The volume as a whole provides a useful taste of Anglo-Norman from a wide variety of domains and genres [...] its engaging arrangement and prominent editorial presence, coupled with its availability as a free download as a PDF from the Open Book website, render it an inviting point of entry for those exploring Anglo-Norman for the first time.
The collection offers a selection of fascinating passages, and whole texts, many of which are not anthologised or translated anywhere else. It explores little-known byways of Arthurian legend and stories of real-life crime and punishment; women’s voices tell history, write letters, berate pagans; advice is offered on how to win friends and influence people, how to cure people’s ailments and how to keep clear of the law; and stories from the Bible are retold with commentary, together with guidance on prayer and confession.
Each text is introduced and elucidated with notes and full references, and the material is divided into three main sections: Story (a variety of narrative forms), Miscellany (including letters, law and medicine, and other non-fiction), and Religious (saints' lives, sermons, Bible commentary, and prayers). Passages in one genre have been chosen so as to reflect themes or stories that appear in another, so that the book can be enjoyed as a collection or used as a resource to dip into for selected texts.
This anthology is essential reading for students and scholars of Anglo-Norman and medieval literature and culture. Wide-ranging and fully referenced, it can be used as a springboard for further study or relished in its own right by readers interested to discover Anglo-Norman literature that was written to amuse, instruct, entertain, or admonish medieval audiences.
An Anglo-Norman Reader
Jane Bliss | February 2018
416 | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783743131
ISBN Hardback: 9781783743148
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783743155
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783743162
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783743179
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783746125
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0110
BIC and BISAC categories: DQ (Anthologies, non-poetry), CFP (Translation and interpretation), DSBB (Literary studies: classical, early and medieval); LCO008000 (Literary Collections / European), LCO017000 (Literary Collections / Medieval), LIT018000 (Literary Criticism / Short Stories), LIT025040 (Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Religion); OCLC Number: 1166143287.
Acknowledgements & Notes
Copyright Acknowledgements
Note for Ebook Editions
Abbreviations
Bible Books
Introduction
Selection of Texts
Principal Themes and Topics
Treatment of Texts
Story
History
Wace’s Roman de Rou
Description of England
The French Chronicle of London
Des Grantz Geanz
Romance
Roman de Thèbes (Amphiarax)
Protheselaus
Le Roman deFergus
Le Roman du reisYder
The Anglo-Norman Folie Tristan
Short Stories
TristanRossignol
Two Fabliaux
LeRoi d’Angleterre et le Jongleur d’Ely
An Anglo-Norman Miscellany
Satirical, Social, and Moral
Le Roman des Franceis, by André de Coutances
L’Apprise de Nurture
Grammar and Glosses
LaManiere de Langage
Letters
Maud Mortimer’s letters to the King
Christine de Pisan’s letter to Isabelle of Bavaria
Doctors, Lawyers, and Writers
A MedicalCompendium
Legal Texts
‘En autre ovre’ (Prologues)
Religious Writings
Biblical and Apocryphal
Proverbes de Salemon (chapter 7)
TheCreation, by Herman de Valenciennes
Hagiography
La Vie d’Edouard le Confesseur, by a Nun of Barking
La Vie SeinteAudree, by Marie
The Life of St. Catherine, by Clemence
Homiletic
Maurice de Sully: Credo and Pater Noster
Sermon onJoshua
Rossignos
Eight Deadly Sins, attributed to Robert Grosseteste
Nicole Bozon, from Contes Moralisés, 128: Bad Company
Appendix
‘Et pis y avait quat’e: enne histouaire de ma graond’mé’, an adventure story
Bibliography
Primary Texts
Secondary Texts
Indexes
Manuscripts
Bible References
General Index
© 2018 Jane Bliss

The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for non-commercial purposes; to remix, transform and build upon the material providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that she endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
Jane Bliss, An Anglo-Norman Reader. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0110
Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
Cover images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/