Matter of England

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Matter of England, romances of English heroes and romances derived from English legend are terms that 20th century scholars have given to a loose corpus of

antiquity).[1][2]

They are thought by scholars to derive features from the language and culture of the "low-born" parts of society and the emerging

middle-class[1][1][permanent dead link].[2] However, such stories should not be seen as purely the domain of the English peasant and yeoman, as most of these tales survive in Anglo-Norman literary forms.[2] The oldest surviving versions are in many cases written in Anglo-Norman or Medieval Latin—though in most cases, scholars accepted them as originally from the English tradition.[1][2]

Scholars generally feel some unease with the classification and the romances included under it.

Arthurian Britain or Charlemagne's France.[1][2] The romances of the Matter of England start afresh at the beginning of each romance with a new hero introduced and are set in an era from that of "vaguely Anglo-Saxon" [2] to anywhere up to the era when the work was produced.[1][2] They share only common themes and location of origin.[1][2]

The TEAMs edition of Four Romances of England gives the definition of the Matter of England as "late medieval romances based in part on the oral folk culture that survived the Norman Conquest.[3]

List of works

There is no one agreed upon list of romances that make up the matter, but the following are usually included:[2]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-85991-597-7
    . pp. 29-31
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-84384-155-X
    , 9781843841555. pp. 29-42
  3. ^ "Both Horn and Havelok the Dane belong to a group of poems known as the Matter of England, late medieval romances based in part on the oral folk culture that survived the Norman Conquest. This Category also usually includes Athelston and Bevis of Hampton." Introduction to King Horn ed. B. Herzman, Graham Drake and Eve Salisbury; originally published in Four Romances of England (Kalamazoo, MI, 1999, p. 1.
  4. ^ The Idea of Anglo-Saxon England in Middle English Romance, Robert Rouse Cambridge, 2005, p.54
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