September already

The last month has been particularly busy and I regret to say Bevis has had to take a back seat for a while as other work demanded my attention. It hasn’t been forgotten, and some of my ideas have had time to coalesce, while others have received a little light editing to try to pull them into better shape. My focus is definitely on the relationship between the hero and Southampton, but I need to consolidate my understanding of historical events and relationships now. Recent work by the scholar Steve Tibble on the appearance of the Templars in England and their relationships with the royal women of the 12th century has added new dimensions to my thinking, and returned it to an older question – to what extent did movements such as that of the Templars, as well as the troubadours, help to transmit the chanson de gestes of Provence and Aquitaine northwards, or indeed westwards into the Iberian peninsular during the early stages of the Reconquista. With no other deadlines to consider now, I hope to make better progress on this tricky research – tricky because one of the books I must get to know better is a French work, and my grasp of academic French is in need of improvement, but Dominic Carraz’s work has already proved worth the effort.