Chrétien de Troyes facts for kids
Chrétien de Troyes was a famous French poet who lived a long time ago, from about 1160 to 1191. He is best known for his stories about King Arthur and his knights. These stories include famous characters like Lancelot, Percival, and the search for the Holy Grail.
Chrétien wrote exciting adventure stories called chivalric romances. Some of his most famous works are Erec and Enide, Lancelot, Perceval, and Yvain. These stories are considered some of the best writings from the Middle Ages. People even say his writing style, especially in Yvain, helped shape how modern novels are written today.
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Life of Chrétien de Troyes
We don't know much about Chrétien de Troyes's life. It seems he was from a town called Troyes in France, or at least he had strong ties to it.
Between 1160 and 1172, he worked for Marie of France, Countess of Champagne. She was the daughter of King Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Later, Chrétien also worked for Philippe d'Alsace, Count of Flanders.
Chrétien de Troyes's Works
Chrétien de Troyes wrote five main long poems. They were written in rhyming lines with eight syllables. Four of these poems were finished:
- Erec and Enide (around 1170)
- Cligès (around 1176)
- Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
- Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
The last two, Yvain and Lancelot, were written at the same time between 1177 and 1181. Many people think Yvain is Chrétien's best work.
His last story, Perceval, the Story of the Grail, was written between 1181 and 1190. However, he didn't finish it. He wrote about 9,000 lines, but then others added much more to it later. The end of Lancelot was also finished by another writer, Godefroi de Leigni.
Chrétien also wrote some shorter poems. One of them, Philomela, was based on stories by the Roman poet Ovid. He also wrote two short songs about love.
All of Chrétien's works were written in Old French, which was the language spoken in France at that time.
Sources and Influence of Chrétien de Troyes
We aren't completely sure where Chrétien got all his ideas for his stories. He didn't say much about his sources. Some names might have come from writers like Geoffrey of Monmouth or Wace. However, many of the characters in Chrétien's stories, like Erec and Lancelot, weren't mentioned by those authors.
It's thought that some of his stories came from old Celtic tales. For example, the story of the Holy Grail in Perceval might have been influenced by the story of Saint Galgano, a knight who died around 1180.
Chrétien's five stories together show the ideas of French chivalry very well. Chivalry was the code of conduct for knights, focusing on bravery, honor, and courtesy.
Chrétien's writing was very popular. Many copies of his stories still exist, and they were changed into other languages. For example, famous German poems like Parzival, Erec, and Iwein were based on Chrétien's Perceval, Erec, and Yvain. Some Welsh stories in the Mabinogion also came from his works.
Chrétien de Troyes was the first writer to mention some very famous things we know today:
- The Holy Grail (in Perceval)
- Camelot (in Lancelot)
- The love story between Queen Guinevere and Lancelot (in Lancelot)
These ideas are still well-known even now!
Some people call Chrétien "the inventor of the modern novel". This is because his stories, especially Yvain, have a clear beginning, middle, and end. This way of telling a story, with a build-up to a main event, was new for his time. It helped create the structure we see in novels today, even though novels as we know them didn't exist for another five centuries.
See also
- 12th century in poetry
Sources
- Loomis, Roger Sherman (1991). The Grail: From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol. Princeton. ISBN: 0-691-02075-2
