Grateful Dead in Medieval Romances, Part 2: The History of Oliver and Arthur

I mentioned yesterday in Grateful Dead in Medieval Romances, Part 1 that I had a favorite Grateful Dead themed medieval romance, The History of Oliver and Arthur.

From my introduction to The Grateful Dead Tales From Around the World (SurLaLune Fairy Tale Series):

The History of Oliver and Arthur, a 15th century prose romance, is provided in its entirety in the present volume. Olivier de Castille et Artus d’Algarbe was first published in 1482 in Geneva and traveled around Europe in a few other translations. The Spanish translation influenced a few 17th century Spanish plays to be discussed briefly later.

Now that is not much in my intro for a story I spent a few months getting to know intimately. The History of Oliver and Arthur has been translated into English and it is available for sharing. However, the English translation has only been printed once, in 1903, in a collectors edition volume. Each page of the book looks like this:

It's intended to resemble a medieval illuminated manuscript. Fine concept, but it makes for difficult reading. Very difficult reading. For over 110 pages. Try it at yourself at The History of Oliver and Arthur. So I had Grateful Dead almost finished when I decided I would transcribe the text from this book to share in my book. I spent several winter weeks, evenings mostly, transcribing and then rereading and editing the text. Which made me very intimate with it. Was it my favorite book of the year? No, of course not. But I was fascinated and I have never regretted the decision to transcribe and then share it with the readers of The Grateful Dead Tales From Around the World (SurLaLune Fairy Tale Series). And it is one of my favorite Grateful Dead tales because it is really an exciting adventure with the usual death, sex, violence, and, of course, chivalry.