Wace

... paramount.

And it's introduced into the bloodstream of Arthurian literature by, um, a Norman poet called Wace.

Great name.

Yeah.

And Wace is writing in the 1150s.

It's a kind of updating of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history, and tellingly, he dedicates it to Eleanor of Aquitaine.

So again, it's this idea of the fashionable southern kind of models of new behavior.

Wace is buying into this as well.

This the Italians and the Lombards, the Angles and Saxons have also learned to their undoing." Footnote, Editor Le Prevost, three, page four seventy-four, also page two thirty and footnote.

A little later, it is the Norman poet Wace who tells through the mouth of the dying William the Conqueror of these same Normans, brave and valiant and conquering, proud and boastful, and fond of good cheer, hard to control, and needing to be kept underfoot by their rulers.

Footnote, Roman de Rue, Andresen edition two, lines ninety-one thirty-nine to ninety-one fifty-six, and footnote.

Through all these accounts runs the same story of a high-spirited, masterful, unscrupulous race, eager for danger and ready for every adventure, and needing always the bit and bridle rather than the spur.

Late in September the Normans landed on the beach at Pevensey and marched to Hastings, where, October 15th, they met the troops of Harold, fresh from their great victory over the men of Norway at Stamford Bridge.

Few battles of the Middle Ages were of importance equal to that of Hastings, and fewer better known.

Besides the prose accounts of the Latin chroniclers, we have the contemporary elegiacs of Guy of Amiens and Baudry of Bourgoye, the spirited verse of the Roman de Rue of Master Wace, the most detailed narrative, but written unfortunately a century after the event, and the unique and vivid portrayal of the Bayeux Tapestry.

This remarkable monument, which is accessible to all in a variety of editions, consists of a roll of cloth 230 feet long and 20 inches in breadth, embroidered in colors with a series of 79 scenes which narrate the history of the conquest from the departure of Harold on the ill-fated journey which led him to William's court down to the final discomfiture of the English army on the field of Hastings.

Footnote, Editor Le Prevost, 3, page 474, also page 230, end footnote.

A little later it is the Norman poet Wace who tells through the mouth of the dying William the Conqueror of these same Normans, brave and valiant and conquering, proud and boastful and fond of good cheer, hard to control and needing to be kept underfoot by their rulers.

Footnote, Roman de Rue, Andresen edition 2 lines 9139 to 9156 and footnote.

Through all these accounts runs the same story of a high-spirited, masterful, unscrupulous race, eager for danger and ready for every adventure, and needing always the bit and bridle rather than the spur.

Late in September the Normans landed on the beach at Pevensey and marched to Hastings, where, October 15th, they met the troops of Harold, fresh from their great victory over the men of Norway at Stamford Bridge.

Few battles of the Middle Ages were of importance equal to that of Hastings, and fewer better known.

Besides the prose accounts of the Latin chroniclers, we have the contemporary elegiacs of Guy of Amiens and Baudry of Bourgoye, the spirited verse of the Roman de Rue of Master Wace, the most detailed narrative, but written unfortunately a century after the event, and the unique and vivid portrayal of the Bayeux Tapestry.

This remarkable monument, which is accessible to all in a variety of editions, consists of a roll of cloth 230 feet long and 20 inches in breadth, embroidered in colors with a series of 79 scenes which narrate the history of the conquest from the departure of Harold on the ill-fated journey which led him to William's court down to the final discomfiture of the English army on the field of Hastings.