‘He ne wiste nother of evyll ne gude’: A Prelapsarian Perceval

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-127
Author(s):  
Susanne Hafner
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Sexual Desire ◽  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
Wolfram Von Eschenbach ◽  
English Version ◽  
Middle English Romance ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes

AbstractDeparting from the observation that the Middle English romance of Sir Perceval of Galles quotes from Genesis at two crucial moments, this study provides a coherent reading of the text, explaining some of its idiosyncrasies and triangulating it with the versions of Chrétien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach. What distinguishes the Middle English version from the continental texts are its purposeful absences, i. e. that which the author chooses to abbreviate or leave out altogether. The result is the story of a prelapsarian creature who stumbles through an Edenic landscape where time and mortality have been suspended and individual culpability does not exist. Sir Perceval’s non-existent biblical knowledge, blocked by his mother and ultimately brought to its end by a literal fall from his horse, leaves him invincible, ungendered and immortal. It also serves to explain his unapologetic violence as well as his complete lack of sexual desire. This bold experiment cannot last – Sir Perceval does eventually discover knighthood, masculinity and mortality. Unfortunately, these three are inseparably linked: being a knight, being a man and being dead are one and the same thing in Sir Perceval’s universe.

scholarly journals «Debates en torno al ocio en la narrativa anglonormanda: del Brut de Wace al Roman de Horn e Ipomedon»

2016 ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
María Dumas
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
Generic Model ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Romance Genre ◽  
Narrative Conventions ◽  
Erec Et Enide

Resumen: El trabajo analiza la recepción del problema planteado por el ocio, la recreantise, en la narrativa caballeresca de la Inglaterra anglonormanda. Esta cuestión, introducida por Wace en el Brut, fue abordada de manera célebre por Chrétien de Troyes en su primer roman, Erec et Enide. Sin embargo, como se desprende de la lectura del Roman de Horn de Thomas y de Ipomedon de Hue de Rotelande, en el ámbito insular este debate también goza de gran vitalidad, aunque recibirá un tratamiento diferente. La representación de un héroe ocioso lleva tanto a Thomas como a Hue a problematizar, por distintas vías, las convenciones narrativas propuestas por el roman como género. La resistencia manifestada por ambos autores hacia este modelo genérico será determinante en el desarrollo ulterior del género, tanto en dialecto anglonormando como en inglés medio, y constituye un testimonio de gran valor sobre las peculiaridades de la recepción del roman en la Inglaterra del siglo XII.Palabras clave: roman anglonormando, ocio, Roman de Horn, Ipomedon.«Discussing idleness in Anglo-Norman narrative: from Wace’s Brut to the Roman de Horn and Ipomedon»Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyze how the problem of idleness, i.e. recreantise, is addressed in Anglo-Norman chivalric literature. This question, introduced by Wace in his Brut, was notably handled by Chrétien de Troyes in his first romance, Erec et Enide. However, as it becomes evident from Thomas’s Roman de Horn and Hue de Rotelande’s Ipomedon, this discussion was also quite lively in the insular context. Representing an idle hero leads both Thomas and Hue to challenge, in different ways, the narrative conventions of the romance genre. The resistance evinced by the two authors towards this generic model would be highly influential on the later development of the genre in England, both in Anglo-Norman and Middle English, and affords a valuable testimony to the peculiarities of the reception of romance in twelfth-century England.Keywords: Anglo-Norman romance, idleness, Roman de Horn, Ipomedon.

scholarly journals A letra e a voz em três romances do Graal

Signo ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (66) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Demétrio Alves Paz
Keyword(s):  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
Wolfram Von Eschenbach ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes

O presente ensaio tem por objetivo analisar o narrador e os personagens em três romances de cavalaria que tratam do Graal: Perceval, de Chrétien de Troyes; Parsifal, de Wolfram von Eschenbach e A Demanda do Santo Graal, texto anônimo português. Após a análise do contexto de produção das obras, utilizam-se as ideias de Paul Zumthor e de Walter Benjamim a respeito da relação entre oralidade e escrita para comentar o narrador presente nos romances. Depois, investigam-se os personagens de acordo com a tipologia proposta por Antonio Prieto. Os dois primeiros romances que tratam do Graal estão mais próximos não só da oralidade como também do mito, ao passo que no texto português há um controle maior da narração devido ao seu caráter religioso.

Love, sadness and other mental states in the Middle Welsh Owain (and related texts)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-60
Author(s):  
Erich Poppe
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Old Swedish ◽  
Narrative Role

AbstractThis article explores the devices employed by the medieval Welsh narrator of Owain, or Chwedyl Iarlles y Ffynnawn (‘The Story of the Lady of the Well’), to convey emotions and the mental states of his characters to his audiences. Although he generally remains inaudible, he uses, at some crucial points, words and phrases denoting emotions in a narrow sense, such as love, sadness and shame, in order to direct and steer the audiences’ perception and their understanding of the narrative. A comparison with thematically related texts, Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain, and its Old Norse, Old Swedish and Middle English translations, helps to assess the narrative role of literary emotions in the Welsh text.

scholarly journals «Debates en torno al ocio en la narrativa anglonormanda: del Brut de Wace al Roman de Horn e Ipomedon»

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 153-176
Author(s):  
María Dumas
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
Generic Model ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Romance Genre ◽  
Narrative Conventions ◽  
Erec Et Enide

Resumen: El trabajo analiza la recepción del problema planteado por el ocio, la recreantise, en la narrativa caballeresca de la Inglaterra anglonormanda. Esta cuestión, introducida por Wace en el Brut, fue abordada de manera célebre por Chrétien de Troyes en su primer roman, Erec et Enide. Sin embargo, como se desprende de la lectura del Roman de Horn de Thomas y de Ipomedon de Hue de Rotelande, en el ámbito insular este debate también goza de gran vitalidad, aunque recibirá un tratamiento diferente. La representación de un héroe ocioso lleva tanto a Thomas como a Hue a problematizar, por distintas vías, las convenciones narrativas propuestas por el roman como género. La resistencia manifestada por ambos autores hacia este modelo genérico será determinante en el desarrollo ulterior del género, tanto en dialecto anglonormando como en inglés medio, y constituye un testimonio de gran valor sobre las peculiaridades de la recepción del roman en la Inglaterra del siglo XII.Palabras clave: roman anglonormando, ocio, Roman de Horn, Ipomedon.«Discussing idleness in Anglo-Norman narrative: from Wace’s Brut to the Roman de Horn and Ipomedon»Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyze how the problem of idleness, i.e. recreantise, is addressed in Anglo-Norman chivalric literature. This question, introduced by Wace in his Brut, was notably handled by Chrétien de Troyes in his first romance, Erec et Enide. However, as it becomes evident from Thomas’s Roman de Horn and Hue de Rotelande’s Ipomedon, this discussion was also quite lively in the insular context. Representing an idle hero leads both Thomas and Hue to challenge, in different ways, the narrative conventions of the romance genre. The resistance evinced by the two authors towards this generic model would be highly influential on the later development of the genre in England, both in Anglo-Norman and Middle English, and affords a valuable testimony to the peculiarities of the reception of romance in twelfth-century England.Keywords: Anglo-Norman romance, idleness, Roman de Horn, Ipomedon.

Ovid and Chrétien de Troyes

Kinesic Humor ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 106-131
Author(s):  
Guillemette Bolens
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Old French ◽  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Old Swedish ◽  
The One

Readers’ cultural expectations regarding literary masterpieces can hamper their experience of humor. This chapter studies the passage in Chrétien de Troyes’ Yvain in which the knight’s faithful lion is said to run like a frantic hog. This simile is so surprising that it has generally been ignored not only by medievalists but also by medieval translators of Chrétien’s Yvain. Yet its potential humor is highly significant, as its disruptive quality constitutes an astute response to the already disruptive thrust of Ovid’s legend of Pyramus and Thisbe. The comparative and intertextual approach of this chapter brings together, on the one hand, Chrétien’s romance with its translations in Middle English, Old Norse, and Old Swedish, and on the other hand, Ovid’s seminal legend with its medieval adaptations by Chaucer, Gower, Boccaccio, and the anonymous author of the Old French Piramus et Tisbé. In every work, the dynamics of perception and cognition are central to the plot.

Fabian Sietz, Erzählstrategien im Rappolsteiner Parzifal. Zyklizität als Kohährenzprinzip. Studien zur historischen Poetik 25. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2017, 328 S.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 480-481
Author(s):  
Adam Oberlin
Keyword(s):  
Chretien De Troyes ◽  
Wolfram Von Eschenbach ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Chrétien De Troyes ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Religious Writings ◽  
Conte Du Graal

Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival survives in nearly 90 codices and manuscript fragments, the latter as small as portions of a single folio and the former as Sammelhandschriften with several hundred extant folia. One example of a longer ms. among them is Cod. Sang. 857, also known as the Nibelungenlied B ms. or St. Galler Epenhandschrift, which includes as complete texts or fragments Parzival, Nibelungenlied, Diu Klage, Karl der Große (Stricker), Willehalm (also Wolfram von Eschenbach), and a few other shorter poems and religious writings. Another example is the object of research in Fabian Sietz’s wide-ranging study of narrative strategies, <?page nr="481"?>namely Cod. Donaueschingen 97 in the Karlsruhe Landesbibliothek – the remarkably complete and well-preserved Rappolsteiner Parzival (the codex has been digitized and can be found here: <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/id/101664">https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/id/101664</ext-link>). Unlike the St. Gall ms., the Rappolsteiner Parzival includes not only Wolfram’s text but also a continuation adapted from Chrétien de Troyes’ Conte du Graal.

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