic tradition.

Introduction  1. The Stanzaic Morte Arthur  2. The Adventures of Arthur at Tarn Wadling  3. The Vows of King Arthur, Sir Gawain, Sir Kay, and Baldwin of Britain  4. The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell  5. Sir Gawain and the Carl of Carlisle