A History of Arthurian Scholarship (review)

This volume is a collection of seventeen essays aiming to chart the key phases in the development of the various fields of study encompassed by Arthurian Studies. The first part, 'Origins and Approaches', covers the evolution of scholarly views concerning a 'historical' Arthur (C. Snyder, 'Arthurian Origins') and the Grail (R. Barber), and follows the process which has led to a massive effort of translation (N. J. Lacy) and editing (T. Hunt) of Arthurian texts. The second part, 'Medieval Literature', comprises chapters on the scholarship of Arthurian texts in the main (medieval) European languages: Latin (S. Echard), Welsh (G. Morgan), French (K. Busby and J. H. M. Taylor), German (A. Classen), English (R. Dalrymple), Dutch (B. Besamusca), Scandinavian (M. E. Kalinke), Spanish (B. D. Miller) and Italian (C. Kleinhenz). The third part, 'Other Arts and Modern Arthuriana', includes the visual arts, both medieval/early modern (M. Whitaker) and modern (J. Fox-Friedman), modern Arthurian literature (D. Nastali) — but only in English — and finally Arthurian cinema (K. J. Harty). The list of contributors reads as a who's who of contemporary Arthurian scholarship, and their surveys of the scholarship in their various fields are without exception clear and to-the-point, with the undergraduate or novice research student in mind. However, the reader hoping to find in the book a history of Arthurian scholarship will on the whole be disappointed. There is little sense of an overarching narrative recounting the birth and development of Arthurian scholarship, or the debates and enthusiasms shared by Arthurian scholars at various times. The focus in Part II on the literatures in specific languages obscures the often lively inter-disciplinary interest in specific themes at given times, resulting in an incomplete, and indeed skewed image of the development of Arthurian scholarship; it also leads to some repetition of material (most notably, between the sections on French Arthurian literature and 'Editing Arthuriana'). There is no section on the foundation of the International Arthurian Society and its role in creating a highly successful and hugely influential forum among Arthurian scholars of all nationalities and specialisms, while the Arthurian scholarly giants find themselves swamped in what at times reads as an extended commented bibliography. Nevertheless, this book is a useful complement to the 'Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages' series, providing students with a rich and detailed foundation for their own research. Certain sections, in particular Tony Hunt's 'Editing Arthuriana', will certainly feature regularly on postgraduate reading lists, and the volume as a whole is a valuable pedagogical tool.