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Spoken words come alive in written verse. In Sounding Imperial, James Mulholland offers a new assessment of the origins, evolution, and importance of poetic voice in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By examining a series of literary experiments in which authors imitated oral voices and impersonated foreign speakers, Mulholland uncovers an innovative global aesthetics of poetic voice that arose as authors invented new ways of crafting textual voices and appealing to readers. As poets drew on cultural forms from around Great Britain and across the globe, impersonating “primitive” speakers and reviving ancient oral performances (or fictionalizing them in verse), they invigorat...
This very uneven book undertakes an analysis of two romances by Chretien de Troyes, Le chevalier de la charrette and Le conte du graal, that seeks to uncover Welsh sources for the stories. The work was written as a doctoral thesis, we are not told where. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Making use of the methodology developed in his Origins of Arthurian Romances (McFarland, 2012), the author explores the question of King Arthur's existence in several original approaches to the subject. Examining the extant literature and other evidence, the author searches for the truth of the who when and where of King Arthur. These explorations are grouped into historicity, geography and the years in which he flourished. The conclusion is that Arthur was indeed an historical entity and the author places him in a specific area and narrows the time frame of his period of activity.
Drawing on historical documents, legends, archeology and literature, this history describes the disintegration of Roman Britain that reached a climax in the decades after the Britons overthrew Constantine's government and were refused Roman rule. Beginning with the weakening of Roman Britain, the author chronicles the breakdown of the empire's social, political and economic order and the re-emergence of British political, economic and social structure as well as a parallel development among the Germanic invaders. The roles of religion, disease, the military, the Irish and the Picts during the 4th through 7th centuries are examined. This study synthesizes advances in post-Roman studies since Leslie Alcock's 1971 classic Arthur's Britain.
This encyclopedia covers the entirety of the Celtic world, both through time and across geography. Although emphasizing the areas where Celtic languages and traditions survive into the present, the work does not slight the reaches of the Celtic empire, which was the largest language and cultural group on earth prior to the rise of Rome. In some 1,500 articles, many representing original research by the finest Celtic scholars, the work covers the Celts from prehistory to the present, giving comprehensive treatment to all topics from myth to music, religion to rulers, literature to language, government to games, and all topics in between.
In this fascinating history of the influences on English during the first thousand years of its formation the author shows when and why the Anglo-Saxons began to borrow words from Latin and Greek and the effects of contact with the Vikings, Celts, and French. A book of enduring value to everyone interested in the history of English.
Bringing together key insights from expert legal and heritage academics and practitioners, this book explores the existence and safeguarding of contemporary forms of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Providing a detailed analysis of the international legal frameworks relevant to ICH, the contributing authors then go on to challenge the pervasive view that heritage is about ‘old’ tangible objects by highlighting the existence, role and importance of contemporary forms of ICH to modern society.
Overturns the long-established historical narrative about the origins and purpose of the Knights Templar • Explains how and why the Templars created Europe’s first nation-state, Portugal, with one of their own as king • Reveals the Portuguese roots of key founding members, their relationship with the Order of Sion, the Templars’ devotion to Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist, and the meaning and exact location of the Grail • Provides evidence of Templar holy sites and hidden chambers throughout Portugal • Includes over 700 references, many from new and rare sources Conventional history claims that nine men formed a brotherhood called the Knights Templar in Jerusalem in 1118 to p...
Saints' cults flourished in the medieval world, and the phenomenon is examined here in a series of studies.
In this book, the author makes use of the methodology he developed in Origins of Arthurian Romances (McFarland 2012) in order to reevaluate the post-Roman history of Britain. He begins by delving into the historical contexts of the key traditional players of the fifth century--Hengest and Gwrtheyrn. A better understanding of these two characters allows for a reexamination of the persons and events of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. The text that follows entirely realigns how those centuries can be seen from a chronological as well as a military and political standpoint. The fifth century was not a time of British and Germanic fragmentation as they separated from Rome, but one of slow integration and the formation of kingships that were a result of the economic realities of surviving without the dying giant.