This chapter explores the earliest insular texts featuring the prophet Merlin, and his Welsh original, Myrddin. From the uses of the name ‘Myrddin’ as a prophetic authority in early Welsh prophecy, to the appearance of ‘Merlin’ in Latin histories and hagiographies in the twelfth century, this chapter details the early literary life of the foremost prophet of the Arthurian tradition. It acknowledges the development of the Arthurian Merlin as the product of multiple, and potentially multidirectional, lines of influence between insular languages, centring on two related figures first conflated by Geoffrey of Monmouth: a northern wild man prophesying in the Caledonian Forest a generation after the age of Arthur, and the child prophet from Carmarthen who interprets the mystery of the red and white dragons in the age before. This is read in relation to wider insular traditions concerning prophecies of national deliverance, and early Welsh references to the prophet ‘Myrdidn’, whose own early legendary biography remains obscure.

This chapter examines a range of Arthurian poems in alliterative verse, including Awntyrs off Arthur, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. It argues that while the works are diverse in tone and content, there is a consistent thematic preoccupation with the relationship between Arthur and his nephew Gawain. Through a close reading of the presentation of the characters, it suggests that the alliterative poems – despite their differing treatments – display a certain anxiety about King Arthur. By implicit comparison with Gawain, elements of Arthur’s character are often found wanting.

Around the turn of the twentieth century the mélodie claimed a new place in French musical life, recognised increasingly as a genre that could exploit the accomplished musicianship of professional and specialist performers, and compel serious critical attention. Evident even in the changing priorities of the quintessential salon mélodiste Reynaldo Hahn, the new status of song would be confirmed in the riotous reception of Ravel’s Histoires naturelles (1907). Ravel’s mélodies are at the core of this chapter, the composer’s preoccupation with the interplay of poetic and musical form, and with the rhythms and assonances of text, offering guiding threads across an immensely varied body of work. Setting Ravel’s mélodies alongside key works by Hahn, Charles Koechlin and Albert Roussel, together with Lili Boulanger’s transcendent 1914 cycle Clairières dans le ciel, the chapter traces some of the continuities of style, practice and influence that sustained French art song across forty years of seismic musical and cultural change.

The recent proliferation of Indigenous-made gothic has revitalised debates regarding how these stories fit within larger conversations and conventions of the genre/mode. Arguing for a kind of pre-colonial gothic aesthetic, this chapter engages two manifestations: traditional stories of the Windigo in contemporary, often colonial contexts and Indigenous experiences in worlds overrun by zombies. A kind of pre-colonial gothic functions as part of what Rebecca Duncan and Rebekah Cumpsty theorise as ‘world-gothic: that is gothic as a cultural index for local experiences of relations that constitute the modern world.’ In the case of Richard Van Camp’s Wheetago, the creature awakened within the Alberta tar sands embodies the modern world signified by the oil industry, which has reached a critical crisis point in how it damages the environment and threatens the local Indigenous peoples. The local experience manifests as gothic, but also, it points to a gothic that has always been.

This chapter examines the discontinuous history of Chinese multinationals and their role in China’s evolving globalization. It highlights that China’s global engagement has been shaped by both market forces and geopolitical dynamics. The first wave, following the Opium Wars, saw Chinese firms competing unequally with Western multinationals, with growth ultimately limited by political forces. A resurgence occurred in the 1980s as China reengaged globally, leading to renewed overseas investment by Chinese firms. Currently, amid rising geopolitical tensions, Chinese multinationals are strategically reorienting investment from developed economies toward emerging markets. The chapter emphasizes the multifaceted impact of this globalization, but also a changing global landscape where politics and power are equally pivotal to understanding the trajectory of Chinese firms’ activities abroad.

This Companion volume presents the latest research on the history of multinationals and their impact on society and the environment. While often associated with large corporations like Ford or Coca-Cola, multinationals are defined not by size but by their ownership and control of assets in multiple countries. A key contribution of business history research has been to highlight the remarkable diversity in multinational strategies and organizational structures over time and to provide nuanced perspectives on the complex and often polarized debates surrounding their operations, showing how equally diverse and far-reaching are the impacts of multinationals. Understanding their historical role provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders navigating today’s economic landscape.

This chapter examines the evolution of scholarship devoted to medieval Arthurian literature, concentrating on that in Old French, with occasional reference to Arthuriana in other languages. It begins with the rise of Romance philology and the publication of the first scholarly editions in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and traces trends in Arthurian studies down to the present day. The development of Arthurian scholarship mirrors that in other disciplines. While certain major scholars can be seen to guide and influence particular types of study, others produce work ‘outside of the box’ which contributes to the basis on which modern scholarship builds. The chapter also underlines the danger of reinventing the wheel if earlier studies are not taken into account. The study of medieval Arthurian literature at the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century is now seeking direction.

Shortly after Geoffrey of Monmouth completed Historia regum Britanniae, abbreviated adaptations began to appear in chronicles. Not many Continental chroniclers, outside of Brittany and Spain, considered it historically valid, but short accounts about Arthur appeared in Continental universal chronicles. In Britain, it was adapted into Anglo-Norman and English by Wace and Laʒamon, and abbreviated versions appeared as the introductory sections of chronicles that told of pre- and post-Conquest Britain. This context gave it historical authenticity. From the time of Edward I, Arthur began to be considered English rather than British since the part of Britain he lived in was Logres, which corresponded to England.  Arthur’s subjugation of Scotland in HRB appeared to justify English attempts to conquer Scotland and caused many Scottish chroniclers to develop their own version of the story in which the true heir to the throne was Arthur’s nephew, the Scot Modred.

This chapter traces how multinationals have historically navigated nationality-related challenges, adapting their strategies to evolving political, economic, and regulatory environments. It examines five key dimensions of nationality – corporate nationality, ownership nationality, home–host country relations, national management styles, and product perception – and their shifting importance over time. Early globalization fostered flexible corporate nationalities. However, World War I, rising economic nationalism, trade restrictions, and foreign direct investment regulations led multinationals to actively manage their corporate and ownership nationality. Regardless of increasing global economic integration since the 1970s, national affiliation remained relevant for market access, competitive advantage, and mitigating political risk. The aftermath of the global financial crisis, however, marked by renewed economic nationalism, prioritization of national interests, and identity politics as well as new geopolitical conflict created new nationality-related challenges.

Tennyson is the dominant figure in English-language versions of the Arthur story in this period, but this chapter focuses on the tradition outside of the Idylls. By the early days of Queen Victoria’s reign the Arthurian legend was not as fixed as it would be by the end of the century. Malory’s version of the story was not as dominant as Tennyson would make it. This chapter traces the way the legend was presented by such writers as Reginald Heber, Edward Bulwer Lytton, the young William Morris, R. S. Hawker and Algernon Swinburne. The chapter also considers the way in which Arthur was evaluated as a possible historical figure, looking at Arthurian scholarship as it developed through the century in the hands of such figures as Sharon Turner through to Frederick Furnivall and Thomas Wright, to Jessie L. Weston. It concludes by looking at the entry of the legend into versions for children, with a brief nod to the future of Arthur in the cinema.

This chapter discusses a multiplicity of Arthurs, all mirroring the complexity of contemporary Africa and the Middle East. Arthur is a familiar presence here in advertisements, video games, children’s books and popular films, but he is rarely found elsewhere. Interestingly, both Chaka and Saladin are sometimes positioned as local counters to Arthur, but later Arthurian references are more likely to be comic or satirical, except for allusions to the Grail legend. References to the latter are characteristic of Nashid Uruk, for instance, and it has been argued that Doris Lessing’s work also reveals a sustained pattern of Grail imagery. Other representations of Arthur are almost entirely negative, linking him to autocratic rule, class elitism, gender imbalance and armed violence; however, awareness of Sir Moriaen, the Moorish knight, seems to be resurging and this may at last allow the tales to move out of the oppressive shadow cast by European imperialism.

Anxieties around stable and unified human subjectivity, and the related emergence of a transformative or transformed abhuman, are central to gothic criticism. However, this approach takes the European male, universalised through Enlightenment humanism, as its normative subject, with (some) women, colonised others, and non-human nature as, therefore, abhuman and the epitome of the abject. This fcritiques the primitivist underpinnings of European constructions of the human, abject and the abhuman, and exposes plural modes of being evident in a world-gothic analysis of The Icarus Girl (Oyeyemi) and Freshwater (Emezi).

Due to the national seclusion policy (1639–1854), the Japanese came to know Arthurian works at the end of the nineteenth century; and such sudden contact led to a peculiar reception of the legend.  This chapter investigates how Japanese people have enjoyed Arthurian works roughly in three periods: around 1900, when non-medieval European materials by Alfred Tennyson, Wilhelm Richard Wagner and Joseph Bédier were popular; during the twentieth century, when American authors such as Thomas Bulfinch and Mark Twain became influential; and in the twenty-first century, when female King Arthurs prevail because of a Japanese game series entitled Fate.  As a result, Excalibur and other Arthurian motifs are ubiquitous in Japanese pop culture these days, via games, comic books, juvenile novels and stage performances.