European Arthurs, Medieval To Modern

2026-07-22

European Arthurs, Medieval to Modern’ (EUARTHURS) examines, for the first time, in cross-cultural synchronic and diachronic ways, the conceptualisation and the transmission of Arthurian matter in its move from its origins in early medieval narratives from Wales into other geographical and linguistic areas in Europe in the Middle Ages, into other genres and art forms that endure to the present day. Starting from the dichotomy that used to be perceived, in modern scholarship, between ‘centres’ of cultural power and diverse regional ‘peripheries’, EUARTHURS problematises both medieval and modern academic definitions of where the centre or centres were (and are) of this best-selling tradition in the Middle Ages, and explores their constant re-invention in traditions seen for far too long as ‘peripheral’ in European medieval writing and art, then in post-medieval forms. Supported by a team of non-academic partners, including repository libraries, archives, museums, and publishers, as well as creative environments, EUARTHURS aims to demonstrate that the culturally- and politically-specific environment which framed the appearance and then the dissemination of Arthurian legends across Europe shaped the key elements in these stories that led to the endurance of this global cultural export from then on and to the present day. The very academic tradition functions as an obstacle when it comes to examining how texts travelled across linguistic borders and what happened/still happens to them when they do. This is why we need EUARTHURS, as a ground-breaking cross-linguistic, comparative, cross-period project that trains the next generation of researchers to understand global movements of cultural texts and artefacts and how some texts go ‘viral’ while others are marginalised. EUARTHURS will demonstrate that the endurance of these forms of human expression is due to the relevance of the topics in modern negotiations of identity.

United Kingdom (UK)

2025-10-01