The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin ed. by Siân Echard (review)

The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature is the most recent in the series designed to supersede Roger Sherman Loomis’s Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (1959). Following a preface by general editor Ad Putter and an introduction by volume editor Siân Echard, the eight articles of this volume are divided into four sections: ‘The Seeds of History and Legend,’ ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth,’ ‘Chronicles and Romances,’ and ‘After the Middle Ages.’ In all, this is a worthy addition to the series and a good introduction to fascinating material that usually does not get the academic attention that it deserves.

Earlier volumes have discussed the Arthur of the Welsh, English, Germans, French, and the North, that is, in Echard’s words, ‘through a lens that … aligns language with ethnic or geographical identities.’ This volume about medieval Latin literature, ‘the language of textuality in Geoffrey’s day,’ is a departure that allows for coverage of texts that do not fit easily into the previous categories, at the price of duplication of coverage of texts that earlier volumes did not neglect, such as the Historia Brittonum, British saints’ lives, and Geoffrey’s Historia regum Britannie. Section 3 is, therefore, the first to discuss texts that have not been covered in previous volumes. However, the effect is, for the most part, supplemental rather than redundant.

In section 1, Nick Higham covers the Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae in his article ‘The Chroniclers of Early Britain,’ which also looks at Gildas and Bede. For Higham, the authors of these texts were supporting the dominant political agendas of their times and places rather than a disinterested preservation of history. Higham occasionally overstates his case, which is apt to leave undergraduate and postgraduate students and general readers, who are this book’s intended audience, surprised upon encountering the Historia Brittonum itself and seeing how much Higham supposes its author to have implied in its bare, often scanty and incoherent narrative. These readers will perhaps be better served by the more evenhanded survey of this material by Thomas Charles-Edward in The Arthur of the Welsh. Andrew Breeze follows with ‘Arthur in Early Saints’ Lives,’ in which he discusses Arthur’s appearances in several examples of medieval hagiography and summarizes the history of scholarship on this topic.

Section 2 is devoted to Geoffrey of Monmouth, with an article by Echard that argues cogently that the Arthurian section of Historia regum Britannie is best interpreted in the context of the whole, as a single part, albeit a significant one. She concludes by comparing Geoffrey to Merlin in his ability to foresee events and comprehend the larger pattern of history. Merlin naturally dominates the discussion in the following article, ‘Geoffrey and the Prophetic Tradition’ by Julia Crick. Just as the Arthurian section of Historia regum Britannie gains meaning for Echard when seen in its wider context, so Crick draws the reader’s attention to the wider tradition of prophecy that existed in Geoffrey’s time.

Section 3, ‘Chronicles and Romances,’ contains three articles. Ad Putter contributes ‘Latin Historiography after Geoffrey of Monmouth,’ a welcomed look at the often inaccessible chronicle tradition that follows Geoffrey. ‘Glastonbury’ by Edward Donald Kennedy examines various Latin texts that connect Arthur to that ancient institution. The section closes with ‘Arthurian Latin Romances’ by Elizabeth Archibald, a chapter that focuses on another often overlooked genre, containing a survey of De ortu Waluuanii, Historia Meriadoci, Arthuro et Gorlagon, and the quest for the sparrowhawk from Capellanus’s De amore.

The final section, ‘After the Middle Ages’ has a single article, ‘Arthur and the Antiquaries’ by James P. Carley, which returns the reader to a focus on the political implications of Arthur’s historicity, this time from the perspective of the early modern period.

The overall emphasis on culture and politics at the expense...