Playing Merlin: Authorship from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Neomedievalisms
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Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 6-2019 Playing Merlin: Authorship from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Neomedievalisms Keith Russo Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Russo, Keith, "Playing Merlin: Authorship from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Neomedievalisms" (2019). Dissertations. 3479. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/3479 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PLAYING MERLIN: AUTHORSHIP FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH TO NEOMEDIEVALISMS by Keith Russo A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy English Western Michigan University June 2019 Doctoral Committee: Eve Salisbury, Ph.D., Chair Rand Johnson, Ph.D. Richard Utz, Ph.D. Nicolas Witschi, Ph.D. Copyright by Keith Russo 2019 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With the humblest gratitude, it is my honor to thank my advisor, Doctor Eve Salisbury, whose seemingly infinite patience made this work possible and whose unerring pen made it legible. Tibi Gratias to my committee, Doctors Rand Johnson, Richard Utz, and Nicolas Witschi, who believed though they did not see for far too long and then saw too much at one time. Your faith in me sustained me even when I did not believe in myself. Heartfelt thanks to Doctors Scott Slawinski and Gwen Tarbox, two of the English Department Graduate Directors during my time at Western Michigan University. A special thanks to Doctor Jana Schulman, former English Department Graduate Director and current Director of the Medieval Institute: your example as a scholar, translator, mentor, leader, and friend have always inspired me. Thank you to the staff and faculty of the English Department, the Graduate College, the Medieval Institute, and Waldo Library of Western Michigan University. Thank you to my family, especially my other chopstick, Sommer Russo; my biggest cheerleader, who goes by “mom,” Debra Russo; my father, Kenneth Russo, still a more learned man than I; the wind beneath my wings, my brother, Nicholas Russo; my sons, Emmett and Elijah, who interrupted this project, but made my life so much more fulfilling. Thank you to all of my other family who always believed in me. Thank you to my friends who are more like family: David, Krista, Alex, and Dominic DiTucci; Ryan Williams; James Ryan Gregory; Hyson Cooper; Annelies Goger; and Molly Werner. Thanks to my original Goliards. Thank you to the IMG Academy faculty and staff, especially Chris Locke, the best boss ever. ii Acknowledgments - continued Thank you to each of the scholars quoted and cited herein and to those that fell to the cutting floor; every one of you have contributed to my growth as an intellect. Thank you to every teacher and professor for sharing their knowledge and love. I have been presumptuous enough to call many of them friends and colleagues. I thank all of them profusely, especially, but not limited to: Martin Shichtman and Laurie Finke, my heroes; Kevin J. Harty, boon-granter; Jean Blacker, a generous scholar; Molly Lynde-Recchia, the kindest French professor; Anne Berthelot, for inviting me to speak; Amy Kaufman, you always cared; Mary Baine Campbell, whose Chaucer class ignited my love of medieval literature and who first recommended me to graduate school; William Flesch because good teachers borrow, but great teachers steal; Kathleen Coyne Kelly, for giving me my first teaching assignment and for holding court after class; Michael Randall, to whom I once said I disliked medieval literature—I suppose I was wrong; D. Thomas Hanks, whom I met at my first conference, Camelot 2000, and who said to me after I remarked upon the collegiality of senior scholars towards junior ones, “Compared to that which we study, we are all very young.” I knew then that I had found the right people; Patricia Del Vecchio, for Honors Literature class: this all started there; Scott Troyan, a true friend; and Robert Blanch, the best Congress dancer. And thank you to everyone who ever encouraged me to continue to pursue my dream. Keith Russo iii PLAYING MERLIN: AUTHORSHIP FROM GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH TO NEOMEDIEVALISMS Keith Russo, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2019 The twenty-first century is the age of new media for old stories. Just as film, television, and print have adapted medieval literature into movies like Excalibur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, video games have produced new versions of Arthurian tales whose mysterious origins blur the distinction between history and myth. Many academics are concerned with the authenticity of the various representations of the Middle Ages and the “historical” Arthur and Merlin and label any postmedieval adaptation as an “anachronistic” medievalism. However, electronic texts have provided a different focus: studying the multiplicity of rewritings of those names through the many different texts, genres, and media. The discourse of the innumerable different versions for the last millennium can be deemed as “playing” with the texts, according to Jean-François Lyotard’s game theory. Not only should this thread of study be acknowledged but encouraged. The reinvention of an older story into a new form is the essence of medieval literary authorship: borrowing from one’s sources to innovate a fresh version of the established story. Just as modern writers of every genre have adapted the most famous medieval characters, medieval writers played with their sources to produce their own myths. Interestingly, the writers of each new version of the Arthurian legend have chosen Merlin as their avatar: he functions in each text as historian, author, and prophet. Merlin embodies the author’s struggle between myth and history, the relationship among the past, present, and future, and the process of reinventing old stories for the modern moment’s needs. Just as a player uses digital representation to interact with a game, popular and academic Arthurian authors have always been playing as Merlin. Beginning with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s three works, The Historia Regum Britanniae, Prophetiae Merlini, and the Vita Merlini, and continuing through medieval texts, like the Roman de Brut, the Prose Merlin, and the Morte Darthur, this study demonstrates that there was never an authentic Merlin, but rather a series of representations of fables that masquerade as history. The final chapter explores medievalism(s) of print, film, and game to demonstrate that the way in which those technologies reinvent Merlin and Arthur’s kingdom are similar to their medieval authors’ negotiations of authority and innovation. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTERS I. Introduction……...…………………………………………………………………….1 Contemplating the Middle Ages…………………………………………………..5 Playing with the Middle Ages……………………………………………………13 Programming Choice: Adapting Arthuriana to Participatory Medievalism……..19 Merlin: Past, Present, and Future………………………………………………...22 II. Who Controls the Past: History, Narrativity, and Monmouth's Merlin.......................36 Refashioning History: Adapting the Past to the Present…………………………44 Predicting the Past: Prophecy and History in HRB………………………………56 Where the Past and the Future Meet: Merlinus Ambrosius……………………...63 Merlin’s Moment: The Epicycle of History and Narration……………………...73 III. The Prophetiae Merlini: Geoffrey’s Present Predicted in the Past..............................88 Reinventing Prophecy: Geoffrey’s Prophetiae Merlini………………………….98 Merlin’s Prophecies: Epicyclical Key to the Historia………………………….108 iv Table of contents - continued Rewriting History through Merlin’s Prophecies………………………………..115 Reading the Present in the Past: Commenting on the Prophetiae Merlini……..120 Merlin after Merlin: The Prophetiae throughout the Middle Ages……………131 Later Medieval Prophetiae: The Brut tradition and Beyond…….……………..135 IV. Reinventing Merlin: The Vita Merlini and Merlin’s Past, Present, and Future........155 V. The Medieval Merlin: The Many Faces of Authorship..………………192 Combining Fact and Fiction: Wace Transitions from Historia to Roman……...193 The Roman de Brut’s Language and Genre Adaptations……………………….207 Merlin in Wace: Legitimating Romance………………………………………..218 LaƷamon’s Merlin: Commenting from the Margins of Power…………………231 Romancing Merlin: Robert de Boron, the Vulgate, and Prose Merlin…………250 Malory: Merlin’s Absence as Presence…………………………………………271 VI. Merlin and Neomedievalism: Re-Playing the Middle Ages...……………………..283 As Merlin Might Have Been: Un-Romancing the Sword in the Stone…………287 I, Merlin: As He is Now………………………………………………………...303 Merlin as He Never Was………………………………………………………..320 v Table of contents - continued The Absent Merlin: Re-Populating History…………………………………….330 Merlin as He Will Be (Again)…………………………………………………..353 AFTERWORD…………………………………………………………………………………359 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………366 vi LIST OF FIGURES 1. Opening Screen to Legion: The Legend of Excalibur………………………………......288 2. Menu of Legion: Merlin in His Cave…………………………………………………...290 3. The Opening of The Sword in the Stone………………………………………………..292 4. Merlin Depicted in Legion: The Legend of Excalibur………………………………….300 5. Arthur the Squire……………………………………………………………………….300