Arthuriana

King Arthur Aloud

Arthurian Audio Files

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.

Readings are in RealPlayer format. You can download the RealPlayer software for free by clicking the icon below (the page gives you a choice between the Free Player and one you pay for, so make sure you pick the link you want). Installation is quick and easy.

For Mac users or anyone who prefers not to use RealPlayer, most pages have an alternative link to the reading in MP3 format.

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)

Coming soon: Culhwch and Olwen, read by Chris Grooms, Collin County Community College

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

Coming soon: more of Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, read by Jim Marchand, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Emeritus

Gottfried von Strassburg's Tristan read by Don Sunnen, Virginia Military Institute

Le Roman de Jaufré, read by Dan O'Sulllivan, University of Mississippi

Coming soon: The Lancelot-Grail Cycle, read by Keith Busby, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Coming soon: Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône, read by Susann T. Samples, Mount St. Mary

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight read by Thomas Rendall, Campion College, University of Regina

Coming soon: The Alliterative Morte Arthure, read by Alan Gaylord, Dartmouth College

Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur read by Tom Hanks, Baylor University

Performing Medieval Narrative Today: A Video Showcase

This site is produced by Evelyn Birge Vitz, Nancy Freeman Regalado, and Marilyn Lawrence of the NYU French Department. It features performances of medieval narrative texts, including Arthurian tales, in modern English versions. To find performances of Arthurian stories, from the "Original Works" menu, click "Arthurian Legends" and the Search button. Quicktime is required and use of Netscape is recommended.

"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." For more detailed information, click here.

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© Arthuriana
Site Administrator: Alan Baragona BaragonaA@vmi.edu
Last revised: January 20, 2006
This page is http://faculty.smu.edu/arthuriana/teaching/audio_index.html and
http://www.vmi.edu/english/arthuriana_pedagogy/audio_index.html
SMU Required Secondary Information Server Disclaimer:
The contents of this Secondary Information Server are the sole responsibility of Arthuriana and its contributors, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of Southern Methodist University or the Norwick Center for Media and Instructional Technology. The administrator of this Secondary Information Service is Bonnie Wheeler bwheeler@mail.smu.edu