Volume XXV of Arthurian Literature is the first under the co-editorship of Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. The editors would like to acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of our predecessors, in particular Keith Busby, who was at the helm as General Editor from Volume XVII to Volume XXIV. We sincerely hope that the volumes we produce will continue the tradition of high quality established by those that have already appeared in this series. In the past general volumes have been alternated with ‘themed’ volumes. We will continue to encourage the submission of papers on specific themes, but we will be happy to publish papers dealing with other topics in the same volume. For instance, at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, we organized a session on ‘Arthur and Rome’, and the following year we sponsored a session on ‘The Political Arthur’ at the 43rd International Congress at Kalamazoo. Papers on either topic would be particularly welcome for Volume XXVI of Arthurian Literature. We urge those submitting essays for consideration to consult the stylesheet now posted on Boydell & Brewer's main website.

The articles appearing in this volume represent a wide range of Arthurian subjects, reaching as far back as the sixth century, and as far forward as the nineteenth. Nikolai Tolstoy takes a very close look at what Geoffrey of Monmouth knew about the Merlin legend, and where this knowledge came from, arguing convincingly for the priority of the native Welsh tradition. Carolyne Larrington investigates the identification of authorial surrogates in French and English Arthurian romance, analysing both female and clerical magician-author figures and demonstrating in a compelling way ‘the close alignment between values gendered female and clerical values within the courtly context’. It goes without saying that discoveries of previously unknown Arthurian texts are a rare thing, yet Michael Twomey presents just such a discovery in his discussion here: a letter in Anglo-Norman French purportedly written by Morgan le Fay, the only one in the entire known Arthurian corpus claiming to have been composed by Morgan herself. This fascinating text is here for the first time transcribed, translated and provided with a full commentary.