Book of Lancelot

The highly intriguing Middle Dutch 'Lancelot' Compilation is a collection of ten Arthurian verse romances dating from around 1320. The compiler adapted already existing texts and brought them together in an ordered sequence. Although the compilation is one of the most important Middle Dutch works that have come down to us, it is hardly known outside the Low Countries. In this monograph, the first full-length English study of the compilation, the Middle Dutch work is analysed and compared with French narrative cycles (MS BN fr. 1450, Chantilly MS 472, MS BN 112), Thomas Malory's 'Morte Darthur', and Ulrich Fuetrer's 'Buch der Abenteuer'. The book consists of five chapters. The introductory chapter deals with the study of cyclicity, the literary context of the 'Lancelot' Compilation, and the manuscript tradition. In the following three chapters the ten romances are studied one by one. Each analysis consists of two parts: a description of the compiler's source and a survey of his interventions. In the fifth and last chapter the 'Lancelot' Compilation is characterized as a narrative cycle and compared with French, English and German cycles.The monograph is concluded with an attempt to describe the essence of the compilation. BART BESAMUSCA is Associate Professor at Utrecht University.