ENG 2130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Layamon, Roman De Rou, Romance Languages
24 Jun 2016
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Avalon- mentioned in book 9 where arthur"s sword was forged; mentioned in book 11 where the dying king is taken. The word avalon seems like a word he might"ve made up. Geoffrey probably intended the place to be a place of the marvelous. In welsh tradition prior to g. was his messianic return. G. strongly hints at this without announcing it. It would be inconsistent with his matter of fact tone. His extreme vagueness as to the location of avalon- whether in britain or elsewhere or simply the marvelous, the later this would be clarified by scrupulous invention. In his later poem the life of merlin, g. has a poem, life of apples. There was a void, the history of the british kings, and he saw himself as the person destined to fulfill this position. Those who profited from the work were the britons. One of g. " motives may have been heightened respect for them among his norman superiors.
