Title: Abstract: Key words: Author: Zhang Yating

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1 Title: Representation of Motherhood in Arthurian Narrative Tradition in Medieval England Abstract: There existed an Arthurian narrative tradition in medieval England. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Layamon and Thomas Malory narrate the legendary birth stories of wizard Merlin and King Arthur in which motherhood is associated with the supernatural and magic. The narration helps to reveal the relationship between the cultural hero s birth and Celtic culture and to meet the needs of Anglo-Norman rulers definition of their cultural lineage and political domination. The queen Guinevere is not a biological mother, but her maternal body is externalized by her dowry Round Table where all the knights regain the pre-oedipal attachment and oneness. Guinevere-Round Table serves as the source of harmony for Arthurian realm, but the knights / sons dissatisfaction with Guinevere s pursuit of jouissance leads to the tragic end of Arthurian realm. Key words: Arthurian narrative in medieval England; motherhood; supernatural element; magic; Round Table Author: Zhang Yating is associate professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi an , China). Her academic areas are medieval English literature and British and American women s literature. zhangyt@snnu.edu.cn 12 Loomis 3

2 103 Rhys Kennedy 227 Geoffrey of Monmouth Wace Layamon Thomas Malory Breuer 37 Historia Regum Britanniae Vita Merlini Knight 131 Vortigern Geoffrey Knight 25 Loomis Roman de

3 Brut Wace Brut Layamons Brut Layamons Brut Matthews and Matthews 19 Malory 126, 149 Loomis

4 105 Kieckhefer Kieckhefer Goodrich xv Geoffrey Goodrich 15 Wace Layamons Brut

5 Wynne-Davies 69 Mongan Matthews and Matthews Jenkins 65-74; Gransden Lacy, Ashe and Mancoff 2 15 Cherewatuk McCarthy 122 Wace Layamons Brut Matthews and Matthews xxiv-xlvi

6 107 Irigaray 340 Cherewatuk 55 Cherewatuk 26 Malory 1045 chora Edwards 49 Malory 1163 Malory 1211 jouissance

7 Malory Notes Nennius Historia Brittonum Annales Cambriae Culhwch and Olwen William of Malmesbury Gesta regum Anglorum Henry of Huntingdon Historia Anglorum Geoffrey of Monmouth Historia Regum Britanniae Marie de France Lanval Roman de Brut Brut Prose Brut The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe Chaucers Tale of Thopas Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight Alliterative Morte Arthure Stanzaic Morte Arthur Sir Thomas Malory Le Morte D arthur

8 109 Succubus Incubus See King Arthur and English Monarchy, 12 Nov. 2012, < /arthur.htm>. Works Cited Breuer, Heidi. Crafting the Witch: Gendering Magic in Medieval and Early Modern England. New York: Routledge, Cherewatuk, Karen. Marriage, Adultery and Inheritance in Malory s Morte Darthur. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, Edwards, Elizabeth. The Place of Women in the Morte Darthur. A Companion to Malory. Ed. Elizabeth Archaibald and A. S. G. Edwards. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, Geoffrey, of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. Trans. Lewis Thorpe. London: Penguin Books, Goodrich, Norma Lorre. King Arthur. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Grasden, Antonia. The Growth of the Glastonbury Tradition and Legends in the Twelfth Century. Journal of Eccelesciastical History 27 (1976): Irigaray, Luce. Speculum of the Other Woman. Trans. Gillian C. Gill. New York: Cornell UP, Jenkins, Simon. A Short History of England. London: Profile Books Ltd., Kennedy, Edward Donald. Sir Thomas Malory s Romance and Chronicle. Arthurian Studies in Honour of P. J. C. Field. Ed. Bonnie Wheeler. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Knight, Stephen. Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages. New York: Cornell UP, Lacy, Norris J., Geoffrey Ashe, and Debra N. Mancoff. The Arthurian Handbook. 2nd ed. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., Loomis, Roger Sherman. Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance. New York: Columbia UP, Madden, Sir Frederic K. H., ed. Layamons Brut, or, Chronicle of Britain: a Poetical Semi-Saxon Paraphrase of the Brut of Wace. London: The Society of Antiquaries of London, Malory, Sir Thomas. The Works of Thomas Malory. Ed. Eugène Vinaver. Oxford: Clarendon Press, Matthews, Caitlín, and John Matthews. Ladies of Lake. London: The Aquarian Press, McCarthy, Terence. Reading The Morte Darthur. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, Rhys, John. Studies in the Arthurian Legend. Oxford: Oxford UP, Wace. Roman de Brut. A History of the British. Trans. Judith Weiss. Exeter: U of Exeter P, Wynne-Davies, Marion. Women and Arthurian Literature: Seizing the Sword. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1996.

Arthurian Tales in English Literature through the Ages

E 316K Final Essay Ankit K Srivastava Page 1 of 8 Arthurian Tales in English Literature through the Ages Literary cycles are collection of stories grouped around common figures based on mythical or historic