During the early medieval period, crusading brought about new ways of writing about the city of Jerusalem in Europe. By creating texts that embellished the historical relationship between the Holy City and England, English authors endowed their nation with a reputation of power and importance. In Jerusalem in Medieval Narrative, Suzanne Yeager identifies the growth of medieval propaganda aimed at rousing interest in crusading, and analyzes how fourteenth-century writers refashioned their sources to create a substantive (if fictive) English role in the fight for Jerusalem. Centering on medieval identity, this study offers new assessments of some of the fourteenth century’s most popular works, including English pilgrim itineraries, political treatises, the romances Richard, Coeur de Lion and The Siege of Jerusalem, and the prose Book of Sir John Mandeville. This study will be an essential resource for the study of medieval literary history, travel, crusade, and the place of Jerusalem.
• A new reading of representations of the most important city in medieval culture • Offers new approaches to well-known literary texts • Provides new pathways for research about medieval cities for both literary scholars and historians
Contents
Introduction: texts and contexts; 1. Pilgrimage to Jerusalem: three accounts by English authors; 2. Craving heritage: portrayals of Richard I and the English quest for Jerusalem in Richard, Coeur de Lion; 3. The crusade of the soul in The Siege of Jerusalem; 4. The Book of Sir John Mandeville: text of pilgrimage and spiritual reform; 5. Beyond the celestial and terrestrial Jerusalem: the Promised Land in Western Christendom; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.
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