Fantastic histories: Medieval fairy narratives and the limits of wonder
Fantastic histories: Medieval fairy narratives and the limits of wonder
Associate Professor in Medieval and Early Modern Literature
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Abstract
Fantastic histories explores the historically and politically contingent nature of medieval fairy belief, approached through the lens of a single case study: the fairy lover or mother as she was integrated within ostensibly historical contexts. From the writings of Walter Map, Gerald of Wales, and Gervase of Tilbury to the romances associated with the serpentine fairy Mélusine, the founder and dynastic mother of the house of Lusignan (texts responsive to these earlier Latin mirabilia), it uncovers the principles of historical discernment applied to these narratives and their relative historical positioning. Approaching a significant chapter in the medieval development of, and relationship between, history and romance, it explores the interpenetration of the two, asking where a particular discourse (rather than genre) might dominate and determine the horizon of reader expectations.
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Front Matter
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Introduction: fairies in history
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1
‘Historia fabulosa’: writing fairies in England and Wales
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2
‘Relatum ueridica’: wonderful history from Gervase of Tilbury to Philippe Mousket
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3
‘Le Noble hystoire’: romance and history in Jean d’Arras’s Mélusine
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4
‘En rime l’istoire’: vanishing history in Couldrette’s Mélusine and Richard Coer de Lyon
- Conclusion: between history and romance
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End Matter
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