Re: *WH* Media Suggestions

["Stephanie M. Thorson" <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>]

Poster: "Stephanie M. Thorson" <smt2@st-andrews.ac.uk>

On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Jessica Rechtschaffer wrote:

> Society_ by Marc Bloch, _The Autumn of the Middle Ages_ by Johann
> Huizinga,

Huizinga may be better known to some folks in the earlier translation
called "The Waning of the Middle Ages."  I haven't read the new
translation yet, although the publisher's blurb does promise that all
sorts of flaws in the old translation have been corrected.

> _Arthurian Romances_ by Cretien de
> Troyes, edited by Kibler and Carroll, 

The romances of Chretien de Troyes are also available in a new translation
(1990?) by David Staines, U. of Indiana Press.  I've read selected
passages against the original French and it's quite good. 

Also, Dante's _Commedia_ in any of the translations out there (I like
Sinclair, myself, but there are lots to choose from), and don't stop with
_Inferno_ ... that just gives you a skewed view of Dante's world.

Less well known things ... Troubadour and Trouvere poetry (various
collections in translation, check the library for details). The
_Testament_ of Francois Villon, trans. Galway Kinnell.  I *think* Jehan
d'Arras' _Roman de Melusine_ is available in translation and is a good
read (as well as a nice antidote to Chretien).  The _Roman de Reynard_ is
out there in translation, I think by D.D.R. Owen.

Non-fiction: Augustine's _Confessions_.  This is a look into the mind that
shaped much of medieval thought and theology.  It's a must-read for anyone
serious about the Middle Ages.  I recommend John Ryan's translation as
being most faithful to the original while still being readable.  Bede's
_Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_ is widely available in
translation, as are Froissart's _Chronicles_, and Penguin publishes
Joinville and Villehardouin's chronicles of the Crusades in one volume. 

The Everyman Library series has quite a good range of medieval texts in
translation in inexpensive paperback form, and my experience has been that
their translations are often superior to Penguin editions of the same
texts.  YMMV, of course.

Alianora
*****************************************************************************
Stephanie M. Thorson			|  SCA: Lady Alianora Munro
Dept. of Scottish History		|  Clan White Wing
University of St Andrews		|  Tarkhan, Khanate Red Lion

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