King Arthur's Forest

Update Hello all.  After re-reading some of my earlier writing on Chretien de Troyes' works I feel that I am not handling the material well.  As the works get longer, it no longer makes sense to write everything that happens in the works episode by episode.  Chretien's works are 80 pages on average which causes me to do two pages of pure summary before I even discuss the work.  Some of the upcoming works such as the Perceval continuations and the Vulgate Lancelot make these works, and even modern epics, pale in comparison.  Reading multiple pages of non-stop summary makes for pretty dry reading.  It was so terrible that I decided to re-write my article on The Knight of the Cart before even posting it.  In retrospect I should have had more insightful discussions rather than summary.  I need to reach back to my college days and reconsider how to approach the material.  I also am not having much fun doing it this way. Moving forward I am ...

Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion We now shift from Cliges, what you now should know as my least favorite of Chretien's Arthurian tales, to Yvain, my favorite.  My reasons are admittedly weak and without any real critical merit, but they are my opinions all the same.  I will, however defend my opinions below and you can judge for yourself.  First, though, we should do a quick review of the material. The tale begins in Arthur's court where a knight named Calogrenant is telling a tale of his own defeat that he has kept secret many years.  He tells of a giant that directed him to a spring. When he arrived at this spring he sprinkled some water on a stone using the dipper provided.  As he does this a huge storm crops up and a knight rides out and shamefully defeats him in combat.  Of course when Arthur's court hears of this they all wish to ride out to find this wondrous spring.  Yvain, Calegrenant's own cousin, wants to avenge him and instead sneak...

Chretien de Troyes Part 3:  Cligès Hello all and welcome back.  I hope you all have had time to read ahead a little as I am sure you have noticed, the works can be quite lengthy. Let's briefly review the story before diving in.  Before the story even gets to Cliges, we learn the story of how Cliges' parents, Alexander and Soredamors, met.  Alexander, the son of Emperor Alexander of Greece, spent some time in Britain testing his knighthood in the famed court of King Arthur.  During his time there he meets Soredamors, the niece of King Arthur and sister to Sir Gawain.  They both fall in deep love for one another but are both too shy to speak of it.  Guenevere notices this and urges them together and are soon married. Cliges is born soon after. They return to Greece to discover Emperor Alexander has died, and Prince Alexander's brother Alis has usurped the throne.  Alexander, in order to make peace with his brother decides to concede that A...

Chretien de Troyes - Part 2: Erec and Enide In what is claimed to be the very first Arthurian romance ever made, Arthur starts off the story by being an ass.  Yes, you read correctly.  You will see that as much as the French adore the Arthurian tradition it is the knights themselves that will soon get all of the attention.  Arthur as well as his court continue to to be as proud and regal and famous as they have always been, if not more so, but Arthur himself, as a character, becomes an instigator.  Sometimes he is no more than a living stage prop.  He begins adventures; he makes them possible.  He becomes a goal to be reached or a solution to a problem like a rich doting grandfather.  This is not always the case of course, he still gets on a horse from time to time to go adventuring and he has not become a tyrant like he was portrayed in the Saints Lives.  Nothing like that.   He always redeems himself and by the end of the story we...

Chretien and His Works As mentioned in an earlier post, I intend on treating each of Chretien's works in its own article rather than trying to lump them in a single enormous one.  This opening article will be a short overview of Chretien and his works before we get into his individual romances. Very little is known of Chretien himself except for the little information he provides in his stories.  There are no available records from that time that mention him.  What is "known" are actually suppositions or deductions.  He is believed to possibly have been born sometime around 1140 and to have died before 1200.  He names himself "of Troyes" which is the center of the Champagne province and we know that he was associated with the court there because of his dedication to Marie de Champagne found in The Knight of the Cart.  This is backed up by the fact that Troyes was a known center of literary activity with several writers associated with it.  Aside...

Rhonabwy's Dream Rhonabwy's Dream is an interesting but very confusing Welsh short story.  It is found in a single manuscript in the Red Book of Hergest and has been dated to the late 12th to early 13th century.  The story tells of a retainer for Madog, the Prince of Powys, by the name of Rhonabwy.  (note: Madog, Prince of Powys was a real historical person).  In the tale, Madoc sends Rhonaby as part of several contingents to try to find Madog's troublesome brother who is creating havoc in the land.  Rhonabwy, while on his travels, has to stay the night in a filthy home with his companions.  Upon falling asleep on a yellow ox hide, the only clean place in the house, Rhonabwy has a dream.  In this dream Rhonabwy is transported back to the time of King Arthur where he is introduced to a cast of characters.  The principal story however seems to focus around a game of  gwyddbwyll (a chess like game) played between King Arthur and Owain (Yvain)...