Chrétien de Troyes or Chrestien de Troyes (both: krātyăN` də trwä), fl. 1170, French poet, author of the first great literary treatments of the Arthurian legend Arthurian legend, the mass of legend, popular in medieval lore, concerning King Arthur of Britain and his knights.

Medieval Sources

The battle of Mt. Badon—in which, according to the Annales Cambriae (c.
..... Click the link for more information. . 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 Parsifal (pär`sĭfäl)
..... Click the link for more information. ). 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).

Bibliography

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).

Chrétien de Troyes

(flourished 1165–80) French poet. Little is known of his life. He is the author of the five Arthurian romances Erec, Cligès, Lancelot, Yvain, and Perceval and possibly also of a non-Arthurian tale. Written in the vernacular, his romances were derived from the writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth and combine separate adventures into well-knit stories. They were imitated almost immediately by other French poets and were translated and adapted frequently as the romance continued to develop as a narrative form. See also Arthurian legend.