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The Danger of Romance
The Danger of
Romance
Truth, Fantasy, and Arthurian Fictions

K A REN SU LLI VA N

The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2018 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except
in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.
For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press,
1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2018
Printed in the United States of America

27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978- 0-226-54012-2 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978- 0-226-54026-9 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978- 0-226-54043- 6 (e-book)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226540436.001.0001

The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the gener-

ous support of Bard College toward the publication of this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sullivan, Karen, 1964– author.

Title: The danger of romance : truth, fantasy, and Arthurian fictions /
Karen Sullivan.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press,
2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031778 | ISBN 9780226540122 (cloth :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226540269 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226540436 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Arthurian romances—History and criticism. | French
literature—To 1500—History and criticism. | Arthur, King—In
literature. | Lancelot (Legendary character)—In literature. |
Merlin (Legendary character)—In literature. | Arthurian
romances—Appreciation.
Classification: LCC PN685.S795 2018 | DDC 809/.93351—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031778

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992

(Permanence of Paper).
For my aunt,

Mary Jane Sullivan

 Contents
Introduction 1

1 Romance and Its Reception 26

The Case against Romance 34
The Case for Romance 47
2 Merlin: Magic, Miracles, and Marvels 60
The Madman and the Seer 70
The Engineer and the Prophet 80
The Devil and the Enchanter 94
3 King Arthur: History and Fiction 106
The Sword in the Stone 116
The Court at Camelot 126
The Isle of Avalon 135
4 Lancelot of the Lake: The Reality of the Ideal 148
The Lovers 156
The Realists 164
The Romantics 175
The Readers 183
5 The Quest of the Holy Grail: The Sacredness of the Secular 194
The Eucharist and the Grail 201
Penance, Pilgrimage, and the Quest 218
Significance and Semblance 233
6 Truth and the Imagination: From Romance to
Children’s Fantasy 242
Castles in Spain 246
The Chronicles of Narnia 257
Harry Potter 268

Selected Bibliography 281

Index 291
Introduction
Over the centuries, the stories have lost none of their old
power. The throne of a kingdom has fallen vacant. Fol-
lowing the advice of an enchanter, the people spend
Christmas Eve in their church praying for God to reveal
who their next ruler should be. When they emerge onto
the town square the next morning, they find a mysteri-
ous stone with a sword lodged inside it. It is said that only
he who can remove this sword from the stone shall rule
the kingdom, and only an obscure youth—whom the en-
chanter reveals to be the late king’s son, brought up in ig-
norance of his identity—is able to do so. After defeating
his enemies and establishing himself as sovereign, this
young man creates such a court so glorious that all of the
best knights from near and far seek to join him and to
sit at his Round Table. Among the foreigners who arrive
at this court is a knight who surpasses all others in feats
of chivalry and, as a result, inspires love in the hearts of
all of the ladies and damsels. When the kingdom is still
at its height, the knights learn of the existence of a holy
vessel that was used during the Last Supper or the Passion
of Jesus Christ. They embark on a quest to find this ves-
sel, wandering throughout the land and encountering ad-
ventures, though only a few of them ultimately succeed in
this endeavor. In the end, after the knights have returned
to court, it is revealed that the best of them has long been
engaged in a love affair with the queen, and war breaks out
between him and his lord. The king pursues this knight to
his native land, yet, once there, he learns that his nephew,
in whose charge he has left his kingdom, has usurped his

1
INTRODUCTION

throne in his absence. He returns home and confronts this nephew in

a battle that ends in the destruction, not only of these two men and
their armies, but of the kingdom itself. The queen, who has already
withdrawn to a convent, takes the veil. The knight, who hears about
the battle only in its aftermath, becomes a hermit. The king, who is
mortally wounded, is borne in a boat across the water to a land whence
he is expected, one day, to return. Yet while the tales of this enchanter,
this king, this knight, and this holy vessel constitute the most endur-
ing literary legacy of the Middle Ages, so too are the debates about the
truth value of these works and the genre to which they belong.
In the mid-twelfth century, Arthurian legend began to be written
down in the form of what was then becoming known as “romance,”
though not without misgivings on the part of its first author. Before
this time, Arthur had been mentioned in a few Latin chronicles and
saints’ lives and a few Welsh heroic works,1 but in both cases only
briefly and cryptically. It was not until around 1136 that Geoffrey of
Monmouth, a cleric of Breton or Welsh stock who taught at Oxford,
provided in his Historia regum Britanniae the first lengthy narrative ac-
count of this king,2 and in 1155 that Wace, a cleric from the island
of Jersey, translated Geoffrey’s Latin prose into the Anglo-Norman
French verse of his Brut. Until that point, a text that was composed
“in romance” (en romanz) was simply a text that was written in the
romance language, especially Old French, for the benefit of lay readers
unfamiliar with Latin.3 Now, when the Brut ends with the declara-
tion “Master Wace made this romance,”4 it is among the very first few

1. For a useful collection of the Arthurian passages from the early Latin texts, see Arthur of
Britain, ed. E. K. Chambers (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1927; rpt., Cambridge: Speculum
Historiale, 1964). For the Welsh materials, see The Celtic Sources for the Arthurian Legend, ed. and
trans. Jon B. Coe and Simon Young (Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, UK: Llanerch Publishers, 1995).
2. See Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae, in A History of the Kings of Britain: An
Edition and Translation of “De gestis Britonum,” ed. Michael D. Reeve (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell
Press, 2009).
3. On the meaning of the word roman, see Michel Stanesco, “Chrétien de Troyes et le fonde-
ment du roman européen,” in Amour et chevalier dans les romans de Chrétien de Troyes: Actes du
colloque de Troyes (27–29 mars 1992), ed. Danielle Quéruel (Besançon: Les Belles Lettres, 1995),
361–68; rpt. as “Chrétien de Troyes et la généalogie du roman,” in D’armes et d’amours: Etudes
de littérature arthurienne (Orleans: Paradigme, 2002), 5–14. On the birth of romance, see Jacques
Ribard, “Aux Origines du roman français: Le roman au XIIe siècle,” in Le Genre du roman, les genres
de romans: Actes de Colloque (Amiens, 25–26 avril 1980) (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France,
1980), 13–23; Pierre Gallais, “De la naissance du roman: A propos d’un article recent,” Cahiers de
civilisation médiévale 14 (1971): 69–75; and “Recherches sur la mentalité des romanciers français
du Moyen Age,” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 7, no. 28 (1964): 479–93, and 13 (1970): 333–47.
4. “fist mestre Wace cest romanz,” Wace, Roman de Brut: A History of the British: Text and Trans-
lation, ed. and trans. Judith Weiss (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002), v. 14866. All transla-
tions are my own unless otherwise indicated.

2
 INTRODUCTION

works to speak of “romance” as a genre and one to which it belongs.5

Yet Wace expresses ambivalence about the truth claim he is making
in this new category of literature. He addresses his work to those who
wish to learn about the history of the kings of Britain, including King
Arthur, and he insists, “Master Wace . . . recounts the truth about it.”6
He assumes that it is impossible for so many people to have praised
Arthur without there having been a ruler of this name, and one of ex-
ceptional greatness. At the same time, he acknowledges that not every-
thing told about this particular king is true. Of the many marvels and
adventures attributed to him, he writes, “So much have the storytell-
ers told stories and the fabulators fabled, in order to embellish their
stories, that they have made it all seem to be a fable.”7 He responds to
the improbabilities in the historical record, not by rejecting the record
altogether, as something with no basis in fact, but by wishing that he
could separate the historical core from the fictions that have grown
up around it,8 even as he recognizes that this may well be a futile en-
deavor. When Wace relates the claim that Arthur has survived to this
day on the Isle of Avalon—generally regarded as the most fantastical
aspect of his story—he refrains from either affirming or denying this
legend. He recalls how Merlin is said to have predicted of Arthur that
“his death would be doubtful,” and he comments, “The prophet spoke
the truth. Ever since, people have always doubted—and I believe they
always will doubt—whether he is dead or alive.”9 In contrast to readers

5. The classical romances of the Middle Ages antedated the Arthurian romances. The Roman
de Thèbes (ca. 1150) refers to itself as a romance in some manuscripts. See Le Roman de Thèbes,
publié d’après tous les manuscrits, ed. Léopold Constans, 2 vols. (Paris: Libraries Firmin Didot,
1890), vol. 1, p. 507. The Roman d’Eneas (ca. 1160) refers to itself as a romance as well, but it is
posterior to Wace’s Brut. (See, however, Edna C. Fredrick, “The Date of the Eneas,” PMLA 50, no. 4
[December 1935]: 984–96, which argues for an earlier date.) For general discussion, see Robert
Marichal, “Naissance du roman,” in Entretiens sur la Renaissance du 12 e siècle (Cerisy-la-Salle, 21–30
juillet 1965), ed. Maurice de Gandillac and Emile Jeaneau (Paris: Mouton, 1968), 449–82, at 477n7.
Robert d’Orbigny’s Le Conte de Floire et Blanchefleur: Nouvelle édition critique du texte du manuscrit
A (Paris, BNF, fr. 375), ed. Jean-Luc Leclanche (Paris: Honoré Champion, 2003), has been dated to
1150, but it does not refer to itself as a romance.
6. “Maistre Wace . . . / en conte la verité,” Wace, Roman de Brut, ed. Weiss, vv. 7–8.
7. “Tant unt li cunteür cunté / e li fableür flablé / pur lur cuntes enbeleter, / que tut unt fait
fable sembler,” ibid., vv. 9796–99.
8. For the tradition of reading historical texts in this manner, see Paul Veyne, Les Grecs ont-
ils cru à leurs mythes? (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1983); and Ad Putter, “Latin Historiography after
Geoffrey of Monmouth,” in The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissem-
ination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin, ed. Siân Echard (Cardiff: University of Wales
Press, 2011), 85–108.
9. “sa mort dutuse serreit. / Li prophetes dist verité; / tut tens en ad l’um puis duté, / e dutera,
ço crei, tut dis, / se il est morz u il est vis,” Wace, Roman de Brut, ed. Weiss, vv. 13286–90. Cf. “exi-
tus eius dubius erit,” Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae, ed. Reeve, VI, 145.

3
INTRODUCTION

of the modern novel, who have been said to suspend their disbelief in
the fictions they encounter in its pages, Wace indicates that the audi-
ence of medieval romance was genuinely uncertain as to whether what
they found in these narratives had or had not happened.
Despite the claims that had been raised about its veracity, between
the late twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries, Arthurian romance be-
came one of the most popular categories of literature. In the 1170s and
1180s, Chrétien de Troyes, a cleric from Champagne, wrote several Ar-
thurian works in Old French verse that he refers to as “romances,” in-
cluding Le Chevalier de la charrette, the first account of the love between
Lancelot of the Lake and Guinevere;10 Le Conte du Graal, the first account
of Perceval and the Quest of the Holy Grail;11 and tales of the knights
Erec,12 Yvain,13 and Cligés.14 The story of the Grail, left unfinished, in-
spired a series of lengthy verse continuations—the First Continuation,15
the Second Continuation,16 the Third Continuation (by Manassier),17
and the Fourth Continuation (by Gerbert de Montreuil)18 —which fi-
nally brought the work to a conclusion.19 From these very early Arthu-

10. See Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la Charrette ou Le Roman de Lancelot, ed. Charles
Méla, in Romans, suivis des chansons, avec, en appendice, “Philomena,” ed. Michel Zink, Lettres
Gothiques (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1994), 495–704, vv. 7113–14, which is based on BN fr. 794.
11. See Chrétien de Troyes, Le Conte du Graal ou Le Roman de Perceval, ed. Charles Méla, in
Romans, ed. Zink, 937–1211, v. 9067, which is based on Bern 354, and “Le Roman de Perceval” ou
“Le Conte du Graal”: Edition critique d’après tous les manuscrits, ed. Keith Busby (Tübingen: Max
Niemeyer Verlag, 1993).
12. See Chrétien de Troyes, Erec et Enide, ed. Jean-Marie Fritz, in Romans, ed. Zink, 56–283,
v. 6950, which is based on BN fr. 1376.
13. See Chrétien de Troyes, Le Chevalier au lion (Yvain), ed. David F. Hult, in Romans, ed. Zink,
705–936, vv. 6804– 5, which is based on BN fr. 1433.
14. See Chrétien de Troyes, Cligés, ed. Charles Méla and Olivier Collet, in Romans, ed. Zink,
285– 494, v. 1, which is based on BN fr. 12560.
15. See The Continuations of the Old French “Perceval” of Chrétien de Troyes, 5 vols., ed. William
Roach (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1949– 83), which includes vol. 1, The First
Continuation: Mixed Redaction of MSS. TVD, ed. William Roach (1949); vol. 2, The First Continua-
tion: Long Redaction of MSS. EMGQU, ed. William Roach and Robert H. Ivy (1950); vol. 3, pt. 1, The
First Continuation: Short Redaction of MSS. ALPRS, ed. William Roach (1952); and vol. 3, pt. 2, A
Glossary of the First Continuation, ed. Lucien Foulet (1955).
16. See The Second Continuation, ed. William Roach (Philadelphia: American Philosophical
Society, 1971), in The Continuations of the Old French “Perceval” of Chrétien de Troyes, vol. 4.
17. See The Third Continuation by Manessier, ed. William Roach (Philadelphia: American Phil-
osophical Society, 1983), in The Continuations of the Old French “Perceval” of Chrétien de Troyes,
vol. 5.
18. See Gerbert de Montreuil, La Continuation de Perceval, ed. Mary Williams (vols. 1 and 2)
(Paris: H. Champion, 1922–25), and Marguerite Oswald (vol. 3) (Paris: Champion, 1975). Ger-
bert’s Continuation survives in only two manuscripts, namely, BNF fr 12576 and BNF nouv.
acqu. fr. 6614.
19. As the Continuators sought to provide an epilogue to Chrétien’s romance, the anony-
mous authors of The “Elucidation”: A Prologue to the “Conte del Graal,” ed. Albert Wilder Thompson

4
 INTRODUCTION

rian romances, authors represented themselves as conveying the truth

about Arthur and his knights, as if that truth were something anterior
to their texts. In the thirteenth century, authors shifted from writing
about Arthur and his knights in verse to writing about them in prose,
a change that made these works seem even more veracious, given the
greater historical accuracy associated with the more straightforward
style,20 and even more appealing to their audiences, if we are to judge
from the number of surviving manuscripts. Around 1200, Robert de
Boron, a cleric (or perhaps a knight) from the Franche- Comté, pro-
duced the Joseph d’Arimathie,21 the fragmentary Merlin,22 and perhaps
a lost Perceval, all in verse; before a quarter century had passed, he or
a confederate had composed prose versions of these works, the last of
which is known as the Didot-Perceval.23 In doing so, Robert furnished
essential information about Merlin’s enchantments, Arthur’s rise to
power, and the Holy Grail’s appearance in Britain. Around 1210, an
unknown author contributed the prose Perlesvaus to this developing
Grail tradition.24 Between 1215 and 1235 or so, a series of anonymous
authors composed the Vulgate Cycle,25 a vast prose compendium of Ar-

(New York: Institute of French Studies, 1931) and “Bliocadran”: A Prologue to the “Perceval” of Chré-
tien de Troyes: Edition and Critical Study, ed. Lenora D. Wolfgang (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1976),
both writing in the early thirteenth century, sought to provide prologues to this work.
20. See Gabrielle Spiegel, Romancing the Past: The Rise of Vernacular Prose Historiography in
Thirteenth- Century France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), and “Forging the Past:
The Language of Historical Truth in the Middle Ages,” History Teacher 17, no. 2 (1984): 267– 83;
and Suzanne Fleischman, “On the Representation of History and Fiction in the Middle Ages,”
History and Theory 22 (1983): 278– 310.
21. See Robert de Boron, Joseph d’Arimathie: A Critical Edition of the Verse and Prose Versions, ed.
Richard O’Gorman (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1995), which provides the
verse version of the work (also known as the Estoire dou Graal or the Romanz de l’Estoire dou Graal),
based on Paris, BNF fr. 20047, and the prose version of the work, based on Tours, BM 951.
22. See Robert de Boron, Merlin: Roman du XIIIe siècle, ed. Alexendre Micha (Geneva: Droz,
1979), which furnishes the fragmentary verse version of Robert’s Merlin, based on Paris, BNF fr.
20047, and the prose version of this work, based on Paris, BNF fr. 747.
23. See The Didot-Perceval, According to the Manuscripts of Modena and Paris, ed. William
Roach (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1941), which is based on Paris, BNF nouv.
acqu. fr. 4166, and Modena, Biblioteca Estense MS 3.30. See also Le Roman du Graal: Manuscrit
de Modène par Robert de Boron, ed. Bernard Cerquiglini (Paris: Union Générale d’Edition, 1981),
which is based on the Modena manuscript.
24. See Perlesvaus: Le Haut Livre du Graal, ed. W. A. Nitze and T. Atkinson Jenkins, 2 vols. (Chi-
cago: University of Chicago Press, 1932).
25. Complete editions of the Vulgate Cycle, in its Short Cyclic Version, are provided in Le
Livre du Graal, ed. Daniel Poirion, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 3 vols. (Paris: Gallimard, 2001–9),
which is based on Bonn UB 526, and The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances, Edited from
Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. Heinrich Oskar Sommer, 8 vols. (Washington, DC: Carn-
egie Institution, 1908–16), which is based on London, BL Add. 10292– 4. A Long Cyclic Version of
the text exists as well, which has been published in partial editions, as indicated below.

5
INTRODUCTION

thurian lore that includes the Joseph d’Arimathie,26 the Merlin,27 the Suite
du Merlin,28 the Prose Lancelot,29 the Queste del Saint Graal,30 and La Mort
le Roi Artu.31 In the 1230s, another set of anonymous authors produced
the Post-Vulgate Cycle, which recasts several of these works.32 Accounts
of Tristan and Iseut, originally separate from Arthurian legend,33 were
now incorporated into this material, to the point where Tristan be-
comes a knight of the Round Table.34 Throughout these romances,
authors depicted themselves, not as embellishing the stories that had
come down to them, as Wace would have it, but merely as filling in
the gaps in their plots. Almost all of the stories we now identify with

26. See Joseph d’Arimathie, ed. Gérard Gros, in Le Livre du Graal, ed. Poirion, vol. 1, 1– 567. I will
also be citing L’Estoire del Saint Graal (as this work is also known), ed. Jean-Paul Ponceau, 2 vols.
(Paris: Honoré Champion, 1997), vol. 1 of which is based on Amsterdam BPH 1, i, ff. 1– 63 and
vol. 2 of which is based on Rennes BM 255; both codices contain the Long Cyclic Version.
27. See Merlin, ed. Irene Freire-Nunes, in Le Livre du Graal, ed. Poirion, vol. 1, 570– 805, and
Lestoire de Merlin, in The Vulgate Version, ed. Sommer, vol. 2, 3–101. This text includes a version of
Robert de Boron’s Merlin and a much longer continuation of this work.
28. See Les Premiers Faits du Roi Arthur, ed. Irene Freire-Nunes, in Le Livre du Graal, ed. Poirion,
vol. 1, 807–1662, which is a retitled version of this text, and the Suite du Merlin, in The Vulgate
Version, ed. Sommer, vol. 2, 101– 466. The Livre d’Artus, in The Vulgate Version, ed. Sommer, vol. 7,
which has survived in only one manuscript (BN Fr 337), constitutes an alternate version of the
Suite du Merlin.
29. I will be citing primarily Lancelot: Roman en prose du XIIIe siècle, ed. Alexandre Micha,
9 vols. (Geneva: Droz, 1978– 82), which is based on Add. 10293; Cambridge, Corpus Christi Col-
lege 45; Oxford, Bodl. Rawlinson D. 899; Aberystwyth NLW 5018; and Rawlinson D. 899. The
“Cyclic” version of the Lancelot anticipates Lancelot’s begetting of Galahad and the dominant
role of this knight in the Quest of the Holy Grail, as recounted in the Queste del Saint Graal. The
“Non- Cyclic” version of the text does not head in this direction, concluding, instead, with the
death of Galehaut. See Lancelot do Lac: The Non- Cyclic Old French Prose Romance, ed. Elspeth Ken-
nedy, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980), which overlaps with Micha’s vols. 7 and 8 but is
based upon BN fr. 768.
30. See La Quête du Saint Graal, ed. Gérard Gros, in Livre du Graal, ed. Poirion, vol. 3, 807–
1177. I will also be citing La Queste del Saint Graal, ed. Albert Pauphilet (Paris: Honoré Champion,
1923), which is based on Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, Palais des Arts no. 77.
31. See La Mort du roi Arthur, ed. Mary B. Speer, in Le Livre du Graal, ed. Poirion, vol. 3, 1179–
486. I will also be citing La Mort le roi Artu: Roman du XIIIe siècle, ed. Jean Frappier (Geneva: Droz,
1936; rpt., 1964), which provides the Long Cyclic Version, based on Paris, Ars. 3347.
32. The Post-Vulgate Cycle has not survived in entirety in any one manuscript; some of its
sections are known only from Portuguese and Castilian translations. For its complex history, see
Fanni Bogdanow and Richard Traschler, “Rewriting Prose Romance: The Post-Vulgate Roman du
Graal and Related Texts,” in The Arthur of the French, ed. Glyn S. Burgess and Karen Pratt (Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 2006), 342– 92. I will be considering primarily La Version Post-Vulgate
de “la Queste del Saint Graal” et de “la Mort Artu”: Troisième partie du “Roman de Graal,” ed. Fanni
Bogdanow, 4 vols. (Paris: A. et J. Picard, 1991), which is based on Oxford, Bodleian Library, Raw-
linson D 874; Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, fr. 112, 116, 340, 343, and 772; Cologny, Bodmer
Library, 105; and the State Archives of Bologna, and La Suite du Roman de Merlin, ed. Gilles Rouss-
ineau, 2 vols. (Geneva: Droz, 1996), which is based on London, BL Add. 38117, formerly the Huth
Collection, and Cambridge, University Library, Add. 7071.
33. See Early French Tristan Poems, ed. Norris J. Lacy, 2 vols. (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1998).
34. See Le Roman de Tristan en prose, ed. Philippe Ménard, 9 vols. (Geneva: Droz, 1987).

6
 INTRODUCTION

the Arthurian legend originated in French in this manner between the

1170s and the 1240s, but they proved to be so popular that they were
quickly translated or adapted into virtually every western European lit-
erary language, including Catalan, Dutch, English, German, Norse, Pro-
vençal, and Welsh. As beloved as Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur
(1485) has become to Anglophone readers, this work was a late addition
to Arthurian literature, derived directly or indirectly from what Malory
calls “the Frensshe booke.”35 Whether in the original French sources or
in these later versions, these works provided a major source of diversion
in people’s leisure time for centuries.
If Arthurian romance emerged as one of the dominant literary
genres of the High Middle Ages, it seems to have been in part because
its authors insisted upon its historicity. Though they referred to their
works as “romances,” they also described them as “stories” (contes), re-
counted in French by the knights who had performed the heroic feats
of which they speak. As early as Manassier’s Third Continuation,36 the
knights of the Round Table are said to return to Arthur’s court to dine
with their fellows, especially for the great feast days of Advent, Eas-
ter, and Pentecost, and, when they have finished eating, “to recount”
(conter) under oath what has happened to them since they were last
here, whether it be to their honor or to their shame. Because knights
are honorable men, there is presumed to be an exact correspondence
between the adventures they experience and the account they provide
of these adventures. If these works are “stories” (contes), they are also
“histories” (estoires), written down by clerics who heard these knights’
testimony. Before the knights begin to speak, four clerics—identified
in the Prose Lancelot as Arodian of Cologne, Tantalides of Vercelli,
Thomas of Toledo, and Sapient of Baghdad37— are summoned “to put
into writing” (metre en escript) what they say, “just as” (ensi come) they
say it.38 Because clerics are learned men, there is presumed to be an ex-
act correspondence between what they hear during these sessions and
what they write down.39 Just as the knights function as witnesses to
the events they recount, the clerics function as notaries of the words

35. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, ed. Eugène Vinaver, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1947), I, vol. 1, p. 7. Malory makes reference to the French book thirty-nine times, often mis-
leadingly. See Bonnie Wheeler, “‘As the French Book Seyeth’: Malory’s Morte Darthur and Acts of
Reading,” Cahiers de recherches médiévales 14 (2007): 116–25.
36. See Manassier, Third Continuation, ed. Roach, vv. 42420–25.
37. See Lancelot, ed. Micha, vol. 8, 488– 89.
38. See, for just a few examples, ibid., vol. 2, 255; vol. 4, 248 and 398; vol. 6, 57.
39. In Robert de Boron’s Merlin, it is not the knights of the Round Table but Merlin who dic-
tates the work to a cleric, namely, his amanuensis Blaise. Yet it seems clear, Blaise transcribes only

7
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