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Ipomedon: A Twelfth-Century Romance in the French of England
Translated by Neil Cartlidge and Judith Weiss
D. S. Brewer
ISBN: 978 1 84384 745 8
Want a medieval tale about a prince who goes incognito to meet a queen—only to be sent off on adventures, thrown into tournaments, and tested at every turn? Will this couple earn their happy-ever-after? Find out in this translation of a 12th-century romance.
Excerpt:
It is fortunate that Hugh is both a highly capable narrator, and an attractively astute witness to the values and assumptions of the society in which he lived. His narratives are distinguished by an energetic and inventive enthusiasm for extended action-sequences featuring the exploits of knights in battle; a consistent, clearly realised and colourful setting in a distinctly imagined fictional world; a knowing, amused, and somewhat “quizzical” attitude towards “elegant society”; and a penchant for amusingly dry and incisive irony. This irony is in most cases directed at his characters, but sometimes at particular contemporaries, or at himself.
Who is this book for?
Because it isn’t Arthurian, this story isn’t especially well known. But it’s a sharply written, genuinely engaging medieval work—one that could easily appeal to modern readers. Anyone interested in medieval literature will want to give it a read.
“Ipomedon stands, therefore, as an important work with significant implications for how we understand the cultural climate of the twelfth-century Anglo-Welsh border; medieval conceptions of humour, genre, chivalry, and misogyny; and the reception and translation of insular French texts.” ~ an encyclopedia entry written by Matthew Lampitt about Ipomedon
The Translators
Neil Cartlidge is a Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Durham, specialising in Middle English, Anglo-Latin and Anglo-French Literature. Judith Weiss is a Emeritus Fellow in Robinson College at the University of Cambridge, where she specializes in medieval romance in English and French.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
