King Arthur Aloud: Audio and Video Files
Audio
As a service to both teachers and students, we have collected recordings by medieval scholars of passages from Arthurian texts in Middle and Early Modern English, Welsh, Anglo-Norman, Old French, and Middle High German. The purpose of these recordings is to give a sense of how the texts might have sounded to the original readers, so the emphasis is on accuracy of pronunciation according to current knowledge.
Most of these files are MP3 and will play in Windows Media Player or the software of your choice. A few links are to separate websites with their own audio files. Each page includes a link to the sound file, information on the reader and the edition being read, and the text itself, so that users can follow along as they listen. The works are listed in chronological order of composition.
Preiddu Annwn (The Spoils of Annwn) read by Sarah Higley, University of Rochester (for the Camelot Project)
Chrétien de Troyes's Le Chevalier de la Charrette (Lancelot, or The Knight of the Cart) read by William Kibler, University of Texas at Austin
Chrétien de Troyes's Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion) read by Joan Grimbert, Catholic University of America
Marie de France's Lanval read by Judy Shoaf, University of Florida
Layamon's Brut read by Basil Cottle, Bristol University
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival read by Don Sunnen, Virginia Military Institute
Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan read by Don Sunnen, Virginia Military Institute
Le Roman de Jaufré read by Dan O'Sulllivan, University of Mississippi
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight read by Thomas Rendall, Campion College, University of Regina
Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur read by Tom Hanks, Baylor University
Video
Performing Medieval Narrative Today: A Video Showcase
This site was produced by Evelyn Birge Vitz, Nancy Freeman Regalado, and Marilyn Lawrence of the NYU French Department. Unfortunately, the links to video performances in the Archive[dot]org snapshot do not work, but links do work to "About," "Videography," an extensive "Bibliography," and "Teaching Tips." To browse the extensive list of genres and works that were performed, click "List All Search Criteria."
The original descrption is as follows:
"Performing Medieval Narrative Today: A Video Showcase offers resources for scholars, teachers, students, and performers to explore contemporary performance of medieval narrative. Our purpose is to see how medieval stories can be brought to life in performance for modern audiences, and how performance can be used to teach medieval literature in the classroom. . . . Video clips constitute the primary resource here. The clips feature a variety of actors, storytellers, singers, musicians, mimes, puppeteers, and dancers, among them professionals, teachers, and students. They perform scenes drawn from a range of medieval narrative genres, including epics, romances, lais, tales, fabliaux, and others."
The videos themselves are archived here. There are 235, many of which are from different English, French, and German Arthurian works.
For a transcript of a detailed presentation on the site by Profs. Vitz and Lawrence, click here.
Podcasts
A podcast by Prof. Kathy Cawsey of Dalhousie University in which she interviews Arthurian scholars from around the world. Available on computer, iPhone, iPad, Android, and tablets.
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Pedagogy Site Administrator: Alan Baragona sabaragona@gmail.com
Last revised: January 11, 2022
Disclaimer: The contents of this site are the sole responsibility of Arthuriana and its contributors, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Purdue University. The administrator of the Arthuriana site is Dorsey Armstrong. sarmstr@purdue.edu