Knightly novels and stories. Celtic tales in a French chivalric romance

on the topic: The originality of the English novels of the Arthurian cycle

Introduction

The Old English epic from the time of its inception was distinguished by great originality, since it absorbed not only the Germanic, but also the Celtic epic and folklore tradition.

The image of King Arthur united a large cycle of chivalric novels, transforming and changing in different historical eras. Based on the legends of King Arthur, the novels "Arthur" (Arthur), "Arthur and Merlin" (Arthur and Merlin), "Lancelot of the Lake" and others were created. The legends about his exploits were popular not only in knightly, but also among the people. There was a belief that King Arthur would rise from the tomb and return to earth. Legends about King Arthur and his knights are connected with the plots of many French and English novels. Along with the knights are the wizard Merlin and the fairy Morgana. The fairy-tale element gives a special entertainment to the story.

Consider in this paper the originality of the English novels of the Arthurian cycle.

1. English literature of the early Middle Ages<#"justify">. Prerequisites for the formation of myths about Arthur

The Celtic element in the Arthurian legends is the oldest and most significant. By the beginning of our era, the Celtic civilization had already broken up into several autonomous branches, between which, of course, there was a constant exchange, they had common origins, but the paths and destinies were different, as well as the contribution to the formation of Arthurian legends. It was also important that many Celtic tribes had a ban on recording sacred and literary texts. When this ban was lifted, or rather, forgotten, only the latest versions of Celtic legends and traditions were recorded.

Traces of Irish and Welsh versions of myths and legends in the Arthurian tales are seen much more clearly than the pro-Celtic element. However, for example, the Celtic cult of lakes and springs reached the Arthurian tradition, in which a lot is said about water: the heroes spend entire periods of their lives in the depths of lakes (Lancelot was raised in an underwater castle by the Lady of the Lake), emerges from the lake and returns to the lake King Arthur's sword - Excalibur. The theme of the ford, which is not given to everyone to find and at which decisive battles of heroes take place, is also very characteristic of Arthurian legends.

It should also be noted that the cult of animals, which was widespread among the Celts, was often endowed with supernatural power and was with a person in a difficult relationship, sometimes enmity, sometimes friendship. In Arthurian legends, horses, boars, hawks, and dogs almost certainly have their own names and enter into active communication with people, while maintaining independence from them.

Here it is interesting to mention the role of the raven in the Arthurian cycle: according to legend, Arthur did not die, but turned into a raven, and when Britain is in mortal danger, he will return and save her. Among the Celts, the raven was a mythical character. "This bird ... was associated with the cult of the Sun, and later ... was associated with warrior deities ...".

It would be erroneous to say that the Celtic legends are the direct source of the legends about the Round Table of King Arthur, but they underlie these legends, and, probably, as A.D. Mikhailov notes, “... Irish sagas are ... a parallel, to some extent even a model of the legends of King Arthur. We should not build straight genetic series here.” Thus, it is imprudent to see in King Ulad Conchobar the prototype of King Arthur, but his wisdom and justice are similar to the qualities of the King of Armorica, and his court in Emain Maha resembles Arthur's Camelot. “Truly, all the valiant warriors from among the men of Ulad found a place for themselves in the royal house during drinking, and yet there was no crowding. Brilliant, stately, beautiful were the valiant warriors, the people of Ulad, who gathered in this house. Many great assemblies of every kind and wondrous amusements took place there. There were games, music and singing, heroes showed feats of dexterity, poets sang their songs, harpists and musicians played various instruments.

In the legends of King Arthur, we find echoes of Celtic myths. As A.D. Mikhailov notes: “At the same time, the multilayeredness of myths can hardly be taken into account with sufficient accuracy. Let us add that the legends about Arthur recorded in the Welsh texts are of secondary origin,<...>they have a lot of Irish elements. There is more than one layer in the Celtic mythological system. This system developed in constant interaction and clash with the rudiments of the mythology of the Picts (who gave the world culture the prototype of Tristan) and with the legends of neighboring peoples (in particular, obviously, the Scandinavians, who had long raided the British Isles). In addition to the multi-layered cultural traditions that influenced the formation of legends about the Round Table of King Arthur, Christianity was a very effective factor in their development. The British Isles, especially Ireland, were Christianized very early and very peacefully. The Celtic pagan culture was not destroyed, but enriched the Christian one, which, in turn, brought with it the traditions of Greek and Roman literature, and they found firm ground here. It was thanks to folk beliefs that were not supplanted by Christianity, but that they adapted to it, that Arthurian legends turned out to be so saturated with motives of the supernatural, miraculous, and fantastic. Thus, the characteristic features of the Celtic worldview in some ways even intensified due to the transformations caused by Christianity.

Let's look at specific examples. So, Merlin probably inherited the features of the Celtic poet and soothsayer Myrddin, a clairvoyant, able to penetrate into all the secrets of the past, present and future. This character embodied all the supernatural features that, according to the Celts, are inherent in filids. Mirddin, who in medieval legends turned into Merlin, was born from a girl and as a baby was already wise as an old man.

The story of the origin of King Arthur and the description of his path to the throne is very interesting. According to Celtic traditions, "when a new king ascended the throne, the filid had to confirm the noble origin of the applicant and take an oath of allegiance to ancient customs from him." When Arthur pulls the sword Excalibur out of the stone, the magician Merlin is present, testifying to the noble origin of Arthur, and the Christian archbishop, blessing him to the kingdom, and also taking an oath from him to be a true king and stand for justice (remember how easily and quickly passed Christianization in the Celtic environment).

Some researchers also find echoes of Celtic legends in the story of how Arthur, the son of Uther and Igerna, was born. So, X. Adolf writes in his essay “The concept of reflection in the Arthurian chivalric novel of original sin”: “We do not know what Uther is - an incorrect reading of a name, a person or God; we do not know what exactly Igerna supposedly did; whether this simple "war leader" belonged to the ruling family, whether he was a new Hercules, whether he was descended from a Celtic God.

The role of women in the Arthurian cycle is also noteworthy. The Celts adopted “the custom of inheriting through the female line. For example, the hero of a medieval legend of Celtic origin, Tristan, succeeded his mother's brother, King Mark. It is interesting to note that the name of King Arthur's wife, who plays a significant role in the cycle, is found in old Welsh texts, where it sounds like Gwynfevar - "white spirit". In the course of the development and transformation of Arthurian myths, the cult of the Virgin Mary is superimposed on the traditions of the Celts, which gives rise to one of the most common themes of the cycle - the theme of the Beautiful Lady.

Another image of the Arthurian legends, Gawain, throughout the development of Arthuriana retains a number of its original features that characterize the initial stage in the formation of myths about Arthur. Under the name of Valvein or Guolchmai, he becomes one of the earliest characters in the Arthurian cycle.

Welsh by birth, he is endowed with such primitive and rude features that it is difficult for the Anglo-Normans to accept.

Few of these traits Gawain carries through the entire cycle. They are preserved even in the text of Malory, referring to the end of the 15th century: its strength increases from dawn to noon and disappears at sunset; his maternal kinship is much more important than that of his father; everything connected with Gawain bears the stamp of magic, and in general his adventures have a special element of fantasy and even grotesque.

From the very beginning he was one of the most prominent associates of Arthur and was too eminent a figure to disappear afterwards. This did not happen, but as new characters appeared who "usurped" many of the features and adventures of Gawain, he gradually faded into the shadows. Professor E. Vinaver writes: “The story of Gawain is especially interesting.

Gawain, as a simple and rude nature, in which the features characteristic of the pre-feudal era still strongly affect, from the point of view of the church and feudal norms, was morally unacceptable. Initially, he apparently acted as the queen's lover, who saved her from imprisonment in the other world. Only much later, not Gawain, but Lancelot became Guinevere's lover. And, of course, it was Lancelot who inherited many of the features originally characteristic of Gawain.

In the story of the war between Arthur and the emperor Lucius, Gawain is given a heroic role. And at the end of the book, despite the fact that Gawain's hatred for Lancelot and the determination to avenge his relatives entail tragic consequences, his image acquires a truly epic grandeur, which even his shortcomings seem to contribute to. Perhaps it is necessary to take into account here that Malory used both French and English sources, and some of these contradictions are explained by the method of his work.

T. Malory's conflict between Gawain and Lancelot symbolizes the struggle between two different ideas, two worlds. Gawain represents the old world, its deepest feelings (for example, the feeling of blood relationship). Lancelot personifies the new (although, perhaps, due to the archaic nature of the historical material underlying the Arthurian cycle, and in this hero there is a struggle between the old and the new), his loyalty is the loyalty of the vassal to his overlord. In this struggle, the unstable balance between the two worlds, maintained by the Round Table, collapsed.

Not only the image of Gawain undergoes various changes in the course of how Arthuriana is transformed under the influence of socio-cultural reasons - the image of Arthur himself acquires a new meaning (in early myths, he himself, his deeds and relationships with others are of great interest; in later versions, the hero, as a rule, is one of the knights of the Round Table, while Arthur is given the role of a symbol), ideals affirmed by legends (if at first the main theme is military achievements, then the norms of courtly ignorance are preached later), etc.

Consider the first written sources of the formation of Arturiana. The mention of Arthur by Nennius, dated 858, which speaks of the famous commander of the Britons (dux bellonan), who won twelve victories over the Anglo-Saxons and Picts, can hardly be considered mythological. Note, however, that some researchers consider it as an indication of the Arthurian legend, which by this time had already firmly won the sympathy of people. So, for example, M.P. Alekseev argues that “Gildas (6th century) still does not say anything about Arthur, although he tells in detail about the struggle of the Celts against the Anglo-Saxon conquerors; nothing is reported about him by Anglo-Saxon sources, for example, Bede, chronicles. So, let's see where the literary versions of the Arthurian cycle originate.

For a long time, legends about Arthur existed only in oral folk art, and Latin sources report only the popularity of Arthurian legends in the Celtic environment (William of Malmesbury, who wrote at the beginning of the 12th century, not without condemnation, noted the extreme spread among the population of legends about Arthur, which the people “rave to Today"). These sources, as E. Faral believed, served as the starting point for Geoffrey of Monmouth, his "History of the Britons", which appeared about ten years after the works of William of Malmesbury, since it was in this book that Arthur was first depicted in full growth as a monarch conquering the world, surrounded by an exquisite court and the bravest knights.

Geoffrey lived on the borders of Wales, his immediate patrons were the marcher barons, who established new forms of feudal power in this area. His "History" was dedicated to the most powerful of them - Earl Robert of Gloucester, and for political reinsurance and his enemy Stephen of Blois. There is no doubt that Geoffrey had a good opportunity to get acquainted with the traditions of Wales. As he claimed, he even had in his possession "one very ancient book in the language of the Britons," although no trace of such a book or anything like that has survived. In any case, she could only give him meager material. It is also possible that he knew some legends, later completely forgotten, that circulated in Cornwall and Brittany.

It must be assumed that such legends really existed and Galfrid learned a lot from them for his book. In this regard, it is interesting that, although Geoffrey cannot but speak of the people's belief in the miraculous salvation of Arthur, he refutes this legend to the best of his ability. Geoffrey's "History" immediately won strong popularity, and everyone who later turned to this topic drew a lot from this book.

Let us dwell in more detail on how Galfrid tells about the legendary king. First of all, in the History of the Britons, Arthur is a wise and just ruler. As A.D. Mikhailov writes, “in the image of Galfrid, he becomes on a par with such ideal rulers (according to the ideas of the Middle Ages) as Alexander the Great or Charlemagne. But this is not yet a wise old man, whitened with gray hair, as Arthur will appear in the works of the closest successors of Geoffrey of Monmouth.

In the "History of the Britons" the reader passes the whole life of the hero. The greatest attention is paid to his numerous victorious campaigns, how he diligently and wisely "gathers the lands" and creates a vast and powerful empire. And this empire perishes not because of the luck or courage of its enemies, but because of human credulity, on the one hand, and treachery, on the other. Along with Arthur’s military achievements, Geoffrey tells us about the main features of his character, thereby laying the foundation for the myth of the “fairest of kings”: “The boy Arthur was fifteen years old, and he was distinguished by unheard-of valor and the same generosity. His innate benevolence was so attractive to him that there was almost no one who did not love him. So, crowned with a king's crown, and following the old custom, he began to shower the people with his bounty.

It is Geoffrey of Monmouth who introduces into the story of King Arthur a romantic motif about the destructiveness of female charms - "the cause of the death of the powerful Arthurian power is, ultimately, the infidelity of Guinevere, who entered into a love affair with Mordred, the king's nephew."

. Classical Arturiana

Speaking of classical Arthurian, it is necessary to imagine the peculiarities of the mentality of a medieval person, as well as the sociocultural processes that formed him. Only then does it become possible to figure out why the need arose in that mythological reality, in that second idealized world, which is represented in the works of Layamon, Chrétien de Troyes, Vass, Eschenbach, and others. Thinking about the history of previous eras, people cannot but compare them with your time. But when comparing our era or civilization with others, we tend to apply our own modern standards to them. But if we try to see the past as it "really" was, in Ranke's words, then we will inevitably face the need to evaluate it objectively, to try to understand how a person of one or another era perceived the world around us.

Reflecting on the culturological significance of the legends about the Round Table of King Arthur, it is necessary, if possible, to take into account the uniqueness of the vision of the world inherent in medieval man. A lot of things in this era seem irrational, contradictory. The constant interweaving of polar opposites: gloomy and comical, bodily and spiritual, life and death is an integral feature of the medieval worldview. Such contrasts found their basis in the social life of the era - in the irreconcilable opposites of domination and submission, wealth and poverty, privilege and humiliation.

Medieval Christian worldview, as it were, removed real contradictions, translating them into the highest plan of all-encompassing supra-world categories.

It should also be noted that the “image of the world”, which had developed in the minds of representatives of different social strata and stages of feudal society, was not the same: knights, townspeople, peasants treated reality differently, which could not but leave a certain imprint on medieval culture. culture.

It should not be overlooked that (since literacy was the property of the few) in this culture, the authors mainly addressed the listeners, and not the readers, therefore, it was dominated by spoken rather than read texts. Moreover, these texts, as a rule, were unconditionally accepted on faith. As N.I. Konrad noted, “the “love potion” in the novel “Tristan and Isolde” is not mysticism at all, but simply a product of the pharmacology of that time, and not only for the heroes of the novel, but also for Gottfried of Strasbourg, not to mention about his predecessors in story processing".

On the one hand, the medieval worldview was distinguished by its integrity - hence its specific non-differentiation, the non-segmentation of its individual spheres; this is where confidence in the unity of the universe comes from. Therefore, the culture of the Middle Ages should be considered as a unity of different spheres, each of which reflects all the creative practical activity of people of that time. From this point of view, one should obviously consider the cycles about the Round Table of King Arthur.

On the other hand, all social processes in Britain were closely connected with the relations between different ethnic groups, the formation of the ethnic identity of the Anglo-Saxons and, later, the British. As E.A. Sherwood notes: “The transition from a tribe to a new ethnic community was closely connected with them (Anglo-Saxons - OL.) ​​with the transition from a pre-state form of organization of society to a state one.” All this is closely connected with the change and impact on the life of society of certain socio-cultural conditions.

The opposition of various ethnic groupings to each other, their influence on each other, and sometimes their merging and the birth of a new perception of the world by the formed ethnic community - all this is directly dependent on the awareness of territorial boundaries and on the relationship between people as landowners.

With the expansion of the spatial distribution of the new ethnos and with the emergence of awareness of territorial unity, society "was delimited internally on a social basis, opposing itself only to external groups of other ethnicities." Thus, along with the formation and development of territorial and ethnic self-awareness, the Anglo-Saxons were developing and becoming more complex in the social structure of society. And further, as E.A. Sherwood: “Despite ... the conquest of England by immigrants from France, despite attempts to introduce in England the same orders that dominated the continent and slowed down the formation of peoples due to the emergence of classical feudalism there, in England ... the English people arose very quickly . The early withering away of the feudal basis with the preservation of only the forms of the feudal system, the early involvement of the bulk of the free population in public life led to the rapid addition of conditions for the formation of the English nation ... ". All these aspects, of course, left a certain imprint on the further development of the legends about King Arthur.

Reflecting on the culturological significance of the Arthurian cycle, one cannot but take into account that from the very beginning there was a sharp difference between the processing of these legends in England and in France.

England has always retained that pseudo-historical background that Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced into the legends about Arthur, although this background constantly changed and developed under the influence of French adaptations of the same plots. At the same time, French authors of poetic and prose chivalric novels were interested in the personality of the hero, describing his adventures in every possible way, as well as the events of his personal life and the vicissitudes of refined and artificial different love. In addition, in the English version there is always an epic scope that is completely absent in the French. These differences are revealed very early - already when comparing the pro-cenions of Layamon, who wrote in English, and Vasa, who wrote in the Norman-French dialect. Both authors borrow their plot directly from Geoffrey of Monmouth, but Vasa's novel is distinguished by its sharpness of style compared to Layamon's simple folk and epic novel.

Layamon, for example, constantly remembers that Arthur was not a French, but a British king, but for Vas this has almost no zeal. Everything related to Arthur in England helped to strengthen the growing national spirit and fed on it, although, of course, we can talk about the existence of a British or English nation in the period of the Middle Ages. Although the Round Table is first mentioned in The History of the Britons, it is rather Lilon's development of the Arthurian story that is of interest. This plot, in an early version already found in Welsh legends, owed its development to a large extent to the orders of chivalry that arose in the 12th century. But it is also associated with legends about the military detachments of kings or leaders of the feudal "heroic age".

In French legends, the leading principle is the chivalric principle, which was an integral part of the refined atmosphere of the royal courts that arose everywhere in that era, and served as the motivation for all sorts of fantastic adventures. In contrast to the emu, Layamon emphasizes ancient motifs that sounded even in Welsh legends. As a truly epic poet, he connects the legend with bloody battles for the means of subsistence.

Layamon's style is very different from that of Vasa, which is explained by the difference in the intentions of the authors. Thus, Layamon, in the opening verses of his Brutus, declared that he wanted to tell "about the noble deeds of the English," and this theme, indeed, is the basis for him; he loves valor, energy, power, brave speeches and heroic battles; knightly courtly adventures are still alien to him, as well as the sentimental interpretation of love.

No wonder that Layamon interprets the image of Arthur in a completely different way than you. Where it comes to military fun and feasts, “if Layamon does not skimp on the image of the pomp and splendor of the legendary British royal court, then he does it mainly from patriotic motives, to characterize the power, strength and glory of Britain, and not just from picturesque -decorative, aesthetic considerations, which often led Vas.

The difference between these two authors is also manifested in the extent to which religious motives are present in their works. If in Layamon all the heroes are staunch defenders of Christianity, and all the villains are by all means pagans, then Vas is trying, if possible, not to touch upon the topic of faith and remain a secular writer.

One of the most prominent medieval authors who addressed the Arthurian theme was the French novelist Chretien de Troyes. The Arthurian world of Chrétien de Troyes arose long ago, exists for a very long time, in fact always, but exists outside of contact with the world of reality, in a different dimension. It is no coincidence that the kingdom of Arthur's Logre does not have clear boundaries for Chrétien de Troyes, it is not geographically localized: Arthur reigns where the spirit of chivalry exists. And vice versa: the latter is possible only thanks to Arthur, who is its embodiment and the highest guarantor. For Chrétien de Troyes, Arthur's kingdom becomes a poetic utopia, not a social utopia, but above all a moral utopia.

In his novels, Chrétien de Troyes refuses to give a detailed account of the hero's entire life. It is as if he chooses from the eternal existence of the Arthurian world a typical hero and a vivid episode, to which the novel dedicates. Therefore, in a novel there is always one hero (the novel is usually named after him) and one conflict, around which all the action is concentrated. You can, of course, talk not about one hero, but about one love couple, but women in novels still occupy a subordinate place, although sometimes they play a very significant role. The concentration of the plot around one episode in which the young hero acts leads to the fact that King Arthur, the personification and protector of true chivalry, practically does not take part in the action. As far as the hero is young, active and capable of self-development, the king is infinitely wise, old and essentially static.

An important feature of the novels of Chrétien de Troyes is the atmosphere of happy love that fills them, a sublime idea of ​​a feat. Meaningful love and meaningful feat go hand in hand, they exalt a person, affirm his right to a deeply individual, unique inner world.

The hero of Chretin's novels is of the same type. He is a knight, but this is not the main thing; he is always young. Young Erec ("Erek and Enida"), who first comes to the court of King Arthur; Yvain ("Ivain, or the Knight of the Lion"), although he has already received recognition as a member of the Arthurian knightly brotherhood, is also young, and the main adventures are still ahead of him; Lancelot is no exception (“Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart”), his character is also in internal formation, in motion, although he does not undergo such strong changes as the characters of Yvain and Erek. The main plot of the novels of Chrétien de Troyes can be formulated as follows: "... a young hero-knight in search of moral harmony." These are the main features of the Arthurian novel by Chrétien de Troyes

This is how J. Brereton formulates the essence of the novels of Chrétien de Trois in his book “A Brief History of French Literature”: “... endless adventures and exploits with weapons in their hands, love stories, seductions, captivity. A lonely tower, a dark forest, a girl on a horse, an evil dwarf - everything appears in curiously detailed descriptions and can hardly be called symbolism. These novels are not built on an allegorical or symbolic narrative; they are oriented towards a mythological worldview, which determines their special composition and the special motivation of the plot. “... Chretien de Troyes can describe the ideal order in the “endless” kingdom of Logres, where everything is subject to the will of the just King Arthur, and then calmly declare that the knight who left the royal castle of Camelot immediately found himself in an enchanted forest teeming with Arthur’s opponents ".

For the author, there is no contradiction in such a transition at all: after all, he describes two different realities, mythologically coexisting, but not interconnected, and the hero’s transition from one to another is instantaneous and is not realized by him. J. Brereton identifies two topics that interest Chrétien de Troy the most: "the duty of a knight by vocation - the honor and prestige of a warrior - and the duty in relation to his lady."

It is probably these two motives that cause the greatest protest from Payen de Mezière, the “author” of the novel The Mule Without a Bridle (if Chrétien de Troyes is translated as “Christian from Troyes”, then Payen de Mezière is “The Pagan from Mezière”, a town located nearby from Troyes; who was hiding behind this pseudonym - one or more authors - we do not know). In The Mule Without a Bridle, Gauvin, the main character, has no need to defend his honor and prestige as the strongest fighter - no one, and, first of all, the heroine herself, who, on her own initiative, gives him a kiss before he completes the task, does not doubt the success of the knight (which cannot be said, for example, about Sir Kay, who is present here). Moreover, in The Mule Without a Bridle, a villan turns out to be worthy of all respect - a man of far from noble birth; in the novels of Chrétien de Troyes, the villains were usually opposed to the knights by rudeness and cowardice, but here the villans are superbly polite and courageous.

The relationship between the knight and the ladies is also very far from the ideals of Chrétien de Troyes. Having promised to become a wife to the one who returns her bridle, the girl safely leaves Arthur's castle, apparently having forgotten about this promise, and the knight does not even think of keeping her. Moreover, before getting the bridle, Gowen has dinner in the company of some beautiful lady, who turns out to be the sister of the heroine. The latter treats the knight so cordially, apparently fully appreciating her hospitality, that the narrator is forced to shut up and refuse to describe the dinner.

Of course, the situations are far from the ideals of Chrétien de Troyes, all of whose characters are in one way or another fighting for marital happiness (the exception is Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart, the author wrote this novel by order of Maria Champagne). Such controversy is a very interesting example of how the Arthurian legends expressed and shaped the ideals of the Middle Ages, especially considering that Payen de Maizières left the mythological basis of the chivalric romance unchanged.

In the middle of the 14th century, the anonymous English novel Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appears. B. Grebanier characterizes it as follows: “Of all poetic novels, none can be compared in beauty with the novel of the nameless author of the middle of the XIV century “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, one of the most exquisite works among those that have come down to us from medieval literature. It is also an allegory, the purpose of which is to give an example of chastity, courage and honor - the qualities inherent in a perfect knight. As a rather late work, the novel is allegorical through and through, "Aude" glorifies Christian virtues in complex allegories and in this it merges with the typical genre of the era - a didactic allegorical poem that arose already entirely on urban soil. middle ages english king arthur

As we can see, the differences in the interpretation of the Arthurian legends by authors of different nationalities or simply adhering to different points of view are undeniable. At the same time, the chivalric romances that form the classical Arthurian have a common feature: they are built on the same mythological basis. Raising various problems or discussing the priority of certain values, they create a single ideal world, a second reality, which includes the norms of behavior, the qualities attributed to knights, and the peculiarities of their environment.

The normalized Arthur and his court were the epitome of chivalry. Let us consider what traits were associated with the ideal of a knight.

The knight had to come from a good family. True, sometimes they were knighted for exceptional military exploits, but almost all the knights of the Round Table flaunt their generosity, among them there are many royal sons, almost everyone has a luxurious family tree.

A knight must be distinguished by beauty and attractiveness. In most of the Arthurian cycles, a detailed description of the heroes is given, as well as their robes, emphasizing the outward virtues of the knights.

The knight needed strength, otherwise he would not be able to wear armor that weighed sixty to seventy kilograms. He showed this strength, as a rule, even in his youth. Arthur himself pulled out a sword stuck between two stones, being quite young (however, it was not without magic).

A knight must have professional skills: manage a horse, wield a weapon, etc.

The knight was expected to tirelessly care for his glory. Glory required constant confirmation, overcoming more and more new trials. Yvain from Chrétien de Troy's novel Yvain, or the Knight of the Lion cannot stay with his wife after the wedding. Friends make sure that he does not pamper himself in inaction and remembers what his fame obliges him to do. He had to wander until the opportunity to fight with someone turned up. There is no point in doing good deeds if they are destined to remain unknown. Pride is perfectly justified, unless it is exaggerated. Rivalry for prestige leads to stratification within the fighting elite, although, in principle, all knights are considered equal, which in Arthurian legend is symbolized by the Round Table at which they sit.

It is clear that with such constant concern for prestige, courage is required from a knight, and the most difficult accusation is the accusation of lack of courage. The fear of being suspected of cowardice led to a violation of the elementary rules of strategy (for example, Erec in Chrétien de Troy's novel "Erec and Enid" forbids Enida, who is riding ahead, to warn him of danger). Sometimes it ended with the death of the knight and his squad. Courage is also necessary for the performance of the duty of fidelity and loyalty.

The relentless rivalry did not break the solidarity of the knightly elite as such, a solidarity that extended to enemies belonging to the elite. In one of the legends, a simple warrior boasts that he killed a noble knight of the enemy camp, but the noble commander orders the proud man to be hanged.

If courage was necessary for a knight as a military man, then with his generosity, which was expected of him and which was considered an indispensable property of a noble-born, he did good to people dependent on him and those who glorified the exploits of knights at courts in the hope of a good treat and decent gifts for the occasion. Not without reason, in all the legends about the Knights of the Round Table, not the last place is given to descriptions of feasts and gifts in honor of a wedding, coronation (sometimes coinciding) or some other event.

A knight, as you know, must remain unconditionally faithful to his obligations towards his equals. The custom of bringing strange knightly vows, which had to be fulfilled contrary to all the rules of common sense, is well known. Thus, the seriously wounded Erec refuses to live at least a few days in King Arthur's camp in order to allow his wounds to heal, and sets off on a journey, risking dying in the forest from his wounds.

The class fraternity did not prevent the knights from fulfilling the duty of revenge for any offense, real or imaginary, inflicted on the knight himself or his relatives. The marriage was not particularly strong: the knight was constantly out of the house in search of glory, and the wife left alone usually knew how to “reward” herself for his absence. The sons were brought up at foreign courts (Arthur himself was brought up at the court of Sir Ector). But the clan showed solidarity, if it came to revenge, the entire clan also bore responsibility. It is no coincidence that in the Arthurian cycle such an important role is played by the conflict between two large rival groups - adherents and relatives of Gawain, on the one hand, adherents and relatives of Lancelot, on the other.

The knight had a number of obligations towards his overlord. The knights were charged with a debt of special gratitude to the one who ordained them to the knighthood, as well as care for orphans and widows. Although the knight was supposed to provide support to anyone in need of help, the legends do not talk about a single weak man offended by fate. On this occasion, it is appropriate to cite the witty remark of M. Ossovskaya: “Even, the Lion Knight, protects offended girls in bulk: he frees three hundred girls from the power of a cruel tyrant, who, in cold and hunger, must weave a cloth of gold and silver threads. Their touching complaint deserves to be noted in the literature on exploitation.”

The glory of the knight was brought not so much by victory as by his behavior in battle. The battle could, without prejudice to his honor, end in defeat and death. Death in battle was even a good end to the biography - it was not easy for the knight to come to terms with the role of a weak old man. The knight was obliged, if possible, to give the enemy equal chances. If the enemy fell off his horse (and in armor he could not climb into the saddle without assistance), the one who knocked him out also dismounted to equalize the chances. “I will never kill a knight who has fallen from his horse! exclaims Lancelot. “God save me from such a shame.”

Taking advantage of an opponent's weakness did not bring fame to the knight, and killing an unarmed enemy covered the killer with shame. Lancelot, a knight without fear and reproach, could not forgive himself for having somehow killed two unarmed knights in the heat of battle and noticed this when it was already too late; he made the pilgrimage on foot wearing only a linen shirt to atone for this sin. It was impossible to strike from behind. The knight in armor had no right to retreat. Anything that could be considered cowardice was unacceptable.

The knight, as a rule, had a beloved. At the same time, he could show adoration and care only for a lady of his class, who sometimes occupied a higher position in relation to him. Contrary to popular belief, sighing from afar was the exception rather than the rule. As a rule, love was not platonic, but carnal, and the knight experienced it for someone else's wife, not his own (a classic example is Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur's wife).

Love had to be mutually faithful, lovers overcame various difficulties. The most difficult test that the lady of his heart could only subject to was Lancelot Guinevere, whom he saved at the cost of dishonor. The beloved is looking for Guinevere, kidnapped by evil forces, and sees a dwarf riding a cart. The dwarf promises Lancelot to discover where Guinevere is hidden on the condition that the knight gets into the cart - an act that can dishonor the knight and make him the subject of ridicule (knights were taken in a cart only for execution!). Lancelot finally decides to do this, but Guinevere is offended by him: before getting into the cart, he took three more steps.

The church tried to use chivalry to its advantage, but the Christian shell of chivalry was extremely thin. Adultery was considered a sin and officially condemned, but all sympathies were on the side of lovers, and at God's judgment (ordeals), God allowed himself to be easily deceived when it came to a treacherous spouse. Guinevere, whose affair with Lancelot lasted for years, swore that none of the eleven knights sleeping in the neighboring chambers entered her at night; Lancelot, who enjoyed this privilege, was the twelfth knight not provided for in the calculations. This oath was enough to save the queen from burning at the stake. Deceived husbands often have a heartfelt affection for their wife's lover (this is how King Arthur refers to Lancelot). God also, judging by the fact that the bishop guarding the body of Lancelot dreams of the angels taking the knight to heaven, forgives sinful love.

The social ties of the Middle Ages were primarily interpersonal, that is, mostly direct and immediate. Establishing a connection between the seigneur and the vassal involved the acceptance of certain obligations by both parties. The vassal was obliged to serve his lord, to provide him with all kinds of assistance, to remain faithful and devotion. For his part, the lord had to patronize the vassal, protect him, be fair to him. Entering into this relationship, the lord took solemn oaths from the vassal (rite of anointing), which made their bond indestructible.

The peasant was obliged to pay dues to the feudal lord, and he was obliged to protect his peasants, and in case of famine, feed them from his stocks. There was a very clear division of labor: not freedom and dependence, but service and fidelity were the central categories of medieval Christianity. That is why in Arthurian legends it is always very carefully sorted out who was whose squire and who was whose vassal. However, the hierarchy of privilege, freedom, dependence, and captivity was also a hierarchy of services. In feudal society, social roles were very clearly divided and defined by custom or law, and the life of each person depended on his role.

It is impossible not to notice that in the legends very close attention is paid to material culture; moreover, the real requirements for it, due to vital necessity, are closely connected with the mythical qualities that medieval authors generously endow with all kinds of armor (not pierced by ordinary weapons), weapons (piercing charmed armor), cups (from which they can drink without spilling, only those who are true to their ladies to knights), cloaks (which can only be worn by the same ladies), etc.

Let's take a closer look at some examples. Speaking about the material culture, which is reflected in the legends of the Arthurian cycle, one cannot fail to notice that a very large place is devoted to descriptions of war horses, weapons and clothing. And no wonder - the function of the knight was to fight: to defend their possessions, sometimes increase them by capturing neighboring ones, or simply maintain their prestige by taking part in tournaments (after all, you should seriously think before you try to capture, for example, the land of a knight who won several brilliant victories in the last tournament and was recognized as the strongest).

The warhorse is actually one of the most important pieces of equipment for a knight in battle. Horses were trained in a special way, and they often helped their owners by rearing up in time or stepping aside. Each war horse had its own name, it was groomed and cherished. Many legends tell of horses who spoke like human beings and often gave very practical advice to their owners. Considerable attention was paid to the description of the armor and weapons of the knights, the reliability and convenience of which were important for success in the campaign and victory in the tournament. The knight's weapons, as a rule, were a sword and a spear, sometimes also a pike. Often the sword was a family relic, had its own history, a name, often symbolic (some researchers give such an interpretation of the name of Arthur's sword: Excalibur - “I cut steel, iron and all”); when knighted, the sword was a mandatory attribute.

The clothes of knights are described in great detail in the legends in terms of their functional significance. Before the battle, clothes are put on under the armor, it must be sewn in such a way that the armor does not rub the skin, and the metal of the armor heated in the heat does not touch the body. Travel clothes were lighter to make long journeys less tiring - a constant feature of chivalric romances - and to provide protection for the knight.

The description of the ladies' clothes also makes it possible to judge its functional significance: it is convenient and practical when a lady is a hostess and is engaged in practical activities (she constantly has to go down to cellars, climb towers); the elegance of clothing is of paramount importance only if it is ceremonial (in this case, fabrics, golden tassels, furs, jewelry are described in detail), while color is also taken into account, since in addition to heraldic meaning, it can be used to emphasize the beauty of a hero or heroine.

In almost every work of the Arthurian cycle, some kind of castle appears - enchanted, impregnable, or one that, with her hand and heart, a charming lady promises the knight that he will complete his task.

To understand why such an important role in chivalric romances is often assigned to castles and those who inhabit them, let us dwell in more detail on a number of historical facts.

The first fortification built on the orders of William the Conqueror immediately after the landing of his troops in England was a motte - a fortification previously unknown in the British Isles. At first, the motte was an earthen hill surrounded by a moat. A wooden tower was built on its top, the foundation of which was powerful logs dug into the ground. It was these fortifications that were used by the Normans as strongholds in Hastings. On the territory of England, they erected many mottes, strengthening with their help their dominance in the conquered lands.

Usually the motte was in the form of a truncated cone or hemisphere; the diameter of its base could reach 100 m, and its height - 20 m. In most cases, a bailey adjoined the motte - an area fenced with an earthen rampart, a moat, a palisade. Such a double line of earthen fortifications was called the "castle with motte and bailey." Another type of medieval buildings is a miniature bailey on the flat top of an artificial hill with a diameter of 30 to 100 m with an obligatory moat and palisade. Some baileys served only as cattle pens. Small earthen fortresses were also built everywhere, to which cattle pens also adjoined.

Using the labor of peasants, it was possible to relatively quickly carry out earthworks related to the construction of fortifications. The advantage of the motte was that, apart from the wooden superstructure, it was almost impossible to destroy.

Life in the castle put the warriors from the lord's retinue before a choice: either maintain camaraderie, or constantly quarrel with each other. In any case, it was necessary to be tolerant of others and for this to adhere to certain rules of behavior, or at least not to allow manifestations of violence.

Established in the world, fenced with a palisade, moral norms later, at the second stage of the development of feudal society, at the end of the 11th century, inspired the troubadours. Their hymns sang of chivalry and love, but in fact they glorified two social achievements - stabilization and the development of a new space. Many famous knights were at first simple warriors in the retinue of the feudal lord, but they received a high rank for the valor shown in battles. At the same time, a warrior could not achieve honors if he did not behave like a real knight.

Mott also had an impact on the rural population. In myths, often after getting rid of the cruel animals that inhabited the castle, or after freeing it from witchcraft, crowds of jubilant, singing and dancing peasants appeared in the previously deserted area, thanking the knight for protection. Many households became dependent on the feudal lord, to whom the peasants were now obliged to pay taxes.

With the change of generations, social balance was gradually established. New relations consolidated the class community of seniors, which weakened the sense of constant danger. Castles opened their gates to friends and neighbors, wars gave way to tournaments, family coats of arms now flaunted on knightly shields. Where once cunning and cruelty reigned, valor and generosity were now sung. So, from the second stage of the development of feudalism in the setting of medieval motts, the foundations of the heritage that this era left to the descendants and which rightfully deserved the name "castle culture" began to be laid.

Conclusion

With the departure of the Middle Ages, the Arthurian cycle was not destined to develop further; True, in fairy tales (Scottish, Irish, English) Arthur appeared, waiting with his knights for the moment of awakening, or Merlin, helping one or another fairy-tale character, but this was the case until the 19th century.

The fact is that in the 17th-18th centuries myth-making on knightly themes practically did not exist, since feudal ideals were not only not relevant, but could slow down and interfere with the development of society, which explains their rejection at this stage. Again, interest in the Middle Ages and the ideals associated with it appears only among the pre-romantics (Macpherson's "Ossian's Songs"). Romantics pick up medieval themes. As the bourgeois ideology, which is mainly oriented towards material values, causes more and more protests, medieval plots and value systems based on the traditions of chivalry are increasingly being used as a countermeasure.

During the development of the Arthurian cycle, the underlying Celtic mythology largely disappeared from it. “The world of Arthurian legends itself acquired mythological features. Camelot, the Round Table, the brotherhood of knights, the search for the Grail became new mythologemes. It was in this capacity that they were perceived already at the end of the Middle Ages. Therefore, the appeal to Arthurian legends in the XIX-XX centuries by ATennison, R. Wagner, W. Morris, O. C. Swinburne, D. Joyce (in Finnegans Wake) and many others revived old myths, but the main mythologems were not the motifs of Celtic folklore, but the ideas of the courtly Middle Ages. The above authors saw in the legends of King Arthur a moral and ethical ideal; the Pre-Raphaelites (Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others), inspired by Arturiana, created their own artistic style, drawing inspiration from it for creativity.

Bibliography

1. Shkunaev S.V. Traditions and myths of medieval Ireland. - M., 1991. - S. 13.

2. In the world of myths and legends. - SPb., 1995. - S. 272.

Mikhailov AD. Arthurian legends and their evolution // Malory T. Death of Arthur. - M., 1974. - S. 799.

Icelandic sagas. Irish epic. - M., 1973. - S. 587.

Samarin R.M., Mikhailov AD. Knight's novel // History of World Literature. - M., 1984. - T. 2. - S. 570.

Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Britons. Merlin's Life - M., 1984.

Culturology. Theory and history of culture. - M., 1996. - S. 146.

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General characteristics of Anglo-Norman literature. Features of the development of English literature in the period of the XI-XIII centuries. associated with the conquest of the country by the Normans. The Norman Conquest marked the beginning of a new period in the history of England. Under the conditions of the existing feudal system, it contributed to the spread of French influence on the socio-political and cultural life of the country. Trilingualism affected the development of literature. There were literary works in Latin, French and Anglo-Saxon. Scientific works, historical chronicles, anti-church satires were written in Latin. Literature in French was represented by chivalrous poetry. In the Anglo-Saxon language, works of folk poetry have been preserved from this period, as well as a number of poems, poems and chivalric novels dating back to the 13th-14th centuries. Only in the XIV century. in connection with the formation of the English nation, English became the main literary language. Among the monuments of literature (XI-XII centuries) in Latin, an important place belongs to works on the history of Britain. These are the "Recent History" (Historia novorum) of the Anglo-Saxon monk Edmer of Canterbury, the "History of the English Kings" (Historia regum Anglorum), written by the librarian of the monastery in Malmesbury, William of Malmesbury, the "History of England" (Historia Anglorum) by Henry of Huntingdon. Of particular importance for the further development of medieval literature was the History of the Britons (Historia Britonum, 1132-1137) by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which contains the earliest processing of the Celtic legends about King Arthur, which later become the property of other European literatures. In the multi-volume History of the Britons, for the first time, the images of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgana, Queen Ginevra and brave knights appear, which will occupy such an important place in chivalric poetry in French and English. From here originate the novels of the Arthurian cycle. Here, for the first time, the court of the king of the Britons is depicted as the center of valiant chivalry, embodying the ideals of nobility, and the semi-legendary Arthur is shown as a wise and powerful ruler. In Latin in the XI-XIII centuries. works of a satirical nature are also created. These include the five-volume works of Walter Map "On the amusing conversations of the courtiers" (De nugis curialium). The anti-church satirical literature, samples of which were created among the lower clergy, had a democratic character. Wandering clerics and scholars - vagantes - composed free-thinking verses in Latin, mocking the Catholic Church, the morals of its ministers, and sang the joys of life, glorifying wine and women. Among the Vagantes, there was an idea of ​​a certain Bishop Golia, a lover of sweet food and drink, who presented himself as the author of these hedonistic and daring songs. Separate works of goliard poetry were a frank parody of cult church songs. In works of this kind, Latin was gradually replaced by English.

An important place in the literature of England in the period of the XI-XIII centuries. occupy works in French, which was represented by the Norman dialect of Old French. Some of them were imported from France, others were created in England. The largest work of the French folk heroic epic "The Song of Roland" enjoyed fame. Chronicles of poetry containing descriptions of the genealogies of the Norman dukes were circulated.

Celtic legends as the source of the Arthurian novels.

The earliest references to King Arthur date back to the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th centuries and associate the legendary hero with the historical leader of the Celts, who led the fight against the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. True "Welsh" also includes novels of the 9th-11th centuries, which are included in the collection of magical legends of Wales "Mabinogion". Arthur in early tales (for example, the poem of the 4th-century Welsh bard Aneirin "Gododdin") appears before us as a strong and powerful tribal leader, who, for all his primitive cruelty, is not alien to nobility and honesty.

Researchers of medieval literature point out that at the archetypal level, Arthur is comparable to the legendary king Ulad Conchobar, the hero of many Irish sagas, and to the Welsh deity Bran.

The famous medievalist A.D. Mikhailov writes that "Arthurian legends are based on Celtic epic tales, and their Irish variation is best known to us. Therefore, the Irish sagas are not a source, but a parallel, to a certain extent even a model of the legends about King Arthur." With the latter, he is related by the fact that Bran is suffering from a wound. This motif has much in common with the later versions of the Arthurian legends, when the crippled king becomes the keeper of the Grail, the sacred cup.

Usually the name Arthur is derived from the Roman generic name Artorius, however, at the level of Celtic mythology, there are several different etymologies. According to one of them, the name Arthur stands for "black raven", and "raven", in turn, sounds like bran in Welsh, which confirms the connection of King Arthur both functionally and etymologically with the god Bran.

The book by T. Melory "The Death of Arthur". The Death of Arthur (Middle French Le Morte d "Arthur) is the final work of the Arthurian cycle, a collection of chivalric novels composed in the second third of the 15th century in late Middle English by Thomas Malory (a former knight who was sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery, violence and Robbery) According to some versions, the first prose novel in the English tradition.

Before Malory, there were already quite a few Arthurian novels in English (about thirty have come down to us), but there was nothing like the French summaries of the Vulgate type. Malory directly used two poems of the same name ("The Death of Arthur"), one in alliterative verse, the second half of the 14th century, the other in eight-line stanzas, c. 1400. Malory's innovation is that he wrote in prose (of the English novels of the Breton cycle before Malory, only one was written in prose, Merlin, an almost literal translation of the second novel of the Vulgate, 20 years earlier than The Death of Arthur). Malory's French sources are reduced in all cases, sometimes very significantly ("The Book of Tristram" has decreased by six times). What his predecessors used to take ten pages, he sets out in a couple of lines. In his preface, William Caxton pretends that before Malory there was almost no literature about King Arthur in English: their language is not. ... there are others in English, but not all of them.”

• The Tale of King Arthur (Fro the Maryage of Kynge Uther unto Kyng Arthure that Regned Aftir Hym and Ded Many Batayles). First in order of content and second in order of writing (according to Vinaver). The source for it was the so-called "Continuation of Merlin", a French novel created as part of a cycle conceived as a counterweight to the "Vulgate".
• The Tale of Arthur and Lucius (The Noble Tale Betwyxt Kynge Arthure and Lucius the Emperor of Rome). According to Vinaver, this is the first work in terms of time of creation.
• The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lake. The source of Malory's third story is some version of the Romance of Lancelot, the central part of the Vulgate, that has not come down to us. Malory cut off all of the backstory here, including Lancelot's upbringing with the Lady of the Lake and the vicissitudes of his love for the Queen.
• The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney. The source has not been established, but the plot archetype is obvious - the chivalrous initiation of a young and unknown hero, sometimes a foundling, sometimes a bastard, sometimes an orphan, either ignorant or hiding his ancestry. Chrétien de Troy's "Perceval" stands at the origins of this plot; feat, proves his knightly usefulness by the strength of his hand and courtesy of disposition, wins the heart of the noble maiden Lionessa, reveals his true face.
• The Book of Tristram (The Fyrst and the Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams de Lyones). The source is the prose "The Romance of Tristan". Malory finally removes the tragedy of the legend, discards the mournful ending - Tristan and Isolde remain alive and well.
• The Tale of the Holy Grail (The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal). The source is the fourth part of the Vulgate, The Quest for the Holy Grail. Here Malory is the least original, he does not dare to make any innovations, but he decisively reduces the moralizing commentary to the plot, which in itself changes the emphasis.
• The Tale of Lancelot and Queen Gwenevere (Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwenyvere). The source is the final novel of the Vulgate, Le Morte d'Arthur, which Malory takes quite loosely.
• Death of Arthur (The Dethe of Arthur). The source is again the French "Death of Arthur", but also the English strophic poem of the same name.

Symbolism of the Grail. The Grail is one of the most interesting and legendary symbols. The tradition of the Holy Grail of medieval European literature is a legacy of the ancient religion of the Celts, but the legend of the cup was rethought in a Christian spirit. In the most popular version of the legend, this is the cup from which Jesus and the apostles drank at the Last Supper, or the one into which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ, who was nailed to crucifixion.

This bowl is a symbolic source of life and immortality, abundance and fertility, a "wonderful breadwinner". At will, she gives any dishes and jewelry in the blink of an eye, and whoever drinks from her is cured of all ailments; even the dead, as soon as she touches their lips, awaken to life. Possessing the ability to miraculously saturate its chosen ones with unearthly dishes, the Grail in the Western tradition occupies the same place as the eastern sacrificial bowl with Vedic soma, Avestan haoma or Greek ambrosia. The grail that breathes new life into the Phoenix and gives eternal youth to those who serve it is related to the symbolism of the Philosopher's Stone. It also acts as a barque, an ark containing the seeds of the cyclic renewal of life, the seeds of lost traditions. The Holy Grail, containing blood, the basis of life, is identified with the heart, and therefore with the center. The grail combines two elements: a bowl or a shining goblet with a heart (a triangle placed on top), personifies the feminine, perceiving, water principle; a spear or sword (a triangle pointing upward) is a masculine, active, fiery principle. These elements are united by the bearers of life - the blood or sacred liquid flowing into the cup. The life-creating, renewing forces radiating from the solar vessel, and the forces of destruction, which appear in the form of a bleeding spear, contain a double sacrament.

The symbolism of the location of the Grail in the center of the Round Table, around which the knights sit, is very close to the Chinese image of the sky, which has the shape of a circle with a hole in the middle (analogous to a bowl or goblet).

Among the Celts, a cup full of wine, beer or mead, which a young girl brought to the king assuming the throne, is a symbol of supreme power. Over time, this meaning is transferred to the Grail, in search of which the knights of the Round Table go.

In Christianity, the Grail is the sacred Heart of Christ. According to legend, the Grail was made by angels from an emerald that fell from Lucifer's forehead when he was cast into the abyss. Like the Virgin Mary who atoned for the sin of Eve, the blood of the Savior, through the Grail, atoned for the sin of Lucifer. Thus, the meaning of the Grail is increasingly associated with the torments of Christ, with the idea of ​​voluntary sacrifice and redemption. In Christian legend, the Grail was given to Adam, but left by him in paradise after the fall. He is still in the center of Paradise and must be found again, as the redeemer acquires the cup and restores paradise for mankind.

The image of the Grail, no doubt, cannot be completely reduced either to the sacrament of the Church or to the Celtic myth. For the chivalrous culture of the Middle Ages, the importance of the Grail as a symbol was that it combined the spirit of chivalrous adventure, the free play of fantasy using fragments of half-forgotten mythology, and Christian mysticism. This bowl is a symbol of mental health and the desire to rise, for only those of the seekers who have absolute purity of heart can achieve success in their path. Anyone unworthy who approaches a shrine is punished with a wound and illness, however, he can expect healing from the same shrine. The Grail is a secret that is revealed only to the most worthy.

The role of the chivalric romance in the history of medieval literature.

The chivalric romance is the only poetic form that has developed primarily on European soil. As an independent isolated genre, the novel makes its way into literature only towards the end of the Middle Ages. The author of the first such novel is the Portuguese knight Vasco de Lobeira, who wrote his famous Amadis of Galicia, which was not preserved in the original (the nearest Spanish translation of the beginning of the 16th century is known), but determined all further novels about knights errant (Chevaliers errants). The chivalrous romance retains the characteristic features of the epic, with the exception of belief in the truth of the events being told. Everything that happens in chivalric novels also appears to us as something ancient, belonging to an ideal past. The times of King Arthur, like the times of Maricastagna, are only veils of a conditional past, through which historical chronology vaguely shines through.

The chivalrous romance took a lot from the heroic epic, but at the same time, the new epic genre was repelled from hoary antiquity.

First of all, the chivalric romance had its own author. It happened that sometimes the names of the creators were lost, as happened with the old French story Aucassin and Nicolet. However, the picture of the world appears in the chivalrous novel in the author's perception. The narrator in the story has an extremely relevant role, he will sensibly talk on different topics, depending on what events the knight is involved in. The hero of a chivalric romance is not inferior in valor to an epic hero, but now he fights not so much for the king, but for the glory that he needs to win the heart of the Beautiful Lady, in whose name he performs many feats.

Romance. The conditional name should have indicated that we have a narration in the Romance language. Both lyrics and novels were created not in Latin, but in Romance languages.

The main character is a wandering knight. Prototypes are one-shield knights. Going on a crusade, the knight pledged and sold all the property, most often he returned to his homeland impoverished. They became robbers. There was another way for such knights - they were hired into the city guard. In the Middle Ages, the practice of primacy developed - the inheritance is not divided, everything goes to the eldest. The younger sons went either to monks or to the same one-shield knights.

The sources of the narrative are legends and traditions drawn from the East, which came into contact with Celtic legends. The cycle of legends about King Arthur. Knightly novels are bizarre - unrestrained fantasy, and at the same time a detailed description of the life of the British Isles. The third source is antiquity, Virgil and Ovid.

There are three types of chivalric romances: antique, Breton and oriental (idyllic). The earliest is antique, influenced by Virgil, Ovid and Alexander the Great. One of the first chivalric novels is the novel about Alexander. It's not exactly a chivalric romance. A chivalric romance must have a knight. Feats in the name of a beautiful lady. Alexander the Great gave material about education, about horses, about battles, but there was no lady. From Virgil they took the triangle of Dido-Aeneas-Lavinius. The authors twisted the plot: Dido's love was uncouth, so Aeneas left her, but Lavinia is a beautiful lady - Virgil has almost no information about her, so the authors finished it to their liking.

Oriental is no longer quite a novel. He is monotonous, but he was loved. The plot is always the same: the action takes place either in the east or in Europe. An Eastern knight after a battle finds a Christian child on the battlefield, he takes him and brings him up. The son of an eastern knight wants to marry this Christian, so they try to fuse her into a harem. The boy is looking for her, disguises herself as a woman. Everything ends with a wedding. In the European version, it is sold to the Vikings. "Floir and Blanchefleur", "Aucassin and Nicollette".

The main area where chivalric romances appeared was the north of France and the possessions of the English Plantagenets. This is a Breton chivalric romance. It is divided into 4 groups: 1) Breton le; 2) Arthurian novels, novels about the knights of the round table; 3) novels about the Holy Grail; 4) apart - novels about Tristan and Isolde.

Lay - a collection of 1175 by the Anglo-Norman poetess Narly of France has been preserved. 12 le. Le is a poetic novel of love and adventurous content with a tragic ending. The end is always tragic. Lay "Mountain of two lovers". The king gives his daughter in marriage to the one who, in his arms, without stopping, will raise her to the top of a high mountain. One knight informs her, but dies at the very top, she dies of grief for him.

Arthurian novels - French author Chrétien de Troyes is considered the creator of the classic chivalric romance. Lived at the court of Mary of Champagne. A type of small adventurous one-hero one-event lyrical poetic chivalric novel. The author's interest in acute psychological conflicts. The concept of courtly love, a controversy with the creators of novels about Tristan and Isolde. Chrétien de Troyes even writes Anti Tristan and Iseult. The novels are dedicated to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur is a real historical person. controversy about its origin. The Celts were conquered by the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Saxons. The Celts are first pushed back, and then, rallying around the leader Artorius, they rebuff the Angles and Saxons, though not for long. This is one of the versions - the most likely. There was a legend about the king-fighter for independence. The legend is that he did not die, but fell into a deep sleep in the depths of the island of Avallon. These legends gave reason to turn to the theme of the struggle for justice. Round table - the idea of ​​equality of the elected. Each chair at the table has a name. Lack of class dogma. Gradually, the legend of Arthur becomes a utopia, a myth. There is no real kingdom of Arthur. The most famous novels are The Romance of Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart, Ewen the Lion Knight and Percival. The hero usually chooses a knight who is still young and capable of development, but already deserved. This is conflict. Such a person is difficult to change. Enchanted well, red knight, procession to the castle. Lady Ladina, a cunning maid who, with her cunning, passes off her mistress as Ewen. Chrétien was occupied with the problem: are knightly exploits compatible with knightly love and ethics. No. Ivan is bored, he leaves, performs feats, adventures drive him to madness.

Holy Grail Novels. In the French version, this is the cup from which Christ drank on the last supper, and then his blood was collected there. magical properties. The bowl is lost. Legend: when it is found, prosperity will come all over the world. But the knight is guided by knightly ethics, and the Grail is a Christian shrine. The problem of the relationship between knightly ethics and Christian morality. Preference is given to Christian morality. No one can find the Grail except the purest knight. "The Romance of Percival". German version - Wolfram von Eschenbach "Parzival". The Grail is not a cup, but a precious stone with the same properties. What is the bowl. Altar stone. Knight Gamoret of Anjou loves exploits - East, Ethiopia, Princess Beloneska, son. He gets bored, leaves for Europe, saves Herziloid there, another son. Goes to war, dies. Herziloid decides to save Parzival from such a fate, goes into the woods. But you can't escape fate. At 15, Parzival sees knights. He leaves with them. Absolute innocence and sinlessness, so he meets a strange vision: the king is fishing, sad, polite. Everyone in the castle is waiting for something. Procession. But Parzival goes to bed. He wakes up - only an old woman is nearby, who scolds him for not asking one single question, then he would have released them. Looking for the Grail for many years.

It is customary to distinguish three cycles of medieval chivalric novels: antique (based on the traditions of the ancient novel, on plots related to antiquity), Byzantine (whose origins are in the Byzantine novel tradition) and the so-called Breton tales (based on the legends and myths of the ancient Celts in conjunction with new courtly motifs). Breton stories turned out to be the most productive kind of chivalric romance. In turn, Breton stories are usually divided into four groups: Breton le, novels about Tristan and Isolde, novels of the Arthurian cycle and novels about the Holy Grail.

Breton le. According to tradition, medieval chivalric romances include works written in the le genre (1m, a word of Celtic origin). These are a kind of micro-novels, small poetic stories, which, unlike novels, do not include a series of episodes lined up in a chain (like a “road novel”), but one episode. Le Mary of France. The first famous and most prominent representative of this genre was Marie of France, a poetess of the second half of the 12th century who lived at the court of the English King Henry II.

She wrote a collection of 12 le in Old French. In le "Lanval" in a concentrated and extremely laconic ide, the features of the medieval chivalric romance are presented. Already in the original plot formula - the knight Lanval fell in love with a fairy - we find the very grain of the genre: adventure as a combination of love and fantasy. The fairy responded to Lanval's love by demanding that the knight keep their relationship secret (the principle of courtly love).

But, in accordance with the courtly code, Lanval must love the wife of his overlord King Arthur Genievra, and she expects loving service from him. Lan-val, breaking the ban, admits to Genievre that he loves a woman who is more beautiful than the queen. The most offended by this confession is King Arthur, to whom Genievre complained about Lanval's disrespect.

He demands from Lanval to prove that there is someone more beautiful than his wife, otherwise the knight will be executed. But the fairy, also offended by the violation of the secret of love, disappears. Lanval cannot prove his case and must perish. When everything is ready for execution, a fairy appears riding a wonderful horse, and everyone is forced to admit that she is more beautiful than Genievra. Lanval jumps on the croup of a horse and, together with the fairy, is carried away to an unknown country, from where he no longer returned (apparently, Lanval and the fairy went to Avallon - the land of immortality in Celtic legends). In "Lanval" the author's position is clearly manifested: Marie of France condemns the extremes of the courtly code of love, she is on the side of love as a natural feeling, and not as a form of service to the overlord through love-service to his wife.

Novels about Tristan and Isolde. At the beginning of the XX century. the French academician Joseph Bedier showed that the incompletely surviving poems “The Romance of Tristan” by Beroul and “The Romance of Tristan” by Thomas, le Marie of France “On Honeysuckle” (XII century), the novel “Tristan” by Gottfried of Strasbourg (beginning of the XIII century.) , the prose "Romance of Tristan" by Luce del Gata and Elie de Boron (circa 1230, the names of the authors, possibly pseudonyms) and many other medieval texts date back to the mid-12th century novel that did not reach.

Belonging to some unknown but brilliant author, and tried to reconstruct the original text. The cycle stands somewhat apart from other medieval novels. The legend is probably based on some historical events of the 6th century BC. (it is assumed that the name Tristan goes back to the name of the Pictish warrior Drust or Drustan, the name Isolde is not identified). The work is written according to a different model than typical chivalric novels, it contains only elements of the construction of the “roman thresholds”, the courtly rules of love are almost not presented, there are several very ancient elements. This is the beginning of the novel: King Mark, under pressure from the courtiers, agrees to marry.

But he doesn't want to get married. A bird flies into the hall and drops a golden hair from its beak. The king sends his associates in search of a girl with such hair - only he will marry her. This is a very ancient motive, in which there is not a hint of a courtly understanding of love.

Mark's nephew Tristan also goes in search of the girl, fighting a dragon on the way (also an ancient mythological motif). He, wounded, unconscious, is found and healed by Isolde. Opening his eyes and seeing a girl with golden hair, not yet knowing that this is the Irish princess Isolde, Tristan experiences a strong feeling - a harbinger of great love (on the contrary, this is a new motif that embodies the concept of love of the 12th century). A moral conflict arises: as a vassal of Mark, Tristan must deliver the girl to the king, and as a man he feels affection for her (and mutually), which must inevitably develop into love. This is where the genius of the unknown author comes into play.

Obviously, he himself is torn by contradiction: as a man of the 19th century, he defends the principles of vassal fidelity, the sanctity of feudal marriage, and at the same time wants to sing the power of love, which, according to the courtly concept, arises outside of marriage. How to get out of this contradiction? And the writer finds his own, author's way of resolving the conflict: he connects the legend of the love of Tristan and Isolde with another legend - about a magical drink. While returning by ship from Ireland to Britain, the young heroes accidentally (the case is a new element of the author's narrative) drink a love potion made by Isolde's maid, who wanted to help her mistress and Mark overcome alienation and experience love in marriage that cannot be destroyed by any force. Now the love of Tristan and Isolde, born at the first glance of the heroes at each other, flares up like an irresistible passion.

The motive of the love drink allows the author to remove all moral accusations against Tristan and Isolde even after she married King Mark, and, on the contrary, in the most unsightly light to present court informers who interfere with the lovers and, ultimately, become one of the reasons for their death. The author creates a novel about unhappy love, which, nevertheless, is stronger than death. This theme will become one of the most fruitful plot schemes in literature, will be reflected in the story of Francesca da Rimini in Dante's Divine Comedy (where in the second circle of hell, next to the souls of Francesca and her lover, Dante places the shadows of Tristan and Isolde), in the tragedy of W. Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet and many other works. Novels of the Arthurian cycle.

The most characteristic of the medieval novel was the cycle about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur - a real person, the leader of the Britons, in the V-VI centuries. retreating to Wales under the onslaught of the Germanic tribes of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. In the novels, Arthur appears as the most powerful king in Europe, only in his court can a hero become a true knight. The most perfect knights of King Arthur are united by the name of the Knights of the Round Table. They gather together with the king at a huge round table standing in his castle of Camelot - a symbol of equality (a rectangular table symbolized feudal inequality, vassal dependence: the overlord sat at its “upper” end, the most noble vassal was on his right hand, on his left hand - the second most important vassal, then other vassals were seated in descending order, and behind the "lower" end - the most obscure of those present). At the round table, the king was first among equals.

This equality was violated only in the plots of knightly novels, since one of the knights of the Round Table (the one whose name the novel is named after) always turned out to be the most courageous, strong, gallant - a model of all knightly virtues, the embodiment of a knightly ideal. Chretien de Troy. The most significant author of chivalric novels, the creator of the Arthurian cycle, was the French writer Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1130-c. 1191), apparently associated with the courts of Countess Maria of Champagne (one of the main centers of courtesy) and Count Philip of Flanders. Starting with the development of the plot about Tristan and Isolde (the novel has not been preserved), in the next novel - "Erec and Enida" - he lays the foundations of the Arthurian cycle.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ROMANCE

In the chivalric novel and its variety, the chivalric tale, we find basically the same feelings and interests that make up the content of chivalric lyrics. This is primarily the theme of love, understood in a more or less "sublime" sense. Another equally obligatory element of a chivalric romance is fantasy in the twofold sense of the word - as supernatural (fabulous, not Christian) and as everything extraordinary, exceptional, raising the hero above the ordinary life.

Both of these forms of fantasy, usually associated with a love theme, are covered by the notion of adventures or adventures that happen to knights who are always going to meet these adventures. Knights perform their adventurous exploits not for the sake of a common, national cause, like some heroes of epic poems, and not in the name of honor or the interests of the family, but for the sake of their personal glory. The ideal chivalry is conceived as an international and unchanging institution at all times, equally characteristic of ancient Rome, the Muslim East and modern France. In this regard, the chivalric novel depicts ancient epochs and the life of distant peoples in the form of a picture of modern society, into which readers from chivalric circles look like in a mirror, finding in it a reflection of their life ideals.

In their style and technique, chivalric romances differ sharply from the heroic epic. A prominent place in them is occupied by monologues in which emotional experiences, lively dialogues, the image of the appearance of the characters, a detailed description of the situation in which the action takes place are analyzed.

First of all, chivalric romances developed in France, and from here the passion for them spread to other countries. Numerous translations and creative adaptations of French samples in other European literatures (especially in German) often represent works that have independent artistic significance and occupy a prominent place in these literatures.

The first experiments in the chivalric romance were the adaptations of several works of ancient literature. In them, medieval storytellers could in many cases find both exciting love stories and fabulous adventures, partly echoing chivalric ideas. Mythology in such treatments was carefully banished, but the legendary tales of the exploits of heroes, which had the appearance of historical legends, were reproduced in full.

The first experience of such an adaptation of ancient material to the emerging courtly tastes is the novel about Alexander the Great. Like the Slavic "Alexandria", it ultimately goes back to the fabulous biography of Alexander, allegedly compiled by his friend and colleague Callisthenes, but in fact is a fake that arose in Egypt around 200 AD. e. This pseudo-Callisthenes novel was then translated from Greek into Latin, and this Latin edition, together with some additional texts, also spurious, served as the source for several adaptations of this novel in French. The most complete and artistically developed of them is written, unlike other chivalric novels, in paired rhyming twelve-syllable verses with a caesura after the 6th syllable. The popularity of this novel explains the fact that this meter was later called the “Alexandrian verse”.

Strictly speaking, this is not yet a chivalric novel in the full sense of the word, but only a prelude to it, because the love theme is absent here, and the main task of the author is to show the height of earthly greatness that a person can achieve, and the power of fate over him. However, the taste for all kinds of adventurism and fantasy found here enough material; there was no need for the medieval poets to add anything.

The greatest conqueror of antiquity is represented in the Romance of Alexander by a brilliant medieval knight. In his youth, Alexander received two shirts as a gift from the fairies: one protected him from heat and cold, the other from wounds. When it came time to knight him, King Solomon presented him with a shield, and Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons, gave him a sword. Alexander in his campaigns is guided not only by the desire to conquer the world, but also by the thirst to know and see everything. Among other wonders of the East, he meets people with dog heads, finds a source of youth, finds himself in a forest where, instead of flowers, young girls grow out of the ground in spring, leaving again to the ground with the onset of winter, reaches an earthly paradise. Not limited to the surface of the earth, Alexander wants to explore its depths and heavenly heights. In a huge glass barrel, he descends to the bottom of the sea and examines its curiosities. Then he builds a glass cage in which he flies through the sky, carried by eagles. As befits an ideal knight, Alexander is distinguished by extraordinary generosity and gives entire cities to jugglers who please him.

A significant step forward in the formation of a chivalric romance with a developed love theme is the French adaptations of the legends about Aeneas and the Trojan War. The first of them - "The Romance of Aeneas" goes back to the "Aeneid" by Virgil. Here, two love episodes come to the fore. One of them, the tragic love of Dido and Aeneas, was developed already by Virgil in such detail that the medieval poet had little to add. But the second episode, connected with Lavinia, was entirely created by him. With Virgil, the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, is a purely political union in which feelings of the heart play no part. In the French novel, it is developed into a whole story (1600 verses), illustrating the doctrine of courtly love.

Lavinia's mother tries to persuade her to marry the local prince of Thurn. But no matter how hard she tries to inspire her daughter with a passion for Turn, Lavinia does not feel anything for him. But when she saw Aeneas in the enemy camp from the height of her tower, she immediately felt “Cupid's arrow” in her heart. She yearns for love and finally decides to confess to Aeneas, after which he falls in love with her and also suffers, but this makes him fight even more bravely. At first, he wants to hide his feeling, because "if a woman is not sure of a reciprocal feeling, she loves even more from this." However, he is not able to hide for a long time, and the matter quickly ends in marriage. Love is depicted in this novel consistently in two aspects - as a fatal passion (Aeneas - Dido) and as a subtle art (Aeneas - Lavinia).

The "Romance of Aeneas" is also known in the German translation of the already mentioned above (see p. 109) Minnesinger Heinrich von Feldecke. A native of bilingual Flanders, which served medieval Germany as a conduit for the influence of French chivalric culture, Feldeke created with his Aeneid (1170-1180) the first example of this new genre in German chivalric poetry.

Simultaneously with this novel, also in France, a gigantic (more than 30,000 verses) "Romance of Troy" appeared, the author of which was Benoit de Saint-Maur.

The source for it was not Homer (who was not known in the Middle Ages), but two false Latin chronicles that arose in the 4th-6th centuries. And. e. and allegedly written by witnesses of the Trojan War - the Phrygian (i.e., Trojan) Daret and the Greek Dictis. Since Benois mainly used the first of them, written according to the alleged nationality of its author from a Trojan point of view, the bearers of the highest valor for him are not the Greeks, but the Trojans. To several love episodes that the author found in his source, he added another, composed by himself and artistically the most developed of all. This is the love story of the Trojan prince Troilus for the captive Greek woman Brizeida, ending with the betrayal of the insidious beauty after her departure from Troy with Diomedes. With the courtly sophistication of the manners of all the characters, the feelings of Troilus and Diomedes are depicted by no means in the specific tones of loving service, but much more realistically, and the only feature of the courtly concept of love is that the chivalrous prowess of both heroes increases with love. The author severely condemns female inconstancy: “The sadness of a woman does not last long. She cries with one eye and laughs with the other. The mood of women changes quickly, and even the most reasonable of them is quite frivolous. The story of the French poet served as a source for a number of adaptations of this plot by later writers, including Chaucer, Boccaccio and Shakespeare (the play "Troilus and Cressida"), and the name of the heroine and some details were changed.

Even more grateful material for the chivalric romance were Celtic folk tales, which, being the product of tribal poetry, were saturated with eroticism and fantasy. It goes without saying that both have undergone a radical rethinking in chivalric poetry. The motives of polygamy and polyandry, temporary, freely terminated love affairs that filled Celtic stories and were a reflection of actual marriage and erotic relationships among the Celts, were interpreted by French courtly poets as a violation of the norm of everyday life, as adultery subject to courtly idealization. In the same way, any kind of “magic”, which in that archaic period when the Celtic legends were composed, was conceived as an expression of the natural forces of nature, was now, in the work of French poets, perceived as something specifically “supernatural”, going beyond the framework of normal phenomena and beckoning knights to exploits.

Celtic legends reached the French poets in two ways - orally, through the Celtic singers and storytellers, and in writing - through some legendary chronicles. Many of these legends were associated with the image of the fabulous "King Arthur" - one of the princes of the Britons of the 5th-6th centuries, who heroically defended the areas of England that they had not yet captured from the Anglo-Saxons.

The pseudo-historical frame for the Arthurian novels was the Latin chronicle of the Welsh patriot Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain (circa 1137), which adorned the image of Arthur and gave him feudal-knightly features.

Geoffrey depicts Arthur not only as the king of all Britain, but also as a powerful sovereign, the conqueror of a number of countries, the ruler of half of Europe. Along with Arthur's military exploits, Geoffrey tells about his miraculous birth, about his sailing, when he was mortally wounded, to the island of Avallon - the abode of immortality, about the deeds of his sister - Morgana the fairy, the magician Merlin, etc. The court of the king of the Britons is depicted in his book as the center of the highest valor and nobility, where along with Arthur reigns his wife, the beautiful Queen Genievra, and around them are grouped Arthur's nephew, the valiant Gauwen, Seneschal Kay, the evil Modred, who eventually rebelled against Arthur and caused his death, etc. Geoffrey's Chronicle was a huge success and was soon translated into French and English. Drawing also from Celtic folk tales, the translators added a few more additional features, of which the most important is the following: King Arthur allegedly ordered a round table to be built with the aim that at the feast he would have neither the best nor the worst places and that all his knights felt equal.

From here begins the usual frame of the Arthurian novels or, as they are often also called, the novels of the Round Table - a picture of the court of King Arthur, as the focus of ideal chivalry in its new sense. A poetic fiction was created that in these ancient times it was impossible to become a perfect knight in the sense of military exploits and high love, without having lived and “worked” at the court of Arthur. Hence the pilgrimage of all the heroes to this court, as well as the inclusion in the Arthurian cycle of plots that were originally alien to him. But no matter what origin - Celtic or otherwise - these stories, called "Breton" or "Arthurian", they transferred their readers and listeners to a fantasy world, where at every step there were fairies, giants, magical springs, beautiful girls oppressed by evil offenders and expecting help from brave and generous knights.

The whole huge mass of Breton stories can be divided into four groups of works, which differ markedly in their character and style: 1) the so-called Breton le, 2) a group of novels about Tristan and Iseult, 3) Arthurian novels in the proper sense of the word, and 4 ) a cycle of novels about the Holy Grail.

A collection of twelve le, ie, verse novels of love and mostly fantastic content, composed around 1180 by the Anglo-Norman poetess Mary of France, has survived.

Maria transfers her plots, borrowed from Breton songs, into the atmosphere of French feudalism, adapting them to the mores and concepts of contemporary, mostly chivalrous, reality.

In the le about "Ionek" it is told that a young woman, married to a jealous old man, languishes in a tower under the supervision of a maid and dreams that a young handsome knight will miraculously appear to her. As soon as she expressed this wish, a bird flew into the window of her room, which turned into a beautiful knight. The knight reports that he has loved her for a long time, but could not appear without her call; from now on, he will fly to her whenever she wishes it. Their dates continued until the husband, suspecting something was wrong, ordered sickles and knives to be attached to the window, on which the bird-knight, having flown to his beloved, stumbled upon, mortally wounding himself. When the son born from him to his beloved grew up, she told the young man about his origin, and he, avenging the death of his father, killed the evil jealous man.

The background of knightly life is shown even brighter in "Lanval", which depicts the secret love of a knight and a beautiful fairy. This love, due to the envy of the queen who was jealous of the knight, almost cost him his life, but the knight still managed to escape with his beloved to a magical island.

Other le Marias are even more imbued with lyricism and do not contain any fantasy.

One of them tells how a certain king, not wanting to part with his daughter, announced that he would marry her only to someone who, without outside help, would carry her in his arms to the top of a high mountain. A young man in love with her, whom she also loved, carried her to the top, but immediately fell dead. Since then, this mountain has been called the "Mountain of Two Lovers." In another le, a young woman, unhappy in her marriage, under the pretext that she is listening to the singing of a nightingale, stands idle for a long time in the evenings at the window, looking out the window of the house across the street, where a knight who is in love with her lives, also looking at her: this is their only comfort. But the jealous husband killed the nightingale and angrily threw it at the feet of his wife. She picked up the poor body and then sent it to her dear one, who buried it in a luxurious chest and kept it since then as a dear memory.

All the le of Mary of France are imbued with one common assessment of human relations. The chivalrous shell of the plot covers their universal human content. Luxurious court life, brilliant military exploits do not attract Mary. Any cruelty, any violence against natural human feelings saddens her. But this does not give rise to angry protest in her, but to mild melancholy. Most of all, she sympathizes with those suffering from love. At the same time, she understands love not as a magnificent service to a lady and not as a stormy fatal passion, but as a gentle natural attraction to each other of two pure and simple hearts. This attitude towards love brings le Maria closer to folk poetry.

The Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde was known in a large number of French adaptations, but many of them have completely disappeared, while only small fragments have survived from others. By comparing all the fully and partially French editions of the novel about Tristan, as well as their translations into other languages, it turned out to be possible to restore the plot and the general character of the oldest French novel that has not come down to us (mid-12th century), to which all these editions date back .

Tristan, the son of a king, lost his parents as a child and was kidnapped by visiting Norwegian merchants. Having escaped from captivity, he ended up in Cornwall, at the court of his uncle King Mark, who raised Tristan and, being old and childless, intended to make him his successor. Growing up, Tristan became a brilliant knight and rendered many valuable services to his adopted homeland. Once he was wounded by a poisoned weapon, and, not finding a cure, he gets into a boat in desperation and sails at random. The wind brings him to Ireland, and the local queen, versed in potions, not knowing that Tristan killed her brother Morolt ​​in a duel, heals him. Upon Tristan's return to Cornwall, the local barons, out of envy of him, demand that Mark marry and give the country an heir to the throne. Wanting to dissuade this, Mark announces that he will marry only the girl who owns the golden hair dropped by a flying swallow. Tristan goes in search of the beauty. He again sails at random and again ends up in Ireland, where he recognizes in the royal daughter, Isolde the Golden-haired, the girl who owns the hair. Having defeated the fire-breathing dragon that devastated Ireland, Tristan receives Isolde's hand from the king, but announces that he himself will not marry her, but will take her as a bride to his uncle. When he and Iseult are on a ship to Cornwall, they mistakenly drink the "love potion" that Iseult's mother gave her so that when they drink it, she and King Mark will be forever bound by love. Tristan and Isolde cannot fight the passion that has seized them: from now on, until the end of their days, they will belong to each other. Upon arrival in Cornwall, Isolde becomes Mark's wife, but her passion drives her to seek secret rendezvous with Tristan. The courtiers try to track them down, but to no avail, and the generous Mark tries not to notice anything. In the end, the lovers are caught, and the court sentences them to death. However, Tristan manages to escape with Isolde, and they wander for a long time in the forest, happy with their love, but experiencing great hardships. Finally, Mark forgives them on the condition that Tristan go into exile. Having left for Brittany, Tristan married, seduced by the similarity of names, to another Isolde, nicknamed Beloruka. But immediately after the wedding, he repented of this and remained faithful to the first Isolde. Languishing in separation from his sweetheart, he several times, dressed up, comes to Cornwall to secretly see her. Mortally wounded in Brittany in one of the skirmishes, he sends a faithful friend to Cornwall to bring him Isolde, who alone can heal him; in case of luck, let his friend put out a white sail. But when the ship with Isolde appears on the horizon, the jealous wife, having learned about the agreement, tells Tristan to tell that the sail on it is black. Hearing this, Tristan dies. Isolde comes up to him, lies down next to him and also dies. They are buried, and on the same night two trees grow out of their two graves, the branches of which are intertwined.

The author of this novel quite accurately reproduced all the details of the Celtic story, retaining its tragic coloring, and only replaced almost everywhere the manifestations of Celtic customs and customs with features of French knightly life. From this material, he created a poetic story, imbued with one common feeling and thought, which struck the imagination of his contemporaries and caused a long series of imitations.

The success of the novel is mainly due to the special situation in which the characters are placed and the concept of their feelings. In the suffering that Tristan experiences, a prominent place is occupied by the painful consciousness of the hopeless contradiction between his passion and the moral foundations of the whole society, binding on himself. Tristan languishes with the consciousness of the lawlessness of his love and the insult that he inflicts on King Mark, endowed in the novel with features of rare nobility and generosity. Like Tristan, Mark himself is a victim of the voice of the feudal-knightly “public opinion”.

He did not want to marry Isolde, and after that he was by no means inclined to be suspicious or jealous of Tristan, whom he continued to love as his own son. But all the time he is forced to yield to the insistence of scammers-barons, pointing out to him that his knightly and royal honor is suffering here, and even threatening him with an uprising. Nevertheless, Mark is always ready to forgive the guilty. Tristan constantly remembers this kindness of Mark, and from this his moral suffering is even intensified.

The author's attitude to the moral and social conflict of Tristan and Isolde with the environment is ambivalent. On the one hand, he seems to recognize the correctness of the prevailing morality, forcing, for example, Tristan to be tormented by the consciousness of his “guilt”. The love of Tristan and Isolde appears to the author as a misfortune, in which the love potion is to blame. But at the same time, he does not hide his sympathy for this love, depicting in positive tones all those who contribute to it, and expressing obvious satisfaction at the failure or death of the enemies of those who love. Outwardly, the motif of the fatal love potion saves the author from contradiction. But it is clear that this motif serves only to mask his feelings, and the artistic images of the novel clearly speak of the true direction of his sympathies. Not reaching the open denunciation of the feudal-knightly system with its oppression and prejudices, the author internally felt its wrongness and violence. The images of his novel, the glorification of love contained in it, which is “stronger than death” and does not want to reckon with either the hierarchy established by feudal society or the law of the Catholic Church, objectively contain elements of criticism of the very foundations of this society.

Both this first novel and other French novels about Tristan caused many imitations in most European countries - in Germany, England, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, etc. They are also known to have been translated into Czech and Belarusian. Of all these adaptations, the most significant is the German novel by Gottfried of Strassburg (beginning of the 13th century), which stands out for its subtle analysis of the spiritual experiences of the characters and the masterful description of the forms of knightly life. It was Gottfried's "Tristan" that most contributed to the revival in the 19th century. poetic interest in this medieval story. He served as the most important source for Wagner's famous opera Tristan und Isolde (1859).

The real creator of the Arthurian novel, who gave the best examples of this genre, is the poet of the second half of the 12th century. Chretien de Troy, who lived for a long time at the court of Mary of Champagne. In terms of sharpness of thought, liveliness of imagination, observation and technical skill, he is one of the most remarkable poets of the Middle Ages. The Celtic tales were used by Chrétien as raw material, which he rebuilt with a completely different meaning.

The frame of the Arthurian court, taken from Galfrid's chronicle, served him only as a decoration, against which he deployed pictures of the life of a completely contemporary knightly society, posing and resolving very significant questions that this society should have been occupied with. For this reason, the problematic dominates in Chrétien's novels over the most exciting adventures and vivid images. But the way in which Chrétien prepares the solution of this or that problem is free from any rationalization and edification, since he takes internally plausible positions and saturates his very lively story with apt observations and picturesque details.

Chrétien's novels fall into two groups. In the earlier ones, Chrétien portrays love as a simple and human feeling, free from courtly idealization and sophistication.

Such is the novel "Erek and Enida."

Erec, the son of King Lak, a knight at the court of Arthur, as a result of one adventure falls in love with a girl of rare beauty, named Enida, who lives in terrible poverty. He asks Enida's hand in marriage from her father, who agrees, much to the delight of the girl. Upon learning of this, Enida's wealthy cousin wants to supply her with luxurious dresses, but Erec announces that she will receive her outfit only from the hands of Queen Genievra, and takes her away in a miserable, worn dress. Everyone in Arthur's court is in awe of Enida's beauty. Soon after, Erec takes his wife to his kingdom, where at first they live happily, but then the courtiers begin to grumble that Erec, from excessive love for his wife, has become pampered and lost his prowess. Enida, hearing this, cries at night. Having learned about the reason for her tears, Erek sees in this distrust of himself on the part of his wife and angrily announces that he is immediately sent to perform feats. But he sets a condition: Enida will go ahead, and no matter what danger she sees, she must in no case turn around and warn her husband about it. Erec has to endure many difficult encounters with robbers, knights-errant, etc., and Enida several times, violating the prohibition, carefully warns him of the danger. Once, when the earl, who sheltered them in a difficult moment, wanted to treacherously kill Erec at night in order to take possession of her, only Enida's devotion and resourcefulness saved his life. Finally, after many trials, covered with wounds, but triumphant, proving his valor and reconciled with Enida, Erec returns home, and their happy life resumes.

Chrétien in this novel raises the question: is love compatible with chivalrous deeds? But in the process of resolving this problem, he comes to the formulation of another, broader and more significant one: what should be the relationship between lovers and what is the purpose of a woman as a lover and wife? Despite the fact that Erec's treatment of his wife shows some rudeness and despotism, typical of the mores of that time, the novel as a whole is an apology for the dignity of a woman. Chrétien wanted to show in it not only that valor is compatible with love, but also that wife and lover can be combined in the person of one woman who, in addition to all this, can also be a friend, an active assistant to her husband in all matters.

Without making a woman an object of courtly adoration and not yet endowing her with the right to vote on an equal footing with her husband, Chrétien nevertheless raises her human dignity tremendously, revealing her moral qualities and creative possibilities. The anti-courtly tendency of the novel is clearly reflected in its final episode.

After completing his journey, Erec, having learned that there is a wonderful garden, access to which is guarded by a formidable knight, goes there and defeats the knight, to the great joy of the latter, who thus received liberation. It turns out that this knight was the victim of a word he carelessly gave to his “girlfriend”, reclining in the middle of the garden on a silver bed, not to leave her until an opponent stronger than him appears. This episode aims to contrast the free, non-coercive love of Erec and Enida with love that has the character of enslavement.

On the contrary, in his later novels, written under the influence of Marie of Champagne, Chrétien illustrates the courtly theory of love. This is most clearly manifested in his novel Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart.

An unknown knight of formidable appearance kidnaps Queen Genievra, whom the boastful and insignificant Seneschal Kay failed to protect. Lancelot, in love with the queen, gives chase. He asks the dwarf he meets on the way which way the kidnapper left, to which the dwarf promises to answer if Lancelot agrees to ride in the cart first. After a moment's hesitation, Lancelot, for the sake of his boundless love for Genievre, decides to endure this humiliation. After a series of dangerous adventures, he reaches the castle of King Bademagyu, where the son of the latter Meleagan, the kidnapper of Genievra, holds Genievra captive. To free her, Lancelot challenges Meleagan to a duel. During the battle, seeing that his son is having a bad time, Bademagyu asks for Genievra's intercession, who is looking at the battle, and she orders Lancelot to succumb to the enemy, which he dutifully does, putting his life in danger. Honest Bademagyu declares Lancelot the winner and leads him to Genievre, but she turns her gaze away from the bewildered lover. With great difficulty, he learns about the cause of Genievra's anger: the anger is due to the fact that for one moment he still hesitated before getting into the cart. Only after Lancelot, in desperation, wants to commit suicide, does Genievra forgive him and, for the first time in all the time that he loves her, makes an appointment with him. The freed Genieura returns to her court, while the men of Meleagan treacherously seize Lancelot and imprison him. At the court of Arthur, a tournament is arranged, in which Lancelot, having learned about this, is eager to take part. The jailer's wife, on parole, lets him go for a few days, Lancelot fights in the tournament, Genievra recognizes him by his prowess and decides to check his guess. She tells the knight to tell her that she asks him to fight as badly as possible. Lancelot begins to act like a coward, becoming a laughingstock. Then Genievra cancels his order, and Lancelot receives the first prize, after which he quietly leaves the tournament and returns to the dungeon. The finale of the novel is a description of how the sister of Meleagan, to whom Lancelot rendered a great service, discovers the place of his imprisonment and helps him escape.

The whole "problematics" of this novel lies in showing what the "ideal" lover should feel and how he should behave in various cases of life. Such a task, received by Chrétien from Marie of Champagne, must have weighed heavily on him, and this explains why he did not finish the novel, which was completed for him by another poet who was also in the service of Mary.

In his next novel, Ewen, or the Lion's Knight, Chrétien departs from the extremes of courtly doctrine, without, however, breaking with some points of courtly outlook and style. He again raises the problem of the compatibility of exploits and love, but here he is looking for a compromise solution.

Chrétien's novels caused a large number of imitations both in France and abroad. In particular, the Swabian minnesinger Hartmann von Aue (1190-1200), who was not inferior to Chrétien in the art of descriptions and psychological analysis, translated "Erek" and "Iven" into German with great skill.

The last group of "Breton tales", the cycle of the so-called "novels about the Holy Grail", represents an attempt at an artistic synthesis of the secular courtly ideal of Arthurian novels with the dominant religious ideas of feudal society. Similar phenomena are observed in the spiritual and knightly orders of the Templars, St. John, etc., flourishing around this time. At the same time, poetic fantasy, drawn from Celtic folklore by the chivalric romance, is closely intertwined with the motifs of Christian legend and folk heresies.

These tendencies are expressed in the later form of the Holy Grail tale. This legend has a rather complicated history. One of the first authors who undertook to process it was the same Chretien de Troyes.

Chrétien de Troyes' novel "Perceval, or the Tale of the Grail" tells that the widow of a knight, whose husband and several sons died in the war and tournaments, wanting to protect her last, young son, called Perceval, from the dangers of knightly life, settled with him in the dense forest. But the young man, having grown up, saw knights passing through the forest, and immediately a born knight spoke in him. He announced to his mother that he certainly wanted to become like them, and she had to let Perceval go to the court of King Arthur. At first, his inexperience made him make ridiculous mistakes, but soon everyone was imbued with respect for his prowess. On one of his trips, Perceval enters the castle, where he witnesses such a strange scene: in the middle of the hall lies an old sick knight, the owner of the castle, and a procession passes by him; first they carry a spear, from the tip of which blood drips, then a dazzlingly sparkling vessel - the Grail, and finally a silver plate. Perceval, out of modesty, does not dare to ask what all this means. Waking up in the morning in the room allotted to him, he sees that the castle is empty, and leaves. Only later does he learn that if he had asked about the meaning of the procession, the owner of the castle would immediately be healed, and prosperity would come to the whole country; and an inappropriate shyness took possession of him as a punishment for breaking his mother's heart by his departure. After that, Perceval promises himself to enter the Grail castle again and sets off to look for him in order to correct his oversight. In turn, King Arthur's nephew, Gauwen, leaves in search of adventures. The story breaks off at the description of their adventures; apparently death prevented Chrétien from completing the novel.

Several authors, duplicating each other, continued Chrétien's novel, bringing it to 50,000 verses and exhausting the adventure with the Grail to the end. It is impossible to establish what the Grail was in Chrétien's view, what were its properties and purpose. In all likelihood, his image was taken from Celtic legends, and he was a talisman that had the ability to saturate people or maintain their strength and life by its mere presence. Chrétien's successors are not completely clear on this score. However, other poets who, after Chrétien, and quite independently of him, took up the processing of this legend, gave the Grail a completely different, religious interpretation, borrowed by them from Robert de Boron, who wrote about 1200 a poem about Joseph of Arimathea, which outlines the prehistory of the Grail.

Joseph of Arimathea, one of the closest disciples of Christ, kept the cup of the Last Supper and, when a Roman legionary pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with a spear, collected the flowing blood into it. Soon the Jews threw Joseph into prison and walled him up there, dooming him to starvation. But Christ appeared to the prisoner, handing him the sacred cup, which supported his strength and health until, already under the emperor Vespasian, he was released. Then, having gathered like-minded people, Joseph sailed with them to Britain, where he founded a community to store this greatest Christian shrine - the "Holy Grail".

In one of the later editions of the legend, it is added that the keepers of the Grail must be chaste. The last of them committed a "carnal sin", and the punishment for this was the injury he received. He cannot, as much as he would like to, die, and only the contemplation of the Grail, which is carried past him once a day, alleviates his suffering a little. When a knight pure in soul (and this is precisely Perceval, who by his very upbringing is a “great simpleton”), once in the castle, asks the patient about the reason for his suffering and about the meaning of the procession with the Grail, the patient will die in peace, and the stranger will become the guardian of the sacred cup.

Characteristic is this replacement of a fabulous Celtic talisman by a Christian shrine, brilliant knightly adventures for the sake of honor and glory - by humble religious service, a cult of earthly joy and love - by the ascetic principle of chastity. The same trend is noticeable in all later adaptations of the Grail legend, appearing in large numbers in the 13th century. in France and other European countries.

The largest monument of this kind is the "Parzival" by the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (beginning of the 13th century), which is the most significant and independent work of this genre in medieval German literature. Wolfram's poem basically follows Chrétien de Troy's Perceval, but deviates from it in a number of significant new motifs.

In Wolfram's poem, the Grail is a gem brought by angels from heaven; he has the miraculous power to saturate everyone according to his desire, to give youth and bliss. The castle of the Grail is guarded by knights, whom Wolfram calls the "Templars". The Grail Knights are forbidden from loving service, only the king can marry. When a country is left without a king, one of the knights is sent to protect it, but he does not have the right to tell anyone his name and origin (the fabulous motif of the marriage ban, “taboo”). Thus, the son of Parzival Lohengrin is sent by the Grail to protect Elsa, the Duchess of Brabant, who is oppressed by recalcitrant vassals. Lohengrin defeats Elsa's enemies, and she becomes his wife, but, wanting to know his name and origin, violates the ban, and Lohengrin must return to his country. Wolfram's Lohengrin - the "swan knight" sailing from an unknown country in a boat drawn by a swan - a story known in the French epic and included by Wolfram in the circle of legends about the Grail.

The poem is preceded by an extensive introduction, also missing from Chrétien and dedicated to the history of Parzival's parents.

His father sets out to seek adventure in the East, serves as the caliph of Baghdad and frees the Moorish princess, who becomes his wife and bears him a son. Returning to Christian countries, he wins the hand of a beautiful Christian princess and the kingdom with his valor. After his early death, the widow retires in deep sorrow to the forest desert, where Parzival is born. At the end of the poem, Parsifal meets with his "eastern" brother, who went out in search of his father, and a duel takes place between them, in which they are equal in valor and strength and enter into a friendly alliance.

This introduction and conclusion expand the geographic scope of Wolfram's poem. The poet stands on the point of view of the international unity of knightly culture, embracing in his ideal view the West and the East, united by the Crusades. In this sense, his "Parzival" is undoubtedly the most significant attempt at a poetic synthesis of this culture in its secular and spiritual elements within the framework of the worldview of feudal society.

Wolfram's "Parzival" was also used by Richard Wagner in creating two famous operas - "Lohengrin" (1847) and "Parzival" (1882).

In addition to novels on ancient and "Breton" subjects, a third type of chivalric romance arose in France. These are novels of vicissitudes or adventures, which are usually, not quite accurately, also called Byzantine novels, since their plots are built mainly on motifs found in Byzantine or late Greek romance, such as shipwrecks, abduction by pirates, recognition, forced separation and a happy meeting. lovers, etc. Stories of this kind came to France usually by word of mouth; for example, they may have been brought by the crusaders from southern Italy (where there was a strong Greek influence) or directly from Constantinople, but sometimes, on rarer occasions, by bookish means. These Greek-Byzantine stories, widespread in the Mediterranean basin, in some cases were mixed with plots of Eastern, Persian-Arabic origin, such as the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, with the theme of passionate love often associated with tragic adventures. Motifs of this kind, together with traces of Arabic names, sometimes appear in French adventure novels. It should not, however, be assumed that the direct source of these novels was necessarily Greco-Byzantine or Arabic stories. In most cases, Greek-Byzantine and partly Oriental stories served only as an impetus and to some extent as a model for the work of French poets, who drew material from completely different sources, to a large extent - and: local poetic traditions or real incidents.

For the "Byzantine" novels, which developed somewhat later than the ancient and Breton novels, it is characteristic in comparison with them to approach everyday life: an almost complete absence of the supernatural, a significant amount of everyday details, a great simplicity of the plot and the tone of the narration. This is especially noticeable in the late examples of the genre (XIII century), when the taste for the exotic weakens and, together with the transfer of the scene of action of these novels to France, they are filled with everyday color. An essential feature of these novels is also that the central place in them is always occupied by a love theme.

The most typical for this genre are several novels, sometimes called "idyllic", having the same plot scheme, repeated with slight variations: two children, brought up together from childhood, were imbued with a tender affection for each other, which over the years turned into irresistible love. Their marriage, however, is hindered by the difference in social status, and sometimes also religion (he is a pagan, she is a Christian, or vice versa; he is a king’s son, and she is a poor captive, or he is a simple knight, and she is the daughter of an emperor and etc.). Their parents separate them, but the lovers stubbornly search for each other and, in the end, after a series of trials, they happily unite.

The classic and at the same time the earliest example of "idyllic" novels, which influenced all other works of this kind, is "Floire and Blanchefleur". The whole narrative here is conducted in gentle, almost lyrical tones. In this regard, the selfishness or severity of the enemies of the lovers is not emphasized at all - the father of Fluar, a pagan king who does not want his son to marry a simple captive, or the Babylonian emir, in whose harem Blanchefleur, sold by the father of Fluard to visiting merchants, falls. The author perfectly conveyed the purity of a young feeling, as well as the charm that it has on everyone around. When Fluard, looking for Blanchefleur, who has been taken away, asks everyone he meets about her on the way, one innkeeper immediately guesses who his beloved is from the identical expression on her face and from the manifestations of sadness that are exactly the same as his, in one girl who recently passed through these places. Caught in the harem, Fluard is saved from death with Blanchefleur only because each of them tries to take all the blame on himself and begs to be executed earlier and not forced to look at the death of the other; such "unprecedented" love touches the emir, who forgives them both.

The anti-aristocratic tendencies seen in Floir et Blanchefleur find their final expression in the fairy tale song of the early thirteenth century. Aucassin and Nicolet, which definitely goes beyond the boundaries of chivalric literature. The very form of this work is very peculiar - the alternation of poetry and prose, and small poetic passages partly lyrically supplement, partly simply continue the narration of the previous prose chapters. Finding its explanation in a special way of performance by two jugglers, of which one picks up the story of the other and then again transmits it to him, this form indicates the folk origin of this genre. This is also evidenced by the special style of the story, which combines sincere lyricism with lively humor.

This story is a parody of all knightly norms and ideals.

The count's son Aucassin loves the Saracen captive Nicolet and dreams only of a peaceful, happy life with her. The thought of honors, glory, military exploits is so alien to him that he does not even want to take part in the defense of his ancestral possessions from the enemy who attacked them. Only after his father promises him a rendezvous with Nicolet, who he locked in the tower, does Aucassin agree to go into battle. But when, having won and captured the enemy, he learns that his father does not want to keep his promise, he releases the enemy without ransom, taking an oath that he will continue to fight and try his best to harm Aucassin's father.

It is impossible not to see in this a frank mockery of the feudal hierarchy and the most sacred principles of knightly practice. Aucassin does not treat religious dogmas with great respect either, when he declares that he does not want to go to heaven after death, where there are only “priests, wretched and crippled”, but prefers to be in hell, where it is much more fun - “if only there his tender girlfriend was with him.

Even less than Floire, Aucassin resembles a knight. Other representatives of the Rishar estate play the role of extras in the story. But there are other, very lively and expressive figures in it - commoners, street watchmen, shepherds, depicted with remarkable truthfulness for that time and sympathy unprecedented in chivalric novels. Particularly characteristic is the dialogue between Aucassin and the poor shepherd. To the question of the latter why he is so saddened, Aucassin, looking for Nicolet, answers allegorically that he has lost the greyhound, and then the shepherd exclaims: “My God! And what won’t these gentlemen invent!”

And in contrast to this insignificant loss, he talks about the true misfortune that befell him. He accidentally lost one of the oxen entrusted to him, and the owner, demanding from him the full cost of the ox, did not hesitate to pull the old mattress out from under his sick mother. “This is what saddens me more than my own grief. Because money comes and goes, And if I've lost now, I'll win another time and pay for my bull. For that alone, I wouldn't cry. And you killea because of some lousy little dog. Cursed be the one who praises you for this!”

Another example of a parody (of a slightly different type) on chivalric romances is Payen de Maizière's little verse story The Mule Without a Bridle, which is a comic montage of episodes and motifs found in Chrétien de Troyes.

A girl on a mule arrives at Arthur's court, complaining bitterly that her mule's bridle, without which she cannot be happy, has been taken from her. Gauwen volunteers to help her and, having exposed himself to great dangers, gets her a bridle, after which the girl thanks him and leaves.

The described adventure is complicated by many no less mysterious adventures, which the author tells extremely lively and cheerfully, clearly making fun of the "Breton fables".

These symptoms of the decay of the chivalric romance herald a triumph in the thirteenth century. new style put forward by urban literature.