Arthurian Romances (3 page)

Many critics consider
The Knight with the Lion
to be Chrétien's most perfectly conceived and constructed romance. In it he reconsiders the
question of the conflict between love and valour posed in
Erec
, but from the opposite point of view: Yvain neglects his bride
(amors
) in the pursuit of glory
(armes
). Unlike Erec, who sets off for adventure accompanied by his bride, Yvain sets out alone upon his series of marvellous adventures in order to expiate his fault and rediscover himself. He eventually meets up with a lion which, among other possible symbolic roles, is certainly emblematic of his new self.

Chrétien's final work, begun sometime in the 1180s and never completed, was and still is his most puzzling:
The Story of the Grail
. Controversy continues today over whether or not Chrétien intended this romance to be read allegorically. Even those who agree that his intent was indeed allegorical argue over the proper nature and significance of the allegory. His immediate continuers, Robert de Boron and the anonymous author of the
Perlesvaus
, clearly assumed that the allegory was a Christian one. Unfortunately, death apparently overtook Chrétien before he could complete his masterwork and clarify the mysteries of the Grail Castle.

In the prologues to most of his romances, Chrétien alludes to a source from which he took his story. In
Erec
, he says that his source was a ‘tale of adventure' that professional
jongleurs
were wont to mangle and corrupt, but that he would relate in ‘a beautifully ordered composition'. Though no direct source for this, or any other of his romances, has been identified, there exists a general parallel to
Erec
in the story of the Welsh
Mabinogion
called
Gereint Son of Erbin
. This tale contains the episodes of the stag hunt, the joust for the sparrow-hawk, Enide's tears, the quest with Enide's repeated warnings for Gereint (Erec), the lecherous count, the ‘little king' Gwiffred Petit (Guivret le Petit), and even a small-scale Joy of the Court. This relatively late Welsh prose tale, dating probably from the thirteenth century, could not have influenced Chrétien, and marked differences in details, tone and artistry suggest that it was not directly influenced by Chrétien's work either. Together, however, they attest to an earlier common source, which most critics now assume to have been Celtic in origin and oral, rather than written.

In the prologue to
Cligés
, Chrétien states that his source was a written story in a book from the library of St Peter's church in Beauvais. Again, Chrétien's precise source is unknown, though he drew heavily on Ovid, Thomas's
Tristan
, and the Old French
Roman d'Eneas
for his depictions of the nature and effects of love in this romance. The motif of feigned death occurs in other medieval works, notably in the thirteenth-century Old French romance
Marques de Rome
, in which the hero is likewise named
Cligés. Much of the first part of this romance is surely of Chrétien's own invention, whereas analogies with the Tristan story seem to structure the second half.

Chrétien claims in his prologue to
The Knight of the Cart
that he was given the source material by the Countess Marie. If that is true, then she probably conveyed to him a popular Celtic abduction story, or
aithed
. In these mythological tales a mysterious stranger typically claims a married woman, makes off with her through a ruse or by force, and carries her to his other worldly home. Her husband pursues the abductor and, after triumphing over seemingly impossible odds, penetrates the mysterious kingdom and rescues his wife. Guinevere is the subject of such an abduction story in the Latin
Vita sancti Gildæ
(Life of St Gildas) by Caradoc of Llancarvan
(c
. 1150), which contains much Celtic mythology. She is carried off by Melwas or Maheloas, lord of the
œstiva regio
(land of summer), to the
Urbs Vitrea
(City of Glass, alleged to be Glastonbury in Somerset). From there she is rescued by King Arthur with the aid of the Abbot of Glastonbury. However, this story is far removed from that by Chrétien and has no role for Lancelot. It is intriguing to speculate – but impossible to prove – that the Countess suggested the love relationship between Guinevere and Lancelot.

For
The Knight with the Lion
, which does not have a prologue, Chrétien claims in his epilogue to have given a faithful rendering of the story just as he had ‘heard it told'. Like Erec,
The Knight with the Lion
has an analogue in the Welsh
Mabinogion
in a story known as
Owein
, or
The Lady of the Fountain
, which reproduces the plot of Chrétien's romance very closely up to the episode in which Lunete is saved from the stake, then diverges radically to the end. Like
Gereint Son of Erbin
, this tale dates from the thirteenth century and could not have influenced Chrétien. Nor does it appear to have been influenced by
The Knight with the Lion
, but attests rather to an earlier common source, probably oral, that Chrétien may have known from bilingual Breton storytellers he may have encountered in England, or later in France. In addition to the general parallel furnished by
The Lady of the Fountain
, there are many individual motifs that can be traced to Celtic influence. Foremost among these are the episodes of the spring and of the town of Dire Adventure, which are closely analogous to a Celtic otherworld myth in which a hero follows a previous adventurer into a mysterious fairy kingdom defended by a hideous giant; he leaves again for his own land, breaks his faith with the fairy and loses her, then goes mad. With the legend of the spring Chrétien has skilfully blended another fairy motif that is also most likely to be of Celtic origin: the fairy enchants a
mortal who must remain at her side to preserve some fearful custom until he is replaced by another who in turn continues it. This motif is found in its purest form in
Erec's
‘Joy of the Court'.

As was the case with
Cligés
, Chrétien cites a specific written source for his
Perceval:
‘the Story of the Grail, whose book was given him by the count' (Philip of Flanders). No one knows what this book contained, nor indeed whether it ever actually existed. At any event, it was not the
Peredur
story from the
Mabinogion
which, like the analogues for
Erec
and
The Knight with the Lion
cited earlier, was too late to hasbeen known by Chrétien. Numerous theories have been proposed to explain the origins of this, Chrétien's most mystifying romance, but none has met with widespread acceptance. The stories of Perceval and of the Grail seem originally to have been independent, and were perhaps amalgamated by Chrétien for the first time. Many motifs can be traced back to Celtic and Classical sources, but here and in his other romances Chrétien adapts his source materials in accord with the artistic needs of his own composition and the accepted mores of his time. He combines mysterious and magical elements from his sources with keenly observed contemporary social behaviour to create an atmosphere of mystery and wonder that is none the less securely anchored in a recognizable twelfth-century ‘present'.

To fully appreciate Chrétien's achievement, it is important to place his romances in the broader context of twelfth-century literary creativity and sensitivity. Although Latin was still the predominant language for literary production well into the twelfth century, by Chrétien's day it was slowly being supplanted in France by the vernacular language known today as Old French. This ‘translation' of learning from Classical lands and languages to France and the vernacular is mentioned by Chrétien in the same
Cligés
prologue from which we quoted earlier:

This movement implies a significant desire to bring literature and learning to those with little or no knowledge of Latin. That many were engaged in this undertaking is clear from the testimony of Chrétien's contemporary, Marie de France, writing in the general prologue to her
Lais
that she ‘began to think of working on some good story and translating a Latin text into French, but this would scarcely have been worthwhile, for others have undertaken a similar task'
(The Lais of Marie de France
1986,
p. 41
). The earliest romances, the so-called romances of Antiquity – the
Roman d'Eneas, Roman de Thèbes
, and
Roman de Troie
– were adaptations respectively of Virgil's
Aeneid
, Statius's
Thebaid
, and the late Latin Troy narrative attributed to Darys and Dictys. Ovid's tales of
Narcissus
and
Piramus and Thishe
were also done into Old French at this same time. This early period of French literature likewise witnessed the translation of religious treatises, sermons, and books of proverbial wisdom, as well as a number of saints' lives. The evidence of a thirst for every sort of knowledge is provided by the many scientific and didactic works that appeared in French for the first time in the twelfth century: lapidaries, herbals, bestiaries, lunaries, Mirrors for Princes, and encyclopaedic works of all kinds.

Chrétien's prologues, as well as numerous allusions in his poems, offer ample proof of his familiarity with this material. In the prologue to
The Story of the Grail
he compares the generosity of his patron to that of the great Alexander. This same romance contains a reference to the loves of Aeneas and Lavinia, an affair that is given more play in the Old French
Roman d'Eneas
than in Virgil's
Aeneid
. In
Cligés
Chrétien compares King Arthur's wealth to Alexander's and Caesar's, and notes the similarities between Alis's and Alexander's situation and that of Eteocles and Polynices in the
Roman de Thèbes
. Also in
Cligés
, he compares Thessala's knowledge of magic with that of the legendary Medea and alludes to Paris's abduction of Helen of Troy, which was played out in the
Roman de Troie
. In
The Knight of the Cart
, he mentions the tragic love tale of Piramus and Thisbe.
Erec
, his first romance, is however the richest in classical allusions, for there we find references to Alexander, Caesar, Dido, Aeneas, Lavinia, Helen and Solomon, as well as to the late Latin writer Macrobius.

In moving from doing translations to composing original works on non-Classical themes, Chrétien was merely emulating a popular twelfth-century tendency. Beginning early in the century, there was a great creative movement that saw the appearance of a number of forms and works that had no Latin antecedents. The first original Old French genre to flourish was the
chanson de geste
, which featured epic themes generally centred around the court and times of Charlemagne. In MS Bibl. Nat f. fr. 24403, Chrétien's
Erec
is curiously bracketed by two
chansons de geste: Garin de Montglane
and
Ogier le Danois
. Chrétien's comparison of Yvain's skill in battle to that of the legendary Roland (ll. 3239–41) is good proof of his knowledge of the most famous of the
chansons de geste
. And Chrétien, as we have seen, practised the other great original genre of the twelfth century, the courtly lyric. While lyric poetry certainly existed in Latin, a wholly different inspiration informs the love-lyrics of the southern French troubadours. In their poetry love becomes an art and an all-subsuming passion. The lady becomes a person to be cherished, a source of poetic and personal inspiration, rather than simply a pawn in the game of heredity.

The love tradition of the southern French troubadours moved northward in the second third of the twelfth century as a result of political developments, especially the two marriages of Eleanor of Aquitaine, first to King Louis VII of France in 1137 and then in 1152 to the future Henry II of England. With her she brought a number of courtiers and poets who introduced the southern tradition of ‘courtly love' into the more sober North. Her daughters, Marie de Champagne and Alis de Blois, were both important arbiters of taste and style like their more illustrious mother, and fostered literary activities of many kinds, in both Latin and the vernacular, in their central French courts.

The very notion of ‘courtly love' (or
fin'amors
) as it was practised and celebrated in medieval literature remains even today a complex and vexed question. As it is depicted in troubadour poetry, the Tristan story and Chrétien's
The Knight of the Cart
, it is an adulterous passion between persons of high social rank, in which the lovers express their profoundest emotions in a highly charged and distinctly stylized language. Both lovers agonize over their condition, indulging in penetrating self-examination and reflections on the nature of love. Although the refinement of the language gives the love an ethereal quality it is sensual and non-Platonic in nature, and for his sufferings the lover hopes for and generally receives a frankly sexual recompense. This, at any rate, is love as it appears in
The Knight of the Cart
. But was such love actually practised in the courts of twelfth-century
France? Here critics are loosely divided into two opposing camps: the
realists
, who believe that such an institution did exist in the Middle Ages and is faithfully reflected in the literature of the period; and the
idealists
, who believe that it is a post-Romantic critical construct and was, in the Middle Ages, at most a game to be taken lightly and ironically.

In
The Knight of the Cart
, Lancelot seems to substitute a religion of love for the traditional Christian ethic, even going so far as to genuflect upon leaving Guinevere's bedchamber. Yet nowhere is there any direct condemnation of his behaviour, either by the characters or the narrator. Realists see in Lancelot the epitome of the courtly lover. For them, Marie de Champagne was a leading proponent of the doctrine of
fin'amors
, which was practised extensively at her court. To illustrate and further this concept, she commissioned Andreas Capellanus to draw up the rules for love in his
De arte honeste amnandi
and her favourite poet, Chrétien, to compose a romance whose central theme was to be that of the perfect courtly-love relationship. But Chrétien never completed his romance, an indication perhaps that he was not in sympathy with the theme proposed to him by the Countess.

Idealists agree that the subject matter of
The Knight of the Cart
did not appeal to Chrétien, but allege different reasons. Citing the fact that adultery was harshly condemned by the medieval Church, they argue that what we today call ‘courtly love' would have been recognized as idolatrous and treasonable passion. Lancelot must be seen as a foolled on by his lust, rather than his reason, into ever more ridiculous and humiliating situations. The idea of Lancelot lost in thoughts of love and being unceremoniously unhorsed or duelling behind his back to keep Guinevere in view could only be seen as ludicrous.

Most realists today will concede a degree of ironic humour in the portrayal of Lancelot, but contend that the question of morality is a moot one: the love is amoral, rather than immoral. Sensitive to the attacks of the idealists, they now downplay the importance of Andreas Capellanus, whose concept of ‘pure love' has led many commentators astray, and stress the distinctions between periods and works. The love portrayed by Dante or in Chaucer's
Book of the Duchess
is of another period and qualitatively different from that of the troubadours and trouvères. Indeed, love in the poems of the northern French trouvères is itself distinct from that of the troubadours. And love as it is portrayed in the other romances by Chrétien is different from that in
The Knight of the Cart
. In all his other romances he appears as an advocate for marriage and love within marriage, constructing
Erec, Cligés
and
The Knight with the Lion
around this theme, and showing in all the disadvantages of other types of relationships.

Not only do Chrétien's prologues give us invaluable information about the poet himself, they also tell us a great deal about how he viewed his role as artist. In the prologue to
Erec
, Chrétien tells us that he
tret d'un conte d'avanture/une molt bele conjointure
(‘from a tale of adventure/he draws a beautifully ordered composition'). This
conjointure
has been variously translated ‘arrangement', ‘linking', ‘coherent organization', ‘internal unity', etc., but always implies that Chrétien has moulded and organized materials that were only inchoate before he applied his artistry to them. Already in his first romance, and repeatedly in his later work, Chrétien shows himself to be conscious of his role as a literary artist, a ‘maker' or ‘inventor' who fashions and gives artistic expression to materials that have come to him from earlier sources.

In speaking of
un conte d'avanture
in the singular and with the article, Chrétien implies that he conceived of his source as a single work, rather than as a collection of disparate themes or motifs. He goes on to inform us that other storytellers, the professional jongleurs who earn their living by performing such narrative poems before the public, were wont to
depecier et corronpre
(‘mangle and corrupt') these tales. Chrétien, on the other hand, clearly implies that he has provided a coherent structure for his tale, a structure that most critics today agree is that of a triptych. Like the traditional triptych altarpiece, Chrétien's
Erec and Enide
has a broad central panel flanked by two balanced side-panels. The first panel, which Chrétien refers to as
li premiers vers
(‘the first movement', l. 1808), comprises ll. 27–1808 and weaves together the episodes of the Hunt of the White Stag and the Joust for the Sparrow-hawk. The final episode, known as the Joy of the Court, forms an analogous panel of approximately the same length as the first, ll. 5321–6912. The central panel of his triptych, ll. 1809–5320, is by far the largest and most important, covering the principal action of the poem.

Erec
, like the other romances that followed with the exception of
Cligés
, was arranged around the motif of the quest. In each of his romances Chrétien varied the nature and organization of the central quest. In
Erec
it is essentially linear and graduated in structure, moving from simple to increasingly complex and meaningful encounters. But already in
Erec
Chrétien was experimenting with a technique for interrupting the linearity and varying the adventures, a technique he would employ with particular success in
The Knight with the Lion
and
The Story of the Grail
, and which would be used extensively in the prose romances: interlacing. In its simplest manifestations, as it functions twice in
The Knight with the Lion
, interlacing involves the weaving together of two distinct lines of action: each time Yvain begins an
adventure, it is interrupted so that he can complete a second before returning to finish the first. In the first instance, Yvain is on his way to defend Lunete, who has been condemned to die for having persuaded her mistress to marry the unfaithful Yvain. He secures lodging at a town that is besieged by the giant Harpin of the Mountain and, though it nearly causes him to be too late to save Lunete, he remains and defeats the giant. In the second instance, Yvain agrees to defend the cause of the younger daughter of the lord of Blackthorn, who is about to be disinherited by her sister. But before the combat with her champion, Gawain, can be concluded, Yvain is called to enter the town of Dire Adventure and free three hundred maidens who are forced to embroider for minimal wages in intolerable conditions. The same pattern recurs in
The Story of the Grail
, where Chrétien cuts back and forth between the adventures of Gawain and those of Perceval. The adventures in
The Knight of the Cart
, on the other hand, are organized according to the principle of
contrapasso
, by which the nature of the punishment corresponds precisely to the nature of the sin: having hesitated to step into the cart, Lancelot must henceforth show no hesitations in his service of ladies and the queen.

In the midst of the interlace in
The Knight with the Lion
, Chrétien introduces a complex pattern of intertextual references designed to link that poem to
The Knight of the Cart
, which he was composing apparently simultaneously. In the town besieged by Harpin of the Mountain, Yvain learns that the lord's wife is Sir Gawain's sister, but that Gawain is unable to succour them because he is away seeking Queen Guinevere, who has been carried off by ‘a knight from a foreign land' (Meleagant) after King Arthur had foolishly entrusted her to Sir Kay. This is a direct allusion to the central action of
The Knight of the Cart
, and interweaves the plots of the two romances. Gawain cannot see to his own family's welfare in
The Knight with the Lion
because he is concurrently engaged in a quest in
The Knight of the Cart
. During the second interlace pattern of
The Knight with the Lion
, the elder sister arrives at Arthur's court just after Gawain has returned with the queen and the other captives from the land of Gorre, and it is specifically noted that Lancelot ‘remained locked in the tower'. This second direct reference to the intrigue of
The Knight of the Cart
refers, perhaps deliberately, to the point at which Chrétien abandoned this romance, leaving its completion to Godefroy de Lagny. This intertextual technique did not have the success of the interlace, but attests like it to an acute artistic awareness on the part of Chrétien to the structuring of his romances. This technique of intertextual reference could also be seen as an attempt by Chrétien to lend
depth or consistency to this work, setting each romance in a broader, more involved world (a technique used later in the
Lancelot-Graal
, where events not specifically recounted in that work are alluded to as background material). In Chrétien's case it might even be seen as self-promotion, encouraging the reader or listener of one romance to seek out the other.