Last updated: February 11, 2025

Classics Program at BGSU Studies in Latin at BGSU Department of World Languages and Cultures Instagram: bgsu_languages Twitter: BGSU_Languages Facebook: BGSU Languages Bowling Green State University

James M. Pfundstein, Ph.D.
Shatzel 222
Office Hours:12:30-1:20 Tuesday, and by appointment
Office phone: 419-372-8278
e-mail: jmpfund@bgsu.edu
web-page: https://blogs.bgsu.edu/pfundblog/syllabi/
facebook: james.enge
bluesky: jamesenge

    links to Amazon (which is not an endorsement; you can get these texts elsewhere)

    or Archive.org (which is an endorsement, although you can still get these texts elsewhere):

The Matter of Britain:

Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Brittaniae (selections)

PDF available here (and elsewhere online):
https://archive.org/details/britishhistoryg01geofgoog/page/n6/mode/2up

Guest, Charlotte (transl.) Mabinogion (selections: “The Lady of the Fountain”; “Peredur, Son of Evrawc”)

PDF available here (and elsewhere online)
https://archive.org/details/mabinogion01schr

Weston, Jessie (transl.) Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight (1897)

original edition here (free, but in a rather soupy, marked-up PDF)
https://archive.org/details/sirgawaingreenkn00west

reprint edition here (not free, but you can get a clean hardcopy)
https://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Green-Knight-Dover-Literature/dp/0486431916/

Malory, Morte d’Arthur (selections)

in various formats at Project Gutenberg

volume 1: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1251

volume 2: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1252

as a single PDF at Archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/lemortedarthursi00malorich

Matarosso, Pauline The Quest of the Holy Grail (Penguin, 1969)


Cable, The Death of King Arthur (Penguin, 1972)

The Matter of Rome

Hunt's modernized version of the Middle English romance, Sir Orfeo is available at archive.org.

Richard Scott-Robinson's modernized version of Octavian is online here.

The Matter of France

Sayers, Dorothy (transl.) The Song of Roland (Penguin, 1957)

used copies available here

also online for free at archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/thesongofroland

Reynolds, Barbara (transl.) Ariosto: Orlando Furioso Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 (Penguin, 1975/1977)

Online Resources:

What is standard manuscript formatting? For the purposes of this class, see the link below.

https://jamesenge.com/GenericMythArgument.wordformat.pdf

The T.E.A.M.S. Middle English texts series has an extremely rich website, including texts in Middle English, and jumping-off points for research, including the Robin Hood Project and (more relevant for our topic) the Camelot Project.

https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams

Bouchier (et al.), Huon of Bordeaux (Ruskin, 1985)

https://archive.org/details/huonofbordeauxdo00bernuoft

The Labyrinth at Georgetown University's website is a repository for studies of medieval Europe in general, and has a section of Arthuriana. 

https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/

Alternate versions of Sir Orfeo: Tolkien's is also online, but I'm dubious about whether the site has the right to post it. Another modernized version, by Richard Scott-Robinson, is here.

Weston's Gawain at the Grail Castle (1903) is online at The Internet Archive and elsewhere.

https://archive.org/details/SirGawainAtTheGrailCastle1903/page/n7/mode/2up

etc!

If you find any other good sources, let me know. I'll be expanding this section as more stuff comes to my attention.

Course Expectations:

1. Expectations for Behavior: Abide by Wheaton's Law. For details, see the BGSU Codes of Conduct.

2. Expectations for Learning: This is a survey course in medieval legends, and will involve readings in translation from a variety of sources (Latin, Welsh, Old French, Middle English). By the end of it you should have a good sense of what myth is (as opposed to, say, religion), and what medieval legend is in particular; you will have had a chance to read and write and think about these myths and their applicability to our culture and our time.

Survey courses are, of necessity, somewhat heterogeneous. This means that I'll be covering a lot of topics which may not obviously be related to each other, and also I will use a lot of words like "heterogeneous". You might think of the myths as the members of an extended family. They're not all the same, and none of them are exactly the same. But there is an undeniable organic relation between them, and the more of them you know the more you will see the resemblance.

3. About COVID-19 and masking protocols:

Here’s the deal. COVID-19 is a highly communicable and potentially deadly disease, and it's still around. I'm taking the risk of not using a mask in class, for the sake of clarity in my lectures, but if you want to use a mask in class, I urge you to do so. I would certainly do so if I were taking this class rather than lecturing in it.

4. AI Use Guidelines

Don't use generative AI (i.e. chatbots) for the assignments in this class. Setting aside the fact that chatbots routinely violate intellectual property law and are ethically and environmentally unsustainable, the technology does not work as advertised. It cannot cite required sources accurately, for instance (unless it happens to be plagiarizing a source that does). These programs don't create writing based on knowledge; they generate text using statistical probabilities and a very large database, a process that has been described as "stochastic parroting". If you've ever seen a weird autocomplete on your phone, be aware that this is what AI does routinely. It's instantly obvious to anyone who reads carefully, which is one of the things you're paying me to do.

"Aha, Pfundstein!" you may say in the silent precincts of your heart, "how will you know, know for a fact that I used AI? If not, how can you ban it?"

I don’t ban it (except insofar as it’s already banned under the intellectual honesty section of the BGSU code of conduct). But I grade for elements that generative AI can’t provide (e.g. accurate and relevant citations of specific evidence)—not to exclude text generated by chatbots, but because the ability to do that stuff is a sign of actual intelligence (which, despite the name on the label, AI doesn’t have). You could generate a first draft for your paper using a chatbot, then laboriously go in and add references from the required texts. But, of course, to be useful, the references are going to have to be relevant to the argument. You could then rewrite the essay to make it more relevant to the required texts. But, if you’re looking for the quickest and easiest path to success, you might find that it’s just easier to write the damn thing yourself.

"So what do I write about?" is a question I hear a lot, and it’s a reasonable question, especially if you haven’t had a course like this before. Step one is to read the stuff. If you read the texts, you’ll find something interesting or irritating enough to say something about; just say it in print, rather than out loud. I also include topics and questions alongside the reading schedule that may jog something.

(see schedule below for due dates)

Arguments are 500-word essays based on the readings, lecture notes, and discussions as listed in the schedule. They should include a brief thesis statement ("Medieval legends are really about potatoes!"), defended by an argument ("Because potatoes are the only thing that appear in every one of the myths that we saw in this section!") supported by evidence ("[Potato-Legend 1], [Potato-Legend 2], [Potato-Legend 3]," etc.) documented by precise citations.

Cite the source of anything you quote or paraphrase, and always cite as specifically as possible. For a modern book (like Matarosso's) this means page numbers. For Roland this means stanza numbers; for Orlando Furioso it means canto and stanza numbers; etc. Don't cite sources other than the required readings unless you have some very strong reason for doing so: I want you to show me that you know the assigned material, not that you know how to google something. Do make copious use of the assigned readings. If you've finished the assignment without mentioning the assigned readings, go back in and include citations from these sources.

Use standard manuscript formatting for the arguments and the final project.

You'll submit the arguments online through the assignment page on Canvas. (Don't email them to me or send me hardcopies.)
 
Quizzes are strictly objective (true/false, matching, short ID, visual ID, etc) based on the readings, slideshows, and lecture notes. They'll be administered in class.

The Final Project  is a 1000-word paper (submitted via Canvas), which could be a longer version of the argument-style essay, or some other writing project as negotiated with the instructor. But similar standards (e.g. intensive use of the required materials, use of standard MS. format, etc.) apply.