Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion by Chrétien de Troyes

Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion Reviews

• 
  Gabrielle Dubois

  In the 12th century, Chrétien de Troyes wrote this story happening during the reign of King Arthur in the 6th century. A simple, but great adventure which I liked from the beginning:
  "In the past, King Arthur’s disciples were numerous and knew how to behave with honor, courtesy and generosity. This is no longer the case today. There are many who, wrongly, pretend to love while they don’t feel the slightest feeling. It’s very unfortunate to overwork Love and to make fun of it. "
  
  Each century has its writers who regret the past centuries ... and I am part of them, just as Theophile Gautier (French poet and author from the 19th century) regretted the charming little marquises of the 18th century! And Chrétien de Troyes writes: "The courtesy of a dead person is worthier of interest than the vulgarity of a living one. "
  
  Have we ever read more biting replies?
  "When the knight Keu denigrates another knight of the court, the queen says to him:
  You are odious and disrespectful.
  And Keu answers:
  Madam, if your presence among us is not a blessing, at least make sure it’s not a nuisance!
  Then Colegrant speaks:
  We cannot prevent the manure from stinking and Keu from being odious! "
  Personally, I love this frankness! 😊
  
  And can we refrain from thinking of Rabelais when de Troyes describes this character more than picturesque:
  "A big head, tousled hair, ears big and hairy like those of an elephant, thick eyebrows, flattened face, owl’s eyes, a cat's nose, mouth slit like that of a wolf, sharp and yellow boar's teeth, a red beard, the chin directly welded to the bust, a long, curved and hunched spine. "
  Who can’t feel that the author has feasted to write this description!
  
  Besides, Chrétien de Troyes is full of humour. Listen to what the knight answers to the previous character who asks him who he is:
  "I am an errant knight in search of what I cannot find. I searched a lot, but in vain. "
  There is parody here, or my name is not Gabrielle Dubois!
  
  But de Troyes also writes some truths:
  "It is not the one who gives the first shot that triggers the fight, but the one who replies. "
  And he also knows how to talk about love:
  "Injury of love is more durable than a spear blow. " (I’m not sure at all about my English, here…!
  
  And then, from time to time, there are small morals, precursor of Jean de Lafontaine: "Like all the preachers who are only liars and preach a moral they don’t practice, I offer you advices that I would be unable to follow."
  It reminds us that if costumes change, men remain the same.
  
  Finally, isn’t there in Yvain, the Knight with the Lion all the ingredients of a good story, if not a tale? Proud knights, beautiful ladies, cracked skulls from which the blood drips in waves, horses sliced in half by iron gates like guillotines, battles between knight and giant where the comparisons between the flesh of men and the meat of the butcher is at the same time bloody and comical: blood-red humor! There are also humans looking like animals, rings giving the power of invisibility, and spells. But can someone tell me what did Tolkien invent? 😉
  
  And if men are knights, brave or coward, women, who don’t have the leisure to go to war, have more time to make their minds work. The way Lady Laudine and her maid Lunette (who leads the game) lead the whole court to their idea is worthy of the greatest minds.
  
  What more can I tell you? Even death is picturesque in this story: "A lord, having had a dispute with death, was compelled to succumb. "
  
  So, open your heart and your ears at once, for the wind is quick to carry away the words you only hear. And what will you hear in this book? That a great question is asked: who is the most devastating among men : love or war? Then, tell around you about these knights, for, as Chrétien de Troyes writes so maliciously, "what’s the point to perform feats if we don’t make them know? " "what’s the point to perform feats if they are not known? "
• 
  Bryn Greenwood

  I loved this translation nearly as much as I love the original text. Cline has a great ear for rhyme and rhythm, captures the breathless excitement of Yvain’s battle with Sir Esclados perfectly.
• 
  Mia

  The great thing about classics like this one is that we’ve gained this great reverence for them, maybe just by virtue of how old and enduring they are, but so often if you actually take the time to read them you find they’re quite entertaining. To people in Chrétien de Troyes’ time, the idea of studying “low entertainment” like this would’ve been absurd—and yet I’m writing an essay on this very book for my Western Classics in Translation class.
  
  When you get past the pretence that capital-C Classics are complicated books for big-brained lit majors, there’s a lot of fun to be had. Like Yvain, in which our titular knight really just manufactures his own problems and then laments them. He kills a giant, adopts a lion, and fights a bunch of people but for seemingly no other reason than that it’s something to do. And there’s this side plot about Love and the pain of losing it and whatever but the only reason Yvain’s lover broke up with him is because he couldn’t bring himself to stop jousting all the goddamn time. It’s fun and it’s dumb and I love that I was so apprehensive about reading a twelfth century French chivalric romance only for it to turn out to be little more than a rollicking bedtime story.
• 
  Anna Groover

  Things this medieval romance made me want to do: befriend a lion who then follows me around like a loyal dog; unknowingly battle my BKBF (Best Knight Bro Forever) until the sun sets and we have to stop fighting and ONLY THEN realize that it's my BKBF and not some random knight; and, of course, go feral and live in the woods thanks to my wife breaking my heart because I broke a promise to her
• 
  Pierre E. Loignon

  Avant que la Renaissance trouve son âge d’or dans l’Antiquité, ce qui sera qualifié de bas Moyen-Âge le trouvera dans les légendes arthuriennes du haut Moyen-Âge et c’est à partir de ces légendes que seront élaborés les premiers romans par Chrétien de Troyes à la fin du XIIe siècle.
  Cette invention du roman s’est faite par le coup de génie de ce traducteur virtuose qui ne s’est pas contenté de traduire quelques légendes en sa langue, mais les a transposées dans un tout autre esprit qui exigeait un tout nouveau genre d’écriture où l’on ne se contente pas de « rêves, de fables ni de mensonges ». (31) Évidemment, cela n’empêchera en rien son auteur de mettre en scène un paysan qui « avait bien dix-sept pieds de hauteur » (34), un anneau qui rend invisible (51) ou un lion en Bretagne...
  Sur un autre plan, dans ce roman, les personnages suivent leur destin qui les conditionne absolument, laissant le champ libre à la naïve poésie pleine de charme qui accompagne tout le récit. On en trouve le plus joli exemple lorsque « Amour…attaque Yvain doucement en le frappant au cœur par les yeux », elle lui inflige alors une plus profonde blessure qu’un coup d’épée, qui « cicatrise très vite, dès qu’un médecin s’en occupe, tandis que la blessure d’Amour empire plus elle est près de son médecin. » (60)
  Ce roman, d’abord récit d’aventure, d’amour et de folie est capables de plaire à tous les publics parce que Chrétien sait se limiter pour s’assurer de lui plaire. Le public, en effet, ne saurait apprécier quelques vérités trop sublimes pour lui. Par exemple, sur le thème de l’amour Chrétien nous dit : « je pourrais vous parler si longtemps que je n’en finirais pas d’aujourd’hui, s’il vous plaisait de m’écouter; mais quelqu’un s’empresserait peut-être de déclarer que je vous entretiens de futilités. C’est que les gens ne sont plus amoureux, et n’aiment plus comme ils le faisaient autrefois. Ils ne veulent même plus en entendre parler. » (161) On peut aussi aisément comprendre que le même motif se cache derrière les protestations de Chrétien que la vérité transcende parfois toute expression possible : « la langue ne saurait décrire tous les témoignages d’honneur qu’un gentilhomme sait donner » (46), « ces cris, manifestations d’un chagrin que je renonce à décrire, car personne ne pourrait le faire, et de plus, jamais un [chagrin] semblable n’a été raconté dans un livre » (55), « la tempête fut si terrible que nul ne pourrait en raconter le dixième » (188-189).
  Et d’ailleurs, moi-même, je n’en finirais pas de parler aujourd’hui si il me fallait donner toutes mes impressions sur ce délicieux roman, alors je souhaite à tous preux lecteurs et nobles lectrices de trouver le loisir nécessaire afin d'apprécier cet immortel ouvrage.
• 
  Yann

  C'est le premier roman du cycle Arthurien que j'attaque, et je suis véritablement séduit. Tout est construit pour soutenir l’intérêt du lecteur du début jusqu'à la fin.
• 
  Mark Adderley

  This is probably Chrétien de Troyes' greatest poem, beautifully translated into English octosyllabic couplets by Ruth Harwood Cline.
  
  The story concerns the young knight Yvain who, having killed the Knight of the Fountain, falls in love with the knight's late wife, Laudine. So that's a bit of an awkward situation. Eventually, Laudine's lady-in-waiting, Lunete, is able to persuade Laudine to marry Yvain, as he will be able to protect her realm against an impending invasion. The invasion turns out to be by King Arthur, and not a threat at all. But Yvain asks if he can leave for a year to attend tournaments and other knightly exercises. When he forgets to return to Laudine at the end of the year, his trials begin.
  
  This really is Chrétien at his best. The character psychology is plausible, the soliloquies and allegorical representations of their conflicted emotions don't get in the way of the story (as they sometimes do in Chrétien's
  Lancelot: Or, the Knight of the Cart). Most of all, Yvain's suffering once he has been rejected by Laudine, his humility before her, and the painfulness of her slow and somewhat ambiguous forgiveness all mark this as a romance of unequalled sensitivity.
  
  Chrétien de Troyes is unusual among medieval romancers. Most Arthurian romances end with the marriage of the protagonist to a beautiful lady. In this romance, and in Chrétien's
  Erec and Enide, marriage occurs a third of the way into the story, enabling Chrétien to write a story about the pitfalls and trials of one of life's greatest adventures, marriage.
• 
  saïd

  Chrétien de Troyes invente dans Yvain ou le chevalier au lion un nouveau mythe du héros accordé au monde courtois du XIIe siècle. Yvain y entreprend une quête qui le mène vers la perfection chevaleresque à travers la fièvre de l'aventure et la magie du merveilleux. De la fontaine féerique à la folie noire puis aux exploits contre des géants sanguinaires, s'accomplit une initiation symbolique à la vie et à l'amour avec l'aide d'un lion, personnage clé du roman. Meilleur chevalier du monde, Yvain relève un défi nouveau. Si, dans la longue tradition occidentale, le héros est surtout un être qui ne s'accomplit que dans la mort, à travers Yvain c'est la vie qui est exaltée. La fatalité inhérente à la figure héroïque et que Tristan assume dans sa mort d'amour, Yvain l'exorcise en s'engageant sur une voie qui ignore le pessimisme tragique du destin pour cultiver l'optimiste radieux de la volonté. Avec Yvain et son lion, le soleil, le cœur et la raison brillent sur l'héroïsme. Mélodramatique ? pas de tout !
• 
  Cody

  I bought this book by accident, to be perfectly honest with all of you. I was thinking it was a play by some author I forget, and instead I bought this story by Chretien de Troyes and imagine my surprised when I received the wrong book in the mail... I'm not sad about it, mind you. No, I'm quite thankful that the fates stepped in and gave me this book.
  
  I have never read such a story of high adventure and knighthood in my life. Yvain/Ywain, the main character, is a knight in King Arthur's court. You follow this knight on all kinds of adventures that include dragons, giants, devils, and evil knights. Plus, he has a lion for a companion. That's just awesome...
  
  This is one of the French poems written by Chretien de Troyes in the 15th century (I believe) about the adventures of the knights of King Arthur. I definitely recommend it! It's super fun!
• 
  Mack

  Ok, I'm no expert. These are French remakes of Arthurian tales, and many pages are spent on courtly love and wealth. The adventures are exciting, but nothing like you might expect.
• 
  vale figueroa

  xfin terminé esta webada 😩
• 
  Caroline

  Another great read finished for my Medieval lit. class! It was a lot of fun and I genuinely want to read the rest of the Arthurian Romances now :)
• 
  JJ W.

  Having taught this twice and had it pop up in two or three classes I've taken, I feel like I'm pretty familiar with this text--and yet I keep getting surprised by it. I'm not a huge Arthurian lit fan, and I'm definitely not a French Romance fan, but this has so many layers that it's fascinating. You have to read the endnotes of this version, you just do; the sarcasm and brilliance of Troyes are just scathingly wonderful. The translation is really good, as well, in terms of ease of reading and rhythm without being too sing-songy. (I've not read the Old French, so I can't speak to faithfulness.) The introduction is short and helpful, which is what introductions should be, and the story is allowed to be itself, which is the best kind of translation. I recommend it highly if you're looking for a teaching text, but I also recommend it just to read. Sex, fights, and really strange monsters--sure, what's not to like?
• 
  Wes Spence

  This was a little out of my usual reading material but as Yvain (Owen) is my son’s namesake I wanted to explore what made him such a popular knight.
  
  I thought a book of French poetry would be more of a struggle, but the translation quickly transported me to Camelot. Between his marital issues (forgetting as he was on adventures), how he gained his lion/best friend, to defeating the Giant that threatened to give the local princess to his henchman, this was a really fun read.
• 
  Othy

  A wonderful version of a spectacular romance. I'm partial to the Welsh version Owein better, and have had my problems with Chretien's romantics, but for Yvain the tale is really beautifully told. Cline's translation is poetic, and as I do not know any Old French, I'm not sure if it's very accurate. Still, it is very good, without too many forced modernisms, and sounds very good.
• 
  Julianna Hartcourt

  J'ai pris grand plaisir à relire ce classique des légendes Arthurienne. Cette adaptation de Jean-Pierre Tusseau se lit avec aisance. Ma chronique complète
  https://songedunenuitdete.com/2019/02...
• 
  Morganu

  Everybody says that Lancelot is the best but! I like more Yvain!!!
• 
  Adele R.

  2.5☆
• 
  Helena

  Qué largo e insulso se me ha hecho, maaaaaadre.
• 
  Emma Getz

  I wish i had a pet lion
• 
  Justine

  I started this book years ago and couldn't keep reading because I didn't like the way it was written. I decided to pick it back up and I read it entirely in an evening!
  I'm still not a great fan of the writing-style, but I focused on the story and enjoyed discovering a new Knight of the Round Table. It's unrealistic, it's far-fetched, the characters are unbelievable, but it is what makes this novel charming after all.
  I'd like to read more of Chrétien de Troyes' novels in the future!
• 
  Valdemar Lenschow

  Oprindelige anmeldelse: Ret sjov, når man har læst Don Quixote og "The Once and Future King".
  Jeg kunne også ret godt lide løven
  
  Efter anden løsning synes jeg at have en bedre værdsættelse af værket og dens rolle i den arthuriske litteratur. Nu har jeg selvfølgelig også skrevet eksamen om den.
• 
  Merey Merey

  Bought this book in a run down used bookstore in the French Quarter. Should have read it by now.
• 
  Luke

  I really enjoyed this book! A brilliant peace of French literature that had me turning the pages until the end. Also I wish I had a faithful lion like Yvain. That was my favorite part.
• 
  Czarny Pies

  Chretien de Troyes vous donne les Chevaliers de la table ronde a l'etat. Ce bijou vaut bien la peine de lire en version originalle.
• 
  Ian

  Even better the second time
• 
  Laurie-Ève

  3.5 stars
  
• 
  M F

  yvain: ultimate cat person, very gay for gawain, makes poor life choices because of peer pressure and bad timekeeping