Table Of ContentTHE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER, Series Editor
The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to pluridisciplinary studies of medieval cultures, with
particular emphasis on recuperating women’s history and on feminist and gender analyses.
This peer-r eviewed series includes both scholarly monographs and essay collections.
PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE:
Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on
Patronage, and Piety Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women
edited by Gavin R. G. Hambly Writers
edited by Barbara Stevenson and
The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On
Cynthia Ho
Boccaccio’s Poetaphysics
by Gregory B. Stone Engaging Words: The Culture of Reading in the
Later Middle Ages
Presence and Presentation: Women in the Chinese by Laurel Amtower
Literati Tradition
Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of
edited by Sherry J. Mou
Investiture
The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: edited by Stewart Gordon
Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century
Representing Rape in Medieval and Early
France
Modern Literature
by Constant J. Mews
edited by Elizabeth Robertson and
Understanding Scholastic Thought Christine M. Rose
with Foucault
Same Sex Love and Desire among Women in the
by Philipp W. Rosemann
Middle Ages
edited by Francesca Canadé Sautman and
For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de
Pamela Sheingorn
Burgh
by Frances A. Underhill Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages:
Ocular Desires
Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the
by Suzannah Biernoff
Middle Ages
edited by Cindy L. Carlson and Angela Listen, Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and
Jane Weisl the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle
Ages
Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon
edited by Constant J. Mews
England
by Mary Dockray-Miller Science, the Singular, and the Question of
Theology
Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth- by Richard A. Lee, Jr.
Century Woman
Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages to
edited by Bonnie Wheeler
the Renaissance
The Postcolonial Middle Ages edited by Thelma S. Fenster and Clare A.
edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen Lees
Chaucer’s Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies Malory’s Morte D’Arthur: Remaking
of Discourse Arthurian Tradition
by Robert S. Sturges by Catherine Batt
The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval The Texture of Society: Medieval Women in the
Religious Literature Southern Low Countries
edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Mary A.
Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Warren Suydam
Popular Piety and Art in the Late Middle Ages: Charlemagne’s Mustache: And Other Cultural
Image Worship and Idolatry in England Clusters of a Dark Age
1350–1500 by Paul Edward Dutton
by Kathleen Kamerick
Troubled Vision: Gender, Sexuality, and Sight in
Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, and Medieval Text and Image
Literary Structure in Late Medieval England edited by Emma Campbell and Robert
by Elizabeth Scala Mills
Creating Community with Food and Drink in Queering Medieval Genres
Merovingian Gaul by Tison Pugh
by Bonnie Effros
Sacred Place in Early Medieval Neoplatonism
Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: by L. Michael Harrington
Image and Empire
The Middle Ages at Work
by Anne McClanan
edited by Kellie Robertson and
Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Michael Uebel
Objects, Texts, Images
Chaucer’s Jobs
edited by Désirée G. Koslin and Janet
by David R. Carlson
Snyder
Medievalism and Orientalism: Three Essays on
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady Literature, Architecture and Cultural Identity
edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John by John M. Ganim
Carmi Parsons
Queer Love in the Middle Ages
Isabel La Católica, Queen of Castile: Critical by Anna Klosowska
Essays
edited by David A. Boruchoff Performing Women in the Middle Ages: Sex,
Gender, and the Iberian Lyric
Homoeroticism and Chivalry: Discourses of Male by Denise K. Filios
Same-Sex Desire in the Fourteenth Century
by Richard E. Zeikowitz Necessary Conjunctions: The Social Self in
Medieval England
Portraits of Medieval Women: Family, Marriage, by David Gary Shaw
and Politics in England 1225–1350
Visual Culture and the German Middle Ages
by Linda E. Mitchell
edited by Kathryn Starkey and Horst
Eloquent Virgins: From Thecla to Joan of Arc Wenzel
by Maud Burnett McInerney
Medieval Paradigms: Essays in Honor of Jeremy
The Persistence of Medievalism: Narrative duQuesnay Adams, Volumes 1 and 2
Adventures in Contemporary Culture edited by Stephanie Hayes-Healy
by Angela Jane Weisl
False Fables and Exemplary Truth in Later
Capetian Women Middle English Literature
edited by Kathleen D. Nolan by Elizabeth Allen
Joan of Arc and Spirituality Ecstatic Transformation: On the Uses of Alterity
edited by Ann W. Astell and Bonnie in the Middle Ages
Wheeler by Michael Uebel
Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Mindful Spirit in Late Medieval Literature:
Modern Cultures: New Essays Essays in Honor of Elizabeth D. Kirk
edited by Lawrence Besserman edited by Bonnie Wheeler
Tolkien’s Modern Middle Ages Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork,
edited by Jane Chance and Alfred K. and Other Cultural Imaginings
Siewers edited by E. Jane Burns
Representing Righteous Heathens in Late Was the Bayeux Tapestry Made in France?: The
Medieval England Case for St. Florent of Saumur
by Frank Grady by George Beech
Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Women, Power, and Religious Patronage in the
Dress in Eighth-to-Twelfth Century Painting Middle Ages
by Jennifer L. Ball by Erin L. Jordan
The Laborer’s Two Bodies: Labor and the Hybridity, Identity, and Monstrosity in Medieval
“Work” of the Text in Medieval Britain, Britain: On Difficult Middles
1350–1500 by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
by Kellie Robertson
Medieval Go-betweens and Chaucer’s
The Dogaressa of Venice, 1250–1500: Wife Pandarus
and Icon by Gretchen Mieszkowski
by Holly S. Hurlburt
The Surgeon in Medieval English Literature
by Jeremy J. Citrome
Logic, Theology, and Poetry in Boethius,
Abelard, and Alan of Lille: Words in the
Temporal Circumstances: Form and History in
Absence of Things
the Canterbury Tales
by Eileen C. Sweeney
by Lee Patterson
The Theology of Work: Peter Damian and the Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious
Medieval Religious Renewal Movement Writing
by Patricia Ranft by Lara Farina
On the Purification of Women: Churching in Odd Bodies and Visible Ends in Medieval
Northern France, 1100–1500 Literature
by Paula M. Rieder by Sachi Shimomura
Writers of the Reign of Henry II: Twelve On Farting: Language and Laughter in the
Essays Middle Ages
edited by Ruth Kennedy and Simon by Valerie Allen
Meecham-Jones
Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and
Lonesome Words: The Vocal Poetics of the Old the Limits of Epic Masculinity
English Lament and the African-American edited by Sara S. Poor and Jana K.
Blues Song Schulman
by M.G. McGeachy
Race, Class, and Gender in “Medieval”
Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval Cinema
English Nunneries edited by Lynn T. Ramey and
by Anne Bagnell Yardley Tison Pugh
The Flight from Desire: Augustine and Ovid to Allegory and Sexual Ethics in the High Middle
Chaucer Ages
by Robert R. Edwards by Noah D. Guynn
England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, Medieval Romance and the Construction of
12th-15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Heterosexuality
Political Exchanges by Louise M. Sylvester
edited by María Bullón-Fernández
Communal Discord, Child Abduction, and Rape
The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making in the Later Middle Ages
Process by Jeremy Goldberg
by Albrecht Classen
Lydgate Matters: Poetry and Material Culture in
the Fifteenth Century
Claustrophilia: The Erotics of Enclosure in
edited by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea
Medieval Literature
Denny-Brown
by Cary Howie
Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle
Cannibalism in High Medieval English
English Literature
Literature
by Tison Pugh
by Heather Blurton
Sex, Scandal, and Sermon in Fourteenth-Century
The Drama of Masculinity and Medieval
Spain: Juan Ruiz’s Libro de Buen Amor
English Guild Culture
by Louise M. Haywood
by Christina M. Fitzgerald
The Erotics of Consolation: Desire and Distance
Chaucer’s Visions of Manhood in the Late Middle Ages
by Holly A. Crocker edited by Catherine E. Léglu and
Stephen J. Milner
The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women
by Jane Chance Battlefronts Real and Imagined: War, Border, and
Identity in the Chinese Middle Period
Manmade Marvels in Medieval Culture and
edited by Don J. Wyatt
Literature
by Scott Lightsey Wisdom and Her Lovers in Medieval and Early
Modern Hispanic Literature
American Chaucers
by Emily C. Francomano
by Candace Barrington
Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval
Representing Others in Medieval Iberian
Queenship: Maria de Luna
Literature
by Nuria Silleras-Fernandez
by Michelle M. Hamilton
In the Light of Medieval Spain: Islam, the West,
Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval Studies and the Relevance of the Past
edited by Celia Chazelle and edited by Simon R. Doubleday and David
Felice Lifshitz Coleman, foreword by Giles Tremlett
The King and the Whore: King Roderick and Chaucerian Aesthetics
La Cava by Peggy A. Knapp
by Elizabeth Drayson
Memory, Images, and the English Corpus Christi
Langland’s Early Modern Identities Drama
by Sarah A. Kelen by Theodore K. Lerud
Cultural Studies of the Modern Middle Ages Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages:
edited by Eileen A. Joy, Myra J. Seaman, Archipelago, Island, England
Kimberly K. Bell, and Mary K. Ramsey edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language: An Excrement in the Late Middle Ages: Sacred Filth
Edition, Translation, and Discussion and Chaucer’s Fecopoetics
by Sarah L. Higley by Susan Signe Morrison
Authority and Subjugation in Writing of Julian of Norwich’s Legacy: Medieval Mysticism
Medieval Wales and Post-Medieval Reception
edited by Ruth Kennedy and Simon edited by Sarah Salih and Denise N. Baker
Meecham-Jones
Medievalism, Multilingualism, and Chaucer
The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: by Mary Catherine Davidson
Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance
The Letters of Heloise and Abelard: A Translation
by Seeta Chaganti
of Their Complete Correspondence and
The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages: Related Writings
Power, Faith, and Crusade translated and edited by Mary Martin
edited by Matthew Gabriele and Jace McLaughlin with Bonnie Wheeler
Stuckey
Women and Wealth in Late Medieval Europe
The Poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein: An edited by Theresa Earenfight
English Translation of the Complete Works
Visual Power and Fame in René d’Anjou,
(1376/77-1445)
Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Black Prince
by Albrecht Classen
by SunHee Kim Gertz
Women and Experience in Later Medieval
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Medieval Studies
Writing: Reading the Book of Life
and New Media
edited by Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker and
by Brantley L. Bryant
Liz Herbert McAvoy
Margaret Paston’s Piety
Ethics and Eventfulness in Middle English
by Joel T. Rosenthal
Literature: Singular Fortunes
by J. Allan Mitchell Gender and Power in Medieval Exegesis
by Theresa Tinkle
Maintenance, Meed, and Marriage in Medieval
English Literature Antimercantilism in Late Medieval English
by Kathleen E. Kennedy Literature
by Roger A. Ladd
The Post-Historical Middle Ages
edited by Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Magnificence and the Sublime in Medieval
Federico Aesthetics: Art, Architecture, Literature, Music
edited by C. Stephen Jaeger
Constructing Chaucer: Author and Autofiction in
the Critical Tradition Medieval and Early Modern Devotional Objects
by Geoffrey W. Gust in Global Perspective: Translations of the Sacred
edited by Elizabeth Robertson and
Queens in Stone and Silver: The Creation of a
Jennifer Jahner
Visual Imagery of Queenship in Capetian France
by Kathleen Nolan Late Medieval Jewish Identities: Iberia and Beyond
edited by Carmen Caballero-Navas and
Finding Saint Francis in Literature and Art
Esperanza Alfonso
edited by Cynthia Ho, Beth A. Mulvaney,
and John K. Downey Outlawry in Medieval Literature
by Timothy S. Jones
Strange Beauty: Ecocritical Approaches to Early
Medieval Landscape Women and Disability in Medieval Literature
by Alfred K. Siewers by Tory Vandeventer Pearman
Berenguela of Castile (1180-1246) and Political The Lesbian Premodern
Women in the High Middle Ages edited by Noreen Giffney, Michelle M.
by Miriam Shadis Sauer, and Diane Watt
Crafting Jewishness in Medieval England: Divine Ventriloquism in Medieval
Legally Absent, Virtually Present English Literature: Power, Anxiety,
by Miriamne Ara Krummel Subversion
by Mary Hayes
Street Scenes: Late Medieval Acting and
Performance Vernacular and Latin Literary Discourses
by Sharon Aronson-Lehavi of the Muslim Other in Medieval
Germany
Women and Economic Activities in Late
by Jerold C. Frakes
Medieval Ghent
by Shennan Hutton Fairies in Medieval Romance
by James Wade
Palimpsests and the Literary Imagination of
Medieval England: Collected Essays Heloise and the Paraclete: A Twelfth-Century
edited by Leo Carruthers, Quest (forthcoming)
Raeleen Chai-Elsholz, and Tatjana Silec by Mary Martin McLaughlin
FAIRIES IN MEDIEVAL
ROMANCE
James Wade
Palgrave
macmillan
FAIRIES IN MEDIEVAL ROMANCE
Copyright © James Wade, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-11020-5
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29255-4 ISBN 978-0-230-11915-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230119154
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wade, James, 1980–
Fairies in medieval romance / James Wade.
p. cm.—(The new Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references.
1.Romances, English—History and criticism. 2. English literature—
Middle English, 1100–1500—History and criticism. 3. Romances—
History and criticism. 4. Fairies in literature. I. Title.
PR321.W33 2011
821(cid:2).03309375—dc22 2010043427
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: May 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2015
For my parents, Eric and Doylanne
