The Arthurian Name Dictionary by Christopher W. Bruce (review)

REVIEWS119 The economic and social structures ofa priory and its tenants are the topic ofRichard Lomas's study, whereas Matthew Davies introduces us to artisans, guilds, and the London government. The chapter written by Clive Burgess informs us about the development ofthe London parishes, and finally the editor himselfoutlines the history ofYork and its infrastructure, the diet of the citizens and the health system. Several particular observations, among many others, deserve to be highlighted. To date a painting by means ofstudying the fashion, one needs a depiction of both a woman and a man as the formers fashion changed much less radically than the latter's, as Anne Sutton emphasizes. Medieval illustrations prove to be extremely important sources of information about daily life, as this volume demonstrates, and this is the reason why the Institutfor Realienkunde des Mittelalters in Krems, Austria, here not mentioned, has established a highly important web-based database of such visuals. Considering how much we now know about late-medieval hospitals and medicine, there is much hope that other areas ofdaily life will also become accessible to future research. Even though many people in the fifteenth century displayed a fairly conventional form ofpiety, this does not mean at all that they were lacking in religious fervor (80). In contrast to medieval research in the first half of this century, much more is known today about medieval peasant life than has heretofore been considered possible. All contributions are well researched and documented. Almost as important, the volume is richly illuminated with color plates, black and white photographs, and illustrations. Unfortunately, no numbering system has been used, and many of the captions are wrong, as indicated by a sheet with errata included in the book. Contrary to expectation, no separate list of the illustrations is given. A very short list offurther reading at the end leaves the reader disappointed, while an index proves to be a highly useful tool. The disadvantage ofthe approach used for this volume rests in the many desiderata remaining. Daily life also includes education, literature, architecture, the arts, children, death and burial, warfare, gardening, the administration, and the like. Quite naturally, not everything could be covered here; instead the·reader is confronted with specialized studies which by themselves are highly informative and solidly researched. ALBRECHT CLASSEN University ofArizona Christopher w. bruce, The Arthurian Name Dictionary. Garland's Reference Library ofthe Humanities 2063. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1999. Pp. xi, 544. isbn: 0-8153-2865-6. $120. Do you know the name of Brangain's father? Cosen, from the Icelandic recension, Saga afTristram ok Isodd, (131). Professor Bruce's comprehensive dictionary of over 5,600 names, includes not only personal names but also place names, animal names, forest names like Ingagel in Scotland, and objects central to Arthurian legends, from texts ranging from early Latin chronicles such as Gildas's De excidio Britanniae from the sixth century through Spenser's Faerie Queene ofthe sixteenth century toTennyson's 120ARTHURIANA IdylL· ofthe King of the nineteenth century. The names thus span thirteen centuries ofArthurian material, including generally unfamiliar names like Aamanz, Kenlith, and Nestling from stories spread over several languages: Breton, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Norse, Welsh. One character may appear in several sources, each source providing a variant of the name, all included at the head ofthe entry. The author addresses a broad audience, as he says in his Preface— Arthurian scholars, fans, hobbyists—and the entries are written in easily accessible English, a pleasure to read. This work follows several very useful reference works such as Minary and Moorman's Arthurian Dictionary (1990), The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, ed. Norris J. Lacy (1996), Ronan Coghlan's The IllustratedEncyclopedia ofArthurian Legends (1993), and GD. West's two-volume Index ofProper Names in French Arthurian Verse Romances n$o—i}oo and Index ofproper Names in French Arthurian Prose Romances (1978), each useful in its way as their titles make clear. TheArthurian Name Dictionary is unusual for its scope because it is fully comprehensive, bringing between two covers all the previous material in addition to names not listed in the wotks mentioned above. Professor Bruce writes in his preface that he has...