The Catholic University of America

ENG 356: The Arthurian Tradition

Spring 2007

Dr Wright

This web site is NOT a complete syllabus for ENG 356. It simply provides links to supplemetal texts and images that will be studied as part of the course. New material will be added to the site as the semester progresses.

Rex quondam rexque futurus

Archeology and topography

Textual Traditions

Y Gododdin (ca. 600): excerpt
Gildas, De Excidio Britanniae (ca. 540)
Nennius , Historia Brittonum (ca. 800): esp. chapter 50
Annales Cambriae (Annals of Wales) (ca. 950): esp. years 516 and 537
Geoffrey of Monmouth , Historia Regum Britanniae (ca. 1138)
Wace, Roman de Brut (1155)
Lawman, Brut (ca. 1200)

The Rise of Romance: Chivalry and Courtly Love

Images of the warrior before 1100

Beowulf, Battle of Maldon, Chanson de Roland
The Battle of Hastings (1066) and the Bayeux Tapestry

Images of the knight in the age of chivalry (12th-16th century)

Jean, Duc de Berry (d. 1416), Les tres riches heures (ca. 1412-1416)
Limbourg brothers (Paul, Jean, Hermann)
Images of peasants and laborers

Images of aristocrats

Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), In Praise of the New Knighthood
Andreas Capellanus, De Amore (ca.1184-86)
Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders (d. 1191)
Marie, Countess of Champagne (d. 1204)
Chretien de Troyes (fl. 1170-1200)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

Images from British Library, MS. Cotton Nero A.x
Tapestry Fragment (ca. 1400-1410), commisoned by Jean, Duc du Berry
Woodcut (Rouen, 1488)

Perceval and Grail Quest

The Antioch Chalice (Byzantium, early 6th century)

Appropriating Arthur: Some Victorian Versions

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92), "Lady of Shalott" (1832)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Lady of Shalott" (1842)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82), "Lady of Shalott" (1857, book engraving)

Edward Burne-Jones (1833-98), "The Beguiling of Merlin" (1872-77, oil painting)

Arthur Hughes (1832-1915), "The Lady of Shalott" (1872-73, oil painting)

John William Waterhouse (1849-1917), "'I am half sick of shadows,' said the Lady of Shalott" (1860, oil painting)

John William Waterhouse, "The Lady of Shalott" (1888, oil painting)

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), "The Lady of Shalott" (begun 1886, 1905, oil painting)

Sidney Harold Meteyard (1868-1947), "'I am half sick of shadows,' said the Lady of Shalott" (1913, oil painting)

For further reading: Debra N. Mancoff, The Arthurian Revival in Victorian Art (1990) and Muriel Whitaker, The Legends of King Arthur in Art (1990)

Music: Loreena McKennitt, "The Lady of Shalott," from The Visit (1992)

Lady of Shalott Guitar (I'm not making this stuff up)

Richard Wagner, Parsifal (1882)

Ludwig II of Bavaria (1845-86)

Neuschwannstein

Richard Wagner (1813-83)

Bayreuth Festspielhaus (1882)

Bayreuth Festspielhaus (today)

St Peterburg (Russia), Act III

Seattle Opera, Scenes from Act I

Bugs and Elmer "Kill the Wabbit" (1957)

"Holy Spear of Longinus" (7th century)

Arthurian Apocalypse: Paul Bryers, In a Pig's Ear

Myrddhin (legendary Welsh seer, 6th century): pp. 1-3.
Flaktower I: Berlin Zoo (1945): pp. 5-13.
Dubcek, Prague Spring, and Soviet invasion (1968): pp. 39-43.
William Holman Hunt, "The Awakening Conscience" (1853): pp. 72-73.
Beech Wood (Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar): pp. 77-81.
Neo-fascist attacks : pp. 77-81, 221-24.
Site of Fuhrerbunker (1945), Berlin Wall (1961-89), and Pink Floyd concert (1990): pp. 83-90
Count Claus von Stauffenberg and assassination attempt (July 1944): pp. 125-29.
Tacheles (bombed department store and current avant-garde art space): p. 154.
Hieronymus Bosch, "Garden of Earthly Delights" (ca. 1504): p. 155.
Albrecht Durer, "Knight, Death, and the Devil" (1513): pp. 156-57.
Carl Jung: the collective unconscious and the role of archetypes

Last Revised 30-Mar-07 09:34 AM.