YVAIN, THE KNIGHT OF THE LION
ONE OF THE FIRST BOOKS OF FRENCH LITERATURE
Genre:novel
1st edition:1177
Themes:quest, bravery, Brittany, love, honor, knights
Yvain, The Knight of the Lion is a novel in octosyllabic verse that was published around 1177 and recounts the adventures of Yvain. Through the main character, who is anchored in the Arthurian universe, Chrétien develops the idea of a knight who is always in search of quests to prove his bravery, but does not hesitate to help the weak when the situation calls for it. The lion in the tale symbolizes h athleticism and moral uprightness. However, he cannot find a way to unite honor and love, and has to work hard to amend this failing.
The originality of the treatment of the novel's themes and its incredible legacy make it an essential work of French literature from the Middle Ages.
THE THEMES OF YVAIN, THE KNIGHT OF THE LION
As the canonical outline of Chrétien's novels demonstrates, each of the author's tales is built on the opposition of honor and love, with the aim of the story being to prove that it is possible to strike a balance between the two.
In the Middle Ages, the notion of honor was closely linked to the realization of heroic acts. Indeed, the knight can only gain the respect of his peers by accomplishing glorious feats. It is with this in mind that we must understand knights' constant desire to go off on quests: more often than not, they attempt to confront the extraordinary in order to prove their value to the court.
In Yvain, The Knight of the Lion, Chrétien adds a new dimension to honor altruism. As a result, the fictional knight now no longer simply carries out acts of prowess to prove his valour, but also freely intervenes to help people in need.
Besides, Chrétien presents a very innovative vision of love in his novels. It is significantly different from the concept of courtly love, which prevailed before.
Courtly love is a very common theme in poetry, and is based on the impossibility of marriage between a man and his beloved because she is of higher rank than he is. This situation causes individuals a deal suffering. Sometimes, the love can become physical, but only through adultery, which the author disapproves of.
Chrétien builds his concept of love on the possibility of such a marriage if two conditions are met:
1. The knight must win the heart of his beloved through acts of bravery;
2. After the marriage the knight must continue to maintain his knight reputation his accomplishing new acts of prowess so that his love will not be detrimental to his valour.
A PARTICULAR STYLE OF WRITING
Chrétien's works have a unique style and tone.
The author sometimes chooses to use a light, humorous tone in his texts, which is evident from a certain degree of perspective that he takes in relation to the story. As a result, his characters sometimes find themselves in situations where they adopt an unexpected or altogether too predictable attitude. Chrétien does not hesitate to use asides or let the narrator comment on certain negative aspects of the character in question. This is particularly noticeable in the scene with the lion's attempted suicide, when the author says, "You never heard greater grief narrated or told about anything than he now began to show". Given how distressed the lion becomes because of a simple misunderstanding, without even checking that his master is well and truly dead, we can assume that Chrétien is subtly mocking the exaggerated reaction of his character by addressing the reader in a slightly humorous tone. He highlights the supposedly remarkable nature of this emotional scene, which is actually rather ridiculous.
Another, more explicit example is when Yvain chases the knight of the fountain after mortally wounding him: "Straight through it exactly the knight rushed on, with my lord Yvain madly following him apace, and so close to him that he held him by the saddle-bow behind. It was well for him that he was stretched forward, for had it not been for this piece of luck he would have been cut quite through».
We notice that Chrétien compares his hero to a madman, who just happens to be lucky. He therefore highlights the very predictable trait of the knight who throws himself into every adventure without a second thought. Through his unflattering comparison, the narrator therefore highlights the very predictable trait of the knight who throws himself into every adventure without a second thought.
Chrétien's style is also noteworthy for the fact that he is the first writer not to respect the unity of the octosyllabic couplet (aa, bb, cc, and so on), which was the standard in verse of the time: the meaning of the sentence therefore goes beyond the two lines of verse. For example: "when night came on, and the time for supper had arrived. The vavasor came to look for me" We notice that the idea of the sentence does not stop at the first two lines that form the octosyllabic couplet in old French, but carries on to the third.
SOURCES FOR THE POEM
Chrétien's source for the poem is unknown, but the story bears a number of similarities to the hagiographical Life of Saint Mungo (also known as Saint Kentigern), which claims Owain mab Urien as the father of the saint by Denw, daughter of Lot of Lothian. The Life was written by Jocelyn of Furness in ca. 1185, and is thus slightly younger than Chrétien's text, but not influenced by it. Jocelyn states that he rewrote the 'life' from an earlier Glasgow legend and an old Gaelic document, so that some elements of the story may originate in a British tradition. The name of the main character Yvain, at least, ultimately harks back to the name of the historical Owain mab Urien (fl. 6th century).
Yvain survives in eight manuscripts and two fragments. It comprises 6,808 octosyllables in rhymed couplets. Two manuscripts are illustrated, Paris BN MS fr. 1433 and Princeton University Library Garrett MS 125 (ca. 1295), the former incomplete with 7 remaining miniatures and the latter with ten. Hindman (1994) discusses these illustrations as reflecting the development of the role of the knight, or the youthful knight-errant, during the transitional period from the high to the late medieval period.
Yvain had a huge impact on the literary world; German poet Hartmann von Aue used it as the basis for his masterpiece Ywein, and the author of Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, one of the Welsh Romances included in the Mabinogion, recast the work back into its Welsh setting. The poem was also translated into a number of other languages, including the Middle EnglishYwain and Gawain; the Old Norwegian Chivaldric Ívens saga and the Old Swedish Herr Ivan.
The Valþjófsstaður door in Iceland, ca. 1200, depicts a version of the Yvain story with a carving of a knight slaying a dragon that threatens a lion. The lion is later shown wearing a rich collar and following the knight, and later still the lion appears to be lying on the grave of the knight.
Wendelin Foerster published the first modern edition in 1887.
Sources:
Comments