The Voyage of St Brendan: Representative Versions of the Legend in English Translation (Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies) - Hardcover
Synopsis
The legend of St Brendan is one of the greatest legends of the Middle Ages. To the nations of medieval Europe the ocean voyage became a metaphor for the perilous journey of the Christian soul in search of the Promised Land, and no spiritual odyssey attracted wider interest than that of the sixth-century Irish saint, Brendan the Navigator. Of the numerous versions in which his voyage was chronicled during the Middle Ages, this volume provides the most important examples from a wide variety of cultures, presented in translation-and, in the case of new or rare editions, facing-page originals-together with a general introduction to the real and legendary Brendan, introductions to the individual texts and explanatory commentaries on each, and an extensive bibliography. Most of the vernacular versions are translated into English here for the first time, from Anglo-Norman, Dutch, German, Italian (Venetian dialect), Occitan, Catalan, Middle English and Norse. Caxton's famous version from his Golden Legend is also included.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Authors
The late W. R. J. Barron was Senior Research Fellow in the School of English, University of Exeter. He was President of the International Arthurian Society (British Branch) and Director of its Vinaver Trust. His books include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Manchester, 1998) and Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, Vol. II (series editor) (Wales, 1999).
Glyn S. Burgess is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Liverpool. His Penguin Classics edition of The Lais of Marie de France has sold more than 150,000 copies. He is co-author of The Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure (with Douglas Kelly, D. S. Brewer, 2017). In 1999 he was made a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques and he is an Honorary President of the International Courtly Literature Society.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
