Research Guides: Medieval Studies: Literature, Language, & Myth

Literature, Language, & Myth

General

Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature.
Edited by Robert Thomas Lambdin and Laura Cooner Lambdin.
Greenwood Press, 2000.
Routledge Companion to Medieval English Literature.
By Raluca Radulescu and Sif Rikhardsdottir.
Routledge, 2023.
New Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance.
Edited by Roberta L. Krueger.
Cambridge UP, 2023.
Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature
Edited by Ralph Hexter and David Townsend.
Oxford UP, 2012.
Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre.
Edited by Richard Beadle and Alan J. Fletcher.
Cambridge UP, 2008.
A Dictionary of Medieval Heroes: Characters in Medieval Narrative Traditions and Their Afterlife in Literature, Theatre, and the Visual Arts.
Edited by Willem P. Gerritsen and Anthony G. van Melle. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell, 1998.
[St. Michael’s 1st Floor Reference Area – PN682 .C5 V3513 1998]
Articles on ninety characters from mediaeval tales. Each entry gives an outline of the story, how it spread through Europe, its modern retellings and appearances in art, and a selective bibliography.
A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland Before 1540
By Richard Sharpe. Belgium: Brepols, 1997.
[Robarts Library Stacks – Z6605 .L3 S53 1997]
[Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies Library (Reference Only) – Z6605 .L3 S5 1997]

Chaucer

The Chaucer Encyclopedia.
Edited by Richard Newhauser, Vincent Gillespie, Jessica Rosenfeld, and Katie Walter.
Wiley, 2023.
Oxford Handbook of Chaucer.
Edited by Suzanne Conklin Akbari, James Simpson.
Oxford UP, 2020.
Cambridge Companion to 'the Canterbury Tales'.
Publication Date: 2020-09-10

Edited by Frank Grady.
Cambridge UP, 2020.
Routledge Companion to Global Chaucer. by Craig E. Bertolet; Susan Nakley
Edited by Craig E. Bertolet and Susan Nakley.
Routledge, 2025.

French Literature

Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature
Edited by Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay.
Cambridge UP, 2008.

King Arthur

New Arthurian Encyclopedia.
Edited by Norris J. Lacy.
Garland, 1996.
Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend.
Edited by Elizabeth Archibald and Ad Putter.
Cambridge UP, 2009.
A Companion to Arthurian Literature.
Edited by Helen Fulton.
Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Handbook of Arthurian Romance.
Edited by Leah Tether and Johnny McFadyen.
De Gruyter, 2017.
The Arthurian Handbook.
By Norris J. Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe, and Debra N. Mancoff.
2nd ed. Routledge, 2013.
Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Guide to Recent Research.
Edited by Norris J. Lacy.
Routledge, 2015.
Encyclopedia of Folklore and Literature.
Edited by Mary Ellen Brown and Bruce A. Rosenberg.
Bloomsbury, 2024.

Mythology & Folklore

Medieval Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs.
Edited by Carl Lindahl et al.. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2000. 2 Volumes.
[For print version locations see UofT Catalogue]
[St. Michael’s 2nd Floor – GR35 .M43 2000]
Focusing chiefly, though not exclusively, on the folklore of mediaeval England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, this 2-volume set contains more than 300 entries on tales (King Arthur), historical figures (Thomas Becket), festivals (carnival), creatures in folklore (fairies), mythologies (Scandinavian mythology) and themes (silence). The usual general index, along with indexes of folktale plots (Index of Tale Types) and motifs, makes this encyclopedia easy to use. The entries include cross-references and often lengthy bibliographies.

Poetry

A Companion to Medieval Poetry.
Edited by Corinne Saunders.
Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

European Literature

Medieval German Literature
By Sidney M. Johnson and Marion Gibbs.
Routledge, 2000.
Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England c. 1100-c. 1500.
Edited by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne. Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, Boyell Press, 2009.
[St. Michael’s 2nd Floor – PE525 .L36 2009]
Arguing the French language strongly influenced English medieval life, these essays investigate the impact of francophone speakers, writers, documents and readers on 11-15th century England.
European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages.
By Ernst Robert Curtius. Translated from the German by Willard R. Trask.
Princeton University Press, 2013.
The Silent Masters: Latin Literature and Its Censors in the High Middle Ages.
By Peter Godman.
Princeton UP, 2000.

Chaucer

Chaucer: The Basics.
By Jacqueline Tasioulas.
Routledge, 2019.
Geoffrey Chaucer: A Very Short Introduction.
By David Wallace.
Oxford UP, 2019.
The Canterbury Tales.
By Helen Cooper.
First published 1989.
Oxford Guides to Chaucer.
Oxford UP, 2023.
Geoffrey Chaucer's the Canterbury Tales: A Casebook.
Edited by Lee Patterson.
Oxford UP, 2023.
Chaucer and His Readers: Imagining the Author in Late-Medieval England.
By Seth Lerer.
Princeton University Press, 1996.

Robin Hood

Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood.
By Stephanie L. Barczewski.
Oxford UP, 2000.
Robin Hood: Legend and Reality.
By David Crook.
Boydell, 2020.
Historians on Robin Hood: The Outlaw’s Legend in the Later Middle Ages.
Edited by Stephen H. Rigby.
Boydell & Brewer, 2024.
Early English Performance: Medieval Plays and Robin Hood Games.
Edited by John Marshall; Philip Butterworth.
Routledge, 2020.
Robin Hood and the Outlaw/ed Literary Canon.
Edited by Lesley Coote and Alexander L. Kaufman.
Routledge, 2019.
Imagining Robin Hood: The Late-Medieval Stories in Historical Context.
By A. J. Pollard.
Routledge, 2004.
Christmastime Texts and the Popularity of the Robin Hood Tradition.
By Alexander L. Kaufman.
ARC Humanities Press, 2025.

King Arthur

The Arthurian World.
Edited by Victoria Coldham-Fussell, Miriam Edlich-Muth, and Renée Ward.
Routledge, 2022.
Arthurian Romance: A Short Introduction.
By Derek Albert Pearsall.
Wiley, 2007.
King Arthur: The Making of the Legend.
By Nicholas J. Higham.
Yale University Press, 2021.
King Arthur: The Truth behind the Legend.
By Rodney Castleden.
Routledge, 2005.
The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol.
By Roger Sherman Loomis.
Princeton UP, 2018.
King Arthur - A Casebook.
Edited by Edward Donald Kennedy.
First published 1996. Routledge, 2011.
Merlin: A Casebook.
Edited by Peter H. Goodrich and Raymond H. Thompson.
Routledge, 2003.
Merlin and Legendary Romance.
By Carol E. Harding.
Routledge, 2015.
Arthurian Women: A Casebook.
Edited by Thelma S. Fenster.
Routledge, 2015.
Lancelot and Guinevere: A Casebook.
Edited by Lori J. Walters.
Routledge, 2002.
Reinventing King Arthur: The Arthurian Legends in Victorian Culture.
By Inga Bryden.
Routledge, 2016.
The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature : The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin.
Edited by Sian Echard.
University of Wales Press, 2011.
Arthur of England: English Attitudes to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
By Christopher Dean.
First published 1987.
University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Before Malory: Reading Arthur in Later Medieval England.
By Richard J. Moll.
University of Toronto Press, 2003.
King Arthur: Myth-Making and History.
By N. J. Higham.
Routledge, 2002.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the French Arthurian Romance.
By Ad Putter.
Clarendon, 1995.
The Arthurian Legend: Comparison of Treatment in Modern and Mediaeval Literature.
By Margaret J. Reid.
Routledge, 2015.
Malory's Morte Darthur.
By Larry D. Benson.
First published 1976.
Harvard UP, 2013.

Mythology & Folklore

Imagination and Fantasy in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Time.
Edited by Albrecht Classen.
De Gruyter, 2020.
Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church.
By Richard Firth Green.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.
Origin Legends in Early Medieval Western Europe.
Edited by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden.
Brill, 2022.

Here Begynneth a Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode.
London: In fletestrete at the sygne of the sone by Wynkyn de Worde, 1506?
Robin Hood. c. 1561-9.
Edited by John S. Farmer.
Originally published 1561-69.
London? Issued for subscribers by the ed. of the Tudor facsimile texts, 1914.
The Noble Birth and Gallant Atchievements of that Remarkable Outlaw, Robin Hood together with a True Account of the Many Merry and Extravagant Exploits he Play'd, in Twelve Several Stories.
Newly collected into one volume by an ingenious antiquary.
London: Printed by J.M. and are to be sold by J. Deacon, at the Sign of the Angel in Guiltspur-Street, without Newgate, ca. 1690.

Stories Include:

The Noble parentage of Robin Hood
Robin Hood's delight
Robin Hood and the fifteen forresters
Robin Hood and the tanner,
Robin Hood and the butcher
Robin Hood and the beggar
Robin Hood and the stranger
Robin Hood and the bishop
Robin Hood and Queen Katherine
Robin Hood and the curtal fryer
Robin Hood and the fisher-man
Robin Hood's Chase
The Canterbury Tales.
By Geoffrey Chaucer.
Translated by David Wright.
Oxford UP, 1986.
Annales Cambriae.
Edited by John Williams.
Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860.
In Latin.
The History of the Kings of Britain.
By Geoffrey of Monmouth.
Edited by Michael D. Reeve. Translated by Neil Wright.
Boydell Press, 2007.

Bibliography of the International Arthurian Society.
De Gruyter, 2013-
Classics in the Middle Ages.
By Michael W. Herren and Scott Bruce.
Oxford Bibliographies - Medieval Studies
Oxford UP, 2022.
Geoffrey Chaucer.
By Andrew Galloway.
Oxford Bibliographies - Medieval Studies
Oxford UP, 2010.

Medieval Studies

Literature, Language, & Myth

Reference

Secondary Sources

Primary Sources

Bibliographies

General

Chaucer

French Literature

King Arthur

Mythology & Folklore

Poetry

European Literature

Chaucer

Robin Hood

King Arthur

Mythology & Folklore