ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which the Book could be regarded as a romance with 'Sir John Mandeville, Knight' as its hero, embarking on an adventure which will take him around the world and back. The frequent inclusion of the Book in compendia with romances, added to the fact that it was sometimes actually called a romance, indicate that other audiences of the work also regarded it as romantic. Having discussed the Book's attitudes towards the topos of the romance hero and the redactors' various responses, the chapter examines three episodes from the Book: those of the Daughter of Hippocrates, the Head of Satalia and the Castle of the Sparrowhawk. These are significant because they demonstrate not only Mandeville's use of certain other types of romance theme in his work, but also the way in which these themes were recognised and adapted by producers of other versions of the Book and later romance writers.
