Romance and Chivalry in
English Medieval Literature
Historical Background
The Anglo-Norman kings of England did not like
being considered the vassals of the Kings of France
The Norman kings of England had to create a
mythology justifying their political independence
from France.
The theme of translatio imperii "proved" political
legitimacy translated/transferred (translatio imperii)
from the Ancients not only to the French, but also
to England.
They devised the story of the "first" British king,
Brutus, who supposedly founded the kingdom of
"Britain" ("Brut" in Anglo-Norman French).
Translatio Studii Et Imperii
Refers to the the transfer/ translation (translatio) of
culture/knowledge (studium) and of political
power/legitimacy (imperium) from one civilization
to another.
Studium: sort of WRITTEN knowledge that
constitutes literary "Authority" (auctoritas)
Imperii: political power and political legitimacy.
The Norman kings of England had to create a
mythology justifying their political independence
from France.
Fabricating History
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the King's of Britain
(1136) was presented as a scholarly work in Latin.
This History begins with Brutus, down to the Anglo-Norman
Kings.
A certain war-lord named "Arthur" helped to organize British
resistance after the fall of the Roman Empire
Arthur's descendants (the English kings) can claim not to owe
allegiance to the French.
The story of Arthur's Round Table: a fellowship of Knights
modeled on Charlemagne's traditional group of warrior
followers, the twelve "peers."
Middle English Poetry: Overview
The circumstances of writers in the English
vernacular changed after the Norman Conquest.
Collapse of written standard established in Anglo-Saxon
England and exclusion of English writings. English poetry
and prose flourished towards margins of society.
Accelerating decline of French in the England of Edward
III: readers and listeners now increasingly turning to
English.
Continuous increase in literacy; consequent development
towards what is almost mass production of manuscript
copies.
Audience and market for English poetry grew in numbers
and importance.
Middle English Poetry
Brut, illustrates clearly the relative marginality of
English in the cosmopolitan Channel Kingdom of
the Normans and Angevins.
Here Arthur appears for the 1
st
time English: his
accounts occupy more than of Lagamons 16.000
lines
The "round table" is the invention of the Anglo-
Norman poet Wace
Waces poem the Roman de Brut ("Romance of
Brutus); "romance" originally did not refer to any
idea of "romantic" love;
Wace dedicated his "romance" to Eleanor of
Aquitaine
English Romances
Can be broadly categorized as dealing with
three types of historical material:
The matter of Rome (classical legends)
The matter of France (often tales of
Charlemagne and his nights)
The matter of Britain (Arthurian stories/tales
dealing with knightly heroes)
Romance Characteristics
Typically, a romance tells the story of one quest
undertaken by one knight
The setting is a timeless fairy-tale world; there is no
"rise and fall" of Arthur's empire
Many of these romances concern the role of love
(courtly or otherwise) in human existence
Frequently, the knight has some difficulty in
working out an appropriate balance between love
and chivalry
Arthurian Romance Origins
Chrtien first had the idea of making Lancelot and
Guenevere into courtly lovers;
Their story is recounted in a romance Chrtien wrote
at the request of the Countess Marie of Champagne
Their love is a positive, ennobling force: their love
was not regarded as immoral, adulterous;
Far from being a traitor to his king, the Lancelot of
Chrtien's romance rescues Guenevere and restores
her to her husband
Malory's Morte D'Arthure
Based upon these 13
th
century French prose
romances
Incorporates their essentially negative view of
Lancelot and Guenevere's love
The original meaning of "courtly love" still shows:
the love of Lancelot and Guenevere is the ennobling
force, and the sin that prevents him from becoming a
"heavenly" knight
Reaction to the theme of courtly love invented and
developed in the "woman-influenced" Provenal,
French and Anglo-Norman literature of the 12
th
century.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Represents another transformation of the courtly
love motif.
Preserves the structure typical of French verse
romance
Revives an Old English verse form: alliteration
Represents a negative reaction to "courtly love"
similar to French prose romances: a rejection of
sensual earthly love in favor of a spiritual love.
Romance & Courtly Love vs. Church
This love affair caught imagination of late12
th
&
early-13
th
century public: the Church took notice:
Tended to ignore the vernacular romances as "popular
culture
Attacked them as vain, frivolous and "untrue"
Regarded them as potential didactic tools, which should
be used to teach moral "truths"
Disapproved of romance's emphasis on love stories: "bad"
examples
The "Vulgate Cycle" linked the Arthurian kingdom to
Christian salvation history: shift in theme (Quest of the
Holy Grail).
