310:“uneven and erratic…. It is so fundamentally unsound that one would take it as an elaborate joke.... For an Arthurian expert, reading this book is a nightmare: familiar details are there, but in the grossest confusion. Even a non-initiate will probably find that the book denounces itself by innumerable inconsistencies and logical absurdities…. She claims to be a specialist on the written texts (p. 27), whose difficulty she greatly exaggerates…. In linguistics she is lost.... Professor Goodrich regularly mangles the history, literature, and language both of the Dark Ages (which she does nothing to illuminate) and of the High Middle Ages (which she totally fails to understand). But modern critics fare no better. If they agree (?) with her, they are "brilliant," but if they "disagree" they are insulted....”
274:”.) Goodrich traveled extensively in Britain and France and laid claim to having mastered several ancient and modern languages. She and her husband traveled to Scotland and followed routes laid out by ancient maps, unearthing clues to the historical King Arthur. She adopted the view that the 12th century pseudo-historian, Geoffrey of Monmouth had known that Arthur had not been in England, but in Scotland, but had concealed this unpopular view by listing the names of Arthur's battles in Latin rather than Gaelic—the original Celtic language of Scotland. “When I finally figured out what he was doing, I translated the Latin back into Gaelic,” Goodrich told the
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in 1994. She then found that the names coincided with places in
Scotland. (The conventional view has always been that Geoffrey was describing places in southwestern England or Wales.) From her analyses of ancient languages, Goodrich discerned that Guinevere was a Pictish queen and Lancelot a Scottish
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Using the pen name “Norma Lorre
Goodrich”, she began publishing books for a popular audience in 1960, beginning with “Myths of the Hero,” an exploration of myths from ancient and medieval times. In it she wrote, “The hero myth may be the one that has most influenced culture down the centuries.” By
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rising ultimately to an assistant professorship. In 1971, after an associate professorship, she became dean of the faculty at
Scripps College, a women’s college in Claremont and one of the five undergraduate Claremont Colleges. After retirement, she became a professor emerita.
239:, and set her on a literary path. Goodrich graduated from the University of Vermont in 1938 with a bachelor’s degree and continued her studies at universities in France, where she lived for many years and once owned and directed a school.
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reporter that she had discovered a void in
Arthurian scholarship: “All the books on Arthur have been on the mythology, the legend,” but not the history. (Of course, this was not true; many books had already investigated the
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She married Joseph Lorre and the couple had a son, Jean-Joseph Lorre, but they divorced in 1946. At the age of nearly 50 she earned doctoral degrees in French and Roman philology from
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Her husband John died in
February 1995 at the age of 77. Goodrich died on September 19, 2006, of natural causes at her home in Claremont, California. Her obituary in the
194:, that the legendary monarch was not a myth, but a real person, who lived not in England or Wales, as conventionally understood, but in Scotland. In her interpretation,
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Goodrich was born May 10, 1917, in
Huntington, Vermont, the daughter of Charles Edmund and Edyth Annie (Riggs) Falby. When she was 5, an aunt gave her a copy of
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1986, now professor emerita at the
Claremont Colleges, she had turned her attention full-time to the legend of King Arthur. That year she told a
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Goodrich's books were infrequently reviewed in scholarly journals and generally ignored by academic authorities. (For example, neither
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in 1965. The previous year, she had remarried, to John
Hereford Howard, and began teaching French and comparative literature at the
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296:(2005), both of which are exhaustive, mention her works in their vast indexes.) One exception was Rosemary Morris's review of
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stated that "the fact that her King Arthur findings contradicted those of other scholars did not trouble
Goodrich".
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a
Scottish king. Her scholarly methodology involved back-translating Latin place names found in
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to what she believed to be their Celtic originals. Her findings have not been accepted by
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Goodrich was noted for her thesis, first presented in a 1986 book titled
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Member, National Society Daughters of American Revolution (NSDAR)
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Charles of Orleans: A Study of His French and His English Poetry
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Another unflattering review is: Frantzen, Allen J. (Jun 1987),
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Dame, Knights Templar, Commandery of Nova Scotia, Scotland
483:“Norma Lorre Goodrich, 89: Shed New Light on King Arthur”
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The Jungle of Academe: The Poetry of Norma Lorre Goodrich
357:, Abridged and introduced By Norma Lorre Goodrich (1963;
306:. Morris was scathing. She found Goodrich's work to be
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The Ways of Love: Eleven Romances of Medieval France
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for 45 years and published several popular books on
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The Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend
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527:"Capt John Hereford Howard (1917-1995) - Find A"
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427:Heroines: Demigoddess, Prima Donna, Movie Star
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464:Royal Society of Descendants of Charlemagne
417:(1992, Franklin Watts; PB: HarperPerennial)
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481:Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (30 September 2006),
365:Charles, Duke of Orleans: Poet and Prince
341:(1960; PB: Mentor, New American Library)
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155: 1964; died 1995)
458:Member of the Metropolitan Opera Guild
168:(May 10, 1917 – September 19, 2006) —
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445:(2013; Compiled by Andrew Whitenack)
94:Author, English and French professor
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253:University of Southern California
177:University of Southern California
411:(1987; PB 1989: HarperPerennial)
387:Giono: Master of Fictional Modes
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349:Revised/expanded edition (1977)
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516:, Vol. 92, No. 3, pp. 641-642.
514:The American Historical Review
290:The New Arthurian Encyclopedia
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383:(1967; Geneva: Libraire Droz)
433:The Doctor and Maria Theresa
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391:Princeton University Press
277:Riverside Press-Enterprise
367:(1963; Macmillan Company)
292:(1996) nor Alan Lupack's
209:Historia Regum Britanniae
198:was a Pictish queen, and
375:George Allen & Unwin
503:19.3 (1987), pp. 391-3.
359:Washington Square Press
559:Academics from Vermont
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236:The Idylls of the King
488:The Los Angeles Times
423:(1992, HarperCollins)
231:Alfred, Lord Tennyson
58:Claremont, California
204:Geoffrey of Monmouth
173:Norma Lorre Goodrich
76:Norma Lorre Goodrich
249:Columbia University
225:Youth and education
166:Norma Therese Falby
85:Columbia University
40:Huntington, Vermont
20:Norma Therese Falby
564:Arthurian scholars
181:Claremont Colleges
50:September 19, 2006
355:Le Morte D'Arthur
339:The Ancient Myths
333:Myths of the Hero
321:Los Angeles Times
272:historical Arthur
267:Los Angeles Times
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122:Joseph Lorre
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100:Notable work
52:(2006-09-19)
36:May 10, 1917
554:2006 deaths
549:1917 births
438:Charlemagne
403:Priestesses
397:King Arthur
315:Final years
298:King Arthur
192:King Arthur
142:John Howard
105:King Arthur
65:Nationality
543:Categories
469:References
216:scholars.
214:Galfridian
185:Arthuriana
32:1917-05-10
450:Accolades
415:Guinevere
220:Biography
233:’s book
170:pen name
68:American
389:(1973;
373:(1965;
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126:
112:Spouses
501:Albion
429:(1994)
409:Merlin
405:(1989)
399:(1986)
335:(1960)
303:Albion
281:king.
243:Career
107:(1986)
327:Works
151:(
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128:(
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179:and
130:div.
47:Died
26:Born
288:'s
206:’s
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485:;
187:.
153:m.
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361:)
270:“
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30:(
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