Square Pegs, Round Tables: Four Early Arthurian Romances
A Literary Seminar
At The Bushnell-Sage Library in Sheffield, Massachusetts
By Mark Scarbrough
September 27, 2023, through November 15, 2023
Time 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Stories of Arthur’s round table arose at a time of great change across France and England: as Celtic myths become the gold standard of storytelling, as the landscape was increasingly war-torn, as the crowns of England and France battled for supremacy, as Eleanor of Aquitaine brokered her infamous dowery, and as the Middle Ages gave way to the modern world. We’ll look at four of the earliest Arthurian legends: two tales written by a French court poet who single-handedly invented the stories as we now know them and two tales found as solitary manuscripts in estate collections long after their composition. Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the other knights show us distinct fractures in personal expression and political power as the medieval became the modern, rifts that still trip us up today.
The Texts:
I strongly suggest you get these translations because you can then follow along with me and because they are hands down the best. You can get these volumes via interlibrary loan or purchase them from The Bookloft in Great Barrington:
• Simon Armitage (translator), THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR: A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION (Norton, 2012) ISBN-13: 978-0393343533
• Simon Armitage (translator), SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (Norton, 2008) ISBN-13: 978-0393334159
• Ruth Harwood Cline (translator), CLIGÈS (University of Georgia Press, 2000), ISBN-13: 978-0820321424 (preferred); or Burton Raffel (translator), CLIGÈS (Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN: 978-0820312132
• Burton Raffel (translator), LANCELOT: THE KNIGHT OF THE CART (Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN-13: 978-0300071214 (preferred); or Ruth Harwood Cline (translator), LANCELOT; OR, THE KNIGHT OF THE CART (University of Georgia Press, 1990) ISBN: 978-0300071214
The Reading Schedule:
9/27/2023 Chrétien de Troyes, CLIGÈS (c. 1176 CE), first half
10/4/2023 Chrétien de Troyes, CLIGÈS (c. 1176 CE), completed
10/11/2023 Chrétien de Troyes, LANCELOT: THE KNIGHT OF THE CART (c. 1180 CE), first half
10/18/2023 Chrétien de Troyes, LANCELOT: THE KNIGHT OF THE CART (c. 1180 CE), completed
10/25/2023 The Pearl Poet, SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (c. 1390 CE), translated by Simon Armitage, Norton, Fitts I and II (lines 1 – 1125)
11/1/2023 The Pearl Poet, SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (c. 1390 CE), translated by Simon Armitage, Norton, Fitts III and IV (completed)
11/8/2023 Anonymous, THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR (aka “The Alliterative Morte Darthur—c. 1400 CE), translated by Simon Armitage, Norton, lines 1 – 2277
11/15/2023 Anonymous, THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR (aka “The Alliterative Morte Darthur—c. 1400 CE), translated by Simon Armitage, Norton, completed
