Arthur Between England and Wales: The Borderland, the Marches, and the Medieval Matter of Britain

Arthur between England and Wales traces the development of the Arthurian legend from the early ninth century to the late fourteenth century through texts written in English, Welsh, Latin, and French by authors associated with the Anglo-Welsh borderlands. While Arthurian literature has long held pride of place in discussions of medieval identity and culture, the importance of the Anglo-Welsh borderlands (a distinctive community throughout the Middle Ages) on this tradition has gone underappreciated—until now. Through a diachronic, longue-durée comparative reading of Anglo-Welsh Arthurian border literature, this study argues that hitherto unrecognized border discourses underpin the central rhetorical tenets of medieval Arthurian literature, such as the creation of Britain as a tangible idea, the popularity of the Arthurian legend in medieval Europe, and the indelible connection of the Arthurian tradition to various—often competing—cultural identities. Centered around both recognizably canonical works of medieval literature (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, Laȝamon’s Brut) alongside understudied works of Arthurian border literature (Nennius’s Historia Brittonum, Fouke le Fitz Waryn, Breuddwyd Rhonabwy) and bolstered by novel reinterpretations of the historiographic record and the vibrant cultural networks and communities within the borderlands, this study reveals how these texts’ origins “between England and Wales” is a crucial context for understanding medieval British culture and literature.