Although most modern scholars doubt the historicity of King Arthur, parts of the legend were accepted as fact throughout the Middle Ages. Medieval accounts of the historical Arthur, however, present a very different king from the romances that are widely studied today. Richard Moll examines a wide variety of historical texts including Thomas Gray's Scalacronica and John Hardyng's Chronicle to explore the relationship between the Arthurian chronicles and the romances. He demonstrates how competing and conflicting traditions interacted with one another, and how writers and readers of Arthurian texts negotiated a complex textual tradition. Moll asserts that the enormous variety and number of existing chronicles demonstrates the immense popularity of the historical Arthur in medieval England. Since these chronicles were the dominant source of Arthurian information for the late medieval reader, they provide an invaluable, and neglected, interpretive context for modern readers of Malory and other later medieval romances. The first monograph to look at the impact of these historical texts on Arthurian literature, Before Malory is also the first to show how canonical vernacular romances interacted with chronicle texts that have since dropped out of the canon.

This book offers a new perspective on the "otherworlds" of medieval literature. These fantastical realms are among the most memorable places in medieval writing, by turns beautiful and monstrous, alluring and terrifying. Passing over a river or sea, or entering into a hollow hill, heroes come upon strange and magical realms. These places are often very beautiful, filled with sweet music, and adorned with precious stones and rich materials. There is often no darkness, time may pass at a different pace, and the people who dwell there are usually supernatural. Sometimes such a place is exactly what it appears to be--the land of heart's desire--but, the otherworld can also have a sinister side, trapping humans and keeping them there against their will. Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature takes a fresh look at how medieval writers understood these places and why they found them so compelling. It focuses on texts from England, but places this material in the broader context of literary production in medieval Britain and Ireland. The narratives examined in this book tell a rather surprising story about medieval notions of these fantastical places. Otherworlds are actually a lot less "other" than they might initially seem. Authors often use the idea of the otherworld to comment on very serious topics. It is not unusual for otherworld depictions to address political issues in the historical world. Most intriguing of all are those texts where locations in the real world are re-imagined as otherworlds. The regions on which this book focuses, Britain, Ireland, and the surrounding islands, prove particularly susceptible to this characterization.

"Celtic Mythology" is a study on ancient folk tales and legends of old Ireland, Wales and other Celtic regions, which remained a precious legacy to their illustrative history. The book deals with different aspects of folklore and mythology: myths of the creation, tales of gods and their position and behavior, the mythical creatures and animals, folk tales of the divine land and many more. Well grounded in history and sociology, the author relates these folk tales, legends and myths of Gaelic, Brythonic and Gaulish people to each other and explores the influence of Christianity on their development through the ages. "The Religion of the Ancient Celts" is an exhaustive and comprehensive study of the Celtic religion. It provides insights into Celtic religious practices, and comparisons geographically as well as with more familiar Roman and Christian pantheons. The author offers numerous interpretations and overlaps regarding the mythological roles of gods and goddesses. The Celts interacted with many cultures over the years and adopted their gods and combined with theirs. Roman and Greek gods were adopted as were Vikings' and Christianity later.

A special number devoted to Celtic material. This special number of the well-established series Arthurian Literature is devoted to Celtic material. Contributions, from leading experts in Celtic Studies, cover Welsh, Irish and Breton material, from medieval texts to oral traditions surviving into modern times. The volume reflects current trends and new approaches in this field whilst also making available in English material hitherto inaccessible to those with no reading knowledge of the Celticlanguages. CERIDWEN LLOYD-MORGAN has published widely in the field of Arthurian studies. She is currently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Welsh, Cardiff University.