The renowned and illustrious tales of King Arthur his knights and the Round Table pervade all
European vernaculars as well as the Latin tradition. Arthurian narrative material which had
originally been transmitted in oral culture began to be inscribed regularly in the twelfth
century developing from (pseudo-)historical beginnings in the Latin chronicles of historians
such as Geoffrey of Monmouth into masterful literary works like the romances of Chrétien de
Troyes. Evidently a big hit Arthur found himself being swiftly translated adapted and
integrated into the literary traditions of almost every European vernacular during the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This Handbook seeks to showcase the European character of
Arthurian romance both past and present. By working across national philological boundaries
which in the past have tended to segregate the study of Arthurian romance according to language
as well as by exploring primary texts from different vernaculars and the Latin tradition in
conjunction with recent theoretical concepts and approaches this Handbook brings together a
pioneering and more complete view of the specifically European context of Arthurian romance
and promotes the more connected study of Arthurian literature across the entirety of its
European context.
