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Norma Lorre Goodrich (1917–2006)

Author of The Medieval Myths

15+ Works 2,122 Members 13 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Works by Norma Lorre Goodrich

Associated Works

Le Morte d'Arthur (1485) — Editor, some editions — 7,055 copies
Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable (1855) — Foreword, some editions — 3,634 copies
The Man Who Planted Trees (1953) — Afterword, some editions — 1,789 copies

Tagged

(250) archaeology (10) Arthur (29) Arthurian (112) Arthurian legend (43) Arthuriana (32) biography (24) Britain (20) British history (12) England (27) English History (14) Europe (10) fantasy (15) fiction (38) folklore (68) folklore and mythology (20) grail (21) Guinevere (15) history (219) Holy Grail (20) King Arthur (75) legend (18) legends (16) literature (30) medieval (72) medieval history (16) medieval literature (16) Merlin (23) Middle Ages (38) myth (42) myths (26) non-fiction (125) own (12) reference (20) religion (46) to-read (30) unread (24) Wales (10) women (12) women's studies (30)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Goodrich, Norma Lorre
Legal name
Falby, Norma Therese
Birthdate
1917-05-10
Date of death
2006-09-19
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Huntington, Vermont, USA
Place of death
Claremont, California, USA
Places of residence
Claremont, California, USA
Education
University of Vermont (BA | 1938)
Columbia University (Ph.D | 1965)
Occupations
historian
biographer
professor
author
academic administrator
Relationships
Howard, John Hereford (husband)
Organizations
Scripps College
University of Southern California
Awards and honors
Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Short biography
Norma Lorre Goodrich was the pen name of Norma Therese Falby, born in Huntington, Vermont. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 1938 and continued her studies at universities in France, where she lived for many years. In 1965, at age 48, she earned doctoral degrees in French and Roman philology from Columbia University. She became a prolific author and an Arthurian scholar known for her unconventional theory -- introduced in a 1986 book titled King Arthur -- that King Arthur was a real person, not a myth, and that he was Scottish, not English or Welsh. Dr. Goodrich was a professor of French, comparative literature, and writing for 45 years at the University of Southern California and the Claremont Colleges.

Members

Reviews

This is an incomprehensibly bad book. It took me a long time of reading a paragraph or two at a time to finish it. The author is erudite and she has done tons of research. But her writing style seems to be: (a) go to a well-stocked university library; (b) take notes from a whole shelf of books tangentially related to Arthur or the Holy Grail; (c) type notes into a word-processor; (d) publish typed notes. The author, no joke, references things like this (p. 271): "The French dictionary and encyclopedia Peitit Larousse (1967) defines Graal and/or Saint Graal (p. 1,394) as 'the eternal vase' that...." blah blah blah. No joke. No footnotes, endnotes, etc. She says she read in this one book on this one page that. And she does this ad infinitum. She just throws her notes into heaps of paragraphs, grouped into rough chapters, that have no real thesis. There is no real thesis to her book. I learned lots of cool things about some grail lore and some of the great grail romances, but, the author never really tells us anything on her own, or what her damn point was, even in her misnamed "Conclusion." And, she inserts herself, her thoughts, and her opinions into the text at random points. Take this gem, from pp. 246-247: "That light especially warns a backward country like the United States. Here in America women were granted the vote long after those in European countries, and here, in 1990, women are considered minors, not equal to men before the law." First of all, she's dead wrong on the voting, as several European countries did not grant women the right to vote until after the U.S. Her vaunted France did not grant women the right to vote until 1944! So that's just wrong. Second, she's dead wrong on the law, as in no place in the West, and no place in the United States in 1990 were women "considered minors and not equal to men before the law." (Yes, the E.R.A. did not pass, but that doesn't mean anything she said right there is legally correct in any fashion.) How can one trust an author who makes numerous such errors and asides in the book. A star-and-a-half for the reams of interesting info from someone who's read the texts and the literature, but, all-in-all, a worthless drudge of a read with no point and little value.… (more)
½
 
Flagged
tuckerresearch | 1 other review | Aug 2, 2022 |
I was very interested to read this book. I love Goddess religions and the more ancient a subject the author discusses, the better. But something didn't feel right about this book. It felt like every other page, an alarm bell went off inside with a message telling me 'the author didn't prove what she just said,' 'the author is extrapolating but didn't want me to notice her slide into extrapolation,' or 'I'm not sure the evidence you provided really supports the conclusion you drew.' She comes to fascinating conclusions; I don't know if I believe what she says. In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't.… (more)
 
Flagged
RNCoble | Mar 25, 2021 |
290 is Dewey for legends and myths, under 'religion'. (taken broadly)
 
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brendanus | 1 other review | Apr 9, 2019 |
Scholarly study of the Holy Grail as described in literature; what it is, where it came from, where it is now. Arthurian mythos is very strong. Interestingly, discussion of Saint Theresa (of Spain in the Dark Ages) weaves though out. Although a scholarly dissertation, the storytelling is wonderful!
 
Flagged
PallanDavid | 1 other review | Aug 21, 2018 |

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Associated Authors

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Statistics

Works
15
Also by
3
Members
2,122
Popularity
#12,126
Rating
3.8
Reviews
13
ISBNs
53
Languages
4
Favorited
1

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