Paganism in Arthurian Romance

Paganism in Arthurian Romance PDF Author: John Darrah
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780859914260
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
"His most original contribution to an unravelling of a pagan Arthurian past lies in his appropriation of the fascinating evidence of standing stones and pagan cultic sites. The magical attributes of stones are exemplified in prehistoric standing stones, the real counterparts of the perrons of the French romances. This is dark and difficult territory, but certain events in the Arthurian cycle, which take place on and around Salisbury Plain, have correspondences with known prehistoric events. Building on these elusive clues, and tracing a range of sites around the river Severn and south Wales, John Darrah has added a significant new dimension to the search for the sources of England's great epic, the legends of Arthur and his court."--Jacket.

Paganism in Arthurian Romance

Paganism in Arthurian Romance PDF Author: John Darrah
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780859914260
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
"His most original contribution to an unravelling of a pagan Arthurian past lies in his appropriation of the fascinating evidence of standing stones and pagan cultic sites. The magical attributes of stones are exemplified in prehistoric standing stones, the real counterparts of the perrons of the French romances. This is dark and difficult territory, but certain events in the Arthurian cycle, which take place on and around Salisbury Plain, have correspondences with known prehistoric events. Building on these elusive clues, and tracing a range of sites around the river Severn and south Wales, John Darrah has added a significant new dimension to the search for the sources of England's great epic, the legends of Arthur and his court."--Jacket.

The Real Camelot

The Real Camelot PDF Author: John Darrah
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 9780500012505
Category : Arthurian romances
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description


Arthurian Literature and Christianity

Arthurian Literature and Christianity PDF Author: Peter Meister
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134827822
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Intended as "the other bookend" to Jessie Weston's work some eighty years earlier, this essay collection provides a careful overview of recent scholarship on possible overlap between Arthurian literature and Christianity. From Ritual to romance and Notes, taken together, bracket contemporary inquiry into the relationship (if any) between Jesus and Arthur. T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" is here regarded as one strand joining this matter to many a recent literary riddle (such as the meaning of the term "postmodernism"). Without reprinting work readily available elsewhere and no longer subject to revision through dialogue with fellow contributors, Notes attempts to do justice to all sides in twentieth century exploration of christianity's contribution to an art form which is also grounded in early European polytheism ("paganism").

From Ritual to Romance

From Ritual to Romance PDF Author: Jessie Laidlay Weston
Publisher: Waking Lion Press
ISBN: 9781434102386
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Jessie Laidlay Weston (18501928) was an independent scholar who specialized in medieval Arthurian texts. In 1920, at the age of seventy, she published From Ritual to Romance, which examines the roots of the King Arthur legends, exploring the connections between early pagan elements and later Christian influences. Its revolutionary theory holds that the basic elements of the Grail story are remnants of ancient fertility rites designed to heal the broken land. Poet T. S. Eliot acknowledged the book as crucial to understanding his poem TheWaste Land, noting, Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book on the Grail legend: From Ritual to Romance (Cambridge). Indeed, so deeply am I indebted, MissWeston's book will elucidate the difficulties of the poem much better than my notes can do; and I recommend it (apart from the great interest of the book itself) to any who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble. Drawing on The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer's seminal work on folklore, magic, and religion, Weston examines the mystical elements of the QuesttheWasteland, the Fisher King, the Chapel Perilous, and the Grail itselftying them to the symbols and rites of the ancient mystery religions. She writes, The study and the criticism of the Grail literature will possess an even deeper interest, a more absorbing fascination, when it is definitely recognized that we possess in that literature a unique example of the restatement of an ancient and august Ritual in terms of imperishable Romance. Although her style is formal and academic, the information she presents is rivetingmandatory reading for anyone interested in exploring mythology, the Arthurian legend, and the roots of religion.

Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance

Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance PDF Author: Roger Sherman Loomis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Iwain

Iwain PDF Author: Arthur Charles Lewis Brown
Publisher: Ardent Media
ISBN:
Category : Arthurian romances
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description


From Ritual to Romance

From Ritual to Romance PDF Author: Jessie L. Weston
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691217742
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Acknowledged by T. S. Eliot as crucial to understanding "The Waste Land," Jessie Weston's book has continued to attract readers interested in ancient religion, myth, and especially Arthurian legend. Weston examines the saga of the Grail, which, in many versions, begins when the wounded king of a famished land sees a procession of objects including a bleeding lance and a bejewelled cup. She maintains that all versions defy uniform applications of Celtic and Christian interpretations, and explores the legend's Gnostic roots. Drawing from J. G. Frazer, who studied ancient nature cults that associated the physical condition of the king with the productivity of the land, Weston considers how the legend of the Grail related to fertility rites--with the lance and the cup serving as sexual symbols. She traces its origins to a Gnostic text that served as a link between ancient vegetation cults and the Celts and Christians who embellished the story. Conceiving of the Grail saga as a literary outgrowth of ancient ritual, she seeks a Gnostic Christian interpretation that unites the quest for fertility with the striving for mystical oneness with God.

Iwain

Iwain PDF Author: Arthur Charles Lewis Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arthur, King (Romances, etc.)
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance

Studies in the Fairy Mythology of Arthurian Romance PDF Author: Lucy Allen Paton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arthurian romances
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Pagan Britain

Pagan Britain PDF Author: Ronald Hutton
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300198582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
Britain's pagan past, with its mysterious monuments, atmospheric sites, enigmatic artifacts, bloodthirsty legends, and cryptic inscriptions, is both enthralling and perplexing to a resident of the twenty-first century. In this ambitious and thoroughly up-to-date book, Ronald Hutton reveals the long development, rapid suppression, and enduring cultural significance of paganism, from the Paleolithic Era to the coming of Christianity. He draws on an array of recently discovered evidence and shows how new findings have radically transformed understandings of belief and ritual in Britain before the arrival of organized religion. Setting forth a chronological narrative, Hutton along the way makes side visits to explore specific locations of ancient pagan activity. He includes the well-known sacred sites—Stonehenge, Avebury, Seahenge, Maiden Castle, Anglesey—as well as more obscure locations across the mainland and coastal islands. In tireless pursuit of the elusive “why” of pagan behavior, Hutton astonishes with the breadth of his understanding of Britain’s deep past and inspires with the originality of his insights.