MASTERS IN THE ART OF LYING? THE LITERARY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUGH OF RHUDDLAN AND WALTER MAP

In one of his two extant Anglo-Norman French romances, Hugh of Rhuddlan (or Hue de Rotelande) describes his late twelfth-century contemporary, Walter Map, who wrote in Latin, as a liar. This essay attempts to answer the question of why he did so. It assesses the evidence for the possibility that the two men knew each other personally and draws attention to some shared themes, allusions, and rhetorical manceuvres in their work, despite the linguistic and generic boundaries that might seem to obstruct comparison of this kind.