Laura Ashe (editor) - Early Fiction in England: From Geoffrey of Monmouth to Chaucer

History of the Kings of Britain
Translated by Richard Sowerby

History of the English
Translated by John Spence

Romance of Brut
Translated by Judith Weiss

Romance of Horn
Translated by Liliana Worth

Tristan
Translated by Laura Ashe

Courtiers Trifles
Translated by Richard Sowerby

Lais
Translated by Laura Ashe

8 ARTHUR AND GORLAGON
Translated by Richard Sowerby

9 AMIS AND AMILUN
Translated by Laura Ashe

10 GUI OF WARWICK
Translated by Liliana Worth and Philip Knox

11 GUIDE FOR ANCHORITES
Translated by Laura Ashe

12 SIR ORFEO
Edited by Laura Ashe

Troilus and Criseyde
Edited by Laura Ashe

LAURA ASHE is Associate Professor of English and a Tutorial Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Her main research interests lie in high medieval literary and cultural history. Educated at Cambridge and Harvard, she is the author of Fiction and History in England, 10661200 (2007) and Richard II (2016), and co-editor of The Exploitations of Medieval Romance (2010) and War and Literature (2014). She is currently writing the new Oxford English Literary History, vol. 1: 10001350.

PHILIP KNOX is a Junior Research Fellow at New College, Oxford, specializing in medieval English and French literature.

RICHARD SOWERBY is Lecturer in Early Medieval Insular History at the University of Edinburgh. He has published various articles on the history of pre-Conquest England and early medieval Brittany, and is currently writing a book about angels and the supernatural in Anglo-Saxon England.

JOHN SPENCE is the author of Reimagining History in Anglo-Norman Prose Chronicles (2013). He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and works as a civil servant.

JUDITH WEISS is an Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. She is the author of several articles on Anglo-Norman romances, which she also translates, and on twelfth-century chronicle, and has published a translation of Waces Roman de Brut (2002).

LILIANA WORTH is the Horstmann Prize Fellow at the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Mnster, and specializes in comparative literature. She is currently writing a book comparing English, French, Spanish and German heroic poetry of the High Middle Ages.

Works in the present volume are in bold. All composition dates are necessarily approximate and titles are rendered in translation, or in their usual modern form. Names are given in the usual form for the text in question (so Gui of Warwick written c.1210 in French; Guy of Warwick written c.1300 in English).

1096 First Crusade and conquest of Jerusalem

1098 Anselm, Why God Became Man Latin prose theological work

11001135 Reign of King Henry I

1120 Wreck of the White Ship; Henrys heir, William theling, drowned

c.1125 William of Malmesbury, Deeds of the English Kings Latin prose history

c.1133 Henry of Huntingdon, History of the English Latin prose history

1135 Reign of King Stephen (Henry Is nephew)

c.1136 Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain Latin prose history

c.1136 Geffrei Gaimar, History of the English French verse history

1138 Civil war between Stephen and Matilda (Henry Is daughter)

1154 Reign of King Henry II (Matildas son)

c.1155 Wace, Romance of Brut French verse translation of Geoffrey of Monmouths History

c.1170 Thomas, Romance of Horn French verse romance Thomas of Britain, Tristan French verse romance

c.1175 Thomas of Kent, Romance of Alexander (Roman de toute chevalerie) French verse romance

c.1181 Walter Map, Courtiers Trifles Latin prose stories, history and anecdotes

1180ss Marie de France, Lais short French verse romances

c.1185 Hue de Rotelande, Ipomedon, Protheselaus French verse romances

1189 Reign of King Richard I

c.1190 Broul, Tristan French verse romance

c.1190sArthur and Gorlagon Latin prose romance

11991216 Reign of King John

c.1200Amis and Amilun, Lai of Haveloc, Waldef French verse romances

1204 Loss of Normandy to Philip II of France

c.1210Gui of Warwick French verse romance

1215 First issue of Magna Carta

c.1216 Layamon, Brut English verse translation of Waces Romance of Brut

1216 Reign of King Henry III

c.1220Guide for Anchorites English prose devotional work

c.1225Boeve of Hampton French verse romance

12721307 Reign of King Edward I

c.1280 Oldest Prose Brut French history of Britain up to the death of Henry III

12961328 War with Scotland

c.13001325Sir Orfeo, Havelok, King Horn, Sir Tristrem, Amis and Amiloun, Richard Coeur de Lion, Horn Childe, King Alisaunder, Bevis of Hampton, Guy of Warwick, Ywain and Gawain, Sir Degare, Sir Launfal, Floris and Blancheflur, Sir Isumbras, Roland and Vernagu, Otuel, King of Tars English verse romances, most translated from earlier French versions

1307 Reign of King Edward II

1327 Reign of King Edward III

13371453 Hundred Years War between England and France

1348