The Sinful Knights is a detailed study of a small group of Middle English romances which concern themselves with the sin, repentence, and atonement of their heroes. Despite being few in numbers the poems - Guy of Warwick, Sir Ysumbras, Sir Gowther, and Robert of Cisyle - form a coherent and distinctive group and have never previously been studied in association with each other. Andrea Hopkins finds that in this closely related group of texts, the kind of penance experienced by the heroes, and its treatment by the authors, reflects archaic traditions and views at variance with the contemporary teaching and practice of the Church, and that this surprising departure is largely determined by the nature of the kind of literature to which the poems belong - romance. Andrea Hopkins discusses the nature of romance and the extent to which the poems are entitled to be considered as such. Detailed examination of the penitential romances illuminates other more important and frequently studied texts, particularly Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Reviews
`fascinating discussion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ...a most readable and informative book ... with some ingenious and memorable images Elizabeth Archibald, Times Literary Supplement
`Andrea Hopkins has turned her doctoral thesis into a most readable and informative book, spiced with apposite citations from non-medieval literature ... and with some ingenious and memorable images.' Times Literary Supplement
`Lucid and persuasive study... It achieves considerably more than just a thorough analysis of four particular poems. In defining their common subject it offers valuable insights into the nature of Middle English romance in general'. Dieter Mehl, Notes and Queries Dec 1991.
'lucid and persuasive study ... Her book is all the more convincing in that it does not claim too much and openly concedes that there are other valid ways of classifying these tales ... it offers valuable insights into the nature of Middle English romance in general.' Dieter Mehl, University of Bonn, Notes and Queries, December 1991
'This study fills a noticeable gap in present critical studies of mediaeval romance ... eminently readable' Medium Aevum
'a gentle and insightful examination of four romances relying for their plots upon the heroes' undergoing some form of extreme penance' J.G. Lidaka, West Virginia State College, Review of English Studies, Vol. 44, No. 176, November 1993



Book Information
ISBN 9780198117629
Author Andrea Hopkins
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 225mm * 144mm * 20mm