Author: Geoffrey of Monmouth

Language & Form: Latin prose (c. 1136)

Context: While not in Anglo-Norman, this text is the indispensable Latin source for the entire Arthurian tradition. Geoffrey, a Welsh cleric, claimed to be translating an “ancient British book.”

Synopsis: The Historia presents a sweeping, invented history of Britain from its founding by the Trojan refugee Brutus (making Britain a new Rome) through the reigns of figures like King Leir (source for Shakespeare’s *King Lear*) to the climactic, extended section on King Arthur. It details Arthur’s magical conception (via Merlin), his conquests across Europe, his battle with the giant of Mont Saint-Michel, the treachery of his nephew Mordred, and his final, mysterious departure to the Isle of Avalon.

Significance & Influence:

• Codified the Legend: It was the first text to present a full, coherent narrative of Arthur’s life, transforming him from a shadowy warrior in Welsh poems into a magnificent chivalric king.
• Introduced Key Figures: It brought Merlin (as a wizard-prophet) and Guinevere into the literary mainstream.
• Political Purpose: It provided the post-Conquest realm of England (now ruled by Normans) with a glorious, unified, and heroic past that could rival that of Rome or France.
• Reception: It was an immediate international bestseller but was also criticized by more sober historians (like William of Newburgh) for its fantastical content.

Author: Wace

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; octosyllabic rhyming couplets (c. 1155).

Context: Wace, a poet from Jersey, was commissioned by the court of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Synopsis: This is a direct verse adaptation and expansion of Geoffrey’s Historia. Wace’s primary goal was to make this exciting “history” accessible and entertaining to his aristocratic, French-speaking patrons.

Significance & Influence:

• Popularized Arthur: This text, not Geoffrey’s Latin, is what truly popularized the Arthurian story for the courtly vernacular audience.
• The Round Table: Wace is the first writer in any language to mention King Arthur’s Round Table (la Table Ronde). He introduces it as a device King Arthur had made to prevent squabbles over seating priority, a powerful symbol of chivalric fellowship and equality.
• Shift to Romance: Wace adds courtly details, refines the characters’ motivations, and emphasizes chivalric elements, moving the story away from “history” and toward “romance.”
• Direct Source: The Roman de Brut was the direct source for the first great Arthurian poem in English, Layamon’s Brut.

Author: Wace

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; verse (c. 1160–1170).

Synopsis: Also commissioned by Henry II, this work is a verse history of the Dukes of Normandy, from their founder Rollo to the Battle of Hastings and the rule of William the Conqueror.

Significance: This is the complementary text to the Roman de Brut. While the Brut gave the land of England a noble past, the Rou gave its Norman rulers a noble lineage and legitimized their conquest.

Author: Marie de France (the earliest known French woman poet)

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; octosyllabic rhyming couplets (c. 1160–1190).

Context: Marie wrote for an aristocratic audience, possibly connected to the court of Henry II. In her prologue, she states her aim is to preserve the oral tales of the Bretons (lais) she has heard.

Synopsis: This is a collection of twelve short, self-contained narrative poems. They are not grand epics but focused, elegant stories exploring a single crisis or event, often blending the real courtly world with a Celtic supernatural one.

Key Themes:

• Courtly Love (Fin’amor): The lais often explore the tension between passionate, secret, and often adulterous love and the realities of arranged political marriages.
• The Supernatural: Magic, fairies, and curses are not just decorative but often provide the central mechanism of the plot (e.g., a fairy lover, a werewolf husband, a magical bird).
• Female Perspective: The lais show a unique sensitivity to the suffering, desire, and agency of their female characters, who are often trapped in unhappy situations.

Essential Lais to Know:

• Lanval: A knight of Arthur’s court, neglected and poor, is taken as a lover by a powerful and beautiful fairy queen. When he breaks his vow of secrecy (after being propositioned and insulted by Queen Guinevere), he is put on trial, only to be rescued at the last moment by his fairy mistress.
• Bisclavret: A baron reveals to his wife that he is a werewolf. Fearing him, she conspires with another knight to steal his clothes, trapping him in wolf form. He is eventually recognized and restored by the king, and the treacherous wife is exposed.
• Chevrefoil (The Honeysuckle): A short, poignant episode from the Tristan legend, describing a secret meeting between the exiled Tristan and Queen Iseult.
• Yonec: A noblewoman locked in a tower by her old, jealous husband is visited by a lover who transforms into a hawk-knight. The husband sets a trap, mortally wounding the hawk-knight, but their son, Yonec, eventually avenges them.

Other Works: Marie also wrote the Fables (an adaptation of Aesop) and the Espurgatoire Seint Patriz (St. Patrick’s Purgatory).

Author: Thomas of Britain

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; verse (c. 1170s).

Significance: This text is crucial for understanding the Tristan and Iseult legend. Thomas’s version, though it survives only in fragments, is the key example of the “courtly” (courtois) branch of the legend. Unlike the “common” branch (represented by Béroul), which treats the love potion as a temporary magical affliction, Thomas’s version focuses on the internal, psychological tragedy of the lovers. Their passion is a fatal, ennobling, and inescapable destiny that conflicts with their feudal loyalties, leading to their deaths. It was highly influential, directly inspiring Gottfried von Strassburg’s German masterpiece Tristan.

Author: Benoît de Sainte-Maure

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; verse (c. 1160).

Synopsis: This is an enormous romance (over 30,000 lines) that retells the entire Trojan War.

Source: Crucially, medieval writers did not know Homer’s *Iliad*. Benoît’s sources were late-Roman Latin summaries attributed to Dares Phrygius and Dictys Cretensis, which presented themselves as “eyewitness” accounts.

Significance: This work effectively created the “Matter of Rome” as a chivalric genre. Benoît transformed the ancient heroes into medieval knights, infusing the story with themes of courtly love, chivalry, and feudal politics. It was the primary source for the Trojan War story for the entire Middle Ages, including for Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.

Author: Unknown (sometimes “Thomas”)

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; verse (c. 1170).

Significance: This is one of the earliest and most important Anglo-Norman romances. It is a key example of an “ancestral romance,” a tale of exile and return. The plot—a young hero (Horn) is exiled, proves his worth through chivalric deeds, wins the love of a princess, and eventually returns to reclaim his kingdom—became a foundational template for later Middle English romances like King Horn and Havelok the Dane.

Author: Benedeit (a cleric)

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; verse (c. 1106–1121).

Significance: This is one of the earliest surviving major narrative poems in French. It recounts the fantastic sea journey of the 6th-century Irish monk, St. Brendan, in search of the “Promised Land of the Saints.”

Genre: It is a perfect fusion of hagiography (a saint’s life) with the pre-existing Celtic genre of the immram (a marvelous sea-voyage tale). Brendan and his monks sail from island to island, encountering sea monsters, a talking bird, Judas Iscariot frozen on an iceberg, and other wonders, all framed as a test of faith.

Author: Philippe de Thaon

Language & Form: Anglo-Norman French; verse (c. 1121).

Synopsis: The Bestiaire is a “catalog” of animals (real and mythical, like the unicorn and phoenix). Each animal’s physical description and supposed habits are followed by a detailed allegorical interpretation of its meaning as a symbol of Christ, the Devil, or a human virtue/vice.

Significance: These texts are a prime example of the medieval didactic impulse, showing how the natural world was “read” as a book of divine moral lessons.