A Study of the Pseudo-Map Cycle of Arthurian Romance, to Investigate its Historico-Geographic Background and to Provide a Hypothesis as to its Fabrication

178 Pages·1973·6.442 MB·English

by  Justice Neale Carman

A Study of
the Pseudo-Map Cycle of Arthurian Romance

A
Study of
the Pseudo-Map Cycle of
Arthurian Romance
TO INVESTIGATE ITS HISTORICO-GEOGRAPHIC
BACKGROUND AND TO PROVIDE
A HYPOTHESIS AS TO ITS FABRICATION
by
J. Neale Carman
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS
La wrence/ Manhattan/ Wichita
© Copyright 1973 by The University Press of Kansas
Standard Book Number 7006-0100*7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-88008
Designed by Fritz Reiber
Preface
The study that follows originated with the sole intention of
investigating the geography of the Mort Artu and of the beginning
of the Prose Lancelot. Progress in that fruitful task also revealed prob­
able historical background, which turned out to be of such extensive
and varied nature as to give rise to an hypothesis concerning the
manner of fabrication of the Cycle. The hypothesis necessarily takes
into account the ideologies exhibited in the pseudo-Map Cycle. It is
my hope that the readers of this study will discern material valuable,
not only in recognizing when, where, and how the Cycle was written,
but also in measuring aesthetic and intellectual qualities of the Cycle.
After the manuscript of this study had reached tentative com­
pletion, it received serious and detailed criticism from three co-workers
in the field of Arthurian romance. To them I gratefully tender my
thanks, and to them the study owes great improvement both in form
and in the presentation of the facts and arguments. They are Professors
Norris J. Lacy and Myra Olstead Hinman of the University of Kansas
and Professor William Roach of the University of Pennsylvania. From
Professor Roach also came encouragement to develop the last chapter
when, without knowledge of the preceding chapters, he saw a pre­
liminary sketch of it. I do not claim that either he or the other two
agree with speculative conclusions, but their sympathetic reception of
the ideas that I have proposed leads me to hope that the study will not
lack interest for other readers.
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