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FAHRNER, RUDOLF, German professor whose specialty was the history of ideas. His play Launcelot (1971), based on Malory and written in a pseudo-medieval diction, depicts the Round Table, the jousts of its knights, their intrigues, and their influence on a hesitant King Arthur. The focus is on Launcelot and his love for Queen Guinevere. Launcelot weathers all hostilities and stays true to the Round Table, even after its downfall, when his love for Guinevere finds fulfillment through abstinence. [EGF/PM]

FALSE GUENEVERE, in the Vulgate Cycle, the halfsister and double of Guenevere. Both girls were born on the same night, but the False Guenevere was born to the wife of their father's seneschal. Their father's enemies attempt to kidnap Guenevere on her wedding night and place the False Guenevere in her stead, but their plan is foiled. The False Guenevere later accuses her half-sister of not being the woman Arthur married, thereby temporarily tricking Arthur into believing he is her husband. However, when the False Guenevere becomes ill and confesses her deceit, Arthur returns to Guenevere. [SW]

FARADAY, W. BARNARD, author of Pendragon (1930), a rambling and sentimental historical romance about Arthur as dux bel/orum in the struggle against the Saxons. The book is redeemed by some entertaining passages of verbal humor and by its portrayal of the keenwitted Gwendaello (Guenevere). [RHT]

FATTI DE SPAGNA, LI, a fourteenth-century Lombard narrative of fifty-six chapters, of which 1-38 are modeled on a lost version of the Entree d'Espagne, 39-46 on a contin-

uation of the Entree, and 47-56 on the Chanson de Roland. Its principal innovation from romance is the motivation for Ganelon's betrayal in the irresistible love offered him by Braidamante, wife of King Marsile. Although not specifically an Arthurian text, the work uses numerous motifs characteristic of the Matter of Britain. (See also ENTREE D'ESPAGNE.)

FAULKNER, NANCY (ANNE IRVIN), American author of Sword of the Winds (1957), a juvenile novel set in sixteenth-century Cornwall. The young hero discovers Arthur and his knights sleeping beneath Tintagel casde and becomes the agent through which Arthur's might is turned against the Spanish Armada. [DN]

FAULKNER, WILLIAM (1897-1962), American novelist. Mayday (1926), a story that Faulkner originally hand-lettered and illustrated himself, is the tale of Sir Galwyn of Arthgyl, a young knight in quest of the ideal woman he envisions. On his quest, which leads ultimately to disillusionment and death, Galwyn meets and kills Tristram, and he spends a brief time with Yseult, who, despite her beauty, cannot hold his interest very long. [ACL]

FAWCETT, BRIAN, Canadian poet. His Tristram's Book (1981), a sequence of fifty-three blank-verse lyrics, uses the love story of Tristram and Iseult as a frame for exploring the

FAWCETT, BRIAN

growth and decline of a contemporary love affair. The poems were recorded as a radio performance for five voices and aired on CFRO-Vancouver Cooperative Radio on June 30, 1980. [RHT]

FAWCETT, EDGAR (1847-1904), American author of The New King Arthur: An Opera Without Music (1885), an entertaining parody in the style of w.s. Gilbert that sets out to improve upon Tennyson's "creditable" rreatment of Arthurian legend. [RHT]

FAZIO DEGLI UBERTI (ca. 1301-1367), a Tuscan poet who makes several references to Arthurian material in 11 Dittamondo. In this encyclopedic poem in terza rima, he narrates his journey through the known world under the guidance of Solinus, the famed classical geographer. During the visits to Brittany (Book IV, Chapter 22) and Great Britain (Iv' 23-26), Fazio describes numerous sites by their association with Arthurian characters: for example, Tintagel is recalled as the place where the ivy plant united the tombs of Tristan and Isolde (IV, 22, 11. 100-09); London is the location of the tower that Guenevere defended against Mordred (Iv' 23, 11. 52-53); Gaunes is alluded to as the scene of the death of Dorins, son of Claudas, the usurper king (Iv' 22, 11. 91-92). Among the many other references are Camelot (laid to ruin by Mark; IV, 23, 1. 58), the Castle of the Dolorous Gard (where Lancelot began his chivalric career; IV, 23,11. 55-57), the castle of Penevric (in which Erec and Enide consoled themselves; IV, 23,11.61-62), and the valley where Tristan slew the giant Nabon (IV, 23,11. 70-72). The wide variety of sources for these place-names and the legends associated with them-e.g., Lance/at, Tristan, Mort Artu, Palamedes, Eree et Enide-attests to the broad culture and synthesizing attitude of Fazio degli Uberti and suggests the extent of general penetration of Arthurian material into Italy by the middle of the fourteenth century. [CK]

FEBUSSO E BREUSSO, an Italian cantare thought by Branca to be the oldest extant representative of this genre (ca. 1325-35). The work retells the cavern episode from Palamedes. Its narrator is an old man who recounts to the unpolished knight Breusso the famous deeds of the mighty Febusso. Each of the six cantari of which the work is composed comprises, on average, sixty octaves. This is somewhat longer than the portion of a cantare thought to have been performed in one day, which was about forty or fifty octaves. [SJN]

FERGUSSON, ADAM, British politician and journalist, satirized contemporary postcolonial experience in Roman Go Home (1969). After Rome grants independence to Britain, the unscrupulous Vortigern seizes power by murdering his brother Cons tans, only to become a puppet of the Marxist Saxon mercenaries whom he hires to prop up his corrupt regime. [RHT]

FERGUUT, a Middle Dutch verse adaptation of the Old French Fergus by Guillaume Ie Clerc. The adaptation, probably written in the second half of the thirteenth century, runs to 5,604 lines. Up to the moment when Ferguut sets out to look for his beloved (1. 2,202), the Middle Dutch poet follows his Old French model, after which he increasingly follows his own path. In doing this, he ignores the historical implications of the Fergus. The topography of the Ferguut, for instance, is almost completely arbitrary, in contrast with the French source. The text is extant in one manuscript, Leiden, University Library Ltk. 191, dating from ca. 1350.