Stefan Vander Elst is Associate Professor of English at the University of San Diego.
"""The Knight, the Cross, and the Song cleverly illustrates how, from the early flowerings of of the chivalric age to the late fourteenth century, across northern France to the Near East, a burst of historical writing and storytelling was created to appeal specifically to the aristocratic interests of the knightly class and convince them to take up the cross."" * <i>Times Literary Supplement</i> * ""[A] carefully researched study, providing a wealth of useful material and some much needed discussion of neglected texts. The enduring and elusive appeal of crusading ideals will continue to preoccupy scholars in years to come."" * <i>Modern Philology</i> * ""Stefan Vander Elst offers valuable insights into how Crusade narratives were composed and how they may have been received by medieval audiences. His discussion of the influence of imaginative literature on what is now regarded as factual literature is illuminating."" * Helen J. Nicholson, Cardiff University *"