Talk:Thomas of Britain

Number of fragments
Actually, this is not as clear I thought. Wind says there are 8 but actually lists 9 - Cambridge, Douce, 2 Sneyd, 2 Turin, 3 Strasbourg; Hatto says there are 10. Plus the Carlisle fragment. So that gives between 9 and 11! --Pfold 17:24, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

"Anglo-Norman?"
Why is Thomas described unambiguously as "Anglo-Norman?" From A.T. Hatto's translation of Tristan:

"...Gottfried von Strassburg names him 'Thomas of Britain' in his Prologue. Gottfried uses 'Britain' both for Great and Little Britain (Brittany), so that it is not possible to demonstrate convincingly that he thought of Thomas as an Anglo-Norman, an Englishman, or a Breton.  Nor does Thomas's French entirely decide the issue.  In the opinion of Romance scholars, Thomas wrote in the literary French of the Angevin courts, but with traces of Anglo-Norman.  This does not necessarily tell us anything about Thomas's origins, or even about where he was reared: but it agrees with what may be inferrred from his story about his service as a court poet, namely, that the circle for which he wrote had strong associations with England, with London, and with the Angevins."

I'll remove the reference to his origin/ethnicity until it can be established more conclusively with sourced material. zadignose (talk) 08:52, 31 March 2009 (UTC)


 * You can't simply revert this with no source, and proclaim that "his poem was Anglo-Norman, so he's an Anglo-Norman poet." First of all, as seen above, "traces of Anglo-Norman" don't make even the poem an Anglo-Norman poem.  Second of all, it's deceptive to use the adjective to describe the poet, rather than the poem.  So rephrase appropriately, if necessary, to describe the poem.  I wouldn't change the Franz Kafka page to describe him as a "German author," simply because he wrote in German.  His ethnicity is complex, and yet it's far more clear cut in terms of language, nationality, and ethnicity than Thomas, of whom "little is known." zadignose (talk) 10:04, 2 April 2009 (UTC)