'And many a strange adventure came my way in that time': adaptation of the 13th c. French text 'The Quest of the Holy Grail' in 15th c. Ireland

Abstract

This dissertation is the first in-depth study of the Irish adaptation of the medieval French Arthurian romance Queste del saint Graal. The present study focuses on the intertextual correspondences between the surviving Irish manuscripts, dated from the 15th to 16th centuries, and a selection of French manuscripts with connection to England.

Chapters 1 to 2 offer an insight of the context and development of Arthurian literature in Ireland and suggest that the character of Arthur has been part of the literary tradition since the 12th c. and further highlight the influence the Irish Queste projected on the late vernacular tradition.

Chapters 3 to 4 present the French text in its initial cyclic context and discuss the specific features of this story as a mean to draw hypothesis on the interest it represented for an Irish audience. Chapter 4 presents the manuscript tradition of this text with a specific focus on the manuscripts in circulation in England between the 13th and 14th c. This selection of manuscripts was made on the hypothesis that English networks introduced the source-text to Ireland. The methodology, presented within Chapter 4, follows two steps. First, a linear analysis showing the variations of content and structure and aiming to find any similarities between the texts. Secondly, a study of the motifs found within the studied passages and which are inherent to the Arthurian tradition.

Chapters 5 to 8 introduce the case studies and demonstrate the feat of the Irish translator to change the narratological structure to fit the literary tradition, cultural milieu and depict significant modifications aimed to a target audience. The study of the passages also show the most similarities with one of the French manuscripts, suggesting that a close copy was used for the first adaptation of the Irish text.

This thesis shows significant progress in our understanding of the textual and contextual complexity of the Lorgaireacht an tSoidhigh Naomtha and provides a framework for further studies into the study of the specific and comparative analysis of Arthuriana in Ireland.

Thesis embargoed until 31 December 2026

Date of Award	Dec 2024
Original language	English
Sponsors	Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership
Supervisor	Peter Smith (Supervisor) & Maxim Fomin (Supervisor)