Love and Prowess in The Knight with the Lion
The chivalric ideal demanded many things of a knight. To the military ideals of prowess, loyalty, and honor it added the aristocratic ideal of largesse and, with the rise of the troubadour lyrics and romances, the ideal of courtly love. At times a knight could find these demands in conflict with one another. Such is the case with Chrétien de Troyes's romance The Knight with the Lion. In this story, the hero Yvain finds love while pursuing prowess; but, continuing to pursue prowess, he loses that love. In the adventures that follow, he seeks to regain his love. In so doing, he develops true prowess without aiming for it and learns to reconcile chivalry's demands of love and prowess,
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Yvain's prowess is already great in this early part of the story, as we can see from his first two feats of arms. In the first, he defeats Esclados the Red, the defender of the fountain, by whom Calogrenant had been so disgraced. How good a knight Esclados defeated in Calogrenant, the story does not indicate, only that he is "a most agreeable knight" (258). We may perhaps assume that, being a knight of Arthur's Round Table, Calogrenant would have been a good fighter and his defeat more the exception than the rule. Regardless of his abilities, however, Calogrenant's failure at the spring serves one important purpose: it provides a backdrop against which Yvain's success there is seen to be all the more impressive. To this backdrop is added Calogrenant's description of the spring's defender:
"I thought there were at least ten. Yet there was only a single knight whose approach caused so much noise and commotion....As though bent on evil, he was riding up faster than an eagle and looking as ferocious as a lion....The knight had a good horse and a stout lance, and without doubt, he was a whole head taller than I....His lance was not light but, in my opinion, weighed more than any knight's lance. I have never seen one so large." (263)
Besides this, there is the testimony of Calogrenant's courteous host: "So far as they knew or had heard tell, no man, they said, had ever escaped the
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Knight,” and “Le Morte d’Arthur.” Within these three Medieval stories, the ideals of courtly love
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Chretien de Troyes is known as the late 12th century poet who influenced every aspect of modern novel. Chretien’s work style is mainly based on medieval times and his novels can also be considered as “romance novels” and in fact, he was the creator of Arthurian romance. Even though Chretien was educated as a man of religion, his works were never be approved by the clergy he was a member of. One of his works Yvain, the Knight of the Lion is set in the Middle Ages. This novel which is full of medieval aspects was written in the 1170’s but the first modern publication was available in 1887. Even though Chretien’s references are unknown, this story was a huge impact in the world of literature, being the influence, as stated above, of the modern
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The conventions of courtly love stem from the precise chivalric code of knights in the Middle Ages and passionate romances of European medieval folklore. Fantastic tales of dauntless knights and their fair damsels, often set in King Arthur’s kingdom
Ever wondered how love can bring you happiness and pain and make you sane and crazy at the same time. How this emotion can change you and make you accept things you are not used to. How this emotion can overpower you in many ways in which you did not know existed. In Lancelot by Chretien de Troyes, the power of love is a commanding driving force that can dominate a person’s mind, body, and soul and one who is courageous enough to love sometimes undergoes serious consequences. Consequences that are driven from the power of love that harm and cause hardship to the one who is determined to seek love.
Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary defines chivalry as "the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood." As Leon Gautier, author of Chivalry, defines this "system" and "spirit" of knighthood by identifying rules of chivalry, two of which are well illustrated in Lanval, "TheWife of Bath's Tale," and "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnel:" "Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word," and "Thou shalt be generous, and give largess to everyone"(qtd. in Chivalry). All three stories seem to suggest the predominant theme of a knight living up to his word. This is shown by the fact that, in each story, the knight's oath is taken very seriously, is treated as a contract, and is
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Palomon says, " The Beauty of the lady whom I see wandering yonder in the garden
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