Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the translation
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART ONE The response to Chrétien: tradition and innovation in Arthurian romance
- 1 The stigma of decadence
- 2 Consolidation of the form
- 3 Changes in the relationship between ideals and reality
- 4 Knight or lover: Gawain as a paragon divided
- 5 Old matiere, new sens: innovations in thought and content
- 6 Aspects of the response to Chrétien: from plagiarism to nostalgia
- PART TWO A historical survey of the impact of Arthurian verse romances
- Bibliography
- Supplement to the bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
4 - Knight or lover: Gawain as a paragon divided
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the translation
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART ONE The response to Chrétien: tradition and innovation in Arthurian romance
- 1 The stigma of decadence
- 2 Consolidation of the form
- 3 Changes in the relationship between ideals and reality
- 4 Knight or lover: Gawain as a paragon divided
- 5 Old matiere, new sens: innovations in thought and content
- 6 Aspects of the response to Chrétien: from plagiarism to nostalgia
- PART TWO A historical survey of the impact of Arthurian verse romances
- Bibliography
- Supplement to the bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
Summary
From the very earliest examples of Arthurian literature Gawain, the king's nephew, was one of that relatively small group of characters who form the human nucleus of the Arthurian world; a verse romance in this genre is inconceivable without him. Gawain has particular functions in which he is as irreplaceable as Arthur, Kay or Guinevere, whereas the same cannot be said of Erec, Yvain, Lancelot or Perceval. These protagonists of Chrétien's romances are replaced in each of the later romances by the new hero of that particular text, and thus their role in Arthurian narrative after Chrétien is just as peripheral as it was in the earlier texts that Chrétien himself drew upon.
A reading of the earliest Arthurian texts conveys a clear and comprehensive image of Gawain's literary persona. In William of Malmesbury he is already noted for his exceptional virtus (strength), and in the early stages of the genre's development this becomes his decisive characteristic. Geoffrey of Monmouth also emphasizes this feature, and Wace rarely mentions Gawain without praising his outstanding qualities. Finally, Chrétien's Gawain is a model of proece, charité, son and cortoisie (prowess, compassion, good sense and courtesy), the incarnation of chivalric and courtly virtues, the first and the best, in short the very sun of chivalry:
Cil qui des chevaliers fu sire
et qui sor toz fu reclamez
doit bien estre solauz clamez.
Por mon seignor Gauvain le di,
que de lui est tot autresi
chevalerie anluminee,
come solauz la matinee… (Yvain, 2402–8)
(He who was supreme amongst knights and honoured above them all may rightly be called the sun. […]
- Type
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- Information
- The Evolution of Arthurian RomanceThe Verse Tradition from Chrétien to Froissart, pp. 104 - 141Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998