CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES, YVAIN, OR the KNIGHT with the LION (1170S)1
Primary Source 2.7 CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES, YVAIN, OR THE KNIGHT WITH THE LION (1170s)1 Chrétien de Troyes (fl. 1160–1185), a learned cleric, was one of the most popular and important authors of medieval Europe. His five Arthurian romances, originally written in Old French, including the one excerpted below, started a vogue for tales of King Arthur lasting for centuries. In the story, Yvain defeats and kills a knight to avenge his cousin. As he is pursuing the knight into his castle, he is caught in a trap vestibule. There, he falls hopelessly in love with the knight’s lovely widow, Laudine. Her lady-in- waiting, Lunette, gives him a ring of invisibility and convinces her lady to marry Yvain (the only knight at Camelot who had treated Lunette kindly). After all, she needs a valiant man to defend her and her magic spring of water from marauding knights in an age of public disorder. This is where the excerpted passage begins. Following their wedding, however, Yvain departs with Sir Gawain on adventures so long that his lady repudiates him, rendering him completely insane. After wandering naked for some time like a beast, he regains his sanity and travels widely, defeating evil adversaries and liberating many people (and even a lion) from certain harm and bondage, including 400 maidens forced to embroider beautiful cloth while themselves dressed in rags. These deeds of chivalry, for which he accepts no recompense, enable him to win back Laudine. The significance of the passages below is that they exemplify the ideal of “courtly love.” This tradition, which was codified by Andreas Capellanus in the 1180s,2 required men to idealize the women of their desire, and to burn and suffer for love’s sake.
[Show full text]