Arthurian Epistolary Project (HUM 270-001)

Students in Dr. Christopher Berard’s Humanities courses, King Arthur: Monarch of the Medieval Imagination and Christian Kingship & Knighthood, fabricate medieval documents as a capstone assignment to showcase their content knowledge and creative writing skills.

The assignment is to compose an Arthurian-themed mock letter. The submission may take the form of a public document, a royal charter, or a private document, a personal letter. The context, parties, purpose, and theme of the document must derive from the assigned readings and topics covered in class. In addition to the creative fiction component, students add an artistic calligraphic component to their work, namely through use of faux parchment, imitation of medieval chancery scripts, and inclusion of a heraldic-themed, authenticating seal.

Typically, the class reads either Wace’s Roman de Brut (1155), an influential Old French verse adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae [History of the Kings of Britain], or selections from the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, or Vulgate Cycle, of Old French prose Arthurian romances (c. 1210–30). Wace’s Roman de Brut contains the earliest-known mention of King Arthur’s Round Table. The assigned Modern English translation is by Glyn S. Burgess (Oxford, 2023).

The Lancelot-Grail Cycle is the most comprehensive version of the Arthurian legend ever written. It dates from the age of Aquinas, has been called the Summa Arthuriana, and has influenced the literary output of Dante Alighieri and C. S. Lewis. The assigned Modern English translations are from the ten-volume paperback edition of Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation under the general editorship of Norris J. Lacy (Cambridge, 2010).

In a separate document, with reference to the assigned texts, students explain how they use the medieval epistolary form to communicate meaning. A helpful discussion of the epistolary form with an example is contained in Christopher Berard, “King Arthur’s Charter: A Thirteenth-Century French Satire Against Bretons,” Journal of the International Arthurian Society 8 (2020): 3–37. The model for the question and answer sheet is provided by Leonard Boyle, “Diplomatics,” in Medieval Studies: An Introduction, edited by James M. Powell, 2nd edn (Syracuse, 1992), pp. 82–113, at pp. 91–104:

1. Quis? (Who?): Who is the principal (actor) behind the document? Who is the addressee (destinatarius) of the document?
2. Quid? (What?): What was done by the principal (actor) in the document?
3. Quomodo? (How?): How did the required formal conventions feature in the beginning (protocol), middle (corpus), and end (eschatocol) of the document?
4. Quibus Auxiliis? (Who assisted in the action?): Who else, if anyone, was involved in the creation and implementation of the document?
5. Cur? (Why?): What is the purpose of the document?
6. Ubi? (Where?): Where was the document written?
7. Quando? (When?): When was the document written?