Abstract: Readers often consider modernity as distinct from the medieval past. This article rejects a clear 'break' between the two eras and considers similarities in how medieval and modern texts imagine sexual violence. Using Capellanus' De Amore and Game of Thrones , this article argues that both works invite the audience to observe and potentially enjoy depictions of sexual violence but rely on the fantasy that such violence is 'contained' in a fully fictional world. Nonetheless, the article asks whether such containment is truly possible. (EL)

Abstract: This article examines how two authors of Asian descent tackle the problem of 'narrative scarcity' for marginalized writers in their Young Adult Arthurian texts: Williams' 'The Quay Stone' posits the relationship between colonizer/colonized as akin to domestic abuse, while Chupeco's A Hundred Names for Magic series integrates Eastern and Western myths. (PY)

Abstract: Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae is structured around the sequence of British rulers. This structure inevitably means that the text is punctuated by death: an old ruler dies, and another succeeds. The reception of Arthur's death varies across time and manuscript witnesses. This article traces some of the ways that Arthur's death (or his departure) is marked in the manuscript tradition. Both the original design of a manuscript and interventions by later readers can shift how the transition from Arthur's reign is presented and received.

Reviewed by: Early Medieval English Life Courses: Cultural-Historical Perspectives ed. by Thijs Porck and Harriet Soper Timothy D. Arner thijs porck and harriet soper, eds., Early Medieval English Life Courses: Cultural-Historical Perspectives. Leiden: Brill, 2022. Pp. xii, 369. isbn: 978–90–04–49929–4. $194. Early Medieval English Life Courses: Cultural-Historical Perspectives literally considers some age-old questions: how does the human body change throughout its lifetime? What is the relationship between physical, emotional, and intellectual maturity? How is the biological process of aging conditioned by one’s social environment? The essays in this volume look for answers in a range of sources from pre-Conquest England, and, in so doing, provide a rich account of perspectives on the stages of human development. The collection helpfully groups the essays into four sections with three essays in each. Part I is dedicated to ‘Defining and Dividing the Life Course,’ with the first two essays examining how stages of the human life course were classified in early medieval English texts. Thijs Porck’s ‘The Ages of Man and the Ages of Woman in Early Medieval England: From Bede to Byrhtferth of Ramsey and the Tractatus de quaternario’ describes different approaches to categorizing life stages in Old English [End Page 102] and Anglo-Norman manuscripts. Tracing aging schemata as represented through three key works, Porck demonstrates that ‘early medieval English authors stuck to a flexible but uniform definition of the human life course’ (p. 45), and he identifies a significant shift in this paradigm during the twelfth century. Daria Izdebska’s essay surveys vocabulary for describing the stages of life throughout the Old English corpus, linking the various words used to describe infancy, youth, maturity, and old age to their Latin equivalents and to the Old English lexemes associated with these phases. These essays are followed by a discussion of an individual’s particular and influential understanding of aging and maturity, as Darren Barber’s ‘Alcuin and the Student Life Cycle’ highlights Alcuin’s writings about how one’s development through the stages of youth allows greater possibilities for moral and spiritual education. The second set of essays on ‘The Life Course and the Human Body’ considers the discourse around significant bodily changes or events. Jacqueline Fay’s ‘Treating Age in Medical Texts from Early Medieval England’ offers the field’s first look at ‘how, or even if, Old English medieval remedies are inflected by age’ (p. 118) and how these texts define normative and non-normative bodies with regard to age, gender, and bodily strength. Caroline R. Batten examines Old English obstetric remedies, demonstrating how the pregnant female body is more consistently associated with death than the creation and nurturing of life. In ‘The Theology of Puberty in Early Medieval England,’ Elaine Flowers shows how ‘the biological process of puberty in pre-Conquest England . . . generated theological consequences associated with leaving an age of spiritual innocence behind’ (p. 160). Focusing almost exclusively on the male body as a pubescent subject, theological discourse describes sexual temptation as both a challenge and opportunity for young men to demonstrate moral understanding and self-control. The essays in ‘Part III: Intergenerational Dynamics’ concern how names, knowledge, and goods are passed down to create a sense of individual identity within a community. James Chetwood’s essay on naming and renaming demonstrates how names were bestowed not only at birth but throughout one’s life to signal familial and social bonds. Just as Flowers’ essay in Part II considers the theological discourse regarding bodily processes, Katherine Cross examines how eighth- and ninth-century ecclesiastical texts refer to the weaning of infants as both a natural life process and a metaphor for spiritual instruction. Amy Faulkner’s essay on treasure describes how Genesis A presents an ideal model for aristocratic inheritance that Beowulf shows to be prone to disruption. The volume’s final section considers ‘Life Beyond the Human.’ Gale R. Owen-Crocker demonstrates how object biography can reveal ‘The Life Course of Artefacts’ as she examines the Orkney Hood, the Bayeux Tapestry, the Sutton Hoo Hanging Bowl and Shield, and early English manuscripts. The final essay places the linear life course of human development alongside the...

The enigmatic medieval Welsh tale Rhonabwy's Dream depicts an oneiric immersion in the Arthurian world. As Rhonabwy travels backwards through time, his experiences dramatize the stakes of direct encounter with history. The narrative thus explores and critiques the causal relationships between past, present, and text in Arthurian literature. (SL)

In my course, 'The Mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien,' I discuss with my students the influence of the Arthurian tradition on Tolkien's own fantasy stories. An understanding of the influence of the 'Matter of Britain' on Tolkien leads to a deeper awareness of the persistent power of Arthurian legend and its transformation in the work of one of the best-known, best-loved authors of the twentieth century. (JB)

This article presents a teaching template that may be adapted to suit each instructor's interests while at the same time providing a window into some of the most compelling early texts in French and their filmic interpretations. In conjunction with other texts (some in modern French), films (dark and comic as well, in French and English), and language exercises, this approach ensures students gain knowledge about the history of the French language and classic myths such as those of Arthur and the Grail, while bringing to bear their own diverse cultures and histories. (JB)