Romances of Chivalry ed. by John Ashen (review)

REVIEWS 274 to an “English” kingdom, the first being a controlled release of government to English “barbarians,” in which Roman rulers turned over political power to English new comers voluntarily and peacefully, the second, a controlled delegation of local Northumbrian British (rather than Roman) kingdoms to Northumbrian English rulers, and thirdly, a conquest by invading English resulting in the destruction and removal of the native British peoples, as well as their political and social structures. In each instance, Rollason examines both sides of the question. Finally, in the third part, “The Destruction of Northumbria,” Rollason discusses the gradual fragmentation of Northumbria into separate kingdoms between 866/7–ca. 1100, the creation of the Viking kingdom of York, the complex relationships between the Vikings and the administrative and ecclesiastic authorities, and the transformation of a Viking kingdom to an English one, and the eventual division of Northumbria into English and Scottish territories. What makes Northumbria, 500–110: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom stand out as more than an introductory survey is the way Rollason has integrated information from non-textual sources, and his careful even-handed discussion of alternative interpretations of the data. He does a particularly good job of providing a context for the literature and art objects, ranging from grave goods to high crosses and manuscripts. The cultural aspects of history are often subsumed by the factual. It’s worth remembering that Y Goddodin, the Book of Lindisfarne, and the Venerable Bede were all products of Northumbria. He includes a very useful bibliography, but the book is meticulously footnoted, allowing readers to easily locate specific references to primary and secondary sources, and the notes and the bibliography are expansive enough to allow one to read further at either an introductory level or at a more specialized level. Northumbria, 500–110: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom includes an index, as well as a number of maps and figures, and thirty-seven black and white photographs of sites, art objects, and buildings. LISA SPANGENBERG, English, UCLA Romances of Chivalry, ed. John Ashen (London: Kegan Paul 2003) 356 pp. Romances of Chivalry, part of Kegan Paul’s Books of Chivalry series, describes its contents as “the ‘novels’ of the thirteenth century to the seventeenth century. This is a carefully selected collection of the best of these romances presenting the best of an important tradition.” What it should say, but doesn’t, is that this is a digital reprint of an 1887 book. Although the book’s title page and cover both attribute the book to John Ashen, the preface is signed “John Ashton.” Curious about the discrepancy, I located the original book of which this book is a digital copy. The correct author is John Ashton (b. 1834), and the Kegan Paul edition is a digital reproduction of John Ashton’s 1887 Romances of Chivalry: Told and Illustrated in Fac-Simile, published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. Only the title page is new, though there is nothing on Kegan Paul’s web site, or in the book itself, beyond its appearance, to indicate that. Indeed, the book has a 2003 copyright, and though there is a preface, there is no biographical note about the author. I assume that “John Ashen” is a misprint, a rather careless one. The texts in Romances of Chivalry are, with two exceptions, Middle English REVIEWS 275 romances derived from sixteenth-century editions printed in London by William Copland. Many of these texts are better known today as metrical romances, or tail-rhyme romances, rather than “chivalric romances,” and are exactly the kinds of texts Chaucer had in mind in his witty parody-burlesque, The Tale of Sir Thopas. Metrical romances typically feature young knights, usually of mysterious parentage, who perform deeds of arms, woo a woman, and return with a bride to the bosom of their family, having rediscovered the relationship. Ashton relies extensively on summary and paraphrase, occasionally quoting from the texts, These are closer to retellings than translations, and very far from scholarly editions. Rather than summarizing each of the texts, which would in effect be summarizing a summary, I’ll discuss a few representative examples. Melusine, based here on...