Series:

Longman Medieval and Renaissance Library

2 total works

Cover of The Spirit of Medieval English Popular Romance

This collection of twelve specially commissioned essays provides a stimulating guide to the Middle English popular romances. These were very popular in later medieval Britain and even today students of medieval literature will encounter examples of the genre, such as Sir Orfeo, Sir Tristrem, and Sir Launfal. Each essay introduces one popular romance, setting it in its literary and historical contexts, and develops an original interpretation that reveals the possibilities that popular romances offer for modern literary criticism. A substantial introduction by the editors discusses the production and transmission of popular romances in the Middle Ages, and considers the modern reception of popular romance and the interpretative challenges offered by new theoretical approaches.

Cover of Introduction to the Gawain-Poet

Introduction to the Gawain-Poet

by Ad Putter

Published 2 October 1996
The Gawain-Poet is the name given to the northern poet who is generally accepted as the sole author of four 14th-century Gawain poems - "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", "Patience", "Pearl" and "Cleannes". This text introduces the reader to the poems, setting the works in their relevant historical and cultural context and developing lines of critical argument.