|
| Erec and Enide
ISBN: 9780520910973
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of California Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Erec (Legendary character) -- Romances; Arthurian romances;
In this new verse translation of one of the great works of French literature, Dorothy Gilbert captures the vivacity, wit, and grace of the first known Arthurian romance. Erec and Enide is the story of the quest and coming of age of a young knight, an illustrious member of Arthur's court, who must learn to balance the demands of a masculine public life--tests of courage, skill, adaptability, and mature judgment--with the equally urgent demands of the private world of love and marriage. We see his wife, Enide, develop as an exemplar of chivalry in the female, not as an Amazon, but as a brave, resolute, and wise woman. Composed ca. 1170, Erec and Enide masterfully combines elements of Celtic legend, classical and ecclesiastical learning, and French medieval culture and ideals.
In choosing to write in rhymed octosyllabic couplets-Chrétien's prosodic pattern-Dorothy Gilbert has tried to reproduce what so often gets lost in prose or free verse translations: the precise and delicate meter; the rhyme, with its rich possibilities for emphasis, nuance, puns and jokes; and the "mantic power" implicit in proper names. The result will enable the scholar who cannot read Old French, the student of literature, and the general reader to gain a more sensitive and immediate understanding of the form and spirit of Chrétien's poetry, and to appreciate the more Chrétien's great contribution to European literature.
Author of early Arthurian romances, Chrétien de Troyes was born in France around 1150. Little is known about this medieval writer. His poems cannot be dated, except to say that they were written sometime in the second half of the twelfth century. His most famous works include Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, ou Le Chevalier à la Charrette; Yvain, ou Le Chevalier au Lion; Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal, and Guillaume d'Angleterre. He also composed a version of Tristan and Isolde. During his life, he enjoyed the patronage of Marie de Champagne, the daughter of Philip of Flanders and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Although it is not confirmed, it is believed that he died in Paris in 1190. (Bowker Author Biography) |
