Stephen H. A. Shepherd – författare

This unique Middle English text, not previously published, of the immensely popular story of Charlemagne's Spanish wars and defeat at Roncevaux, has only recently been discovered. It is one of the earliest prose romances, pre-dating Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'Artur by more than a decade. This version testifies to a distinctive British tradition of the Charlemagne story. The manuscript's history locates the text in Lancastrian and regional politics of the mid-fifteenth century.

This Norton Critical Edition includes:The texts of eleven complete, authoritative romances—four new to the Second Edition: Havelok, Ywain and Gawain, Of Kyng Robert of Cisyle, Hou Pride dude Him Begyle, Sir Orfeo, Sir Launfal, Athelston, The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne, The Weddyng of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell for Helpyng of Kyng Arthoure, The Grene Knight, The Sege off Melayne, and The Taill of Rauf Coilyear, How He Harbreit King Charlis.A thorough introduction accompanied by updated and expanded explanatory footnotes by Stephen H. A. Shepherd.In “Sources and Backgrounds,” detailed contextualizing headnotes and comparative analogues (many complete) for each of the eleven romances.In “Criticism,” eight essays—four new to the Second Edition—that help students analyze the themes of Middle English romances.An updated selected bibliography “This welcome Second Edition of Stephen Shepherd’s collection of Middle English romances offers an authoritative entry into the richly varied world of medieval narrative. The expanded selection, which now also includes Older Scots, invites readers to make any number of connections between these important works and a range of fascinating contextual material that includes chronicles; Continental romances; biblical tales; and other central Middle English poems, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The thematic groupings present a provocative stimulus to comparative reading, while the new critical pieces on madness, magic, history, and representations of Islam offer a thoughtful selection of fresh approaches to the texts. Professor Shepherd is to be thanked for providing a wonderful resource for students and teachers alike.” —Sarah Wood, University of Warwick

No other edition accurately represents the actual (and likely authorial) divisions of the text as attested to by its two surviving witnesses—Caxton’s 1485 print and, especially, the famous Winchester Manuscript. The Winchester Manuscript is now generally agreed to be the more authentic of the two earlier texts. The Norton Critical Edition is the first edition of Malory to recover important elements of this manuscript: paragraphing marginal annotations hierarchies of narrative division as signaled by size and decorative intricacy of initial capitals and font changes The Norton Critical Edition also represents, in black-letter font, the striking rubrication of proper names in the Winchester Manuscript, reconstructing for readers something of an authentic medieval reading experience, one which gives visual support to Malory’s extraordinary representation, in character and setting, of a chivalric ideal. No other student edition of Malory contains such extensive contextual and critical support.