The Awntyrs Off Arthur: A Study of the Production, Circulation and Reception of Manuscripts in Fifteenth-Century England

This thesis, through a detailed study of 'The Awntyrs off Arthure at the Terne Wathelyne' and its four surviving manuscripts (London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 491a; Lincoln, Cathedral Library, MS 91; Princeton, University Library, MS Taylor 9; and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 324), builds on existing research into Middle English romance manuscripts, identifies a diverse audience of reader/listeners and makes the argument that the booklet may be the typical material and literary form of Arthurian romance in the fifteenth century, with significant implications on how we interpret the use and survival of these texts.

Taking a combined textual, literary, codicological and biobibliographical approach, this thesis confirms a wider circulation of the poem, beyond its four surviving manuscript versions. A feminist critical reading of the 'Awntyrs' provides the first extended literary analysis of the poem to reveal that women were not only the implied audience of the poem, but active participants in its circulation and important consumers of Middle English romance. The study connects the 'Awntyrs' to canonical texts, including Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde', 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' and the alliterative 'Morte Arthure' through its literary analysis, whilst research into the textual communities of the poem shows that multiple copies of the Awntyrs circulated in London, produced as part of a large, collaborative commercial enterprise alongside texts by Chaucer, Gower, Langland and Hoccleve.