Theme: Love & Adventure 2 Developments  Anglo-Norman interest in ‘matière de Bretagne’: HRB – Wace – Eleanor&Henry (family tree), also Marie de France (Lais based on Breton songs, Lanval)  Courtliness & courtly love

Courtliness and Love  Historical developments (agricultural improvements, feudal pyramid) >> courtly culture (castles (ppt), prosperity & leisure time; rules of conduct (Bumke, Elias), feelings under control  Trobadors (langue d’oc): fin’ amors for the gentleman-poet and his circle  Aquitaine >> Eleanor steeped in courtly love, moves North (langue d’oïl)  Courtly culture spreads in courts under her influence, troubadour lyrics and new genre of Arthurian romance!

Champagne  Marie, Eleanor’s daughter, holds court in Troyes  Andreas Capellanus, De Amore libri tres (ca. 1185) >> description of amourous matters, discussions in ‘Cour d’amour’ >> handout  Love’s sweet sorrows; dilemma’s  New form of conduct, role models for men and women (cf. HRB)

Chrétien de Troyes  Court cleric in Marie’s service, perhaps also of the English king  No biographical information, except his own prologues, giving name, patron and sources  Also: matière, san, conjointure >> poetical method

Chrétien’s works  Cligés prologue  Erec & Enide: Love and knighthood, social functions of the married man  Cligés: love triangle (anti Tristan)  Yvain: Knighthood and Love  Lancelot  Conte du Graal ou Perceval >> next week

 Parijs BN 122

Lancelot  Prologue (san, matière come from Marie; Chrétien adds craftsmanship, conjointure)  Story: Méléagant, Keu, don, rescue by Gauvain and anonymous knight, cart, sword bridge, fight I, harsh queen, misunderstandings, reconciliation, rendez- vous in barred room, blood on the sheets, judicial duel (fight II), return to court, Lancelot’s captivity, tournament, deliverance and ‘happy’ end (Godefroi de Leigni)  Adultery condoned? Other world

Lanzelet  Mystification name: oral tales about the queen’s lover  Example: Ulrich von Zatzikhoven’s Lanzelet >> strange youth, mermaids, ladies’ man (text connected to Richard Lionheart, hostages)  Introduction greatest lover leads to new texts

Prose Lancelot  Around 1200: verse-prose debate  True Story about Arthur, Lancelot and the Grail: Vulgate Cycle, based upon *non-cyclic Lancelot and prose version Chrétien’s text  Trilogy and fivefold cycle (diagram)  Text read in tr. Lacy

Guidelines for Friday E. Do Lancelot and Guinevere understand each other? F. What was the motive for Lancelot’s actions? Dante: What is the role of Galehaut / Galeotto? A.Is the discovery of the lovers a sad event? B.Do Lancelot and Guinevere feel guilty?