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Bibliographic Record Display

• Title:Otherworlds : fantasy and history in medieval literature / Aisling Byrne.
  
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• Author/Creator:Byrne, Aisling, author.
  
• Published/Created:Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, 2016.
  ©2016
  

• Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:KOERNER LIBRARY stacks (Floor 1)Where is this?
    
  • Call Number: PR255 .B97 2016
    
  • Number of Items:1
    
  • Status:c.1 On loan - Due on 06-14-2024
    
  • Links:Donor bookplate
    

   
• Library of Congress Subjects:English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.
  Irish literature--Middle Irish, 1100-1550--History and criticism.
  Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.
  Fantasy in literature.
  History in literature.
  
• Edition:First edition.
  
• Description:212 pages ; 23 cm
  
• Summary:This book offers a new perspective on the otherworlds of medieval literature. These fantastical realms are among the most memorable places in medieval writing, by turns beautiful and monstrous, alluring and terrifying. Passing over a river or sea, or entering into a hollow hill, heroes come upon strange and magical realms. These places are often very beautiful, filled with sweet music and adorned with precious stones and rich materials. There is often no darkness, time may pass at a different pace, and the people who dwell there are usually supernatural. Sometimes such a place is exactly what it appears to be - the land of heart's desire-but, the otherworld can also have a sinister side, trapping humans and keeping them there against their will. This book takes a fresh look at how medieval writers understood these places and why they found them so compelling. It focuses on texts from England, but places this material in the broader context of literary production in medieval Britain and Ireland. The narratives examined in this book tell a rather surprising story about medieval notions of these fantastical places.
  
• Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
  
• ISBN:9780198746003 hardcover
  0198746008 hardcover
  
• Contents:Machine generated contents note: Sources of Belief and the Celtic Connection
  Real Otherworlds?
  `He com into a fair cuntray': Words for Literary Worlds
  Fiction into History
  1. Imagining Otherworlds
  Pseudo-Mimesis
  Otherworld Excess and the Perils of Desire
  Mapping Gender
  Death and Deathlessness
  2. Otherworlds and the Afterlife
  Owein in the Otherworld
  Biblical Sources and `Celtic' Otherworlds
  Otherworlds in the Ocean: Scripture and Syncretism
  3. Supernatural Authorities
  Kingship, Rulers, and Otherworld Realms
  Appropriating Avalon
  Alexander's Journey to the Earthly Paradise
  4. Archipelagic Otherworlds
  North Adantic Orbis Alter
  These Other Edens
  Islands of Magic
  Monstrous Peripheries
  Conclusion: Points of Departure.