Three Arthurian Romances: Poems from Medieval France: Caradoc; The Knight with the Sword; The Perilous Graveyard

Poems which challenge modern readers to redefine their ideas about medieval romances and the society which produced them The poems of the Middle Ages reveal an unexpected world of villains whose barbarity is almost modern, and heroes who battle evil with impure intentions. Rather than stories of knights embodying lofty values and inventing ethereal symbols, medieval Arthurian romances are more likely to praise the knights' ability to increase his own prestige, and to contain fantastic symbols and episodes relating to less spiritual values. In The Perilous Graveyard a self-absorbed Sir Gawain is inspired more by his desire to preserve his own reputation than by abstract concerns of justice: in The Knight of with the Sword a father offers his daughter to any passing knight while plotting the destruction of the man who accepts her. And in Caradoc, sexual jealousy and family violence are only partially resolved in a climactic scene of seduction. A unique selection of new prose translations, with introduction, notes and bibliography Cover Illustration: Sir Perceval is tempted by a Damsel - Gaultier Map