This bibliography lists recent or significant work on some of the texts studied in this course. It is not a complete list and contains only those works which can be found in the CSUN library or accessed through its catalogue. The bibliography is a work in progress, which I update whenever I can, and it may not list articles or books on all the texts in the course.

For general discussion about English romances, see Piero Boitani, English Medieval Narrative in the 13th and 14^th Centuries, trans. Joan Krakover Hall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). Articles on Havelok the Dane are organised by date of publication. Works published in Medium Aevum, Modern Language Quarterly, Speculum, and Studies in Philology are all available online through the CSUN Library catalogue. If you are searching the catalogue from an off-campus location, you must have your CSUN library card number in order to access the online text.

1. Scott Kleinman, "The Legend of Havelok the Dane and the Historiography of East Anglia." Forthcoming in Studies in Philology 100 (2003). [Argues that the story developed and was re-worked over time due to changing interpretations of East Anglian and English history. This article has not yet appeared in print. A shortened version is available on this web site.]
2. Kabir, Ananya J. "Forging an Oral Style? Havelok and the Fiction of Orality." Studies in Philology 98 (2001), 18-48. [Argues that the poet takes pains to ground his authority in popular tradition by "forging" an oral style which is intended to go undetected.]
3. Smithers, G.V. "The Style of Havelok." Medium Aevum57 (1998), 190-218. [Meticulously detailed study of repetition, periphrasis, apostrophe, simile, hyperbole, and other devices, with comparisons to Anglo-Norman rhetorical practice on which these devices may have depended.]
4. Reiss, Edmund. "Havelok the Dane and Norse Mythology." Modern Language Quarterly 27 (1996), 115-24. [Reveals Scandinavian mythological traces in several characters of the poem.]
5. Liuzza, Roy Michael. "Representation and Readership in the ME Havelok." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 93 (1994), 504-19. [Sees the catalogue of fish as part of a larger system of economic exchange.]
6. Bradbury, Nancy Mason. "The Traditional Origins of Havelok the Dane." Studies in Philology 90 (1993), 115-42. [Employs folklore methods for tracing oral origins of the Havelok story as presented in the English poem.]
7. Levine, Robert. "Who composed Havelok for Whom?" Yearbook of English Studies 22 (1992), 95-104. [Rejects the characterisation of the poem’s audience as lower class.]
8. Scott, Anne. "Language as Convention, Language as Sociolect in Havelok the Dane." Studies in Philology 89 (1992), 137-60. [Views formulaic style of Havelok as an expression of Havelok’s acquisition of "language" or "sociolect" appropriate for a king.]
9. Purdon, Liam O. "’Na Yaf He Nouth a Stra’ in Havelok." Philological Quarterly 69 (1990), 377-83. [Argues that the feudal act of renunciation is suggested by the placement, repetition, and language of this particular expression.]
10. Mills, Maldwyn. "Havelok’s Return." Medium Aevum 45 (1976), 20-35. [Explores the return scene to shed light on the genesis and unity of the poem.]
11. Staines, David. "Havelok the Dane: A Thirteenth-Century Handbook for Princes." Speculum 51 (1976), 602-23. [Argues that Havelok is a mirror for princes with implicit admonitions to treat the lower classes well and observe the rule of law. Sees a number of interesting parallels between Havelok and Edward I.]
12. Halverson, J. "Havelok the Dane and Society." Chaucer Review 6 (1971), 142-51. [Supports the view of a non-noble audience for the poem.]
13. Hanning, Robert W. "Havelok the Dane: Structure, Symbols, Meaning." Studies in Philology 64 (1967), 586-605. [Argues that despite its lack of aesthetic beauty, the poem is deserving of commendation for its unified structure, for its consistent use of central symbolic acts or devices, and for the way in which structure and symbols cooperate to establish and clarify the work’s central meanings (p. 587).
14. Mills, Maldwyn. "Havelok and the Brutal Fisherman." Medium Aevum 36 (1967), 219-30. [Argues that Grim is not as good as he seems.]

Sir Orfeo

1. A.J. Bliss, ed., Sir Orfeo, (London: Oxford University Press, 1954; 2^nd edn, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966). [Standard scholar edition with notes.]
2. Penelope B. R. Doob, Nebuchadnezzar’s Children: Conventions of Madness in Middle English Literature (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974), pp. 158-207. [Argues that "the poem can be fully understood only when one grasps the traditions that seem to have influenced its conception: the commentaries, the Christian uses of the Orpheus legend, and especially the convention of the Holy Wild Man" (p. 165).]
3. John B. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970). [Examines the Orphic narrative as it appears in numerous literary, philosophical, theological, and historical texts written in the Middle Ages and their various uses and interpretations of the myth. See also his article, "Eurydice, Heurodis, and the Noon-Day Demon", Speculum 41 (1966), 22-29.]
4. Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, "The Significance of Sir Orfeo’s Self-Exile", Review of English Studies, n.s. 18 (1967), 245-52. [Although we expect Orpheus to undertake a long search for Eurydicem since that is the case in numerous versions of the narrative, in Sir Orfeo this does not occur. Orfeo assumes he has lost his wife and retreats into exile. He does not plan to search for her and is not on any heroic quest; instead, she is mysteriously brought to him. Focusing on the ten years Orfeo lives in the wilderness, Gros Louis reads the lay as a Christianised narrative of penance and purification, the restoration of Heurodis a gift of grace.]
5. Seth Lerer, "Artifice and Artistry in Sir Orfeo", Speculum 60 (1985), 92-109. ["Through a close analysis of the vocabulary and possible source material of the Auchinleck version of the poem, this study…show[s] how Sir Orfeo articulates a vision of art’s power to reshape experience" (p. 94). The lay affirms the power of visual arts, horticulture, language, and music to shape order and meaning out of chaos and affirms the restorative and redemptive power of narrative in the face of loss.]
6. Felicity Riddy, "The Uses of the Past in Sir Orfeo", Yearbook of English Studies 6 (1976), 5-15. [Contrary to many studies which ascribe emotional and psychological depth to Orfeo, Riddy maintains that the lay emphasises "outward" and "observable" experiences and behaviours instead. That although the listener may learn from Orfeo, his "is not the kind of character who can be said to ‘learn’ anythin, since he lacks…breadth of consciousness" (p. 11). The narrative (rather than the characters) articulates themes of nostalgia and grief and presents a Christian reading which redeems loss and the past.]
7. J. Burke Severs, "The Antecedents of Sir Orfeo", in Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor Albert Croll Baugh, ed. MacEdward Leach (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961), pp. 187-207.

Sir Launfal

1. A.J. Bliss, ed., Sir Launfal, (London: Nelson, 1960). [Standard scholar edition with notes.]
2. Earl R. Anderson, "The Structure of Sir Launfal", Papers on Language and Literature 12 (1977), 115-24. [A reading of the lay, emphasising its thematic and structural components. Argues that the testing of Launfal’s manhood is the poem’s central theme with accompanying parallels and contrasts. "The congruence of structure and theme is Chestre’s major contribution to the Lanval story, and represents a credible claim to significant artistry""(p. 124).]
3. A.J. Bliss, "The Hero’s Name in the Middle English Version of Lanval", Medium Aevum 27 (1958), 80-85.
4. Tom Peete Cross, "The Celtic Elements in the Lays of Lanval and Graelent", Modern Philology 12 (1915), 585-744. [A thorough study of Celtic affinities in the narrative: the fée, her assertiveness, her gifts, her geis or taboo command, and her withdrawal into the Otherworld. Identifies parallels between Launfal and other texts influenced by Celtic myth and folklore.]
5. B.K. Martin, "Sir Launfal and the Folktale", Medium Aevum 35 (1966), 199-210. [Cautions against over-reading the tale, expecting to find the complexity of a Chaucer in the work of lesser poets. Identifies features of the tale as folkloric, not for purposes of defending the aesthetics of Launfal, but for purposes of understanding the tale. Differs from Cross’s studeis of the Celtic elements in Launfal, instead discusses the European folktale genre more generally and it s influence on the lay.]
6. Carol J. Nappholz, "Launfal’s ‘Largesse’: Word-Play in Thomas Chestre’s Sir Launfal", English Language Notes 25.3 (1988), 4-9. [Argues that Chestre’s Launfal uses the word "largesse" for the purposes of sexual innuendo and pun. Maintains that "Chestre consciously set out to write a humorous piece rather than a serios romance" (p. 9).