From the Editor

Welcome to the first issue of 2014! There are some exciting new developments to which I would like to call your attention before you dive into the fabulous articles in issue 24.1. First, Executive Editor Bonnie Wheeler and I would like to congratulate Robyn Malo on completing her tenure as Associate Editor, and thank her for all her hard work—especially her laser-like editing skills—and wish her well as she moves on to other professional endeavors; these include finishing up several forthcoming articles, guest-editing special issues of top-tier journals, and much, much more (thankfully, she is still just down the hall from me, so I will continue to see her on a regular basis). We are delighted to welcome Molly Martin (McNeese State University) as our new Associate Editor; we look forward to a long and productive relationship with Molly!

We are pleased, also, to publish in this issue the first article to win the ‘Fair Unknown’ prize sponsored by the International Arthurian Society-North American Branch. Designed to recognize and support the academic contributions of graduate students, ‘the Fair Unknown’ award is given to the best paper on an Arthurian subject presented at the annual International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo. To be considered, conference papers must be submitted to the committee in their original presentation form two weeks after the conclusion of the conference (the only editing/revising that is permitted between presentation and submission is the correction of typographical errors). Once the committee makes its selection, the editorial staff of the journal Arthuriana works with the graduate student scholar to revise the presentation into a publishable article. We are delighted to be publishing Usha Vishnuvajjala’s ‘Loyalty and Horizontal Cosmopolitanism in Chrétien de Troyes’ Cligés’ and congratulate Usha on being the first recipient of the ‘Fair Unknown’ prize!

And finally, we are continuing our ‘Eminent Arthurian’ occasional series in this issue with a tribute to P.J.C. Field, arguably the greatest living Malory scholar and one whose contributions to Medieval Studies in general—and Arthurian Studies in particular—are far too numerous to list here. The recent publication of his two-volume edition of Le Morte Darthur marks a seismic shift in Arthurian and Malory studies; that work—the culmination of decades of study—is now, without question, the standard, authoritative, scholarly edition of Malory’s text (and all those who submit articles to this journal in future must cite it). Peter’s career has been marked equally by rigorous scholarship and generosity of spirit, and I know I speak for many others when I say how fortunate I have been to experience Peter’s expertise and guidance both on the page and in person. K.S. Whetter’s tribute to him makes clear the debt we owe to this great scholar and teacher.