Romans: Erec et Enide ; Le Chevalier de la Charrette ou Le Roman de Lancelot ; Le Chevalier au Lion ou Le Roman dYvain ; Le Conte du Graal ou le Roman de Perceval suivis des Chansons avec Philomena en appendice Chrétien de Troyes by Chrétien de Troyes

Romans: Erec et Enide ; Le Chevalier de la Charrette ou Le Roman de Lancelot ; Le Chevalier au Lion ou Le Roman dYvain ; Le Conte du Graal ou le Roman de Perceval suivis des Chansons avec Philomena en appendice Chrétien de Troyes Reviews

• 
  J.C.

  Erec et Enide (one of a series)
  
  Never mind Erec. This one’s about Enide. I came across a house called “Enid”, in Wales, and decided to re-read an old twelfth-century lay I hadn’t read since student days. Chrétien de Troyes wrote down his courtly stories because he was fed up of storytellers changing his tales to suit themselves and make more money (not a new phenomenon, then!).
  Yes, this one turned out to be mainly set in Wales; King Arthur was holding court in Cardigan, although the characters seem to leap about between Wales, Cornwall, Edinburgh, Nantes and Liège fairly easily with no need of a journey of several weeks, and there’s no mention of a boat. I couldn’t find my old book at first (published by Mario Roques) and I read the storyline through quickly, in a prose translation; but what a joy when I tracked down the Old French original (on the top shelf, gathering dust)!
  Immediately it was a different experience. The stolid English prose had done it to death. The Old French octosyllabic poem was full of life and fun. Instead of plodding dismally through the forest they galloped. Enide had to ride in front of Erec, and not tell him when she saw danger approaching; not very chivalrous! But Erec had to prove his prowess to her after she had dared to hint to him that people were talking about him going soft. He happily placed her in danger so that he could show off saving her. I wasn’t impressed with this, but I suppose it’s better than our old friend Stenka Razin who chucked his bride into the river when his crew made fun of him. Enide puts up with her 'punishment' as a dutiful wife should but manages to outwit him and thereby demonstrate her faithful love, although it takes a while to sink in to her courtly husband’s brain.
  It seems Chrétien had been influenced by Ovid, whose works are apparently popular with feminists in this day and age. Ovid is a glaring omission from my reading, which I will remedy with more alacrity now Enide has come to light again. It is perhaps thanks to Ovid’s enlightened attitude to women that we have occasional insights into Enide's thinking and her patient endurance – and also her cleverness in dealing with a couple of unwelcome suitors while Erec either doesn’t realise what’s going on or else is bleeding almost to death from fights with knights. She’s noble, too. What Erec can do, she can do better – with the exception, of course, of all that heroic sparring.
  I’m making fun of the courtly tale; but the language of this is just brilliant. The first thing that happens is that King Arthur hunts the White Stag. Chrétien writes this, “Le Blanc Cerf”; I shivered. It reminded me of the sinister Magua in “The Last of the Mohicans”. It’s the strange note sounded by the placing of the adjective before the noun; it elevates, and here strikes one as mysterious and savage.
  There were times when reading this poem that a dramatic tone was achieved by means of what seemed to be a shorter couplet at the end of a section; I had to remind myself that Old French was pronounced differently and that the octosyllabic metre was still exact (emphasised in this edition by an accent over a vowel). But it was that sort of effect in the Old French that couldn’t be conveyed in the translation, useful though it was. It’s time I gave an example. When Enide is betrothed to Erec, her entire family is consumed with joy, as this will elevate them to the noble status of Enide’s mother and rescue them from poverty; but in the last two lines, which appear shorter, it’s almost as if Enide is having a secret smile to herself :
  
  Grant joie font tuit par leanz :
  Li peres an ert mult joianz,
  et la mere plore de joie,
  et la pucele ert tote coie,
  mes molt estoit joianz et liee
  qu’ele li estoit otroiee,
  por ce que preuz et cortois,
  et bien savoit qu’il serait rois
  et ele meïsme enoree,
  riche reïne coronee.
  
  ((Great joy was had by all,
  her father was over the moon,
  her mother weeping for joy,
  and the girl quite calm,
  though quite happy and content
  that she was given to him,
  as he was brave and gallant,
  and she knew he would be king,
  and she, honoured,
  crowned a rich queen.)
  
  
  She’s a young girl who can’t help thinking – no matter how courtly and heroic Erec might be – that she will become a queen. She must have been really fed up with Erec when he refused to allow her to be given a new dress for when he takes her to court, and makes her appear in her ragged old shift (he wants the queen to dress her, but is not concerned that she has to undergo the humiliation of arriving at court in her rags!).
  What is interesting is that Enide develops, through her love for Erec and her consciousness of her role as his wife, no matter what their fortunes might be, as he forces her on his relentless quest for adventure (with her as the bait). She becomes a strong and clever woman, and when she does become queen, in the court at Nantes, she is no longer the young girl in love with a courtly image, but a woman who has saved her husband’s life, and (finally) had him recognise her quality.
  I don’t want to write about the symbolic elements of the tale, such as when, in the climax to his adventures, Erec must find, and rescue, la “Joie de la Cort” (another rather stylised knight). I’m not qualified to write an academic critique. I see myself as one of the crowd who listened to one of the Hollywood versions proclaimed by the travelling storyteller. Maybe the men listened to the descriptions of the jousting, and the challenges of rogue knights, but I think the women would really have felt for Enide, and would probably have shaken their fists at Erec!
  
  Enid is mentioned somewhere in The Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh legendary tales, which I intend to have a look at next. But I have Chrétien’s other lays, and will treat myself to another, one of these days!
• 
  Lo2source

  Lecture d'une seule partie
  3/5 Le Conte du Graal
• 
  Cerys Evans

  I promise this isn't me being pretentious, I had to read it for one of my modules.