An Anglo-Norman Reader
An Anglo-Norman Reader

Author: Jane Bliss

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2018-02-08

Total Pages: 1044

ISBN-13: 1783743166

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This book is an anthology with a difference. It presents a distinctive variety of Anglo-Norman works, beginning in the twelfth century and ending in the nineteenth, covering a broad range of genres and writers, introduced in a lively and thought-provoking way. Facing-page translations, into accessible and engaging modern English, are provided throughout, bringing these texts to life for a contemporary audience. The collection offers a selection of fascinating passages, and whole texts, many of which are not anthologised or translated anywhere else. It explores little-known byways of Arthurian legend and stories of real-life crime and punishment; women’s voices tell history, write letters, berate pagans; advice is offered on how to win friends and influence people, how to cure people’s ailments and how to keep clear of the law; and stories from the Bible are retold with commentary, together with guidance on prayer and confession. Each text is introduced and elucidated with notes and full references, and the material is divided into three main sections: Story (a variety of narrative forms), Miscellany (including letters, law and medicine, and other non-fiction), and Religious (saints' lives, sermons, Bible commentary, and prayers). Passages in one genre have been chosen so as to reflect themes or stories that appear in another, so that the book can be enjoyed as a collection or used as a resource to dip into for selected texts. This anthology is essential reading for students and scholars of Anglo-Norman and medieval literature and culture. Wide-ranging and fully referenced, it can be used as a springboard for further study or relished in its own right by readers interested to discover Anglo-Norman literature that was written to amuse, instruct, entertain, or admonish medieval audiences.

The Anglo-Norman Language and Its Contexts
The Anglo-Norman Language and Its Contexts

Author: Richard Ingham

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1903153301

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Collection examining the Anglo-Norman language in a variety of texts and contexts, in military, legal, literary and other forms.

The Legend of Charlemagne in Medieval England
The Legend of Charlemagne in Medieval England

Author: Phillipa Hardman

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 1843844729

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The first full-length examination of the medieval Charlemagne tradition in the literature and culture of medieval England, from the Chanson de Roland to Caxton. The Matter of France, the legendary history of Charlemagne, had a central but now largely unrecognised place in the multilingual culture of medieval England. From the early claim in the Chanson de Roland that Charlemagne held England as his personal domain, to the later proliferation of Middle English romances of Charlemagne, the materials are woven into the insular political and cultural imagination. However, unlike the wide range of continental French romances, the insular tradition concentrates on stories of a few heroic characters: Roland, Fierabras, Otinel. Why did writers and audiences in England turn again and again to these narratives, rewriting and reinterpreting them for more than two hundred years? This book offers the first full-length, in-depth study of the tradition as manifested in literature and culture. It investigates the currency and impact of the Matter of France with equal attention to English and French-language texts, setting each individual manuscript or early printed text in its contemporary cultural and political context. The narratives are revealed to be extraordinarily adaptable, using the iconic opposition between Carolingian and Saracen heroes to reflect concerns with national politics, religious identity, the future of Christendom, chivalry and ethics, and monarchy and treason. PHILLIPA HARDMAN is Readerin Medieval English Literature (retired) at the University of Reading; MARIANNE AILES is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Bristol.

Beowulf and Other Stories
Beowulf and Other Stories

Author: Joe Allard

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-23

Total Pages: 591

ISBN-13: 131786042X

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Beowulf & Other Stories was first conceived in the belief that the study of Old English – and its close cousins, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman – can be a genuine delight, covering a period as replete with wonder, creativity and magic as any other in literature. Now in a fully revised second edition, the collection of essays written by leading academics in the field is set to build upon its established reputation as the standard introduction to the literatures of the time. Beowulf & Other Stories captures the fire and bloodlust of the great epic, Beowulf, and the sophistication and eroticism of the Exeter Riddles. Fresh interpretations give new life to the spiritual ecstasy of The Seafarer and to the imaginative dexterity of The Dream of the Rood, andprovide the student and general reader with all they might need to explore and enjoy this complex but rewarding field. The book sheds light, too, on the shadowy contexts of the period, with suggestive and highly readable essays on matters ranging from the dynamism of the Viking Age to Anglo-Saxon input into The Lord of the Rings, from the great religious prose works to the transition from Old to Middle English. It also branches out into related traditions, with expert introductions to the Icelandic Sagas, Viking Religion and Norse Mythology. Peter S. Baker provides an outstanding guide to taking your first steps in the Old English language, while David Crystal provides a crisp linguistic overview of the entire period. With a new chapter by Mike Bintley on Anglo-Saxon archaeology and a revised chapter by Stewart Brookes on the prose writers of the English Benedictine Reform, this updated second edition will be essential reading for students of the period.

Anglo-Norman Castles
Anglo-Norman Castles

Author: Robert Liddiard

Publisher: Boydell Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 9780851159041

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Wide-ranging studies offer an in-depth analysis of castle-building 11th - 12th centuries and place castles within their broader social and political context. The castles of the eleventh and twelfth centuries remain among the most visible symbols of the Anglo-Norman world. This collection brings together for the first time some of the most significant articles in castle studies, with contributions from experts in history, archaeology and historic buildings. Castles remain a controversial topic of academic debate and here equal weight is given to seminal articles that have defined the study of the subject while at the same time emphasising newer approaches to the fortresses of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. The studies in this volume range from discussions of the residential and military role of the castle to architectural symbolismand royal attitudes to baronial fortification. The result is a survey that offers an in-depth analysis of castle-building during the eleventh and twelfth centuries but which also places Anglo-Norman castles within their broader social, architectural and political context. Contributors: ANN WILLIAMS, RICHARD EALES, DEREK RENN, LAWRENCE BUTLER, ROBERT HIGHAM, MARJORIE CHIBNALL, R.ALLEN BROWN, CHARLES COULSON, SIDNEY PAINTER, FREDERICK C. SUPPE, GRANT G. SIMPSON, BRUCE WEBSTER, J.R. KENYON, THOMAS McNEILL, T.A. HESLOP, PHILIP DIXON, PAMELA MARSHALL, JOHN BLAIR, CHARLES COULSON, ROBERT LIDDIARD

Anglo-Norman Durham
Anglo-Norman Durham

Author: David W. Rollason

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 9780851156545

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Impressive... for many readers of these papers their cumulative effect will be very great indeed... Admirable collaborative volume. JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Specialists explore the influence of twelfth-centuryDurham, in ecclesiastical affairs, Border politics, architecture, art, and religious and literary culture. Impressive... the cumulative effect [of these papers] is very great indeed. JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY This study of Anglo-Norman Durham's history, architecture, art, and religious and literary culture covers much ground, including the Cathedral Priory and its relationship to monastic reform; the careers of the prince bishops; studies of the spectacular castle; the relationship between Durham and the Scottish kings; the architecture of the cathedral; and Durham manuscripts and texts, featuring historical compilations and the remarkable Old English poem De situ Dunelmi. Contributors: DONALD MATTHEW, JULIA BARROW, JANET BURTON, MERYL FOSTER, VICTORIA TUDOR, MICHAEL GULLICK, ALAN PIPER, DAVID BATES, MARK PHILPOTT, ERIC CAMBRIDGE, MALCOLM THURLBY, J. PHILIP McALEER, S.A. HARRISON, JOHN CROOK, THOMAS E. RUSSO, E.C. FERNIE, WILLIAM AIRD, J.O. PRESTWICH, G.W.S. BARROW, VALERIE WALL, PAUL DALTON, ALAN YOUNG, HENRY SUMMERSON, MARTIN ALLEN, P.D.A. HARVEY, MARTIN LEYLAND, M.W. THOMPSON, BERNARD MEEHAN, CHRISTOPHER NORTON, ANNE LAWRENCE, DOMINIC MARNER, DAVID HOWLETT

The Cambridge Old English Reader
The Cambridge Old English Reader

Author: Richard Marsden

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-04-02

Total Pages: 616

ISBN-13: 1316240320

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This reader remains the only major new reader of Old English prose and verse in the past forty years. The second edition is extensively revised throughout, with the addition of a new 'Beginning Old English' section for newcomers to the Old English language, along with a new extract from Beowulf. The fifty-seven individual texts include established favourites such as The Battle of Maldon and Wulfstan's Sermon of the Wolf, as well as others not otherwise readily available, such as an extract from Apollonius of Tyre. Modern English glosses for every prose-passage and poem are provided on the same page as the text, along with extensive notes. A succinct reference grammar is appended, along with guides to pronunciation and to grammatical terminology. A comprehensive glossary lists and analyses all the Old English words that occur in the book. Headnotes to each of the six text sections, and to every individual text, establish their literary and historical contexts, and illustrate the rich cultural variety of Anglo-Saxon England. This second edition is an accessible and scholarly introduction to Old English.

A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World
A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World

Author: Christopher Harper-Bill

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9781843833413

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This is an introduction to the history of England and Normandy in the 11th and 12th centuries. Within the broad field of cultural history, there are discussions of language, literature, the writing of history and ecclesiastical architecture.

The Normans and the Norman Conquest
The Normans and the Norman Conquest

Author: R. Allen Brown

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780851153674

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Classic work assessing the impact of the Norman Conquest in European context. The introduction of Brown's book should be made compulsory reading- LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKSThe `English' who faced the forces of William duke of Normandy on 14 October 1066 were by no means a pure-bred and unified race, norwas the flower of England's manhood laid low by an army of self-seeking Norman opportunists. R. Allen Brown traces the forces and influences that shaped both England and Normandy in the decades before 1066, and shows how the new order, emerging from the aftermath of the battle of Hastings, produced a degree of political unity and social dynamism previously unknown in England, bringing a reinvigorated nation fully into the mainstream of the dynamic expansion of western Latin Christendom.R. ALLEN BROWN was professor of History at King's College, London and founder of the annual Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman studies.