Medieval Insular Romance

Book excerpt: Major themes explored are narratives of the disguised prince, and the reinvention of stories for different tastes and periods. These studies cover a wide chronological range and familiar and unfamiliar texts and topics. The disguised prince is a theme linking several articles, from early Anglo-Norman romances through later English ones, like King Edward and the Shepherd, to a late 16th-century recasting of the Havelok story as a Tudor celebration of Gloriana. 'Translation' in its widest sense, the way romance can reinvent stories for different tastes and periods, is anotherrunning theme; the opening introductory article considers the topic of translation theoretically, concerned to stimulate further research on how insular romances were transferred between vernaculars and literary systems, while other essays consider Lovelich's Merlin (a poem translating its Arthurian material to the poet's contemporary London milieu), Chaucer, and Breton lays in England. Contributors: JUDITH WEISS, IVANA DJORDJEVIC, ROSALIND FIELD, MORGAN DICKSON, ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD, AMANDA HOPKINS, ARLYN DIAMOND, PAUL PRICE, W.A. DAVENPORT, RACHEL SNELL, ROGER DALRYMPLE, HELEN COOPER. Selected studies, 'Romance in Medieval England' conference.