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King Arthur
Mail David
Considered by some to be the inventor of the
medieval French romance, Chrétien de Troyes was certainly a great writer
who became instrumental in the elaboration of the Arthurian legend. His
patrons seem to have been Marie, the Countess of Champagne, and Philip of
Alsace, the Count of Flanders. Precious little else is known about his
life, though he evidently came from Troyes. Chrétien himself tells us that he was a
translator of Ovid's works: Les Commandemanz d'Ovide, L'Art
d'Amors and Le Mors de l'Espaule. He also composed a romance
surrounding the story of Isolde and King
Mark. None of these works still exist, although he also mentions
the Metamorphosis from Ovid's Philomela story, which
survives in a version probably from his hand. In addition, we have two of
his brief lyric poems and a controversial romance called Guillaume
d'Angleterre (which may have been written by someone else). Chrétien
is, however, most famous for his five Arthurian romances, written in
octosyllabic couplets: Erec & Enid (1160), Lancelot
(c.1162), Cligés (1164), Yvain (c.1170) and the Count of the
Grail (also known as Perceval) (1180).
CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES