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De Britania a Britonia, La leyenda artúrica en tierras de Iberia: cultura, literatura y traduccion ed. by Juan Miguel Zarandona

2016; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 26; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/art.2016.0030

1934-1539

Jamie Wood,

Medieval Iberian Studies

Reviewed by: De Britania a Britonia, La leyenda artúrica en tierras de Iberia: cultura, literatura y traduccioned. by Juan Miguel Zarandona Jamie Wood juan miguel zarandona, ed., De Britania a Britonia, La leyenda artúrica en tierras de Iberia: cultura, literatura y traduccion. Relaciones literarias en el ámbito hispánico, 12. Bern: Peter Lang, 2014. Pp. 458. isbn: 9783034315579. $119.95. This edited volume of over 450 pages represents a substantial contribution to Arthurian studies in the Iberian Peninsula and of the Arthurian legacy there. Fifteen chapters and subsidiary materials in a variety of languages, plus a prologue (by Kevin J. Harty) and short introduction (by the editor), offer a series of case studies and translations of literary texts and other cultural artifacts (e.g. paintings, ballet). Chronologically, these studies cover materials ranging from the thirteenth century to 2000, with two main clusters: late medieval and twentieth century. For reasons of space and expertise, this review focuses on the first half of the volume, on Iberian Arthurian materials in the Middle Ages and shortly thereafter. Ana Margarida Chora studies two of the late medieval Gallego-Portuguese ‘Lais da Bretanha,’ those of Lançarot and Marot, comparing their contents to the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate traditions. She demonstrates a series of underlying inter-textual connections which reinforce the impression gained from other texts of the strength of the Arthurian tradition in Portuguese territory. The reception of the Mabinogionin Spain is examined by Carlos A. Sanz Mingo via a close analysis of the translation of ‘Culhwuch ac Olwen’ from the Welsh original. In ‘Traducciones y refundiciones de la prosa artúrica en la península ibérica (XIII–XVI),’ José Ramón Trujillo traces in detail the reception and translation history of Arthurian prose works in the Iberian Peninsula across three centuries. At almost fifty pages this is a long piece, but it comes to some important conclusions about the transmission history of French Arthurian texts that helps to contextualize the other chapters on medieval Iberian receptions of Arthur. Juan Luis Ramos identifies a number of similarities between Arthurian myths and those that developed in the fifteenth century around Jaun Zuria, the mythical first lord of Biscay and hence a foundational figure in Basque literature/ identity politics, as articulated by the chronicler Lope García de Salazar (1399–1476). Divergences between Iberian depictions of Gawain and those in Britain and France are charted through Rosalba Lendo’s analysis of the Baladro del sabio Merlín(1498) and the Demanda del Sancto Grial(1535). Mario Botero García explores two medieval Iberian depictions of the Tristan-Isolde love story, focusing on their varying depictions of the deaths of the lovers. Tristan en prose(ca. 1230–1240) emphasizes chivalric ideals and the centrality of Tristan, while Tristán de Leonís(1501) stresses love and Isolde. The Iberian Peninsula was not solely a consumer, however; it also produced texts that were exported back to countries such as France, which stood more firmly in the Arthurian mainstream. This phenomenon is examined in Sebastián García Barrera’s analysis of Amadís in Gaul, which is also framed as a study of a transmission of medieval texts into the Renaissance. The second half of the volume contains chapters which examine, among other matters: sacred reliquaries, travelers, and the Grail in the nineteenth century; the attempt of Benito Pérez Galdós to subvert the Tristan legend in his 1892 Tristana; Salvador Dalí as an Arthurian; receptions and adaptations of Arthurian material in [End Page 150]the Escaliborof Alexandre de Riquier (1909), La última fadaof Pardo Bazán (1916), the thought of Vicente Risco (1884–1963), the narratives of Álvaro Cunqueiro, and parodic neo-medieval pseudo-Grails such as those of Paloma Díaz-Mas (1984) and Umberto Eco (2000). There is no index to the volume, which makes it more difficult to navigate. This minor criticism notwithstanding, the chapters collected into De Britania a Britoniademonstrate the breadth, vibrancy and creativity of Iberian engagement with the Arthurian legend in the later Middle Ages, the modern period and in modern scholarship. [End Page 151] Jamie Wood University of Lincoln Copyright © 2016...