Middle English Romances

This Norton Critical Edition presents significant examples of one of the most important bodies of English poetry written before the Renaissance.

The texts of the seven romances included―Havelok, Ywain and Gawain, Sir Orfeo, Sir Launfal, The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne, The Weddyng of Syr Gawen and Dame Ragnell, and The Sege off Melayne―are complete, authoritative (rendered from the best manuscripts), and comprehensively glossed and annotated for undergraduate readers. In addition to their literary importance, the seven romances were chosen because they shed light on other important Middle English texts.

"Sources and Backgrounds" offers comparative analogues (many complete) to each of the seven romances. These readings enable students to understand the genre in the context of related medieval ideas and attitudes.

"Criticism" collects four essays that provide a variety of perspectives on Middle English romances by Erich Auerbach, John Finlayson, A. C. Baugh, and Gisela Guddat-Figge.

A Selected Bibliography is also included.

Stephen H. A. Shepherd is a professor of English at Loyola Marymount University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Queen’s University at Kingston and his doctorate from the University of Oxford. His honors include fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Huntington Library. He is the editor of the Early English Text Society edition of Turpines Story and of the Norton Critical Edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, and he is a coeditor of the Norton Critical Edition of William Langland’s Piers Plowman. The primary focus of his research and publication is the critical, codicological, and historical contexts of medieval English literature.