Middle English Marvels

This multidisciplinary volume illustrates how representations of magic in fourteenth-century romances link the supernatural, spectacle, and morality in distinctive ways.Supernatural marvels represented in vivid visual detail are foundational to the characteristic Middle English genres of romance and hagiography. In Middle English Marvels, Tara Williams explores the didactic and affective potential of secular representations of magic and shows how fourteenth-century English writers tested the limits of that potential. Drawing on works by Augustine, Gervase of Tilbury, Chaucer, and the anonymous poets of Sir Orfeo and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, among others, Williams examines how such marvels might convey moral messages within and beyond the narrative. She analyzes examples from both highly canonical and more esoteric texts and examines marvels that involve magic and transformation, invoke visual spectacle, and invite moral reflection on how one should relate to others. Within this shared framework, Williams finds distinct concerns—chivalry, identity, agency, and language—that intersect with the marvelous in significant ways.Integrating literary and historical approaches to the study of magic, this volume convincingly shows how certain fourteenth-century texts eschewed the predominant trends and developed a new theory of the marvelous. Williams’s engaging, erudite study will be of special interest to scholars of the occult, the medieval and early modern eras, and literature.

“This book offers a tantalizing glimpse into an intriguing topic, the convergence of marvels, morality, and spectacle. By selecting the marvellous, Williams has chosen to consider a key feature of medieval literature, one that includes divine intervention, supernatural transformations, and the wondrous workings of technology.”—Natalie Goodison, Medium Aevum, “Middle English Marvels articulates a new aspect to our understanding of the role of marvels, it adds dimension to our understanding of the importance of magic in vernacular literary culture, and it demonstrates the extent to which wonder was mobilized to foster moral contemplation. Grounded in deft textual interpretation, this book will be a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on marvels and wonder for scholars in literary and medieval studies.”—E. R. Truitt, Speculum, “A universal appeal underlies this book's particular exploration of how Middle English literary spectacles function in a handful of 14th-century texts. . . . Williams contributes to the scholarly discussion material that will be useful for understanding traditional elements such as plot, character, and theme and also postmodern interest in identity and alterity.”—A. P. Church, Choice, “Williams’s book adds to growing scholarly interest in medieval magic and marvels. She demonstrates that these themes functioned differently in medieval literature than they did in medieval scientific and theological writings, which were more interested in drawing sharp distinctions between the natural and miraculous or the magical and the divine.”—Andrew Fogleman, Comitatus, “Dr. Williams offers a close reading and deep meditation on important poems from this period, thoroughly engages and profits from the secondary literature, and leads her readers into a new way of appreciating the power of story to occasion personal and collective development, then and now.”—Patrick Madigan, Heythrop Journal

Tara Williams is Associate Dean of the Honors College and Associate Professor of English at Oregon State University and the author of Inventing Womanhood: Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing.