"The studies presented in this book derive from a series of sessions held at the annual International Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK...Four sessions, held from 2004 to 2006, bore the title 'Islands of the World and the Seven Seas in Medieval Myth and History', and three in 2007 the title 'Cities, Myths and Literatures'...The stated objective of the island sessions was the location of a 'starting point for a new investigation into the possible impact that myths and other fictitious stories about insular wonderlands had on the reasons why medieval men and women undertook their various missions, searches and explorations that finally led to the discovery of the New World.' Similarly, the cities sessions 'intended to find new connections between ancient myths and medieval constructions of real or imagined cities in literature'."--editors' pref. p.7