| Notes on Authors: |
| Cretien de Troyes |
| Like most of the great
Arthurian writers, little is known about Cretien. What is
known comes mostly from allusions found in his work. His
name does not appear in any official records and neither
his life nor his work can be dated with certainty. In the
prologue of Erec and Enide, the author refers to
himself as Cretien de Troyes, from which it can be
claimed that he was either born in or spent the greater
part of his life in Troyes, one of the major cities in
the region of Champagne. Troyes would have been
associated with the court of the Countess Marie of
Champagne to whom he dedicated his Lancelot.
Marie was the daughter of Elenore of Aquitaine by her
first marriage to Louis VII of France and was married in
1159 to Henry the Liberal. Some time after Henry's death,
Cretien changed patrons and began his romance Perceval
for Philip of Flanders which he never finished. The Peceval
was probably begun before Philip's departure for the
Third Crusade in September of 1190. Cretien's literary career likely began no earlier than the mid 1150's and ended around 1190. In his second major romance, he mentions that he had composed some adaptations of Ovidian materials as well as a poem dealing with the Tristan legend which he refers to as being about King Mark and Isolde the Blonde. All of this material except an adaptation of the Philomela story has been lost. His first masterpiece came when he turned from Rome to the Celtic world and wrote Erec and Enide, the psychological story of a knight and his new bride. Its success was followed by Cliges which was based on Greco-Byzantine material though set in part at Arthur's court. After Erec and Cliges, Cretien composed two of his greatest romance, Lancelot and Yvain. Finally moving toward the end of his career, he wrote Perceval, or the Conte de Graal (story of the Grail). Perceval was left unfinished, Lancelot was turned over to Godefroy of Lagny to complete. Kibler, William, Cretien de Troyes: Lancelot, or The Knight of the Cart, The Romance of Arthur, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1984 |
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