Philip E. Bennett (BA MA Chevalier des Palmes Académiques)

Professor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow

Biography

Background

Philip Bennett graduated from the University of Exeter in 1969, and was then a tutor in French there from 1970-1971. He joined the French Department of the University of Edinburgh in 1972 as a lecturer, and has followed it through many changes since then. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer (1991) and to Reader (1997).

He is currently an Honorary Professorial Fellow for French within the Department of European Languages and Cultures. He has held visiting posts at the College of William and Mary in Virgina (1983-1984), Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada (1991) and the École Nationale des Chartes, Paris (2008). He is a past President of the Société Internationale Rencesvals pour l’étude de l’épopée romane, and is also a member of the International Arthurian Society and the International Courtly Literature Society.

Qualifications

BA, MA (Exeter); Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques

Project activity

“Charlemagne: a European Icon” (Co-investigator; Principal Investigator Dr Marianne Ailes (University of Bristol) – financial support from the Leverhulme Trust.

Huon d’Auvergne: a digital edition (consultant: Principal Investigator Prof. L. Z. Morgan, Loyola University, Maryland, U.S.A.) – financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Franco-Scottish Vocabulary: a digital resource of words in Scots of French origin (collaborators: Dr Rhona Alcorn, LEL and Scottish Language Dictionaries, Vasilis Karaikos, Informatics, Thomas Widmann, Scottish Language Dictionaries).

View all 2 publications on Research Explorer

  • "Trobar Clus and the Poetics of Troubadour Lyric"
  • “The Scribal Fingerprint” - with Prof. J. Laidlaw
  • “The Symbolism of Colour and Costume in Froissart’s Meliador and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” - with Dr S. Carpenter (English Literature) and Dr T. Tolley (History of Art)
  • “The Socio-Cultural Implications of French in Middle English Texts” - with Dr M. Laing (Linguistics and English Language)
  • “Signs, Interpretation and Adaptation in Medieval French and German Tristan Verse Narratives” - with Dr S. Rolle
  • “The Irish Translation of the Old French Epic Poem Fierabras” - with Ms A. Burnyeat (Celtic and Scottish Studies)
  • “The Reception of the Legend of Alexander the Great at the Court of Frederick II Hohenstaufen” - with Dr L. Llewellyn-Jones (Classics)
  • “The Animal Warrior” - joint PhD with the Università di Macerata, Italy

Books (Studies, Scholarly Translations and Critical Editions):

  1. Mantel et Cor: deux lais du XIIe siècle (edition) (Exeter, 1975) xxx + 87 pp.
  2. Möttulssaga, ed M Kalinke with an edition of Le Lai du Mantel by PEB (Copenhagen 1987) 250 pp. (PEB’s contribution approximately 70 pp.).
  3. Jean de St Martin, La Vie du Bienheureux Thomas-Elie de Biville, Pluteus, 4–5 (1986–87: 1990): 151–246.
  4. Paul Zumthor, Toward a Medieval Poetics, translated with a revised bibliography and index by PEB (Minneapolis, 1991) xxiv + 467 pp.
  5. La Chanson de Guillaume (edition and translation) (Grant & Cutler, London, 2000)   209 pp.
  6. La Chanson de Guillaume and La Prise d’Orange (Grant & Cutler, London, 2000) 134 pp.
  7. The Cycle of Guillaume d’Orange or Garin de Monglane, a Critical Bibliography, Research Bibliographies and Checklists, New Series 6 (Tamesis, Woodbridge, 2004) xx + 175 pp.
  8. Carnaval héroïque et écriture cyclique dans la geste de Guillaume d’Orange, Essais Sur Moyen Âge, 34 (Champion, Paris, 2006) 432 pp.

Edited Volumes and Collected Papers:

  1. Guillaume d’Orange and the Chanson de Geste (editor with W G van Emden) (Reading, 1984) xi + 218 pp.
  2. The Editor and the Text (editor with G A Runnalls) (Edinburgh, 1990) xiv + 175 pp.
  3. Charlemagne in the North, Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference of the Société Rencesvals (editor with A E Cobby & G A Runnalls) (Edinburgh, 199 iii + 545 pp.
  4. “French 100 German” (exhibition and catalogue with AEC, RGW and others) (Exhibition Room, University Library, Sept 22nd – Nov 25th 199.
  5. France and Germany in Scotland: studies in language and culture, papers from the centenary celebrations of the Departments of French and German at the University of Edinburgh, 1994–1995 (Edinburgh, 1996) (editor with Richard Wakely) xiv + 101 pp.
  6. Reading around the Epic, a Festschrift in honour of Professor Wolfgang van Emden (editor with Marianne Ailes and Karen Pratt) (London, 1998), xix + 337 pp.
  7. Writing Life: cultural functions, New Comparison, 25, (1998:1999), pp 1–93.
  8. Across Boundaries: The Book in Culture and Commerce (editor with Dr Bill Bell, Dr Jonquil Bevan) (St Paul’s Bibliographies, Winchester, 2000), x + 160 pp.
  9. Au carrefour des époques: la ville bourguignonne sous les ducs valois (papers from the inaugural colloquium of the Centre de Recherches Francophones Belges, May 1996), Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire,  78, 2, (2000), pp. 1–196.
  10. The Singer and the Scribe: European Ballad Traditions and European Ballad Cultures, ed. with Richard Firth Green, Internationale Forschung zur Allgemeinen und Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft, 75 (Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2004) 223 pp.
  11. Epic and Crusade, Proceedings of the Colloquium of the Société Rencesvals British Branch held at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, 27 – 28 March 2004, ed. Philip E. Bennett, Anne Elizabeth Cobby and Jane E. Everson, (British Rencesvals Publications  4)  Société Rencesvals British Branch, Edinburgh 2006.  
  12. Epic Connections / Rencontres épiques; Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Conference of the Société Rencesvals,  Oxford, 13–17 August 2012, ed. Marianne J. Ailes, PEB, Anne Elizabeth Cobby, 2 Vols (British Rencesvals Publications 7), Société Rencesvals British Branch, Edinburgh 2015.
  13. The Epic Imagination in Medieval Literature. Essays in Honor of Alice M. Colby-Hall, ed. PEB, Leslie Zarker Morgan, F. Regina Psaki (Romance Monographs, S-5), [Oxford MI] University of Mississippi, Romance Monographs, 2016.

Articles, Chapters, Essays:

  1. “The Literary Sources of Béroul’s Godoïne”, Medium Ævum, 42 (1973): 133–40.
  2. “L’importance des fragments pour l’établissement des traditions manuscrites: une étude du fragment du Tristan en prose d’Exeter”, Romania, 91 (1974): 84–104.
  3. “The Tournaments in the Prose Tristan”, Romanische Forschungen, 87 (1975): 335–41.
  4. “Further Reflexions on the Luminosity of the Chanson de Roland”, Olifant, 4 (1976-77): 191-204.
  5. “Havelok and Rainoart”, Folklore, 90 (1979): 77–90.
  6. “La littérature médiévale au XIXe siècle: L’Histoire de Griseldis à l’usage des demoiselles des années 1840”, Epopée animale, fable et fabliaux, Medievalia 78, Marche Romane, 28 (1978): 215–24.
  7. “Le Lai du cort mantel et la critique de la courtoisie”, Les Lettres Romanes, 32 (1978): 103–21.
  8. “Some Reflexions on the Style of Robert Biket’s Lai du Cor”, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 94 (197: 321–41.
  9. “Some Doctrinal Implications of the Comput and Bestiaire of Philippe de Thaun”, in Epopée animale, fable et fabliaux, ed. G. Bianciotto and M. Salvat (Paris, 1984), pp. 95–105.
  10. “Le personnage de Hugelin dans Gormont et Isembart”, Marche Romane, 29 (1979): 25–36.
  11. “Encore Turold dans la Tapisserie de Bayeux”, Annales de Normandie, 30 (1980): 3–13.
  12. “Guillaume d’Orange, Fighter of Demons and Harrower of Hell”, in Myth and Legend in French Literature, ed K Aspley et al. (London, 1980) pp. 24–46.
  13. “Le goupil, le corbeau et les structures de Maistre Pierre Pathelin”, Le Moyen Age, 1983: 413–32.
  14. “The Storming of the Other World, the Enamoured Muslim Princess and the Evolution of the Legend of Guillaume d'Orange” in Guillaume d’Orange and the Chanson de Geste (Reading, 1984) pp. 1–14.
  15. “Thomas-Elie de Biville”, Medium Ævum, 55(1986): 58–71.
  16. “Poetic Structures in Le Couronnement de Louis”, in Littera et Sensus, ed D Trotter (Exeter, 1989) pp. 17–30.
  17. “Introduction” in The Editor and the Text, pp. vii–xi (with GAR).
  18. “La grant ewe del flum: Toponymy and Text in Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne”, in The Editor and the Text (Edinburgh, 1990) pp. 125–36.
  19. “The Mirage of Fiction: Narration, Narrator and Narratee in Froissart’s Lyrico-Narrative Dits”, Modern Language Review, 86 (1991): 285–97.
  20. “Le rondeau: forme fixe? forme courte? forme brève?”, La Licorne, 21 (1991): 21–30.
  21. “Legends Told in Song and Story”, in Poetry in France: Metamorphoses of a Muse, ed K Aspley & P France (Edinburgh, 1992) pp. 1–13.
  22. “Troubadour, Trouvère, Poëte”, Poetry in France: Metamorphoses of a Muse, ed K Aspley & P France (Edinburgh, 1992) pp. 14–29.
  23. “Clowns and Chroniclers” in Poetry in France: Metamorphoses of a Muse, ed K Aspley & P France (Edinburgh, 1992) pp. 30–43.
  24. “‘Si vus en respondrai volenters par guionage’: Le Voyage de Charlemagne, v. 658”, Romania,112 (1991: 1995): 540–43.
  25. “Carnaval et engendrement du texte dans les fabliaux De Boivin de Provins et Des Trois Dames de Paris”, Florilegium, 12 (1993:1995): 63–77.
  26. “Female Readers in Froissart: Implied, Fictive and Other”, in Women, the Book and the Wordly, ed L Smith & J Taylor, Cambridge, 1995, pp. 13–23.
  27. “Jugement de Dieu;  parole d’auteur.  Béroul et le débat sur l’intentionnalité au XIIe siècle”, in Tristan et Yseut: un thème éternel dans la culture mondiale, ed D Buschinger and W Spiewok, (Wodan, 57) Greifswald, 1996, pp. 13–25.
  28. “Tristan à la Joyeuse Garde:  transmission et réception de la matière tristanienne aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles”, in Tristan-Tristrant:  Mélanges en l’honneur de Danielle Buschinger, ed A Crépin & W Spiewok, Greifswald, 1996, pp 25–35.
  29. “La Chronique de Jordan Fantosme:  épique et public lettré au XIIe siècle”, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 40(1997): 37-56.
  30. “Des jongleurs et des rois: réflexions sur le «prologue» du Couronnement de Louis”, Medioevo Romanzo, 21 (1997):  296–312.
  31. “Ganelon’s False Message:  a critical false perspective?”, in Reading around the Epic, pp. 149–69.
  32. “Marie de France, lectrice de Gaimar”, in Filologia romanza e cultura medievale: studi in onore di Elio Melli, ed A. Fassò, L. Formisano & M. Mancini, Alessandria, 1998, pp. 87–102.
  33. “Hétéroglossie et carnaval dans le cycle de Guillaume” in Littérature épique au moyen âge, hommage à  Jean Fourquet pour son 100ème anniversaire, ed D. Buschinger, Greifswald, 1999, pp. 135-49.
  34. “The Battle of Hastings according to Gaimar, Wace and Benoît: rhetoric and politics”, Nottingham Mediæval Studies, 43(1999): 47–78. (co-authored with Dr P. Eley, Sheffield).
  35. “Le jeu de l’intertextualité dans La Chevalerie Vivien”, “Plaist vos oïr cançon vallant?”: mélanges de langue et de littérature médiévales offerts à François Suard, Lille, 1999, pp. 57–68.
  36. “Introduction: Writing Life; a historical function”, in Writing Life: cultural functions, New Comparison (1999), pp. 3–8.
  37. “Carnaval et troisième fonction: guerriers, moines et larrons dans le Moniage Guillaume” in «Si a parlé par moult ruiste vertu», Mélanges de littérature médiévale offerts à Jean Subrenat, ed J. Dufournet, Paris, 2000, pp. 61–72.
  38. “Guillaume au court nez et Mimi-Nashi-Hoïchi:  variations sur un thème folklorique”, in Convergences médiévales, épopée, lyrique, roman, mélanges offerts à Madeleine Tyssens, ed Nadine Henrard et al., Bruxelles, 2001, pp. 77–88.
  39. “Heroism and Sanctity in the Cycle de Guillaume”, in Wolfram’s “Willehalm”, fifteen essays, ed Martin H. Jones and Timothy McFarland (Studies in German Literature, Linguistics and Culture), Rochester, NY; Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2002, pp. 1–19.
  40. “The Suppression of a Ballad Culture: the enigma of medieval France”, in The Singer and the Scribe, pp. 106–21.
  41. “Origins of the French Epic: the Song of Roland and Other French Epics”, in Approaches to Teaching the Song of Roland, ed. William W. Kibler and Leslie Zarker Morgan, New York, 2006, pp. 57–65.
  42. “Orality and Textuality: Reading and/or Hearing the Song of Roland”, in Approaches to Teaching the Song of Roland, ed. William W. Kibler and Leslie Zarker Morgan, New York, 2006, pp. 146–153.
  43. “Nouvelles perspectives sur la Chanson de Roland: à propos d’une édition récente”, Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85(2007), 405–21.
  44. “De l’édition du Moniage Rainouart: à propos des travaux de †Gérald A. Bertin et de Paola Bianchi de Vecchi”, Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85(2007), 853–58.
  45. “Rhetoric, Poetics and History: Machaut’s Prise d’Alixandre and the anonymous Geste des ducs de Bourgogne”, in Medieval Historical Discourses, essays in honour of Prof. Peter S. Noble, ed. Marianne J. Ailes, Anne Lawrence-Mathers and Françoise H. M. Le Saux, Reading Medieval Studies, 34 (2008), pp. 53–75.
  46. “Ut pictura memoria: Froissart’s quest for lost time” ZfSL, 120 (2010), pp. 229–44.
  47. “Rhétorique, épique et didactisme dans le Restor du Paon”, in Les Vœux du Paon de Jacques de Longuyon et leur postérité, ed. Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas, Klincksieck, Paris, 2011, pp. 107–19.
  48. “Aiol et Fergus: deux débuts sauvages”, in Le Souffle épique, l’esprit de la chanson de geste : études en l’honneur de Bernard Guidot, ed. S. Bazin-Tacchela, D. de Carné, M. Ott, Éditions Universitaires de Dijon, 2011, pp. 461­–68.
  49. “Once and Future Monuments: Knights’ and Lovers’ Tombs in Medieval French Romance”, in Moult a sans et vallour: Studies in Medieval French Literature in Honor of William W. Kibler, edited by Monica L. Wright, Norris J. Lacy, and Rupert T. Pickens, Faux Titre, 378 (Amsterdam ; New York : Rodopi, 2012), pp. 1–20.
  50. “Chansons de geste and Chansons d’aventures: Recent Perspectives on the Evolution of a Genre”, French Studies, 66 (2012), 525-532.
  51.  “Trestot avoit entroblié Orable…”, in Lectures du Couronnement de Louis, ed. Denis Hüe (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2013), pp. 79–96.
  52. “The Avatars of Orable-Guibourc from French chanson de geste to Italian romanzo cavalleresco: a persistent multiple alterity”, co-authored with Leslie Zarker Morgan (Loyola University Maryland), Francigena 1(2015): on-line at http://francigena-unipd.com/index.php/francigena?new (open access).
  53. “Rainouart, Mahomet and the Crucifix: Art, Life and Religion in the Moniage Rainouart”, in The Epic Imagination, pp. 21–37.
  54. “Mythe-histoire moralisée d’un mouvement et d’une famille : Godefroi de Buillon et La Geste du Chevalier au Cygne”, in “Le Monde entour et environ”;La geste, la route et le livre dans la littérature médiévale;  Mélanges offerts à Claude Roussel, ed. Émilie Goudeau et al. (Clermont-Ferrand, 2017), pp. 261-74.

Papers in Conference Proceedings

  1. “Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne: le sens de l’aventure”, in Essor et fortune de la chanson de geste dans l'Europe et l'Orient latin (sic) (Modena, 1984) pp. 475–87.
  2. “La Chanson de Guillaume: poème anglo-normand?”, in Au carrefour des routes d’Europe, la chanson de geste, Senefiance 20–21 (Aix-en-Provence, 1987) pp. 259–81.
  3. “Le refus d’aide: déni de justice”, in Actes du XIe Congrès International de la Société Rencesvals: Memorias de la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona, 21 (1990): 53–64.
  4. “L’épique dans l’historiographie anglo-normande: Gaimar, Wace, Jordan Fantosme”, in Aspects de l’épopée romane: mentalités, idéologies, intertextualités, ed Hans van Dijk and Willem Noomen, Groningen,1995, pp. 321–30.
  5. “La femme, l’amour, le pouvoir: Henri Plantagenêt, Aliénor d’Aquitaine et le Roman d’Eneas”, in Autour d’Aliénor d’Aquitaine, actes du colloque de Saint-Riquier (déc. 2001), ed D. Buschinger, Amiens, 2002, pp. 20–27.
  6. “Le normand, le picard et les koïnés littéraires de l’épopée aux xiie et xiiie siècles”, in Picard d’hier et d’aujourd’hui: Bien dire et Bien Aprandre, 21 (2003), 43–56.
  7. “Epopée, historiographie, généalogie”, in Les Chansons de geste, Actes du XVIe Congrès International de la Société Rencesvals pour l’étude des épopées romanes, Granada, 21-25 juillet, 2003, ed. Carlos Alvar & Juan Paredes, Granada, 2005, pp. 9–38.
  8. “Jean le Bel, Froissart et la comtesse de Salisbury: entre histoire et mythe chevaleresque”, in Le Vrai et le Faux au Moyen Âge, actes du colloque du centre d’Études Médiévales et Dialectales de Lille 3 (18, 19, 20 septembre 2003), ed. Élisabeth Gaucher, Bien Dire et Bien Aprandre, 23 (2005), pp. 211–224.
  9. “Autour de L’Archamp: perspectives épiques sur Guillaume Fièrebrace” in Entre histoire et épopée: Les Guillaume d’Orange (IXe–XIIIe siècles), actes du colloque international organisé par FRAMESPA, les 29 et 30 octobre 2004, ed. Laurent Macé, CNRS, Toulouse, 2006, pp. 233–245.
  10.  “The Reign of Duke Richard I in the Roman de Rou”, in Maistre Wace, a Celebration, proceedings of the international colloquium held in Jersey, 10–12 September 2004, ed. Glyn S. Burgess & Judith Weiss, Société Jersiaise, 2006, pp. 41–54.
  11. “Les études épiques au Royaume-Uni et en Scandinavie”, in Cinquante ans d’études épiques, Actes du Colloque anniversaire de la Société Rencesvals (Liège, 19–20 août 2005), ed. Nadine Henrard, Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liège, 294, Liège, 2008, pp. 159–81.
  12. “A New Look at the Gormont et Isembart Fragment”, in Epic Studies: Acts of the Seventeenth International Congress of the Société Rencesvals for the Study of Romance Epic, ed. Leslie Z. Morgan and Anne Berthelot, Olifant, 25, 1-2 (2009), 123–32.
  13. “Les Avatars de Guibourc (I)”, in In Limine Romaniae, ed. Carlos Alvar & Constance Carta (Bern:  Peter Lang, 2012), pp. 93–105.
  14. “Deux nouveaux fragments de poèmes sur Guillaume d’Orange” (with Marianne J. Ailes), in Epic Connections, pp. 87–105.
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