Rex rebellis to courtly knight: King Arthur in the medieval Brittonic traditions

本项目将首次对亚瑟王在布列顿、康尼什和威尔士传统(公元800-1500年)中的形象进行比较分析，探讨亚瑟王从雷克斯·雷贝尔转变为宫廷骑士的影响和影响。尽管最近的评论作品，如《凯尔特语言中的亚瑟》(2019)，单独概述了亚瑟在每个地理区域的形象变化，但没有一本书对他在中世纪布列塔尼、康沃尔和威尔士的演讲进行了综合的、历时的研究。这些文化最初在一定程度上共享共同的民间叙事，随后接受并反应了相同范围的亚瑟王题材，如亚瑟王的浪漫故事和大英帝国历史。这部作品将首次审视亚瑟的性格是如何以及为什么被来自整个不列颠世界的中世纪作家在那个时期操纵的。因此，它既是对亚瑟王研究的原创性贡献，也是对更广泛的中世纪学者至关重要的问题的重新思考，特别是凯尔特白话和拉丁文文学之间的关系，以及这些与研究得更好的英格兰和法国浪漫文学之间的关系。为了突出每个地区亚瑟王传统之间的相似之处和细微差别，资料被组织成三个时间组：公元800-公元1138，公元1139-公元1300，公元1300-公元1500。本论文共分四章。第一章将考察前加尔弗里德的不列颠亚瑟王的来源，在第一个年代组。第二章到第四章将讨论后加尔弗里德时期的来源，直到公元1500年，建立在关于亚瑟王元素从不列颠人到英格兰和法国，然后再回来的学术基础上，但提出了一个原创的、细致入微的分析：在不列颠故事似乎影响了古法语和盎格鲁-诺曼亚瑟王文学(或反之亦然)的地方，布雷顿、康尼什和威尔士的传统将被区分开来。因此，这个项目将加强我们对古法语或盎格鲁-诺曼文本与‘凯尔特’传统之间的接触的理解。通过澄清和阐明每个不列颠地区对亚瑟(和亚瑟王的叙事)的描绘的细微差别，这项研究将对古法语和中世纪英语文学学术做出更广泛的贡献，在古法语和中世纪英语文学学术中，模糊定义的单词凯尔特人经常被不分青红皂白地使用，指的是任何魔法或神秘元素的不确定起源--这是本论文将有助于解决的问题。通过比较和区分整个中世纪威尔士、康沃尔和布列塔尼细微差别的亚瑟王传统，这项工作将有助于重新构建关于这些地区个人文化遗产和身份的学术假设，并告知人们对这些地区的个人文化遗产和身份的广泛看法。

This project will offer the first comparative analysis of the figure of King Arthur in Breton, Cornish, and Welsh traditions, c.800-c.1500, addressing the influences on, and implications of, his transformation from rex rebellis to courtly knight. Although recent critical works like Arthur in the Celtic Languages (2019) offer separate overviews of Arthur's changing image in each geographical area, none has provided a synthetic, diachronic study of his presentation across medieval Brittany, Cornwall, and Wales. These cultures initially, to an extent, shared a common stock of folk narratives, subsequently receiving and reacting to the same range of Arthurian material, such as Arthurian romances and the Historia Regum Britanniae. This work will present the first scrutiny of how and why Arthur's character was manipulated by medieval writers from throughout the Brittonic world across the period. It thus offers both an original contribution to Arthurian studies, and a reconsideration of questions of vital interest to medievalists more broadly, especially the relationship between Celtic literatures in the vernacular and in Latin, and between these and the better-studied romance literatures of England and France. To highlight the similarities between, and nuances of, each area's Arthurian traditions, sources are organized into three chronological groups: c.800-c.1138, 1139-c.1300, and c.1300-c.1500. This thesis will have four chapters. Chapter One will examine the pre-Galfridian Brittonic Arthurian sources in the first chronological group. Chapters Two to Four will treat the post-Galfridian sources until c.1500, building on scholarship concerning the transmission of Arthurian elements from the Britons, to England and France, and back, but presenting an original, nuanced analysis: where Brittonic tales seem to have influenced Old French and Anglo-Norman Arthurian literature (or vice versa), the Breton, Cornish, and Welsh traditions will be differentiated. This project will thus enhance our understanding of engagement between Old French or Anglo-Norman texts and 'Celtic' traditions. By clarifying and elucidating the nuances of each Brittonic area's portrayals of Arthur (and Arthurian narrative), this research will contribute more broadly to Old French and Middle English literary scholarship, where the hazily-defined word 'Celtic' is often used indiscriminately to refer to the uncertain origins of any magical or mysterious elements - a problem that this thesis will help to address. Through both juxtaposing and differentiating the nuanced Arthurian traditions of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany throughout the Middle Ages, this work will help to reframe scholarly assumptions about, and inform widespread perceptions of, these areas' individual cultural heritages and identities.