Fantastic Histories - (Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture) by Victoria Flood (Paperback)

About the Book

Details the political and cultural contexts of the entry of fairies to the historical record in twelfth century England, and the subsequent political uses of fairy narratives in both insular and continental history and romance, revealing the fairy as a contested marker of historicity and fictionality.

Book Synopsis

Fantastic Histories explores the political and cultural contexts of the entry of fairies to the historical record in twelfth century England, and the subsequent uses of fairy narratives in both insular and continental history and romance. It traces the uses of the fairy as a contested marker of historicity and fictionality in the histories of Gerald of Wales and Walter Map, the continental mirabilia of Gervase of Tilbury, and the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century French Mélusine romances and their early English reception. Working across insular and continental source material, Fantastic Histories explores the practices of history-writing, fiction-making, and the culturally determined boundaries of wonder that defined the limits of medieval history.

From the Back Cover

'The dichotomies of truth and fiction have proved to be over-simplistic tools for the analysis of the stories of fairies. Flood's brilliant and thoughtful book teases out the different functions of fairy narratives, revealing a range of surprising implications and destabilising many longstanding assumptions about fairies in medieval culture.'
--Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor of medieval European literature, University of Oxford

Delving into the relationship between medieval history and fiction, this book meticulously explores the political and cultural contexts around the entry of fairies to the historical record in twelfth-century England, and the subsequent uses of fairy narratives in both insular and continental history and romance.

Beginning with accounts of fairy mothers in the works of Walter Map and Gerald of Wales, the book traces the uses of the fairy as a contested marker of historicity and fictionality in the continental mirabilia of Gervase of Tilbury, and the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century French Mélusine romances and their early English reception.

Spanning diverse sources from across insular and continental Europe, Fantastic histories dissects the intricacies of history-writing and fiction-making practices. It investigates the culturally determined boundaries of wonder that defined the limits of medieval history, and how dominant political and cultural interests determined whose fantasies were false and whose were the stuff of history.

Review Quotes

'The dichotomies of truth and fiction, belief and make-believe have proved to be over-simplistic tools for the analysis of the stories of fairies embedded in the complex Latin histories and vernacular dynastic chronicles of the medieval period. Victoria Flood's brilliant and thoughtful book teases out the different functions of such fairy narratives, revealing a range of subtle, often surprising implications and destabilising many longstanding assumptions about fairies in medieval culture.'
--Carolyne Larrington, Emerita Professor of medieval European literature, University of Oxford

'This meticulously researched and carefully argued study explores the socio-cultural politics of history making and how some knowledges become privileged over others. This is a learned study that makes a significant contribution to scholarship. Moreover, the selection of texts and the connections established make this work indispensable reading for those interested in the Melusine romances.'
--Jan Shaw, Arthuriana

About the Author

Victoria Flood is Professor in Medieval and Early Modern Literature at University of Birmingham