Creative Creatures

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This essay reads the fifteenth-century Arthurian romance The Awntyrs off Arthur at the Terne Wathelyn (The Adventures of Arthur at Wadelyn Lake) in the context of medieval debates on human creativity as a function of creatureliness. Demonstrating a keen interest in the vulnerability and creatureliness shared by human and non-human animals, the romance encodes nuances of shared affect, vulnerability, and expressive communication across species. Such considerations, here and in select Arthurian texts, poignantly undermine any presumed human-animal divide.