Richard Coeur de Lion

Empire of Magic offers a genesis and genealogy for medieval romance and the King Arthur legend through the history of Europe's encounters with the East in crusades, travel, missionizing, and empire formation.

The book argues that romance arose in the 12th century as a cultural response to the trauma and horror of taboo acts—in particular the cannibalism committed by crusaders on the bodies of Muslim enemies in Syria during the First Crusade. From such encounters with the East sprang the fantastical episodes featuring King Arthur in Geoffrey of Monmouth's chronicle, The History of the Kings of England, a work where history and fantasy collide and merge, each into the other, inventing crucial new examples and models for romances to come.

After locating the rise of romance and Arthurian legend in the contact zones of East and West, Empire of Magic demonstrates the adaptability of romance and its key role in the genesis of an English national identity. Discussing Jews, women, children, and sexuality in works like the romance of Richard Lionheart, stories of the saintly Constance, Arthurian chivralic literature, the legend of Prester John, and travel narratives, the book shows how fantasy enabled audiences to work through issues of communal identity, race, color, class and alternative sexualities in socially sanctioned and safe modes of cultural discussion in which pleasure, not anxiety, was paramount.

Romance also engaged with the threat of modernity in the late medieval period, as economic, social, and technological transformations occurred and awareness grew of a vastly enlarged world beyond Europe, one encompassing India, China, and Africa. Finally, the author suggests that romance locates England and Europe within an empire of magic and knowledge that surveys the world and makes it intelligible—usable—for the future.

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Disponible en: https://santanderestudiospatrimonio.unican.es/index.php/sanespat/article/view/50

Ricardo I de Inglaterra, conocido como Corazón de León, es uno de los personajes más famosos de la Historia y también de los más legendarios. Presente en muchas novelas y películas como un héroe de las cruzadas o destronado por su hermano Juan en época de Robin Hood, su visión ha ido cambiando y sus actos se han juzgado mucho más severamente con el paso de los años. El contraste de lo que la literatura y el cine nos han contado con el escaso patrimonio documental que existe sobre el rey es lo que se realiza en este artículo.


Richard I of England, known as Lionheart, is one of the most famous and legendary people in History. Present in a lot of novels and movies as a hero of the crusades or dethroned by his brother John in the time of Robin Hood, his description has been changing and his acts have been judged more severely over the years. A contrast between what literature and cinema showed us with his scarce documentary heritage about this king is the main purpose of this study.

«[...] et la chanson un peu particulière de Richard Cœur de Lion». With these words Pierre Bec ends his list of the songs that constitute the elusive genre of the rotrouenge. Indeed, the features of the rotrouenge are not clearly defined: the most authoritative scholar who established the corpus of Old French lyrics included in this genre is Friedrich Gennrich, who argued that the essence of the rotrouenge had to be found in its music. However, a fundamental characteristic of medieval music is variance, and errors may occur along the process of transmission. This essay will trace back the steps of Richard Lionheart’s Ja nus hons pris ne dira sa raison, from its manuscripts to its editions, and try to ascertain – if an error has been committed – who is to blame: the Ancients or the Moderns.

"Cette méthode d’occitan donne à voir toutes les variétés (ou dialectes) d’occitan. La première partie de l’ouvrage présente le languedocien standard – une variété qui permet de comprendre assez aisément la plupart des autres dialectes occitans puisque l’aire languedocienne occupe le centre géographique de l’espace occitan. La méthode revient ensuite sur les six principaux dialectes de l’aire occitane (auvergnat, gascon, languedocien, limousin, provençal, vivaro-alpin) parlés dans trois pays (France, Espagne, Italie) et donne également accès à l’occitan médiéval sur une série de leçons. Les acteurs locaux, très actifs dans la promotion de leur langue, ont été partie intégrante de cet ouvrage à la fois par le biais des relectures et des enregistrements.
Cet ouvrage a été publié avec le soutien de la Direction Générale de la Langue Française et des Langues de France (Ministère de la Culture) et de l’Union Latine. "