The English think of Arthur as their own—stamped on the landscape in scores of place-names, echoed in the names of their princes even today. Yet if the English had anything to do with a historical Arthur, it was as his bitterest enemies and hi-jackers of the British heritage.
This book, which brings together the work of leading international scholars, is the first comprehensive treatment of Arthurian literature in the English language to the end of the Middle Ages and traces the process by which the Arthurian legends were assimilated to become an important part of the English cultural heritage. Literary studies are interspersed with chapters on the political and social manifestations of the Arthurian legend, the influence of continental romance tradition, and the mediaeval legacy to later centuries of English literature.
This revised edition includes a new chapter dealing with questions of production, circulation and readership of the Arthurian tales.
The Arthur of the English is the second volume in a series entitled Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages published in association with the Vinaver Trust. The Arthur of the Welsh (1991) inaugurated the series, The Arthur of the Germans was published in 2000, and further volumes dealing with the French and Iberian traditions are in preparation.
