Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

As the point of origin, both real and imagined, of English law and group identity, the Anglo-Saxon past was important in the construction of a post-Conquest English society that was both aware of, and placed great stock in, its Anglo-Saxon heritage; yet its depiction in post-Conquest literature has been very little studied. This book examines a wide range of sources (legal and historiographical as well as literary) in order to reveal a 'social construction' of Anglo-Saxon England that held a significant place in the literary and cultural imagination of the post-Conquest English. Using a variety of texts, but the Matter of England romances in particular, the author argues that they show a continued interest in the Anglo-Saxon past, from the localised East Sussex legend of King Alfred that underlies the twelfth-century 'Proverbs of Alfred', to the institutional interest in the 'Guy of Warwick' narrative exhibited by the community of St. Swithun's Priory in Winchester during the fifteenth century; they are part of a continued cultural remembrance that encompasses chronicles, folk memories, and literature. Dr ROBERT ALLLEN ROUSE teaches in the Department of English, University of British Columbia.

Romances [English ] --- History and criticism --- English literature --- Middle English, 1100-1500 --- Literature and history --- England --- History --- To 1500 --- Anglo-Saxons --- Great Britain --- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066 --- Historiography --- England in literature --- Romances, English --- Anglo-Saxons in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Historiography. --- In literature. --- History and literature --- History and poetry --- Poetry and history --- Anglo-Saxon heritage. --- Anglo-Saxon past. --- Department of English. --- English law. --- Matter of England romances. --- Robert Allen Rouse. --- University of British Columbia. --- chronicles. --- cultural remembrance. --- folk memories. --- group identity. --- literature. --- medieval literature.