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Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan

  • Jean d'Arras
  • Translated by: Donald Maddox , Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2012
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About this book

Jean d’Arras’s splendid prose romance of Melusine, written for Jean de Berry, the brother of King Charles V of France, is one of the most significant and complex literary works of the later Middle Ages. The author, promising to tell us “how the noble and powerful fortress of Lusignan in Poitou was founded by a fairy,” writes a ceaselessly astonishing account of the origins of the powerful feudal dynasty of the Lusignans in southwestern France, which flourished in western Europe and the Near East during the age of the Crusades. The spellbinding story of the destinies of the fairy Melusine, her mortal husband, and her extraordinary sons blends history, myth, genealogy, folklore, and popular traditions with epic, romance, and Crusade narrative.

Preceded by a substantial introduction, this translation, the first in English to be amply annotated, captures the remarkable range of stylistic registers that characterizes this extravagant and captivating work.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Jean d'Arras Donald Maddox is Professor Emeritus of French Studies and adjunct faculty member in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. --- Contributor: Donald Maddox Sara Sturm-Maddox is Professor Emerita of French and Italian Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    CONTENTS

    v
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    Preface and Acknowledgments

    vii
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    Introduction

    1
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    Maps

    17
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  • Melusine; or, The Noble History of Lusignan
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    Prologue

    19
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    Crossed Destinies: Melusine and Raymondin

    21
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    Founding Lusignan

    34
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    Raymondin in Brittany

    49
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    Founding a Dynasty in Poitou

    68
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    Urian and Guyon Defend Cyprus

    71
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    Urian and Guyon: The Armenian Campaign

    100
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    Antoine and Renaud in Luxembourg

    113
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    Geoffroy Big-Tooth in Ireland

    148
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    Crisis in the Near East

    160
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    Betrayal, Fratricide, and Loss

    180
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    Geoffroy in Northumberland

    196
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    Raymond: Pilgrimage and Penance

    201
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    Six Sons of Lusignan Defend Alsace

    208
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    Raymond’s Noble Funeral

    214
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    Epilogue I: The Knight of the Tower

    218
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    Epilogue II: The Castle of the Sparrow Hawk

    223
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    The Legacy of Lusignan and the Duke of Berry

    226
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    Notes

    231
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    Selected Bibliography

    243
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    Index

    247
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 25, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9780271059907
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
264
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271059907
eBook ISBN: 9780271059907
Keywords for this book
Jean d'Arras; Literary; Studies Medieval Literary; Studies Romance Studies; Medieval and Early Modern Studies; Medieval History; Donald Maddox; Sara Sturm-Maddox; 9780271054124; "Melusine
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