| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
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| Chrétien de Troyes |
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or Chrestien de Troyes (both: kr ty N´ d trwä) (KEY) , fl. 1170, French poet, author of the first great literary treatments of the Arthurian legend. His narrative romances, composed c.1170–c.1185 in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, include Érec et Énide; Cligès; Lancelot, le chevalier de la charette; Yvain, le chevalier au lion; and Perceval, le conte del Graal, unfinished (see Parsifal). Chrétien drew on popular legend and history, and imbued his romances with the ideals of chivalry current at the 12th-century court of Marie de Champagne, to which he was attached. His other surviving works include imitations of Ovid and Guillaume d’Angleterre, a non-Arthurian narrative. Translations of the Arthurian romances are included in W. W. Comfort’s edition (1913) and in R. S. and L. H. Loomis, Medieval Romances (1957). | 1 | | See L. T. Ropsfield, Chrétien de Troyes: A Study of the Arthurian Romances (1981); J. Frappier, Chretién de Troyes: The Man and His Work (1982); N. J. Lacy et al., ed., The Legacy of Chrétien de Troyes (2 vol., 1988). | 2 |
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| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
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