The Arthurian encyclopedia

by Norris J. Lacy (Editor), Geoffrey Ashe (Contributor), Sandra Ness Ihle (Contributor)

Encyclopedia covering different versions of the Arthurian cycle, with brief entries for characters, authors, texts, places, and themes.

Genres: Arthurian, Reference, Nonfiction, History, Mythology, Medieval, Folklore

680 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Norris J. Lacy (born 1940) is an American scholar focusing on French medieval literature. He is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor Emeritus of French and Medieval Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. He is a leading expert on the Arthurian legend and has written and edited numerous books, papers, and articles on the topic. In 2014 the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch, presented him an award for Lifetime Service to Arthurian Studies.

He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and has held teaching positions at the University of Kansas, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as president of the International Arthurian Society. With Geoffrey Ashe he wrote The Arthurian Handbook, and he edited The Arthurian Encyclopedia and its successor, The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, a standard reference book for Arthurian works. He also oversaw the first complete English translation of the French Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles, released as the five-volume Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation.

Reviews

[ALLEN · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is of the 1986, red-covered version of THE ARTHURIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, chief editor Norris Lacy. It's a big book, 649 pages, and appears to be substantially the same volume as the yellow-jacketed edition pictured above. It's worth understanding that the general field of "Arthuriana" embraces many different disciplines: received myth, legend, mythic or folkloric studies, and even a bit (but only a bit) of out-and-out history. Not only that, but the Arthurian legend extends in many ways beyond mere Camelot or The Once and Future King. You'll see references to modern German versions of both the Tristan and Arthurian legends, for example, and similar manifestations in other Western European literatures besides.

The well-known artists who have consciously mined these veins are present at some length, such as Richard Wagner and Tennyson, but so are the contributions of others, like poet Edward Arlington Robinson and William Morris, an incredible polymath whose contributions extended well beyond design. THE ARTHURIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA is an invaluable resource but I honestly cannot say whether any single-volume resource has emerged since the 1980's that includes further or new information. Now that the intellectual intersections have grown their own intersections, so to speak, the field known as Arthuriana will continue to grow and evolve.

[Skallagrimsen]

A compulsively readable encyclopedia of the Arthurian mythos, from its murky basis in Dark Age history, to its High Medieval development by pseudo-historians and romantic poets, and down through to its countless iterations in the films, novels, ads, cartoons, and comics of modern popular culture.

This book isn’t comprehensive; it couldn’t be: every new year brings new interpretations of the myth of King Arthur and his knights. (Pop culture has rather overexploited Arthur, in my opinion.) Still, it's thorough, and entertaining as well as informative.

My main takeaway from The New Arthurian Encyclopedia was its disclosure that the legend of King Arthur was almost never purely British. From its earliest days, it became a pan-European myth, with French, German, Italian, Iberian, Slavic, and Scandinavian peoples each contributing their own variations on the Arthurian theme. I appreciated the illustration of the common culture that, despite political, geographic, and linguistic divides, has connected the peoples of Europe for so long.

[Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even in the age of search engines and wikipedias, this is still a powerful, valuable tool.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Read" may not apply, this is a true reference book. I did read through many sections of it, but will love having it on my shelf. How did I get this far and never have a copy of this?

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the publication of The Arthurian Encyclopedia in 1986 students were able to access, in one volume, academic discussion on a range of Arthurian topics — art, history, literature, fiction, drama, music and cinema for example — across space and time, all listed in alphabetical order. In 1991 an updated hardback edition was published as — naturally — The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, followed by a paperback edition in 1996 which was itself supplemented by an addendum detailing video games and new fiction that had appeared in the intervening years.

Anybody remotely interested in Arthurian matters should own or at least have regular access to this last volume, despite its desperate need to be updated yet again some two decades on from its last publication. With its multiplicity of contributors the Encyclopedia is authoritiative and wide-ranging, from book-length entries covering Arthurian literature in most European languages to short descriptions of minor authors of Arthurian-related fiction, from films to computer games (though many of these will be positively antediluvian by now) and from two- and three-dimensional artwork to drama on both stage and screen. All entries are credited to one or more named contributors and many include a select bibliography. Packed into over 600 pages is a preface and lists of the hundred-plus contributors, entries by category and illustrations, followed by a bibliography and a chronology (up to 1990) before we even get to the encyclopedia proper, index and supplement (1990-1995). From Accolon of Gaul to Roger Zelazny and El Libro del Cabellero Zifar we are led through a bewildering array of Arthurian-inspired themes and obsessions, some very tenuous and others central to any consideration of our hero.

While largely dominated by North American contributors there is a broad field of interpretation, and in only a few ways is the scholarly material dated: this is mostly in the historical field where, for example, the Sarmatian and Riothamus origin theories are given approval (by being accorded serious discussion) despite the flaws inherent in any speculative reconstruction of Arthurian identity and chronology. That said, these are small niggles given the value of this compendium of Arthuriana; it has a pride of place on my shelves, and I heartily recommend to any enthusiast.

But if a new edition of The New Arthurian Encyclopedia is ever planned, what would they call it?

http://wp.me/p2oNj1-yu

[J.L. Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clave para todo el que quiera estudiar el mito artúrico en todas sus variadas dimensiones. No es tarea sencilla el cruzar la obra de Malory, las leyendas, la Vulgata y los textos de Chetrien. Una gran base de estudio para los investigadores aficionados como su aquí lo es su servidor.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Information overload

[RumBelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive, yet wholly readable, guide to the world of Arthur. This book not only has listings that describe characters, places, objects and more, in extraordinary detail, but it also tells you what versions of the legend each item appears in. A great reference.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

coverage is international, and sweeps up items that an a reader of Anglophone mass culture items under late capitalism might consider obscure.

[Amy Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice to have as a reference, and my hero Geoffrey Ashe, Arthurian expert, contributed!

[Maranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and comprehensive compendium of the Arthurian Legends. This shows the ties of Arthurian Legends with histories and arts throughout the ages!