Fantastic Histories explores the political and cultural contexts of the entry of fairies to the historical record in twelfth century England, and the subsequent uses of fairy narratives in both insular and continental history and romance. It traces the uses of the fairy as a contested marker of historicity and fictionality in the histories of Gerald of Wales and Walter Map, the continental mirabilia of Gervase of Tilbury, and the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century French Mlusine romances and their early English reception. Working across insular and continental source material, Fantastic Histories explores the practices of history-writing, fiction-making, and the culturally determined boundaries of wonder that defined the limits of medieval history.
By:
Victoria Flood (Senior Lecturer) Imprint: Manchester University Press Country of Publication: United Kingdom Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 17mm
Weight: 500g ISBN:9781526164148 ISBN 10: 1526164140 Series:Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture Pages: 304 Publication Date:15 July 2024 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction: fairies in history 1 ‘Historia fabulosa’: writing fairies in England and Wales 2 ‘Relatum ueridica’: wonderful history from Gervase of Tilbury to Philippe Mousket 3 ‘Le Noble hystoire’: romance and history in Jean d’Arras’s Mélusine 4 ‘En rime l’istoire’: vanishing history in Couldrette’s Mélusine and Richard Coer de Lyon Conclusion: between history and romance Index -- .
Victoria Flood is Associate Professor in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at the University of Birmingham
