Even more Gawain. Andrew Charles Breeze’s book The Historical Arthur and the Gawain Poet: Studies on Arthurian and Other Traditions (Studies in Medieval Literature) is set to be released in hardcover for circa £80 on 15th January 2023.

The blurb reveals that it is partly Arthurian, and states that the first part will offer…

evidence for the Arthur of film and legend as a real person, a Celtic commander (not a king) who fought battles in North Britain during the terrible volcanic winter of 536-7, before dying a hero’s death in a conflict on Hadrian’s Wall.

The second part…

uses arguments of the U.S. scholar Ann W. Astell to date the text to 1387 and name the poet as Sir John Stanley (d. 1414), a Cheshire and Lancashire grandee.

The date given seems curious, since Astell states “my argument necessitates dating Gawain after 1397” (in her Political Allegory in Late Medieval England, page 188). This is slightly expanded when she gives “1397-1400” elsewhere in the same book, the date being drawn from reading Gawain as a mirror-like political allegory of events — claimed by her to be inspired by the beheading of Richard of Arundel in 1397. But I guess the arguments that Breeze takes from her must relate to something other than Astell’s own choice for the dating of Gawain.

Either late date seems doubtful to me, and the Stanley claim more so. But it will be interesting to see if the book has new evidence.

Update: Ah, I see that the dating is explained in Breeze’s latest paper. He notes Astell’s observation of… “line 678 of Gawain, on its protagonist as being made a duk or duke [which she sees as a coded reference to] Robert de Vere (1362-92), ninth Earl of Oxford, created Duke of Ireland on 13 October 1386. She adds that ver or spring, used in line 866 of beautiful clothing given to Gawain, is a dig or quiet joke at the expense of de Vere, favourite of Richard II and notorious for flamboyant dress.”

More than a bit tenuous, and seemingly an insight originally from McColly and not Astell. Let’s hope there’s more new evidence than that in the book.