Edward Lane’s view of the northern Delta, first drafted in 1829, describes a desolate, marginal landscape – difficult to get to and lacking in reasons to do so. This view has remained largely unchallenged by Egyptologists for a long time. This chapter puts the north of Egypt at its centre and discusses in particular when and how this region was used. First, we discuss the landscapes of the northern Delta, their diachronic development and the geographic work investigating this part of Egypt. Second, there is an overview of the state of archaeological research in this region. The reasons for the scientific lack of interest for this region in Egyptology will be addressed. Next, we introduce the historiographical hypothesis, which suggests that under the Ptolemies the northern Delta was an area of land reclamation, comparable to what was achieved in the Faiyum. A case study is presented of a region in the central northwestern Delta, which was investigated in a multidisciplinary combination of archaeological surveys, geophysical work on the ground and analysis of remote sensing data. Based on the preliminary results, a reconstruction of the ancient landscape and settlement history is proposed, and the historiographical hypothesis refuted.

My introduction situates the study by defining “landscape” within the genre of Middle English popular romance, examines the current critical conversation regarding medieval conceptions of the environment, and places late medieval romances in the context of the burgeoning Little Ice Age. It concludes with a précis of the following study.

Examining literary texts alongside contemporary legal and epistolary evidence regarding understandings and uses of seashores, Chapter 2 explains how a number of romances complement their larger themes with a concentration on the seaside as a simultaneously inviting and threatening space whose multifaceted nature as a geographical, political, and social boundary embodies the complex range of meanings embedded in the Middle English concept of “play” – a word that these texts often link with the seashore. Beaches, too, serve as stages upon which the romances act out their anxieties over the consequences of human economic endeavor. In Sir Amadace, Emaré, Sir Eglamour of Artois, and the Constance romances of Chaucer and Gower, shipwrecks are configured as opportunities for financial gain for scavengers and as mortal peril for sailors. Moreover, the coupling of the beach with concepts of play emerges in numerous scenes wherein beach-walking characters create – both in jest and in earnest – new identities for themselves, in order to elude past enemies or mistakes. My analysis thus explains how seaside scenes embody anxieties about human relationships with natural and divine forces.