Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-287).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Kent State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 29, 2008). Advisor: Susanna Fein. Keywords: British Library; manuscripts; scribal studies; manuscript studies. Includes bibliographical references.

Inaugural dissertation: --Königl. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 1906.

Inaugural dissertation: --Königl. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 1906.

Composé à la fin du XIIesiècle, le roman anglo-normand Gui de Warewic raconte latransformation morale du héros. Tombé amoureux de la fille de son seigneur, Gui est contraintde partir à l’aventure pour acquérir au combat la renommée et ainsi satisfaire aux exigencesde l’orgueilleuse Félice, qui redoute une mésalliance. Mais, une fois marié, il la quitte etdécide de se mettre au service de Dieu pour expier les péchés qu’il a commis pour la séduireet la conquérir. Ce roman lignager, en imposant un idéal clérical dans la tradition deshagiographies et de la pensée de Bernard de Clairvaux, dénonce les codes de la chevalerieféodale et de la courtoisie. Nous nous proposons d’éditer et de traduire le manuscrit F de ceroman que possède la Fondation Martin Bodmer située à Cologny (Genève). L’étude de lalangue montre que le texte présente de nombreuses caractéristiques propres au dialecte anglonormand.Quant aux sources du texte, nombreuses et variées comme bien souvent dans lalittérature médiévale, elles révèlent que l’auteur s’est inspiré de romans historiques et antiquespour créer un personnage en mesure de légitimer la présence de l’aristocratie locale anglonormandedont il dépendait, et de consolider son identité. Nous donnons aussi une nouvelledate de composition du roman. / Composed in the late twelfth century, the Anglo-Norman romance Guy of Warwick tells themoral transformation of the hero. Having fallen in love with the daughter of his lord, Gui isforced to go on an adventure to acquire fame in combat and thus meet the requirements of theproud Felice who dreads a misalliance. But once married, he leaves her and decides to serveGod to attone for the sins he has committed to seduce and conquer her. This ancestralromance, by imposing a clerical ideal in the tradition of hagiographies as well as the thoughtof Bernard de Clairvaux, denounces feudal chivalry and codes of courtesy. We intend to editand translate the manuscript F of this novel that the Martin Bodmer Foundation possesses,located in Cologny (Geneva). A study of the language shows that the text has many uniquecharacteristics of Anglo-Norman dialect. As for the sources of the text, many and varied as isoften the case in medieval literature, they reveal that the author was inspired by historical andancient novels to create a character able to legitimize the presence of the local Normanaristocracy on which it depended, and to consolidate its identity. We also give a new date ofcomposition of the novel.

This thesis examines the place of the Virgin Mary in the intellectual culture of Benedictine and Cistercian monasticism in medieval England, between c. 1050 and c. 1200. Drawing high profile thinkers, including Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), into dialogue with lesser known figures, it reveals the richness of monastic contributions to Marian doctrine and devotion, in many cases for the first time. The shape of the analysis is provided by five key 'moments' from Mary's life, unfolded consecutively across six chapters. Chapters 1 and 2, on Mary's conception, reveal a confident and pioneering monastic culture which drove the evolution of an obscure Anglo-Saxon feast into a theological doctrine, despite fierce opposition at home and abroad. Chapter 3 explains how Mary's virginity was adopted as a blueprint for the monastic life by Ælred of Rievaulx (d. 1167) and Baldwin of Forde (d. 1190), both of whom were inspired by its fruitfulness in the Incarnation of Christ. Chapter 4 brings to light the contributions made to exegesis of the Song of Songs as a poem about Mary's humility by the mysterious Honorius Augustodunensis (d. 1140) and John of Forde (d. 1214). Chapter 5, on the divine maternity, demonstrates how English monastic theologians gave new life to understanding of Mary as Theotokos ('God-bearer') by drawing out its significance for their own spiritual maternity as leaders of religious communities. Chapter 6 shows how Mary was believed to have entered into the pain of the Crucifixion through her own spiritual martyrdom, and how monks sought to share the experience with her by a communion of charity. These and other insights offer a compelling glimpse into the culture of English monasticism between the demise of the Anglo-Saxons and the advent of the friars. Inspired by a desire to understand and ultimately to know Mary, Benedictine and Cistercian monks produced theological and spiritual works which were imaginative, often intimate and occasionally pioneering. Most of all, they were profoundly pastoral, composed in the belief that Mary could inspire and support those who had embarked upon the monastic via perfectionis.

In this dissertation, I explore how the twelfth-century poet Marie de France combines animals and clothing to define and teach noble conduct in her Lais collection. I suggest that the nexus she creates between animals, dress, and virtue is chimeric but consistent, appearing differently in each narrative situation but recurring as a means of demonstrating moral conduct. My chapters explore three of her lais that combine beasts and attire to address the unique way Marie features the animal-clothing combination in each to teach distinctive lessons in virtuous behavior. My chapter on Guigemar argues that Marie uses the magical hind and the exchange of a knotted shirt and a belt to rework Ovidian anti-love themes to teach the value of being tightly bound in loyal love. Chapter 3 analyzes the eponymous knight's removal of his clothing as the mechanism that triggers his appearance as a werewolf in Marie's lai Bisclavret. I show that Bisclavret's werewolf form is like a sartorial skin under which his selfhood remains unaltered rather than a true transformation, and I argue that Marie uses the knight's appearance as a wolf so that the loyalty he demonstrates to his king and his homosocial community becomes voluntary and therefore serves as a model of noble conduct to the reader. Chapter 4 discusses Marie's use of the characters' relationships to animals and dress in her lai Lanval to assert the importance of a feminine contribution to leadership in society.

This dissertation examines the ideological role and adaptation of the mythical British past (derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae) in chronicles of England written in Anglo-Norman, Latin, and English from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, in terms of the shaping of English history during this time. I argue that the past is an important lens through which we can read the imagined geographies (Albion, Britain and England) and ‘imagined communities’ (the British and English), to use Benedict Anderson’s term, constructed by historical texts. I consider how British history was carefully re-shaped and combined with chronologically conflicting accounts of early English history (derived from Bede) to create a continuous view of the English past, one in which the British kings are made English or ‘of England’. Specifically, I examine the connections between geography and genealogy, which I argue become inextricably linked in relation to mythical British history from the thirteenth century onwards. From that point on, British kings are increasingly shown to be the founders and builders of England, rather than Britain, and are integrated into genealogies of England’s contemporary kings. I argue that short chronicles written in Latin and Anglo-Norman during the thirteenth century evidence a confidence that the ancient Britons were perceived as English, and equally a strong sense of Englishness. These texts, I contend, anticipate the combination of British and English histories that scholars find in the lengthier and better-known Brut histories written in the early fourteenth century. For the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, my study takes account of the Albina myth, the story of the mothers of Albion’s giants (their arrival in Albion before Brutus’s legendary conquest of the land). There has been a surge of scholarship about the Albina myth in recent years. My analysis of hitherto unknown accounts of the tale, which appear in some fifteenth-century genealogical rolls, leads me to challenge current interpretations of the story as a myth of foundation and as apparently problematic for British and English history. My discussion culminates with an analysis of some copies of the prose Brut chronicle (c. 1300) – the most popular secular, vernacular text in later medieval England, but it is seldom studied – and of some fifteenth-century genealogies of England’s kings. In both cases, I am concerned with presentations of the passage of dominion from British to English rulership in the texts and manuscripts in question. My preliminary investigation of the genealogies aims to draw attention to this very under-explored genre. In all, my study shows that the mythical British past was a site of adaptation and change in historical and genealogical texts written in England throughout the high and later Middle Ages. It also reveals short chronicles, prose Brut texts and manuscripts, and royal genealogies to have great potential future research.

This thesis examines the effects the imposition of Anglo-Norman lordship, following the Anglo-Norman expansion into Wales in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, had upon the landscape of the Welsh border region. In order to achieve this aim this project makes extensive use of digital Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in order to produce a detailed county-wide study of the landscape of post-Conquest Monmouthshire as well as comprehensive case studies of individual Anglo-Norman lordships contained within the boundaries of the county. This thesis also aims to locate its findings within important current debates in historic archaeology about the effects of medieval lordship upon the landscape, on the roles of the physical environment and human agency in the forming of the historic landscape, on the wider role of castles as lordship centres, beyond simple military functionality.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.