Arthur, la mer et la guerre ed. by d'Alban Gautier, Marc Rolland et Michelle Szkilnik (review)

The figure of King Arthur is rarely associated with the sea. No maritime battles are listed in the pseudo-historical records of his military campaigns. However, as this volume demonstrates, the sea is a constant—if not always prominent—factor in the Arthurian legend. Arthur's martial exploits centre around repelling the Anglo-Saxons, invaders from across the sea, while his connections with Brittany necessitate numerous sea journeys in literary versions of the narrative. More broadly, the mythological significance of bodies or water—swords emerging from lakes, boat journeys to Avalon—lends an additional dimension to depictions of sea travel. Originating in a conference held at the Université du littoral Côte d'Opale in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 2014, this volume brings together fifteen articles on the subject of the significance of the sea—and particularly maritime warfare—in the story of King Arthur. The articles presented in this volume range across several disciplines and methodologies, adopting perspectives that are historical, literary, archaeological, visual, and even statistical. The volume is divided into three parts, covering what Martin Aurell refers to as the 'trois grands moments' of Arthurian history and literature (p. 268). The first is the post-Roman period, which provides the 'historical' setting for the story of Arthur. While clearly acknowledging that there is little evidence for the existence of a real figure who can be identified as Arthur, articles by Simon Esmonde-Cleary, Stéphane Lebecq, and Alban Gautier consider the historical details of the maritime arrivals of the Anglo-Saxons, which formed the substance of later versions of the story. The second period under consideration is the Middle Ages, which saw the most significant developments in the story of Arthur. Although few sea battles are depicted in medieval Arthurian literature, Charlotte A. T Wulf, Michelle Szkilnik, and Irène Fabry-Tehranchi analyse the functional value of sea crossings within the economy of Arthurian narratives. While Krista R. L. Kapphahn's article demonstrates the mythological significance of the sea in the medieval Welsh context, articles by Frédérique Laget and Anne-Cécile Le Ribeuz-Koenig highlight resonances between the role of the sea in contemporary political and military history and the stories of Arthur that were circulating at the time. In the latter half of the book, modern representations of the Arthurian legend are considered. Alongside Howard Wiseman's analysis of recurrences of the sea in modern historical Arthurian fiction, articles by Véronique Favéro, Marc Rolland, Carine Giovénal, Isabelle Olivier, and Juan Miguel Zarandona demonstrate that naval warfare takes on greater narrative significance in twentieth-century retellings of the story of Arthur. Although articles are written in either French or English, the editors have provided abstracts in both languages to help monolingual readers navigate their way through the volume. While individual articles will no doubt prove interesting in their own right to specialists in different periods and disciplines, this volume really works as a collection. The chronological organization reveals the sea—and more specifically, maritime warfare—as an ever-present factor in the Arthurian story, whose significance and function develops in relation to changing literary trends and historical contexts.