Mélusine et le chevalier au cygne

Mélusine et le chevalier au cygne PDF Author: Claude Lecouteux
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chevalier au cygne
Languages : fr
Pages : 220

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Book Description

Mélusine et le chevalier au cygne

Mélusine et le chevalier au cygne PDF Author: Claude Lecouteux
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chevalier au cygne
Languages : fr
Pages : 220

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Book Description


Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan

Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan PDF Author: Jean d'Arras
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271059907
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Jean d’Arras’s splendid prose romance of Melusine, written for Jean de Berry, the brother of King Charles V of France, is one of the most significant and complex literary works of the later Middle Ages. The author, promising to tell us “how the noble and powerful fortress of Lusignan in Poitou was founded by a fairy,” writes a ceaselessly astonishing account of the origins of the powerful feudal dynasty of the Lusignans in southwestern France, which flourished in western Europe and the Near East during the age of the Crusades. The spellbinding story of the destinies of the fairy Melusine, her mortal husband, and her extraordinary sons blends history, myth, genealogy, folklore, and popular traditions with epic, romance, and Crusade narrative. Preceded by a substantial introduction, this translation, the first in English to be amply annotated, captures the remarkable range of stylistic registers that characterizes this extravagant and captivating work.

Melusine of Lusignan

Melusine of Lusignan PDF Author: Donald Maddox
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 9780820318233
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This volume of original essays is the first collection devoted to the monumental Roman de Melusine (1393) by Jean d'Arras. A masterwork of late fourteenth-century French prose fiction, Melusine tells of the powerful medieval dynasty of Lusignan from its founding as a city by the legendary Melusine, an enigmatic fairy-figure subject to periodic monstrous transformations, through its expansion in Europe and the Near East, to its ultimate evanescence. Melusine offers a singular blend of history and fiction as it upholds the proprietary claims to Lusignan of the work's illustrious patron, Jean, Duc de Berry. The great deeds of Melusine, her forebears, and her progeny unfold in a narrative that blends elements of myth, folklore, and popular traditions with epic, Crusade narrative, romance, and theological doctrine. Advancing a wealth of new material and fresh insight, the essays in this volume address the complex interplay of the conventions of medieval fictional, historical, and genealogical writing from a wide variety of critical perspectives. Together, they offer a new, more balanced and comprehensive understanding of one of the most significant literary works of late medieval European culture.

Melusine the Serpent Goddess in A. S. Byatt's Possession and in Mythology

Melusine the Serpent Goddess in A. S. Byatt's Possession and in Mythology PDF Author: Gillian M. E. Alban
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739104712
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Gillian Alban meticulously pursues the Fairy Melusine snake-woman image through the plot and the poetry of A. S. Byatt's novel Possession, into medieval legend, and beyond into her antecedents in ancient myth. The book describes the erotically inspiring force of Melusine's love story and draws parallels with goddesses such as Lamia, Ishtar or Inanna, Isis, and Asherah. Mother, creator, and leader, the figure of Melusine was ultimately vilified and tellingly converted into the demon of patriarchal accounts, as seen in the examples of Lilith, Medusa, Scylla, and the serpent in the Garden. Alban deconstructs part of Genesis, including the roles of Adam and Eve and Cain's crime, and illuminates the Old Testament worship of the goddess Asherah alongside the male Yahweh. A forceful exploration of literature, history, and myth, this study sweeps away limiting assumptions about the female sex. Melusine the Serpent Goddess restores the dignity acknowledged to women of old, making a forceful statement about the power and creativity of women.

The Mélusine Romance in Medieval Europe

The Mélusine Romance in Medieval Europe PDF Author: Lydia Zeldenrust
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843845210
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Readers have long been fascinated by the enigmatic figure of M lusine - a beautiful fairy woman cursed to transform into a half-serpent once a week, whose part-monstrous sons are the ancestor of several European noble houses. This study is the first to consider how this romance developed from a local legend to European bestseller, analysing versions in French, German, Castilian, Dutch, and English. It addresses questions on how to study medieval literature from a European perspective, moving beyond national canons, and reading M lusine's bodily mutability as a metaphor for how the romance itself moves and transforms across borders. It also analyses key changes to the romance's content, form, and material presentation - including its images - and traces how the people who produced and consumed this romance shaped its international transmission and spread. The author shows how M lusine's character is adapted within each local context, while also uncovering previously unknown connections between the different branches of this multilingual tradition. Moving beyond established paradigms of separate national traditions, manuscript versus print, and medieval versus Renaissance literature, the book integrates literary analysis with art historical and book historical approaches. LYDIA ZELDENRUST is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York.

The Hidden History of Elves and Dwarfs

The Hidden History of Elves and Dwarfs PDF Author: Claude Lecouteux
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620557169
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A comprehensive examination of the intertwined mythology, folklore, and literary history of the little people • Explores the pagan roots of dwarfs and elves and their evolution in myth and literature • Reveals the role the church played in changing them from fearless, shape-shifting warriors with magical powers into cheerful helpmates and cute garden gnomes • Traces their history from ancient Celtic and Germanic lore through their emergence in the literature of the Middle Ages to their modern popularization by the Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney Most people are familiar with the popular image of elves as Santa’s helpers and dwarfs as little bearded men wearing red caps, who are mischievous and playful, helpful and sly, industrious and dexterous. But their roots go far deeper than their appearance in fairy tales and popular stories. Elves and dwarfs are survivors of a much older belief system that predates Christianity and was widespread throughout Western Europe. Sharing his extensive analysis of Germanic and Norse legends, as well as Roman, Celtic, and medieval literature, Claude Lecouteux explores the ancient, intertwined history of dwarfs and elves. He reveals how both were once peoples who lived in wild regions as keepers of the secrets of nature. They were able to change their size at will and had superhuman strength and healing powers. They were excellent smiths, crafting swords that nothing could dull as well as magical jewelry, and often entered into the service of lords or heroes. They were a part of the everyday life of our ancestors before they were transformed by fairy tales and church texts into the mythical creatures we know today. Lecouteux shows how, in earlier folklore, elves and dwarfs were interchangeable, gradually evolving over time to express very different kinds of beings. “Dwarf,” “giant,” and even “elf” did not necessarily connote size but referred to races with different skills. Elves were more ethereal, offering protection and kindness, while dwarfs reflected a more corporeal form of spirit, often appearing as messengers from the underworld. Yet dwarfs and elves could be bargained with, and our ancestors would leave a broken object outside the door at night with the hope that a dwarf or elf (or other local spirit) would repair it. Revealing the true roots of these helpful and powerful beings, including an in-depth exploration of one of the most famous dwarf/elf/fairy beings of the Middle Ages, Auberon or Oberon, also known as Alberich, Lecouteux shows how the magic of dwarfs and elves can be rekindled if we recognize their signs and invite them back into our world.

Tales of Witchcraft and Wonder

Tales of Witchcraft and Wonder PDF Author: Claude Lecouteux
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644111713
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
• Offers commentary for each story, revealing its historical context, cultural and esoteric associations, and hidden pagan beliefs • Explores how the tales transformed over the ages and their origins in Classical Antiquity, the Middle East, and India • Includes stories never-before-translated from their original Latin and many purposely left in obscurity due to scandalous depictions of popes and other notables The Middle Ages witnessed the blossoming of oral traditions whose echoes can still be found in many legends, fables, and tales today. In this collection of medieval tales of witchcraft, wonder, and the supernatural, Claude and Corinne Lecouteux explain how many of these stories arose in Classical Antiquity while some made their way into Dark Ages Europe from the Middle East and India. Offering commentary for each tale, the authors place them in historical context and analyze their cultural and esoteric associations. They include stories never- before-translated from their original Latin or demotic versions and show how, unlike the well-known fairy tales made popular by the Brothers Grimm, many stories were purposely left in obscurity because they presented scandalous depictions of popes and other notables. Additionally, for many of the tales, the authors scrupulously peel back the Christian veneer to show how the stories were instrumental in assuring the survival of age-old pagan beliefs across the centuries. These beliefs are explored through tales of animals with magical powers and the ability to converse with humans, including the tale of the Grateful Lion made famous through Aesop’s fables; stories of individuals with supernatural or otherworldly powers, like the Venomous Maiden who poisons all men who have relations with her; legends of miracles and wondrous things that violate the laws of nature, such as people returning from the dead to help a descendant; and stories of witchcraft, magic, and demonic apparitions, including the pope who was a disguised demon. The authors also explore tales of supernatural spouses and illicit love affairs, wisdom teachings and parables of fools, and heroic legends.

Defining Dominion

Defining Dominion PDF Author: Gerhild Scholz Williams
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 9780472086191
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
How magic influenced people's lives and thought in early modern Europe

An Historical Geography of France

An Historical Geography of France PDF Author: Xavier de Planhol
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521322089
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 602

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Book Description
In this 1994 book, Xavier de Planhol and Paul Claval, two of France's leading scholars in the field, trace the historical geography of their country from its roots in the Roman province of Gaul to the 1990s. They demonstrate how, for centuries, France was little more than an ideological concept, despite its natural physical boundaries and long territorial history. They examine the relatively late development of a more complex territorial geography, involving political, religious, cultural, agricultural and industrial unities and diversities. The conclusion reached is that only in the twentieth century had France achieved a profound territorial unity and only now are the fragmentations of the past being overwritten.

To Follow in Their Footsteps

To Follow in Their Footsteps PDF Author: Nicholas L. Paul
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801465540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
When the First Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, jubilant crusaders returned home to Europe bringing with them stories, sacred relics, and other memorabilia, including banners, jewelry, and weapons. In the ensuing decades, the memory of the crusaders' bravery and pious sacrifice was invoked widely among the noble families of western Christendom. Popes preaching future crusades would count on these very same families for financing, leadership, and for the willing warriors who would lay down their lives on the battlefield. Despite the great risks and financial hardships associated with crusading, descendants of those who suffered and died on crusade would continue to take the cross, in some cases over several generations. Indeed, as Nicholas L. Paul reveals in To Follow in Their Footsteps, crusading was very much a family affair.Scholars of the crusades have long pointed to the importance of dynastic tradition and ties of kinship in the crusading movement but have failed to address more fundamental questions about the operation of these social processes. What is a "family tradition"? How are such traditions constructed and maintained, and by whom? How did crusading families confront the loss of their kin in distant lands? Making creative use of Latin dynastic narratives as well as vernacular literature, personal possessions and art objects, and architecture from across western Europe, Paul shows how traditions of crusading were established and reinforced in the collective memories of noble families throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Even rulers who never fulfilled crusading vows found their political lives dominated and, in some ways, directed by the memory of their crusading ancestors. Filled with unique insights and careful analysis, To Follow in Their Footsteps reveals the lasting impact of the crusades, beyond the expeditions themselves, on the formation of dynastic identity and the culture of the medieval European nobility.