The most enduring problem in the criticism of the Alliterative Morte Arthure is the difficulty of describing its genre accurately. In the past most critics and literary historians have been content to label the poem variously as a romance, a chronicle, an heroic poem, an epic, or a tragedy solely on the basis of a superficial reading of its subject matter, plot, and theme. This study challenges those readings of the poem with an extensive analysis of its total artistic structure of narrative techniques, patterns of imagery and symbolism, and thematic development. The results of this analysis indicate that the Alliterative Morte Arthure is best described as an epic tragedy. The analysis of the poem's form and content is inductive in nature. After a review of the criticism dealing with the poem's genre and an exposition of the study's methodology, the analysis then proceeds with a close reading of the particular narrative structure and content of the poem's three macro-episodes. Since this study rests on the critical proposition that the analysis of a work's genre is best founded on an examination of its narrative structure, this reading focuses primarily on the description of the various narrative relationships that exists between the episodes of each macro-episode. The analysis simultaneously accounts for the thematic significance of the various patterns of imagery, symbolism, and other narrative content that emerge from this close reading. The study then concludes with a discussion of the Alliterative Morte Arthure's genre. A preliminary description of the basic features of epic and romance suggests that the poem is undeniably a species of epic narrative. The results of a close reading of the poem, however, indicate that this designation of its genre as well as the widely accepted classification of it as a medieval tragedy of fortune are both inadequate to illuminate the particularly communal nature of Arthur's tragedy. For this reason the Alliterative Morte Arthure is most appropriately described as an epic tragedy, a narrative that presents the epic hero's catastrophe in the context of his relationship with his community.

The prayers and oaths of the Middle English verse romances draw upon a range of pious formulae. These stock invocations rehearse key episodes from salvation history. Such formulae are widely viewed as mere line-fillers and they are rarely credited with stylistic influence. Yet the startling power of their apposite usage in charged narrative moments prompts further investigation. The thesis aims to demonstrate how the use of pious formulae in the romances is not inevitably mechanical. It comprises a catalogue and stylistic study of such formulae. The catalogue records all examples appearing in a single witness to each of the pre-1500 verse romances. By furnishing information on prosodic context, it offers a reference tool with which to measure the extent of technical determination in the appearance of a formula. The thesis analyses this material and advances claims for the aesthetic value of pious formulae. Chapter 1 reviews the evidence of the catalogue. It is shown how pious formulae embody an impressive range of devotional imagery. Chapter 2 illustrates that cognate formulae are widely employed in Middle English religious literature. It is shown how therein they exhibit a theological significance and a stylistic saliency. Chapter 3 shows how intermittent reflections of this serious stylistic usage are apparent in the pious romance, Guy of Warwick. Chapters 4 and 5 show how the affective resonance of such formulae is consistently exploited in the Stanzaic Morte Arthur and William of Palerne respectively. Chapter 6 provides a brief summary. It concludes that the pious formulae of the romances can convey a strong aesthetic charge. They serve as more than mere line-fillers. Three appendices are included. Appendix A explores the relation between pious formulae and medieval profane oaths. Appendix B lists the variant readings of the formulae of four romances. Appendix C comprises the catalogue.

This thesis has as its subject matter the chronicles written by members of the Teutonic Order to describe and Justify the crusades undertaken by the Order in Prussia and Lithuania in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It argues that the full importance of this material has been largely ignored or misunderstood by historians and literary historians and hence that its contribution to crusading ideology has not been fully appreciated. It is then argued that the Kronike von Pruzinlant, the most widely disseminated and influential of the chronicles, was written in response to widespread criticism of the crusades and the military orders at the end of the thirteenth and beginning, of the fourteenth centuries, and played an important part in re-establishing the crusading ideal at a time of crisis for the crusading movement. The first section examines the Kronike von Pruzinlant in the context of crusading tradition and contemporary crusading literature and aims to identify the Order's original contributions to crusading ideology. The second section employs a diachronic approach. It demonstrates the Kronike von Pruzinlant's importance by contrasting it with an earlier chronicles the Livlandische Reimchronik, and a later one, the Chronicle of Wigand of Marburg. It also contrasts the two existing versions of the Kronike von Pruzinlant, the Latin original and the vernacular translation, examining the impact made by changes in the vernacular version on the form and purpose of the chronicle. The thesis concludes that the Order made significant contributions to the development of crusading ideology in the fourteenth century. Its development of these ideas reflects its desire to come to terms with the criticisms and difficulties facing the military orders as a whole at this time and points forward to its establishment during the fourteenth century as the foremost centre of crusading warfare in Europe.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis--Greifswald. / Cover title. Vita. Includes "Textprobe" of manuscript 2757 from the Riccardiana Library in Florence. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Mar. 10, 2008). Directed by Denise Baker; submitted to the Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62).

Issued also with thesis note as the author's inaugural dissertation, Heidelberg, 1895. / Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.