This is the first full-length study of the role of women in Arthurian literature. It covers writing from the medieval period, the Renaissance, the Victorian age and in contemporary fiction. Covering the key Arthurian texts, such as Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Malory's Morte D'arthur, Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Tennyson's Idylls, it also investigates the less well-known works by women: Lady Charlotte Guest's Mabinogion, Julia Margaret Cameron's illustration to Tennyson's works and, finally, the Arthurian women writers of the twentieth century.

Acknowledgements - 'The Elf-Queene, with hir joly compaignye': Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale - 'And purz wyles of wymmen be wonen to sorze': Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - 'Am I nat an erthely woman?': Malory's Morte Darthur - 'Whether dreames delude, or true it were': Female Presence in Spenser's The Faerie Queene - 'I will, Lord, while I can': Lady Charlotte Guests' Mabinogion - 'Women Dressed in Many Hues': Tennyson's Stereoscopic Vision in the Idylls of Geraint and Enid - 'Thro' the Brilliant Eye': Julia Margaret Cameron's Illustrations to Tennyson's Idylls - 'An Arm Clothed in White Samite': Twentieth-Century Women Writers and the Arthurian Legends - Bibliography - Index