The essays presented here study the different linguistic and literary traditions of courtly literature, across four languages, using a wide range of approaches and taking a number of different perspectives; they reflect both current preoccupations in scholarship and perennial concerns, and use both traditional and new methodologies to study a variety of texts. Topics covered include ideologies of love and courtliness; women's voices and roles; incest and identity; poetics; historical approaches; and adaptations and transformations. First delivered at the 1998 meeting of the International Courtly Literature Society at Vancouver, the articles demonstrate the vitality of the field and offer fresh new insights into the tradition of courtly literature as a whole.