The first quest, 1182

The first quest, 1182

Situations of the text

Chrétien de Troyes

Structures

1182, situations of a text

• The beginnings of vernacular literature

• Text and performance

• The Anglo-Normand world

• The birth of “romance”

• The Celtic material

• The transmission

“French” literature before Chretien de Troyes

• Latin and French

• Sacred and profane

• Lives of Saints: Séquence Sainte-Eulalie, Xth century

• Epics: Chanson de Roland, XIth

• Lyrical poetry: Guillaume of Aquitaine

A “writer”?

• Troubadours and trouvères

• A new culture: the castle, the nobility, the audience

• Beginnings of the written secular literature

• The “protectors”

The Anglo-Norman kingdom

• Eleanor of Aquitaine

• Marie de Champagne

• Philippe d’Alsace, count of Flaunders

• A lay literature, both vernacular and noble

• The building of new canons

Eleanor of Aquitaine

• 1122-1204• Queen consort of France and England• Marriage to Louis VII of France 1137• The second crusade• Annulment of first marriage 1152• Marriage to Henry II of England 1152• Revolt and Capture 1173-1174• Years of imprisonment 1173 - 1189• Regent of England 1189 1199• Retreat in Fontevraud Abbey

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Louis VII of France

Henri II Plantagenest

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The kingdom of France

• In the XIIth c, the Kingdom of France was • small• centered on Paris and the surrounding area • Its kings : overlords of all the feudal lords• One of the most powerful of these the Duke

of Aquitaine, who was also Duke of Gascony and Count of Poitiers.

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French literature at ... Camelot

• The invention of a new audience

• The use of vernacular language

• The new genres: the “romance”

matière antique

matière réaliste

matière de Bretagne

The matter of “Bretagne”

• Lais by Marie de France• Chrétien de Troyes• XIIIth century novels, in verse and in prose

(The Vulgate Cycle)

• The mingling of several cultures

Celtic, classical, historical• A federating myth: Arthur

The Arthurian legend

• a dynastic and new myth in the XIIth c

• a construction, on several centuries

• the mingling of several cultures

• a living myth

The “arthurian cycle”

• corpus of works, IXth to XVth century

• Several generations, several languages

• Both novels and histories

• A King: Arthur; the Round Table; the founding of England

Sources for the Arthurian cycle

• Gildas, VIth c, De excidio et conquestu Britanniae (Vth, but no name)

• Annales Cambriae

• 1137 Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae : Merlin, Arthur, Round Table

• 2 writers: Wace, Chrétien

Wace

• Brut ; the bridge between the “historical matter” and the mythical one. His source: the Historia

• Love stories: Uther is in love with Igraine...

• Twelve years of peace

• Mentions the round Table

Chrétien

• “Confluence” of cultures• Starting points of the novels: Arthur’s court• BUT Arthur is not the main character• He is even depicted as a “recreant”, a lazy

King, an erratic judge...• Novels upon the Knights, not their King...• First mention of Lancelot, of the Grail

Chrétien de Troyes

• Known by his works

• Connected with Troyes c. 1160-1181 (patronage of Marie de Champagne)

• 5 major works and lost poems

• ･Erec and Enide, c. 1170

• ･Cligès, c. 1176

• ･Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, and ･Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, both written simultaneously between 1177 and 1181.

• ･Perceval, the Story of the Grail, written between 1181 and 1190, left unfinished.

Other works?

• Guillaume d'Angleterre (an attribution that is no longer believed)

• Philomena, the only one of his four poems based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses that has survived ( introduction to Cliges)

• King Mark and Iseut

Chretien’s legacy

• the “conjointure”

• the beginning of a cultural tradition, brought to the written world

• the Grail (four continuations at least)

Celtic influence

• Fairies, spells, enchanters

• Names (Peredur, Geraint and Enid, Olwen, the Welsh Mabinogion)

• Geography

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Our Tale• 9000 lines and 4 continuations at least

– 9500-19500 l. “Wauchier de Danain”: Gawain

– 13000 l. Wauchier de Danain: Perceval returns to the castle of the Grail, repairs the sword of Trebuchet but a flaw remains...

– 17000 l. Gerbert: Tristan– 10000l. Manessier, “joie de la Cour”,

Calogrenant, Perceval ascends the throne of the Fisher King

The Grail: Chrétien’s creation?

• The caldron of Dagda (Daga Devos)

• A gem (Wolfram of Eschenbach)

• Robert of Boron, L’estoire dou Graal”

• La queste del saint Graal, 1220

Christianization of a Celtic myth: the perilous seat

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Structures

A first part

• The forests of Wales

• King Arthur’s court, knighthood

• Gornemant

• Blanchefleur

• Fisher King

• Return to Arthur’s court

A second part

• The loathly lady (Celtic type)

• Quests for the Knights of the Round Table

• Gawain and his adventures

• The castle of the women (Gawain’s mother, grandmother and sister)

• Perceval meets a hermit, his uncle.

• The narrative returns to Gawain and ends

Implications of a title

• Title and incipit

• The reading pact

• Initiations, mystic or courtly guides

• DISCUSSION TOPIC