Heroes and Heroines in Medieval English Literature: A Festschrift Presented to Andre Crepin on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday

Andre Crepin, Head of the English faculty at the Sorbonne, has made a significant contribution to medieval English studies in France and in Europe. These essays in his honour, by a distinguished group of scholars, reflect the wide range of his interests in Old and Middle English, from Beowulf to Malory. The theme of the volume is the literary and linguistic evolution of the hero, from the classic expression of the Germanic code to the chivalry of the knights of the Round Table - from Beowulf to Chaucer’s Knight to Sir Lancelot. Beowulf as archetypal hero is both the subject of, and the concept behind more than one study; others, attempting to define heroism, grapple with the semantic problem posed by the absence of this word until very late in the medieval period; and the very notion of heroism is questioned as the passive hero and anti-hero emerge as literary types, at the same time as the medieval consciousness of self developed. Heroism as abstract and reality, the heroic ideal and kingship, Christian reaction to the heroic model, Chaucer’s heroes: taken together, these studies explore the central importance of the idea of the hero/heroine, and the representation of that idea, at various points throughout the Middle Ages.