Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
by
Chretien DeTroyes
Fl. 12th Century A.D.
Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #21
Originally written in Old French, sometime in the second half of the 12th Century A.D., by the court poet
Chretien DeTroyes. Translation by W.W. Comfort, 1914.
The text of this edition is based on that published as CHRETIEN DETROYES: ARTHURIAN
ROMANCES, (Trans: W.W. Comfort; Everyman's Library, London, 1914). This text is in the PUBLIC
DOMAIN in the United States.
EREC ET ENIDE
INTRODUCTION
Chretien De Troyes has had the peculiar fortune of becoming the best known of the old French poets to
students of mediaeval literature, and of remaining practically unknown to any one else. The acquaintance
of students with the work of Chretien has been made possible in academic circles by the admirable
critical editions of his romances undertaken and carried to completion during the past thirty years by
Professor Wendelin Foerster of Bonn. At the same time the want of public familiarity with Chretien's
work is due to the almost complete lack of translations of his romances into the modern tongues. The
man who, so far as we know, first recounted the romantic adventures of Arthur's knights, Gawain. Yvain,
Erec, Lancelot, and Perceval, has been forgotten; whereas posterity has been kinder to his debtors,
Wolfram yon Eschenbach, Malory, Lord Tennyson, and Richard Wagner. The present volume has grown
out of the desire to place these romances of adventure before the reader of English in a prose version
based directly upon the oldest form in which they exist.
Such extravagant claims for Chretien's art have been made in some quarters that one feels disinclined to
give them even an echo here. The modern reader may form his own estimate of the poet's art, and that
estimate will probably not be high. Monotony, lack of proportion, vain repetitions, insufficient
motivation, wearisome subtleties, and threatened, if not actual, indelicacy are among the most salient
defects which will arrest, and mayhap confound, the reader unfamiliar with mediaeval literary craft. No
greater service can be performed by an editor in such a case than to prepare the reader to overlook these
common faults, and to set before him the literary significance of this twelfth- century poet.
Chretien de Troyes wrote in Champagne during the third quarter of the twelfth century. Of his life we
know neither the beginning nor the end, but we know that between 1160 and 1172 he lived, perhaps as
(10) The hauberk was a long shirt of mail reaching to the knees,
worn by knights in combat. The helmet, and the "coiffe"
beneath it, protected the head; the "ventail" of linked
meshes was worn across the lower part of the face, and was
(23) The maid Brangien was substituted for Iseut, the bride, upon
the first night after her marriage with Mark. Similar
traditions are associated with the marriage of Arthur and
Guinevere, and of Pepin and Berte aus grans pies, the
parents of Charlemagne. Adenet le Roi toward the end of the
13th century is the author of the most artistic treatments
EREC ET ENIDE
Part II: Vv. 2293 - Vv. 4579
(Vv. 2293-2764.) Erec wished to delay no longer. As soon as he had the King's leave, he bid his wife
make her preparations, and he retained as his escort sixty knights of merit with horses and with dappled
and grey furs. As soon as he was ready for his journey, he tarried little further at court, but took leave of
the Queen and commended the knights to God. The Queen grants him leave to depart. At the hour of
prime he set out from the royal palace. In the presence of them all he mounted his steed, and his wife
mounted the dappled horse which she had brought from her own country; then all his escort mounted.
Counting knights and squires, there were full seven score in the train. After four long days' journey over
hills and slopes, through forests, plains, and streams, they came on the fifth day to Camant, where King
Lac was residing in a very charming town. No one ever saw one better situated; for the town was
provided with forests and meadow-land, with vineyards and farms, with streams and orchards, with
ladies and knights, and fine, lively youths, and polite, well-mannered clerks who spent their incomes
freely, with fair and charming maidens, and with prosperous burghers. Before Erec reached the town, he
sent two knights ahead to announce his arrival to the King. When he heard the news, the King had clerks,
knights, and damsels quickly mount, and ordered the bells to be rung, and the streets to be hung with
tapestries and silken stuffs, that his son might be received with joy; then he himself got on his horse. Of
clerks there were present fourscore, gentle and honourable men, clad in grey cloaks bordered with sable.
Of knights there were full five hundred, mounted on bay, sorrel, or white-spotted steeds. There were so
many burghers and dames that no one could tell the number of them. The King and his son galloped and
rode on till they saw and recognised each other. They both jump down from their horses and embrace
(26) This sentence contains the motive for all the action in the
sequel. The same situation is threatened in "Yvain", but
there Gawain rescues the hero from the lethargy, ignoble in
the eyes of a feudal audience, into which he was falling.
Cf. also "Marques de Rome" ("Lit. Verein in Stuttgart",
Tubingen, 1889), p. 36, where the Empress of Rome thus
incites her husband to the chase: "Toz jors cropez vos a
Postel; vos n'estes point chevalereus, si come vos deussiez
estre, si juenes hom come vos estes"; also J. Gower, "Le
Mirour de l'omme, 22, 813 ff.:
"Rois est des femmes trop decu,
Qant plus les ayme que son dieu,
Dont laist honour pour foldelit:
Cil Rois ne serra pas cremu,
Q'ensi voet laisser sou escu
Et querre le bataille ou lit."
(30) Kay the Seneschal appears here for the first time in
Chretien's poems with the character which he regularly
ascribes to him. Readers of Arthurian romance are all
familiar with Sir Kay; they will find that in Chretien, the
seneschal, in addition to his undeniable qualities of
bravery and frankness, has less pleasing traits; he is
foolhardy, tactless, mean, and a disparager of others'
merit. He figures prominently in "Yvain" and "Lancelot".
His poetic history has not yet been written. His role in
the German romances has been touched upon by Dr. Friedrich
Sachse, "Ueber den Ritter Kei" (Berlin, 1860).
EREC ET ENIDE
Part III: Vv. 4580 - Vv. 6598
(Vv. 4580-4778.) Erec continues to ride at great speed to the place where Enide was awaiting him in
great concern, thinking that surely he had completely deserted her. And he, too, was in great fear lest
some one, finding her alone, might have carried her off. So he made all haste to return. But the heat of
the day was such, and his arms caused him such distress, that his wounds broke open and burst the
bandages. His wounds never stopped bleeding before he came directly to the spot where Enide was
waiting for him. She espied him and rejoiced: but she did not realise or know the pain from which he was
(43) The sterling was the English silver penny, 240 of which
equalled 1 Pound Sterling of silver of 5760 grains 925 fine.
It is early described as "denarius Angliae qui vocatur
sterlingus" ("Ency. Brit").