In this Book

  • Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan
  • Book
  • By Jean d'Arras, Edited, translated, and with an introduction by Donald Maddox, and Sara Sturm-Maddox
  • 2012
  • Published by: Penn State University Press
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summary

Jean d’Arras’s splendid prose romance of Melusine, written for Jean de Berry, the brother of King Charles V of France, is one of the most significant and complex literary works of the later Middle Ages. The author, promising to tell us “how the noble and powerful fortress of Lusignan in Poitou was founded by a fairy,” writes a ceaselessly astonishing account of the origins of the powerful feudal dynasty of the Lusignans in southwestern France, which flourished in western Europe and the Near East during the age of the Crusades. The spellbinding story of the destinies of the fairy Melusine, her mortal husband, and her extraordinary sons blends history, myth, genealogy, folklore, and popular traditions with epic, romance, and Crusade narrative.

Preceded by a substantial introduction, this translation, the first in English to be amply annotated, captures the remarkable range of stylistic registers that characterizes this extravagant and captivating work.

Table of Contents

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  1. COVER Front
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
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  1. Table of Contents
  2. pp. v-vi
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  1. Preface and Acknowledgments
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-16
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  1. Maps
  2. pp. 17-18
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  1. Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan
  2. p. 19
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  1. Prologue
  2. pp. 19-21
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  1. Crossed Destinies: Melusine and Raymondin
  2. pp. 21-34
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  1. Founding Lusignan
  2. pp. 34-48
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  1. Raymondin in Brittany
  2. pp. 49-68
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  1. Founding a Dynasty in Poitou
  2. pp. 68-71
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  1. Urian and Guyon Defend Cyprus
  2. pp. 71-99
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  1. Urian and Guyon: The Armenian Campaign
  2. pp. 100-113
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  1. Antoine and Renaud in Luxembourg
  2. pp. 113-148
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  1. Geoffroy Big-Tooth in Ireland
  2. pp. 148-159
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  1. Crisis in the Near East
  2. pp. 160-180
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  1. Betrayal, Fratricide, and Loss
  2. pp. 180-196
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  1. Geoffroy in Northumberland
  2. pp. 196-201
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  1. Raymond: Pilgrimage and Penance
  2. pp. 201-208
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  1. Six Sons of Lusignan Defend Alsace
  2. pp. 208-214
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  1. Raymond's Noble Funeral
  2. pp. 214-218
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  1. Epilogue I: The Knight of the Tower
  2. pp. 218-223
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  1. Epilogue II: The Castle of the Sparrow Hawk
  2. pp. 223-226
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  1. The Legacy of Lusignan and the Duke of Berry
  2. pp. 226-230
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  1. Notes
  2. pp. 231-242
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  1. Selected Bibliography
  2. pp. 243-246
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 247-251
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  1. COVER Back
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