Discrete inquiries into 15 forms of the Arthurian legends produced over the last century explore how they have altered the tradition. They consider works from the US and Europe, and those aimed at popular and elite audiences. The overall conclusion is that the "Arthurian revival" is an ongoing event, and has become multivalent, multinational, and multimedia. Originally published in 1992.

Wrapped in the mists of Avalon since the Middle Ages, the Once and Future King made his promised return in the nineteenth century. The Return of King Arthur: The Legend through Victorian Eyes celebrates the unprecedented revival of the Arthurian legend in the arts and popular culture of Victorian Britain (1837-1901). In a rich array of poetry, painting, children's stories, and plays, Arthur and his noble knights and ladies were reborn. The legend was not simply revived: the new generation reinvented the saga and its heroes in their own image, creating metaphors for their notions of monarchy, the roles of men and women in society, and the proper path for children to follow. In The Return of King Arthur, Debra N. Mancoff reveals why the legend resonated so deeply during Victoria's reign. Retold in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Morris, and Sir Walter Scott, and envisioned in the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and in book illustrations by such artists as Arthur Rackham and Aubrey Beardsley, the legend of King Arthur and his compatriots in chivalry became the code for every facet of Victorian culture. Informative and entertaining, and handsomely illustrated with more than 130 evocative and heroic works of art, The Return of King Arthur captures the romance of this age-old legend and shows us how the Victorian words and images have shaped our own great interest in it today.

First published in 1996. Now updated with a new information-packed 40-page Supplement covering the years 1990-1995, this unique Encyclopedia highlights the World of King Arthur from its origins in Dark Age Britain to the present day, when Arthurian novels, films, and music continue to appear around the world at an astonishing rate. The Supplement, which provides five full years of coverage not available anywhere else, enhances the usefulness of more than 1,300 entries on all aspects of the Arthurian legend-in literature, history, folklore, archaeology, art, and music. Written by an international team of over 130 authorities, no oth­er work approaches this A-Z guide to the legends of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table for breadth and depth of coverage. This is the ultimate source for reliable information on topics as diverse as the Grail, Tristan and Isolde, Lancelot and Guenevere, Arthurian operas, the historicity of Arthur, and more.

In her systematic reassessment of the remaking of the Arthurian past in nineteenth-century British fiction and non-fiction, Inga Bryden examines the Victorian Arthurian revival as a cultural phenomenon, offering insights into the relationship between social, cultural, religious, and ethnographic debates of the period and a wide range of texts. Throughout, she adopts an intertextual and historical perspective, informed by poststructuralist thinking, to reveal nineteenth-century attitudes towards the past. Starting with a review of the historical evidence available to Victorian writers and an examination of how historians of the time represented Arthur, the author connects Victorian accounts of Arthur's quest to contemporary scientific and historical searches for origins and knowledge, and to his appropriation by competing religious movements. She shows how writers explored the dynamics of heroism by recruiting Arthur and his knights to define codes of chivalric service, and to personify the psychological complexities of love. Finally, the legend of his death and transportation to Avalon is deconstructed and placed in the context of cultural attitudes towards commemorating the dead and theological debates about the afterlife. Inga Bryden engages not only with well-known Arthurian texts by Tennyson, Swinburne, Morris and Rossetti, but with lesser-known works by Bulwer-Lytton, Robert Stephen Hawker, Sebastian Evans, Diana Maria Mulock, Christiana Douglas and Joseph Shorthouse.

The Arthurian legend closes with a promise: On a distant day, when his country calls, the king will return. His lost realm will be regained, and his shattered dream of an ideal world will, at last, be realized. This collection of original essays explores the issue of return in the modern Arthurian legend. With an Introduction by noted scholar Raymond H. Thompson and 13 essays by authors from the fields of literature, art history, film history, and folklore, this collection reveals the flexibility of the legend. Just as the modern legend takes the form current to its generation, the myth of return generates a new legend with each telling. As these authors show, return can come in the form of a noble king or a Caribbean immigrant, with the mystery of an art theft or a dying boy's dream.