Arthurian Romances

I am not certain how to write about this. It is a translation I read, so should perhaps comment about that. Well, D. D. R. Owen did, I believe, a fine job. Of course, not having read the original, I can't say for sure, but I enjoyed reading his English and did not find it distracting in the least. As for Chrétien himself, he is a great story-teller. I enjoyed these five tales very much, and stayed up late reading them.

Enjoy these stories as I do, I can not pretend that I wish I had been born 1000 years ago. I am a product of my age and glad to be so.

I include the status updates I wrote after finishing each tale.

“[The Queen] was so high above herself [with happiness] that you could have used her for hawking.”

I have finished “Erec and Enide,” the first of the five books contained herein. I have never read Chrtien before and am delighted with him. I enjoyed the book very much. Sadly, I do not like Erec the knight near so much as I like the story about him. That stunt he pulls with leaving court and dragging his wife along to (it seems) punish her for stating fact while he was presumed asleep is a thing fit for a child-man.

Finished Cligés. I certainly like him much better than I did Erec. Chrtien continues to be a good storyteller, and I continue to be amazed that I waited so long to read these stories.

Finished Lancelot. My favorite so far. I really admire his impassiveness at getting on the cart, and his silence in the face of criticism for it. he seems not even to take notice of his critics. His willingness to obey his lady love is impressive–I do not like Guenevire at all, since she does not deserve to be liked. Chrétien's writing, or the translation, is different here; it has more immediacy and humanity to it.

Finished Yvain. Definitely my favorite so far. Yvain is a right noble knight, worthy of the title.

Finished Perceval. Definitely the best of the bunch. I think he might be autistic, and when I googled “Perceval autistic” it turns out I am not the first person to think that.

A nice translation with notes and a helpful glossary. I enjoyed it, but the stories are a bit dense (aka pretty typical for their original time period, the 12th century!). I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for someone unfamiliar with Arthurian stories, but it's interesting reading for someone who's read other versions of the myths and wants to go more in-depth!