Troy: Our Greatest Story Retold (Stephen Fry’s Greek Myths, 3)

Product Information

Harvey, Paul, ed. (1946). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p.802 . Retrieved 6 August 2012. Finlayson, John. "Guido de Columnis' Historia destructionis Troiae, the 'Gest Hystorial' of the Destruction of Troy, and Lydgate's Troy Book: Translation and the Design of History." Anglia 113 (1995), 141-62. Colonne, Guido delle. Historia destructionis Troiae. Ed. Nathaniel Griffin. Medieval Academy of America Publications 26. Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1936. Boffey, Julia. "The Reputation and Circulation of Chaucer's Lyrics in the Fifteenth Century." Chaucer Review 28 (1993), 23-40. And witness the epic climax - the wooden horse, delivered to the city of Troy in a masterclass of deception by the Greeks . . .

Eleanor Antin (b. 1935), 'Judgement of Paris', after Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). Chromogenic print, edition 4/5, from 'Helen's Odyssey', 2007. Edwards, A. S. G. "Additions and Corrections to the Bibliography of John Lydgate." Notes and Queries ns 32 [230] (1985), 450-52. Although nestled in the Cornish landscape and its lore, the beliefs and practices described within this book are rooted also in the traditional witchcraft current and an ‘Old Craft’ of multiple British streams. Its magic and charms are comparable also to those found elsewhere in the British Isles and beyond, making this a book adaptable for practitioners in any land.

John Lydgate. Medieval Authors: Poets of the Later Middle Ages. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970. The link with Henry also has some enticing biographical dimensions. Lydgate spent time at Oxford in Gloucester College, which the Benedictines maintained for monks engaged in university study. Henry had studied at Queen's College in 1394, and sometime between 1406 and 1408 wrote Lydgate's abbot asking for permission for Lydgate to continue his studies, either in divinity or canon law. Henry's letter mentions that he has heard good reports about Lydgate; it does not indicate necessarily that the Prince of Wales and the monk had a personal acquaintance. John Norton-Smith proposes, however, that Lydgate resided in Oxford from approximately 1397 to 1408 and that he met Henry (p. 195n). The rubrics of Lydgate manuscripts owned by the fifteenth-century antiquarian John Shirley suggest that Lydgate and Henry shared interests in the liturgy, but these are textual sources that postdate Troy Book. Henry's religious fervor matched his enthusiasm for tales of chivalry. Schirmer argues that Lydgate's attitude differs from his patron's endorsement of military adventure. He contends, for example, that Lydgate initially invokes Mars (Pro. 1-37) but reproves him (4.4440-4536) after Henry becomes king. In his view, the line "[a]lmost for nought was this strif begonne" (2.7855) refers not just to the Trojan War but also to the pointlessness of the French war. Lydgate's peace sentiments seem, however, more the expression of commonplace counsel than a rejection of Henry's policies. To be sure, there are profound tensions and contradictions in Troy Book, but they grow out of the narrative that Lydgate recounts and embellishes and not from a kind of authorial resistance. In its immediate historical context, the poem aims to affirm chivalric virtues, offer examples and moral precepts, and celebrate the national myth of Trojan origins. A romp through the lives of ancient Greek gods. Fry is at his story-telling best . . . the gods will be pleased' Times Edwards, A. S. G. "Lydgate Manuscripts: Some Directions for Future Research." In Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England: The Literary Implications of Manuscript Study. Ed. Derek Pearsall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1981. Pp. 15-26.

Simpson, James (2009). "John Lydgate". In Scanlon, Larry (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100-1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521602587. Lawton, Lesley. "The Illustration of Late Medieval Secular Texts, with Special Reference to Lydgate's 'Troy Book.'" In Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England: The Literary Implications of Manuscript Study. Ed. Derek Pearsall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1981. Pp. 41-69. To conjure and control spirits – ‘ Who so beareth this sign about him, all spirits shall do him homage’ – one of the famous twin seals from Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of witchcraft (1584), a popular source for traditional cunning folk.Chaucer's Boccaccio: Sources of "Troilus" and the "Knight's" and "Franklin's Tales." Trans. N. R. Havely. Chaucer Studies 3. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1980. Pp. 167-80, 213-14. [Excerpts from Le Roman de Troie.]

The experience of reading Homer—unless you decide to learn ancient Greek—will always be deeply affected by the skill of the translator. Fortunately Stephen Fry has some recommendations. He writes, “There are so many books of the historical facts behind Troy and its fall, and many magnificent translations of Homer. I particularly recommend Emily Wilson’s Odyssey and either Stephen Mitchell or Robert Fagles’s Iliad.” Gray, Douglas (2004). "Lydgate, John (c.1370–1449/50?)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press . Retrieved 5 August 2012. This Hallowtide, we are delighted to bring you all a very special new title from Val Thomas: Hallowtide – A Dark Devotional. Renoir, Alain, and C. David Benson. "John Lydgate." In A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1500. Ed. J. Burke Severs and rev. Albert E. Hartung. 9 vols. New Haven: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1967-. 6: 1809-1920, 2071-2175.Spearing, A. C. Medieval to Renaissance in English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. To have protection from enemies and ill-influence – ‘Who so beareth this sign about him, let him fear no foe, but fear God’ – one of the famous twin seals from Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of witchcraft (1584), a popular source for traditional cunning folk. A Mid-Fifteenth-Century English Illuminating Shop and Its Customers." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 31 (1968), 170-96. Buuren-Veenenbos, Catherine C. van. "Notes and News: John Asloan, an Edinburgh Scribe." English Studies 47 (1966), 365-72. In The Witch Cult in Western Europe, Anthropologist Margaret Alice Murray (1863 – 1963) presents her pioneering and seminal witch-cult theory – an enigmatic history of European witchcraft and the rituals, beliefs and practices of an ancient, secretive pre-Christian religion that persisted covertly amidst fierce Christian persecution. The witch cult hypothesised herein unveils an underground and organised old religion, devoted to the worship of a horned god and mother goddess which survived from its pre pre-Christian origins and through the hysteria of the witch trials.