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Perceforest: The Prehistory of King Arthur's Britain (Arthurian Studies) Hardcover – March 17, 2011

by Nigel Bryant (Translator)

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Perceforest is one of the largest and certainly the most extraordinary of the late Arthurian romances. Justly described as "an encyclopaedia of 14th-century chivalry" and "a mine of folkloric motifs", it is the subject of rapidly increasing attention and research. The author of Perceforest draws on Alexander romances, Roman histories and medieval travel writing (not to mention oral tradition, as he gives, for example, the distinctly racy first written version of the Sleeping Beauty story), to create a remarkable prehistory of King Arthur's Britain. It begins with the arrival in Britain of Alexander the Great. His follower Perceforest, the first of Arthur's Greek ancestors, is made king of the island and finds it infested by the "evil clan" of Darnant the Enchanter. Magic plays a dominant part in the adventures which follow, as Perceforest ousts Darnant's clan despite their supernatural powers. He founds the knightly order of the "Franc Palais", an ideal of chivalric civilisation prefiguring the Round Table of Arthur and indeed that of Edward III. But that civilisation is, the author shows, all too fragile. The vast imaginative scope of Perceforest/I> is matched by its variety of tone, ranging from tales of love and enchantment to bawdy comedy, from glamorous tournaments to unvarnished descriptions of the havoc wrought by war. And the author's surprising view of pagan gods and the coming of Christianity is as fascinating as the prominence he gives to women and his understanding of how the world of chivalry should work. Because of its enormous length - it runs to over a million words - Nigel Bryant has provided a version which gives a complete account of every episode, linking extensive passages of translation, to make a manageable and highly readable version (including the previously unpublished Books Five and Six), of this remarkable and largely unexplored work. Nigel Bryant has worked as a producer for BBC Radio 3 and as head of drama at Marlborough College. This is his fourth major translation of medieval Arthurian romance.

Perceforest: The Prehistory of King Arthur's Britain (Arthurian Studies)

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Product Details

Series: Arthurian Studies
Hardcover: 640 pages
Publisher: D.S.Brewer (March 17, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1843842629
ISBN-13: 978-1843842620
Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 1.7 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #776,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #43 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Arthurian Romance
- #51 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Ancient & Medieval Literature > Medieval
- #283 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Genres & Styles > Gothic & Romance

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

A Marvelous, Little-Known Masterpiece of World Literature--and Catnip for fans of Arthurian Legends

By IA on January 7, 2013

Format: Hardcover

You can put away your Tolkien and other faux-medieval sagas--this is the real thing. Perceforest is a massive and incredible work, written in the early 1330s, that purports to be a history of pre-Arthurian Brtitain. It's also one of most overlooked books of world literature. And boy is it wild! This is an Arthurian legend avant Arthur, with lengthy guest appearances by Alexander the Great (who hands over England to King Perceforest) and Julius Caesar, who jousts with knights on horseback! Did I mention it also has the first written version of the Sleeping Beauty story, a Fairy Queen, a homicidal one year old born with a crossbow in his hand, a four-legged hairy fish with the head of an ox, a fallen angel who enjoys pranking his human friends, and more enchantments than you can shake a stick at? This monster of a book delivers a heady, vast mix of chivalry, folklore, adventure, and romance.

If you're familiar with the French Arthurian romances, you can see how they've inspired the author of Perceforest--there are many echoes of the Prose Tristan and the Grail sagas (including appearances by the Questing Beast), but they never feel derivative. And whereas the Grail romances could be emotionally austere and psychotically anti-sex, the author of Perceforest is a good-humored, sometimes bawdy fellow with an encyclopedic mind and an endless talent for remixing his sources in startling ways. He takes you through the history of several generations of kings, knights, and damsels (the great-great-great-great grandparents of King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, and so on) as the kingdom of Perceforest weathers its share of cataclysms and trials, and ultimately bridges his book with the History of the Holy Grail from the Lancelot Vulgate.Read more ›

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Great !

By Christopher Bevins on February 6, 2014

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

It arrived on time for my wife's birthday! I would recommend this buyer to anyone looking the material they are selling