Walter Map and the Matter of Britain. Joshua Byron Smith

      

      Walter Map and the Matter of Britain

      THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES

      Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor

      Edward Peters, Founding Editor

      A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.

      Walter Map and the Matter of Britain

      Joshua Byron Smith

      UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS

      PHILADELPHIA

      Copyright © 2017 University of Pennsylvania Press

      All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.

      Published by

      University of Pennsylvania Press

      Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112

       www.upenn.edu/pennpress

      Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

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      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Name: Smith, Joshua Byron, author.

      Title: Walter Map and the matter of Britain / Joshua Byron Smith.

      Other titles: Middle Ages series.

      Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017] | Series: The Middle Ages series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016056690 | ISBN 9780812249323 (hardcover : alk. paper)

      Subjects: LCSH: Map, Walter, active 1200. | Map, Walter, active 1200. De nugis curialium. | Latin literature, Medieval and modern—England—History and criticism. | English literature—Middle English, 1100–1500—History and criticism. | English literature—Middle English, 1100–1500—Celtic influences.

      Classification: LCC PA8380.Z5 S65 2017 | DDC 878/.0307—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056690

       For Lora

       Contents

       List of Abbreviations

       A Note on Translations

       Introduction

       Chapter 1. Walter Map, Wales, and Romance

       Chapter 2. Works Frozen in Revision

       Chapter 3. Glosses and a Contrived Book

       Chapter 4. From Herlething to Herla

       Chapter 5. The Welsh-Latin Sources of the De nugis curialium

       Chapter 6. Walter Map in the Archives and the Transmission of the Matter of Britain

       Epilogue

       Appendix. A Preliminary List of Suspected Interpolated Glosses in the De nugis curialium

       Notes

       Bibliography

       Index

       Acknowledgments

       Abbreviations

CPGC	Contes pour les gens de cour, trans. Alan Keith Bate (Turnhout: Brepols, 1993).
DMLBS	Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, ed. R. E. Latham et al. (London: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1975–2013).
DNC	Walter Map, De nugis curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles, ed. and trans. M. R. James, rev. C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983).
GCO	Giraldi Cambrensis opera, ed. J. S. Brewer, James F. Dimock, and George F. Warner, 8 vols. (London: Longman, 1861–91).
GPC	Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, ed. R. J. Thomas (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1950–2002).
HRB	Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain: An Edition and Translation of “De gestis Britonum,” ed. Michael D. Reeve, trans. Neil Wright (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2007).
LSM	Peter Stotz, Handbuch zur lateinische Sprache des Mittelalters, 5 vols. (Munich: Beck, 1996–2004). [References are to book, page, and section number.]
OLD	Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P. G. W. Glare (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).

       A Note on Translations

      With the exception of the History of the Kings of Britain, the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, and the Vulgate, all translations, including those from the De nugis curialium, are mine unless otherwise noted. Translations from the Vulgate are the Douay-Rheims.

      Introduction

      In either 1209 or 1210, Walter Map, a British churchman, courtier, and writer, died. While the year of his death remains in doubt, the month and day are clearly recorded: April 1.¹ Of course, the association of this date with practical jokes had not yet arisen when Walter passed away, but enough of his mischievous personality comes through in his work to suggest that he would surely appreciate the serendipitous alignment of his obituary with a day devoted to hoaxes. He had a wry sense of humor, and, fittingly, much of his literary career can be summed up as a series of hoaxes—some intentional, some not. Walter has been mistaken for St. Jerome, an ancient Roman, a Welshman, a precocious Greek translator, a vicious satirical poet, and the son of a Welsh princess and Norman lord. Indeed, a significant portion of scholarship on Walter Map has been devoted to sifting the real Walter out of this preponderance of fake Walters. This book seeks to understand another of Walter’s mistaken identities: his role as author of the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, a sprawling thirteenth-century French prose narrative and one of the highlights of medieval Arthurian literature. Why did Walter Map, who apparently did not write in French and who had seemingly