SELIM 18.indb


Andrew Breeze, SELIM 18 (2011): 181–183ISSN: 1132–631X

Saunders, Corinne 2010: Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval 
English Romance. [Studies in Medieval Romance 13]. Cambridge, D. 
S. Brewer. pp. viii+304. ISBN: 978-1-84384-22⒘   $95.00/£50.00. 

Professor Saunders of Durham, who in 2001 published a volume on rape, now turns to another sensational 
theme: magic. Her study (in seven chapters) is imposing, 

at least in its plan. We begin with magic in Greece, Rome, and the 
Bible, and then go on to early medieval attitudes, including the 
warnings of St Augustine, and the penalties of Church councils 
and canon law. Chapter three concerns white magic (used for 
healing, inducing love, and so on), in which gemstones were 
thought to be eff ective. AY er that comes black magic: evil arts, 
shape-shiY ing, Medea the witch, alchemy. Chapter fi ve discusses 
the Other World, with fairy mistresses, enchanters, knights, 
and “the world of Faery.” Then we have Christianity as regards 
miracles, ghosts, and demons, followed by Sir Thomas Malory on 
sorcery, marvels, and the Grail. A brief epilogue gestures towards 
Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest) and the 
Renaissance.

Magic in early romance means consideration of standard works: 
Beves of Hampton, Chaucer’s tales of the Franklin, Squire, and 
Wife of Bath, Gower’s Confessio, Lybeaus Desconus, Sir Degarré, Sir 
Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, and so on. Nevertheless, 
there seem two major problems. First is the question of focus. 
Paranormal activities of all kinds are here assembled with what 
some might fi nd to be a lack of cohesion. There appears to be 
a failure to bring together real magic (amulets, curses, voluntary 
confessions) with literary treatment of magic (as with Gower and 
the legend of Medea). The two are presented side by side, without 
the contacts between them that might be expected.

Second is the treatment. Despite the attractions of her subject, 
Professor Saunders is not the most exciting of writers. More 
serious than that are actual inaccuracies, as in an account of Welsh 



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SELIM 18 (2011)

literature (pp. 180–181). It tells us that Celtic narratives of the Other 
World “tend to unfold” in “dream-like” ways. We disagree. In, 
for example, the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, the supernatural 
characters behave like ordinary humans, their extraordinary 
experiences being told in the most straightforward way possible, 
as Kenneth Jackson noted in his A Celtic Miscellany. The Book 
of Taliesin is dated to the “thirteenth century” (it is of the early 
fourteenth). An edition by B. F. Roberts of the Black Book of 
Carmarthen is cited % om the Idris Foster festschri&  of 1978, when 
no such edition by Dr Roberts exists. The Mabinogi hero Pwyll 
is called “lord” of Dyfed, when he is its prince; a signifi cant point, 
because the precision of these tales on matters of status suggests 
composition by an author of exalted rank. Professor Saunders 
refers on the White Book of Rhydderch to discussion by R. M. 
Jones in Lly!  Gwyn Rhydderch, a title she gives inaccurately, with 
no mention of the better study by Daniel Huws (1991). Mabinogion 
tales are cited % om Jeff rey Gantz’s Penguin version of 1976, not 
Sioned Davies’s improved World’s Classics translation of 2007. 
The tales are elsewhere misrepresented (p. 202) as “folk stories,” 
disregarding the universality of narrative in early culture and the 
evident familiarity of some of them with life at court. Here we may 
again cite Kenneth Jackson for a classic defi nition of the former 
in his The International Popular Tale and Early Welsh Tradition, a 
volume with comments on stories and the supernatural that have 
permanent value.

It is true that Magic and the Supernatural in Medieval English 
Romance avoids pretentiousness. It re% ains % om dropping the 
names of fashionable critics who might be praised less and read 
more. Yet some might conclude that the book not only fails to 
advance its subject as one might expect, but in some aspects will 
confuse or mislead its readers. It appears that a really penetrating 
study of magic in the Middle English romance, which co-ordinates 
medieval dealings in the occult with the literary texts, and which 



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Reviews

SELIM 18 (2011)

shows full understanding of the oral and other traditions behind 
them, is still to be written.

Andrew Breeze

University of Navarre, Pamplona

References

Bromwich, R. & R. B. Jones eds. 1978: Astudiaethau ar yr Hengerdd: 
Studies in Old Welsh Poetry. Caerdydd, Gwasg Pri5 sgol Cymru.

Davies, S. ed. 2007: The Mabinogion. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Evans, J. G. ed. 1973: Lly!  Gwyn Rhydderch: Y Chwedlau a’r Rhamantau. 
[The White Book of Rhydderch: the Tales and Romances]. Caerdydd, 
Gwasg Pri5 sgol Cymru.

Gantz, J. ed. 1976: The Mabinogion. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Huws, D. 1991: Lly9  Gwyn Rhydderch. Cambridge Medieval Celtic 
Studies 21: 1–37.

Jackson, K. H. 1961: The International Popular Tale and Early Welsh 
Tradition. Cardiff , University of Wales Press.

Jackson, K. H. 1971: A Celtic Miscellany: Translations ! om the Celtic 
Literatures. 2nd ed. Harmondsworth, Penguin.

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