The Arthur of the Low Countries

• There is no book-length overview of the Dutch Arthurian tradition in English available at this moment. • Like the other books in the ALMA series, this book will give the state of the art in (in this case Dutch) Arthurian studies. • This book provides a comprehensive and informed survey of medieval Arthurian literature in Dutch

This book provides a comprehensive and informed survey of Arthurian literature in Dutch, aimed at readers who want to learn about the Arthurian tradition as it took shape in a language and culture with which they are not yet familiar.In the medieval Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands), Arthurian romance flourished in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Middle Dutch poets translated French material (like Chretien's Conte du Graal and the Prose Lancelot), but also created romances of their own, like Walewein. This book provides a current overview of the Dutch Arthurian material and the research that it has provoked. Geographically, the region is a crossroads between the French and Germanic spheres of influence, and the movement of texts and manuscripts (West to East) reflects its position, as revealed by chapters on the historical context, the French material and the Germanic Arthuriana of the Rhinelands. Three chapters on the translations of French verse texts, the translations of French prose texts, and on the indigenous romances form the core of the book, augmented by chapters on the manuscripts, on Arthur in the chronicles, and on the post-medieval Arthurian material.