Chapters (Layout Features)

Chapter 2: Land, Lineage, and Nation

Crane, Susan

The longer romances of English heroes usually connect exile and return to feudal dispossession and reinstatement, and double the hero's winning of land with his winning a bride to continue the lineage. As for Hornand Havelok, the law and the courts are important sources of justification for Bevis, Guy, and Fulk — though this confidence in law breaks down in the later Athelston and Gamelyn. In addition, the diffuse longer works incorporate new sources of validation for noble heroes. Motifs from epic, saints' legends, and courtly poetry demonstrate heroic worth by other standards than winning a heritage. Where these standards conflict, uneasy accommodations
reestablish the heritage as the dominant value for adventuring heroes.

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Also Published In

Title
Insular Romance: Politics, Faith, and Culture in Anglo-Norman and Middle English Literature
Publisher
University of California Press

More About This Work

Academic Units
English and Comparative Literature
Published Here
December 9, 2009