The motif of death and dying traced through over a thousand years of the English Arthurian tradition.

The motif of death and dying traced through over a thousand years of the English Arthurian tradition.

It is arguably the tragic end to Arthur's kingdom which gives the myth its exceptional resonance and power. The essays in this volume explore the presentation of death and dying in Arthurian literature and film produced in Englandand America from the middle ages to the modern day. Authors, texts and topics covered include Geoffrey of Monmouth, the chronicle tradition, and the alliterativeMorte Arthure;Gawain and the Green Knight, Ywain and Gawain, the stanzaicMorte Arthur, and Malory'sMorte Darthur; Tennyson'sIdylls, Pyle's retelling of the myth for American children, David Jones, T.H. White, Donald Barthelme, Rosalind Miles and Parke Godwin. Featured films includeKnight Rider, Excalibur, First Knight, andKing Arthur.

CONTRIBUTORS: Sian Echard, Edward Donald Kennedy, Karen Cherewatuk, Michael W. Twomey, K. S. Whetter, Thomas Crofts, MichaelWenthe, Lisa Robeson, Cory James Rushton, Janina P. Traxler, James Noble, Julie Nelson Couch, Samantha Rayner, Kevin J. Harty

Introduction - Karen Cherewatuk and Kevin S Whetter
'But here Geoffrey falls silent': Death, Arthur, and theHistoria regum Britannie - Sian Echard
Mordred's Sons - Edward Donald Kennedy
Dying in Uncle Arthur's Arms and at His Hands - Karen Cherewatuk
'Hadet with an aluisch mon' and 'britned to noght':Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Death, and the Devil - Michael W. Twomey
Love and Death in Arthurian Romance - Kevin S Whetter
Death in the Margins: Dying and Scribal Performance in the Winchester Manuscript - Thomas Howard Crofts
The Legible Corpses ofLe Morte Darthur - Michael Wenthe
Malory and the Death of Kings: The Politics of Regicide at Salisbury Plain - Lisa Robeson
Layde to the Colde Erthe: Death, Arthur's Knights, and Narrative Closure - Cory Rushton
Arthurian Exits: Alone, Together, or None of the Above - Janina P Traxler
Woman as Agent of Death in Tennyson'sIdylls of the King - James Noble
Death as 'Neglect of Duty' in Howard Pyle'sThe Story of the Grail and the Passing of Arthur - Julie Nelson Couch
Death and the 'grimly voice' in David Jones'sIn Parenthesis - Samantha J. Rayner
Roll the Final Credits: Some Notes on Cinematic Depictions of the Death of Arthur - Kevin J Harty