Trees occupy a paradoxical place in the genre of Middle English romance. They are
central to romance narratives, but their ubiquitous presence is almost completely
overlooked by the genre’s protagonists, and has been largely neglected by its
readership. This thesis addresses this paradox, as it seeks to account for the
neglect of trees both within the narrative world of romance itself, and the broader
critical discourses which have grown up around it. Drawing on a range of critical and
theoretical disciplines, the thesis analyses both the broad spectrum of meanings
which are attached to trees in the genre, and the ways in which trees frame and
catalyse the human dramas on which romance narratives primarily focus.
Trees are essential to medieval romance, as forest, wood, wilderness, garden, and
orchard settings are integral to the genre. These settings form the backdrop for
chivalric encounters and expressions of courtly love, as well as for the innumerable
emotional dramas and rites of passage on which romance narratives hinge. The
trees that make up these spaces tend to be largely invisible, both within romance
texts and within most of the scholarship that addresses them. However, trees are
present in many forms in medieval literature: individual trees within these settings
occasionally come to the foreground, arboreal metaphors occur at key narrative
moments, and wooden objects such as weapons, musical instruments, ships, and
spindles make up the material world of romance. In this thesis I argue that focussing
on the rare instances of arboreal visibility in certain Middle English romances – Le
Morte Darthur, Ywain and Gawain, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Middle
English Breton Lays, and Sir Tristrem – provides a fruitful way to explore these texts
from a new perspective. Drawing on aspects of ecocriticism, ecofeminism, and
studies of materiality, this thesis is situated in fields that encourage this focus on the
non-human as a way to understand what it means to be human, and to enable a
greater understanding of our place in the world. Using trees as a starting point to
consider human relationships with the non-human reveals how human and nonhuman
are entangled in various ways that trouble conventional hierarchies of power
in these medieval romances. In particular, I explore how trees can define and
construct masculine, chivalric identities, and how the feminine often has a different
relationship with the arboreal. Focussing on these relationships opens up spaces for
alternative discourses of power, in which the feminine and the non-human hold
marginal authority. Trees, arboreal metaphors, and wooden objects witness
moments of heightened tension and come to participate in the narrative as actants
that both protect and threaten human identities, and which have the power to
communicate from the shadows of the narrative
