ENGL 240 - Arthurian Legend

FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Winter 2013

Prerequisite: Completion of FW requirement. Surveys the origins and development of the legend of King Arthur, one of the most enduring traditions in Western literature. Readings commence with early Latin chronicles and Celtic sources before progressing to later medieval adaptations by Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, and Thomas Malory. Central characters and icons, such as Lancelot, Guinevere, the Round Table, and the Grail studied in light of moral, political, and theological questions. The term concludes with Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and the place of Arthur’s Camelot in Victorian England. All foreign language and most medieval texts are read in modern English translation. Jirsa.