The Literature Book

50

HE WHO DARES NOT

FOLLOW LOVE’S COMMAND

ERRS GREATLY

LANCELOT, THE KNIGHT OF THE CART

(c.1175–1181), CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES

T

he tradition of epic poetry,

which had its roots in

Homer and Virgil, lived

on throughout the Middle Ages in

the form of the chansons de geste

(“songs of heroic deeds”), written

and performed by the troubadours

of southern France and their peers

in other Mediterranean countries.

These medieval epics conformed to

the genre by telling tales of valiant

acts and the battles of classical

antiquity, or the wars against

the Saracens and Moors. But in the

12th century, these tales of knights

and their adventures assumed a

different tone, as the idea of courtly

love began to replace military

exploits as the predominant theme,

and the emphasis shifted from

heroism to noble deeds.

Arthurian legend

The poet credited with introducing

this change was Chrétien de

Troyes, a trouvère (the northern

French equivalent of a troubadour)

who took his inspiration from the

legends of King Arthur and his

knights of the Round Table. In

Chrétien’s time there were two

distinct cultures in France,

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Arthurian chivalric

romance

BEFORE

1138 Welsh cleric and

chronicler Geoffrey of

Monmouth’s Historia Regum

Britanniae popularizes the

legend of King Arthur.

12th century The Old French

(northern vernacular langue

d’oïl) poem Tristan, by Thomas

of Britain, tells the legend of

the knight of the Round Table

Tristan and his lover Iseult.

AFTER

13th century The five-volume

Lancelot-Grail cycle (also called

Prose Lancelot or the Vulgate

Cycle), written in Old French

by anonymous clerics, gives an

account of Lancelot’s quest for

the Holy Grail.

1485 In Le Morte d’Arthur,

English writer Sir Thomas

Malory reinterprets the

traditional Arthurian legends.

Chrétien de Troyes

Little is known about Chrétien

de Troyes, a trouvère who, in

the late 12th century, served

in the court of Marie of France.

His adoption of the name “de

Troyes” suggests that he may

have been from Troyes, in the

Champagne region of France,

southeast of Paris, but may

instead refer to his patron,

Marie, Countess of Champagne,

whose court was in Troyes. His

poems, which date from the

period 1160–1180, suggest that

he was a minor member of the

clergy. Chrétien’s major works

were the four romances he wrote

on Arthurian stories, and he is

credited with introducing into

the tales the new idea of courtly

love, in the affair between

Lancelot and Guinevere. A fifth

poem, Perceval, the Story of the

Grail, was unfinished when he

died, in around 1190.

Other key works

c.1170 Erec and Enide

c.1176 Cligès

1177– 81 Yvain, the Knight

of the Lion

US_050-051_Lancelot.indd 50 08/10/2015 13:03