Research Catalog

Title

Paganism in Arthurian romance / John Darrah.

Author

Darrah, John.

Publication

Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; Rochester, NY : Boydell, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 304 pages; 25 cm

Summary

• The origins of Arthurian romance will always be a hotly disputed subject. The great moments of the legends belong partly to dimly-remembered history, partly to the poets' imagination down the ages, whether Welsh, Breton, French or German. Yet there is another element behind the stories which goes back deeper and further, and which is even more difficult to pinpoint, the traces of ancient pagan religion.
• We know so little for certain about Celtic religion that any attempt to document these recollections of prehistoric and mythological material is a hazardous undertaking. However, John Darrah makes a persuasive case for the existence of these underlying themes, both in terms of heroes who have inherited the attributes of gods, and of episodes which reflect ancient religious rituals.
• His careful study of the thematic relationships of many little-known episodes of the romances and his unravelling of the relative geography of Arthurian Britain as portrayed in the romances will be valuable even to readers who may beg to differ with his final conclusions.
• 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.

Subject

• Arthur, King
• Britons > Kings and rulers > Biography
• Paganism > Great Britain > History
• Arthurian romances > Sources
• Paganism in literature
• Great Britain > Antiquities, Celtic
• Great Britain > History > To 1066

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.

Contents

Pt. 1. An Arthurian Adventure Analysed. The Calendar of Arthurian Romance. The Challenge. Tournaments and the Spring Marriage. Fire from Heaven. Severed Heads and Sacred Waters. Healing Blood and the Dolorous Stroke -- Pt. 2. Further Aspects of Paganism in the Romances. Births, Lives and Deaths of Heroes and Heroines. The Nature of Paganism in Britain. Ceremonial and Ritual -- Pt. 3. The Physical Background to the Romances. Constructions. The Geography of Arthurian Romance. Time and Place. The Once and Future King -- Gazetteer I. Places whose Location can be Roughly Established -- Gazetteer II. Unidentified Places -- Appendix: Who's Who in the Romances?

ISBN

085115350X (alk. paper) :

LCCN

93037182

OCLC

• 36685781
• ocm36685781

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries