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Nelly Montijn-de Fouw dedicated her anthology of Arthurian lore to her husband, uniting classic chivalric prose with Arthur Rackham’s haunting visual style. Excalibur drawn from its sheath marks the threshold where British myth enters modern European literature. The volume frames Arthur’s realm as both historical record and living fairytale tradition.
SAGEN VAN KONING ARTHUR → EN DE RIDDERS VAN DE TAFELRONDE DOOR…
Medieval writers across England, France, and Germany seized British legends to construct a unified continental literature. While French poets refined courtly ideals and German masters deepened mystical quests, Dutch compilers gathered these sprawling episodic cycles into massive hand-written codices. Lodewijk van Velthem’s medieval Lancelot compilation preserved minor knightly tales alongside tragic royal epics.
ALGEMEENE INLEIDING. → ARTHURS KOMST.1
William of Malmesbury and Geoffrey of Monmouth recorded Gawain as King Arthur’s bravest nephew and untarnished champion. Later French prose romances stripped away his flawless chivalry to highlight Lancelot and Tristan, re-casting him as treacherous and cynical. Middle English poetry resisted this decline, retaining Gawain as the supreme embodiment of honor, truth, and sacrificial courtesy.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN “HEER WALEWEIN EN DE GROENE RIDDER”.
King Arthur refuses to sit for his New Year feast until a miraculous knightly feat is reported. Queen Guinevere presides over the hall in embroidered green silk and glowing jewels as gathered knights exchange holiday gifts. The arrival of a green stranger disrupts the cheerful music, compelling Gawain to accept a terrifying seasonal challenge.
DE SAGE VAN HEER WALEWEIN EN DEN GROENEN RIDDER.
Raised in the wild woods of Northumberland, Balin enters Arthur’s court lacking courtly refinement but brimming with untamed vigor. A cursed sword brings early glory alongside an unavoidable chain of disasters that no blade can fend off. Blinded by rash temper and tragic destiny, Balin meets his equal in a fatal duel against his unknown brother Balan.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN BALIN EN BALAN.
Chrétien de Troies transformed Arthur’s regional court into the glittering cultural epicenter of medieval Christendom. His romances introduced courtly love as an intricate game of secret glances, absolute devotion, and psychological struggle. Knights must navigate the severe tension between obedience to their ladies and the constant pursuit of personal honor.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN DEN LEEUWENRIDDER.
Colgrevance recounts his journey to foreign lands while resting in King Arthur’s royal hall at Cardiff. When Sir Kay mockingly challenges his account, Queen Guinevere commends the knight for candidly disclosing his personal losses in combat. Hearing of a magical forest spring that summons sudden storms, Sir Yvain quietly vows to avenge his cousin’s defeat.
DE SAGE VAN DEN LEEUWENRIDDER.
Tristan’s mournful love story originated in early Celtic bardic songs before spreading throughout continental Europe. Scholars like Gaston Paris traced the magic potion back to ancient poetry, while Joseph Bédier reconstructed early French verses into a cohesive epic. Though later authors linked Tristan to Arthur’s Round Table, his tragic passion retains its independent power across centuries.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN TRISTAN EN ISOLDE.
Earl Rivalin of Ermonie leaves his land to serve King Mark of Cornwall at the formidable sea castle of Tintagel. His secret romance with Mark’s sister Blanchefleur ends in battle and childbirth, leaving young Tristan an orphan raised in secret by Rohand. The boy’s extraordinary gifts eventually lead him back to his uncle’s court above the crushing Atlantic waves.
DE SAGE VAN TRISTAN EN ISOLDE.
Queen Morgawse shields her youngest son Gareth at home long after his elder brothers leave for Arthur’s court. Disguising his noble identity, Gareth accepts kitchen labor under the tyrannical steward Sir Kay, enduring insults without complaint. His unyielding patience earns him Lancelot’s respect and a dangerous quest to rescue the captive lady Lyonors.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN HEER GARETH.
Chrétien de Troies and Hartmann von Aue explored how wedded happiness can decay into complacency and corrosive doubt. When Erec neglects chivalric duty for domestic bliss, Enide’s quiet grief forces them both onto a dangerous pilgrimage through hostile lands. Their journey tests mutual trust until heroic sacrifice restores harmony to their union.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN EREC EN ENIDE.
King Arthur proclaims an Easter hunt for a magical white stag near Cardigan, offering the winner a ceremonial kiss from the court’s fairest maiden. Gawain warns that such a prize will ignite bitter feuds among proud knights defending their ladies' beauty. Unarmed Erec rides beside Queen Guinevere into the forest, where an encounter with a rude knight sets a new quest in motion.
DE SAGE VAN EREC EN ENIDE.
Lancelot of the Lake entered Arthurian legend through Anglo-Norman lays before Chrétien de Troies defined his intense bond with Queen Guinevere. Countesses in twelfth-century France favored romances where knights showed total submission to their chosen ladies. Subverting earlier myths of Guinevere’s betrayal, prose writers re-cast Lancelot’s illicit love as both his ultimate strength and his spiritual ruin.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN LANCELOET EN ELAINE.
Recovering from a severe winter illness, Queen Guinevere remains behind as Arthur leads his knights to a grand tournament at Camelot. Lancelot feigns a leg injury to stay near the queen, but she urges him to ride in disguise so his absence will not invite court gossip. Wearing a red sleeve gift from Elaine of Astolat, Lancelot enters the arena unrecognized to prove his unmatched prowess.
DE SAGE VAN LANCELOET EN ELAINE.
Scholars debate whether the Grail originated as a Celtic vessel of endless abundance or a sacred Christian relic of divine grace. Chrétien de Troies left his Perceval poem uncompleted, inspiring continental poets to expand the mystic vessel’s origins and guardians. Wolfram von Eschenbach elevated the tale into a profound spiritual allegory of innocent failure, repentance, and ultimate redemption.
INLEIDING TOT DE SAGE VAN PARCIVAL EN DEN HEILIGEN GRAAL.
Grieving her husband Gamuret’s death in eastern battles, Queen Herzeleide hides young Parcival in a solitary forest home. She forbids all mention of knights or weapons, raising him to revere nature and God while dreaming of the world beyond the hills. A chance meeting with armored knights shatters her protective isolation, compelling the innocent youth to leave his mother for King Arthur’s court.
DE SAGE VAN PARCIVAL EN DEN HEILIGEN GRAAL.
Agravaine and Modred trap Lancelot in Queen Guinevere’s chambers, forcing King Arthur to condemn his wife to the stake. Lancelot rescues Guinevere in a bloody clash that kills Gawain’s brothers, driving Gawain into a vengeful crusade across sea boundaries. Modred seizes the throne during Arthur’s foreign campaign, bringing down the Round Table in a final, apocalyptic battle on Salisbury Plain.
ARTHUR’S DOOD.1
Nelly Montijn-de Fouw compiled her bibliography from centuries of European textual scholarship and critical editions. Her citations cross-reference Geoffrey of Monmouth’s chronicles, Malory’s printed prose, Tennyson’s Victorian poetry, and French philological journals. This scholarly record demonstrates how regional folklore evolved through medieval scribes, renaissance printers, and modern academic reconstruction.
BIBLIOGRAPHIE.
The initial index entries track complex lineages from Agravaine to the Grail King Amfortas and Joseph of Arimathea. Detailed page references follow King Arthur’s journey from his miraculous birth under Uther Pendragon to his final retreat to Avalon. Scholarly notes detail how early editors restored misspelled Welsh names and cleared centuries of copyist errors.
C. → D.
Index records trace recurring figures across French, German, and Middle Dutch variants of Arthurian lore. Sir Kay’s persistent taunting links comedic tavern tales to solemn Grail quests, while Lancelot’s journeys bridge courtly romance and tragic civil war. Comparative indexes show how minor characters like Luned and King Lac sustain the broader narrative architecture.
I. → M.
The final index catalog extends from ancient British chronicler Nennius to modern German translators like Will Vesper. Crucial geography like Tintagel Castle, Cardigan, and Benwick anchors fantastically enchanted encounters to recognizable European landscapes. Tracking characters across multiple manuscripts illuminates how Arthurian storytelling transcended national borders during the High Middle Ages.
V.
Transcribing Nelly Montijn-de Fouw’s 1907 text required meticulous preservation of archaic Dutch spelling and punctuation choices. The colophon documents online proofreading work, silent restoration of hyphenated line-breaks, and correction of original printer errata. Documenting every textual adjustment guarantees that future readers encounter an accurate digital edition of this classic Dutch anthology.
INHOUD. → Verbeteringen
A chapter-by-chapter guide through Nelly Montijn-de Fouw's classic Dutch anthology of Arthurian legend and romance tradition.