Saracens and the Making of English Identity: The Auchinleck Manuscript

316 Pages·2005·6.828 MB·English

by  Siobhain Bly Calkin

STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY
AND CULTURE
Edited by
Francis G. Gentry
Professor of German
Pennsylvania State University
A ROUTLEDGE SERIES
STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND CULTURE
FRANCIS G. GENTRY, General Editor
THE CONTESTED THEOLOGICAL AUTHORITY WORLDS MADE FLESH
OF THOMAS AQUINAS Reading Medieval Manuscript Culture
The Controversies between Hervaeus Natalis Lauryn S. Mayer
and Durandis of St. Pourçain
EMPOWERING COLLABORATIONS
Elizabeth Lowe
Writing Partnerships between Religious Women
BODY AND SACRED PLACE IN MEDIEVAL and Scribes in the Middle Ages
EUROPE, 1100-1389 Kimberly M. Benedict
Dawn Marie Hayes
THE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM OF SIENA, ITALY
WOMEN OF THE HUM ILIATI The Medieval Roots of the Modern
A Lay Religious Order in Medieval Civic Life Networked City
Sally Mayall Brasher Michael P. Kucher
CONSUMING PASSIONS THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE MONSTROUS IN
The Uses of Cannibalism in Late Medieval THE MIDDLE AGES
and Early Modern Europe Lisa Verner
Merrall Llewelyn Price
DESIRING TRUTH
LITERARY HYBRIDS The Process ofJudgment in
Crossdressing, Shapeshifting, and Indeterminacy Fourteenth-Century Art and Literature
in Medieval and Modern French Narrative Jeremy Lowe
Erika E. Hess
THE PREACHING Fox
THE KING'S Two MAPS Festive Subversion in the Plays of the
Cartography and Culture in Wakefield Master
Thirteenth-Century England Warren Edminster
Daniel Birkholz
NON-NATIVE SOURCES FOR THE
PESTILENCE IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY SCANDINAVIAN KINGS' SAGAS
MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE Paul A. White
Bryon Lee Grigsby
KINGSHIP, CONQUEST, AND PATRIA
RACE AND ETHNICITY IN ANGLO-SAXON Literary and Cultural Identities in Medieval
LITERATURE French and Welsh Arthurian Romance
Stephen J. Harris Kristen Lee Over
ASPECTS OF LOVE IN JOHN GOWER'S SARACENS AND THE MAKING OF
CONFESSIO AMANTIS ENGLISH IDENTITY
Ellen Shaw Bakalian The Auchinleck Manuscript
Siobhain Bly Catkin
THE MEDIEVAL TRADITION OF THEBES
History and Narrative in the OF Roman de
Thèbes, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Lydgate
Dominique Battles
SARACENS AND THE MAKING OF
ENGLISH IDENTITY
The Auchinleck Manuscript
Siobhain Bly Calkin
Routledge
New York & London
Published in 2005 by Published in Great Britain by
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
270 Madison Avenue 2 Park Square
New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon
OxonOX14 4RN
© 2005 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group.
Part of Chapter Five was previously published as “Violence, Saracens, and English Identity in Of Arthour
and of Merlin” Arthuriana 14, no. 2 (2004): 17—36. Reprinted with permission.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-97241-8 (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-97241-3 (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-135-47164-4 (ebk)
Library of Congress Card Number 2005013420
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data
Calkin, Siobhain Bly, 1973—
Saracens and the making of English identity : the Auchinleck
manuscript / by Siobhain Bly Calkin.
p. cm. -- (Studies in medieval history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-97241 -8 (alk. paper)
1. English literature-Islamic influences. 2. Islam and
literature--England--History--To 1500. 3. Islamic Empire--Foreign
public opinion, English. 4. National characteristics, English, in
literature. 5. Romances, English--History and criticism. 6. Romances,
English--Manuscripts. 7. Manuscripts, Medieval--England. 8. Islamic
Empire--In literature. 9. Manuscripts, English (Middle) 10. Saracens
in literature. 11. Crusades in literature. 12. Auchinleck manuscript.
I. Auchinleck manuscript. II. Title. III. Series.
PR129.I75C35 2005
820.9'38297--dc22 2005013420
T&F informa Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
Taylor & Francis Group and the Routledge Web site at
is the Academic Division of T&F Informa pic. http://www.routledge-ny.com
For My Parents and for James
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Series Editor's Foreword (cid:9) ix
Acknowledgments (cid:9) xi
Introduction (cid:9) 1
Chapter One
The Perils of Proximity: Saracen Knights, Sameness,
and Differentiation (cid:9) 13
Chapter Two
Saracens and She-Wolves: Foreign Consorts and Group Identity (cid:9) 61
Chapter Three
Monstrous Intermingling and Miraculous Conversion:
(cid:9)
Negotiating Cultural Borders in Pe King of Tars 97
Chapter Four
Saracens and English Christian Identity in Seynt Katerine
(cid:9)
and Seynt Mergrete 133
Chapter Five
Saracens, Englishness, and Productive Violence in
OfArthour and Of Merlin (cid:9) 167
Conclusion (cid:9) 207
Notes (cid:9) 213
vii
(cid:9)
viii Contents
(cid:9)
Appendix 273
(cid:9)
Bibliography 275
(cid:9)
Index 293