Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A note on quotations and translations
- Introduction
- 1 The rhetoric of confidence in the prologues to Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 2 The legendary history of Britain in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 3 Legends of English heroes: Engel, Havelok, Constance
- 4 Representations of the Norman Conquest in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 5 Family chronicles
- Conclusions
- Appendix: Two extracts from the Scalacronica: texts and translations
- Bibliography
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
Conclusions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of plates
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- A note on quotations and translations
- Introduction
- 1 The rhetoric of confidence in the prologues to Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 2 The legendary history of Britain in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 3 Legends of English heroes: Engel, Havelok, Constance
- 4 Representations of the Norman Conquest in Anglo-Norman prose chronicles
- 5 Family chronicles
- Conclusions
- Appendix: Two extracts from the Scalacronica: texts and translations
- Bibliography
- Index
- YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS: PUBLICATIONS
Summary
My aim in this book has been to create a fuller understanding of Anglo-Norman prose chronicles as a distinctive genre within the literary culture of late medieval England. In this conclusion, I will attempt to re-evaluate that place in the light of the information presented in previous chapters.
To begin with, it is clear that Anglo-Norman prose chronicles occupied a distinct space in that literary culture. Anglo-Norman was an authoritative language of ofi cial records, and it was also the main language of private correspondence: an intimate language which could allow chroniclers to engage directly with their audiences. At the same time, the language had a distinguished literary past, including in the genre of historical writing. Anglo-Norman prose chroniclers fused the directness of an everyday language with the rhetorical flourish and imagination of earlier verse histories. As I described in my first chapter, this allowed the chroniclers to articulate with confidence in their prologues that their works were dei nitive historical accounts clearly presented.
Having established their own authority, these chronicles began to recount their version of the past. In my analysis I have concentrated on their presentation of key ideas and episodes from national history: the legendary British past, legends about heroes of Anglo-Saxon England, and the Norman Conquest. From a comparison of their treatment of these three subjects, a common approach to their representations of the past emerges.
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- Reimagining History in Anglo-Norman Prose Chronicles , pp. 162 - 164Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013