Cross-Cultural Arthurian Dissemination

This chapter explores the cross-cultural dissemination of Arthurian literature through the lens of a single case study: the lai of Lanval , attributed to Marie de France. It begins by discussing the figure of Marie, her works, and her compositional practice, situated in the wider twelfth-century contexts of multilingual, cross-Channel literary cultures and the development of Arthurian narratives and vernacular literary forms. The study then considers the dissemination of Lanval in terms of its manuscript tradition, as well as through analogues, adaptations, translations, and other textual traces or allusions. As such, the study follows both Lanval and Lanval across medieval Europe, through the Welsh Marches, England, northern France, Flanders, Norway, Swabia and Austria.