Celtic legends and knightly romance connected. Alekseev M

General characteristics of Anglo-Norman literature. Features of the development of English literature in the XI-XIII centuries. associated with the conquest of the country by the Normans. The Norman conquest marked the beginning of a new period in the history of England. In the conditions of the prevailing feudal system, it contributed to the spread of French influence on the socio-political and cultural life of the country. Trilingualism affected the development of literature. Literary works appeared in Latin, French and Anglo-Saxon. Scientific works, historical chronicles, anti-church satire were written in Latin. Literature in French was represented by knightly poetry. Works of folk poetry, as well as a number of poems, poems and knightly novels dating back to the 13th-14th centuries, have survived from this period in the Anglo-Saxon language. Only in the XIV century. in connection with the formation of the English nation, English became the main literary language. Among the monuments of literature (XI-XII centuries) in Latin, an important place belongs to works on the history of Britain. These are the Historia novorum of the Anglo-Saxon monk Edmer of Canterbury, The Historia regum Anglorum by the librarian of the Malmesbury monastery, William of Malmsbury, The Historia Anglorum by Henry of Huntingdon. Of particular importance for the further development of medieval literature was the "History of the Britons" (Historia Britonum, 1132-1137) by Galfrid of Monmouth, containing the earliest processing of the Celtic legends about King Arthur, which later became the property of other European literatures. In the multivolume "History of the Britons", for the first time, images of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgana, Queen Ginevra and the brave knights appear, who will occupy such an important place in knightly poetry in French and English. This is where the novels of the Arthurian cycle originate. Here, for the first time, the court of the king of the Britons is depicted as the center of valiant chivalry, embodying the ideals of nobility, and the semi-legendary Arthur is shown as a wise and powerful ruler. In Latin in the XI-XIII centuries. satirical works are also created. These include Walter Map's five-volume De nugis curialium (Amusing Conversations of the Courtiers). The anti-church satirical literature had a democratic character, examples of which were created among the lower clergy. Wandering clergy and scholars - vagants - composed free-thinking poems in Latin, mocking the Catholic Church, the customs of its ministers, and sang the joys of life, glorifying wine and women. Among the vagants there was an idea of ​​a certain Bishop Golia, a lover of sweet food and drink, who was passed off as the author of these hedonistic and daring songs. Certain works of goliardic poetry were a frank parody of cult church songs. In works of this kind, Latin was gradually replaced by English.

An important place in the literature of England during the XI-XIII centuries. are occupied by works in French, which was represented by the Norman dialect of the Old French language. Some of them were imported from France, others were created on the territory of England. The largest work of the French folk heroic epic "The Song of Roland" enjoyed fame. Poetic chronicles containing descriptions of the genealogies of Norman dukes were circulated.

Celtic Legends as a Source of the Arthurian Romances.

The earliest mentions of King Arthur date back to the late 5th - early 6th centuries and associate the legendary hero with the historical leader of the Celts, who led the fight against the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. The novels of the 9th - 11th centuries, included in the collection of magical legends of Wales, "Mabinogion", also belong to the truly "Welsh" ones. Arthur in early legends (for example, the poem of the Welsh bard of the 4th century Aneirin "Gododdin") appears before us as a strong and powerful tribal leader, who for all his primitive cruelty is not alien to nobility and honesty.

Researchers of medieval literature indicate that at the archetypal level, Arthur is comparable to the legendary king Oulada Konchobar, the hero of many Irish sagas, and to the Welsh deity Bran.

The famous medievalist A.D. Mikhailov writes that "Arthurian legends are based on Celtic epic tales, and their Irish variation is best known to us. Therefore, the Irish sagas are not a source, but a parallel, to a certain extent even a model of the legends about King Arthur." He is also related to the latter by the fact that Bran suffers from a wound. This motif has a lot in common with the later versions of the Arthurian legends, when the crippled king becomes the keeper of the Grail, the sacred cup.

Usually the name Arthur is derived from the Roman family name Artorius, however, at the level of Celtic mythology, there are several different etymologies. According to one of them, the name of Arthur is deciphered as "black raven", and "raven", in turn, sounds like bran in Welsh, which confirms the connection of King Arthur both functionally and etymologically with the god Bran.

Book T. Melory "Death of Arthur". The Death of Arthur (Middle French. Le Morte d "Arthur) is the final work of the Arthurian cycle, a collection of novels of chivalry, composed in the second third of the 15th century in late Middle English by Thomas Malory (a former knight who was sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery, violence and robbery) According to some versions, the first novel in prose in the English-language tradition.

Before Mallory, there were already quite a few Arthurian novels in English (about thirty have come down to us), but there was nothing like the French generalizing vaults of the Vulgate type. Mallory directly used two poems of the same name ("The Death of Arthur"), one in alliterative verse, the second half of the 14th century, the other in eight-line stanzas, ca. 1400. Malory's innovation is that he wrote in prose (of the English novels of the Breton cycle before Malory, only one was written in prose, Merlin, an almost literal translation of the second novel, The Vulgate, 20 years earlier than The Death of Arthur). In all cases, Malorie abbreviates French sources, sometimes very significantly (The Book of Tristram has been reduced by six times). What his predecessors used to occupy ten pages, he expounds in a couple of lines. In his foreword, William Caxton pretends that before Mallory there was almost no literature about King Arthur in English: “Many glorious books have been written about him and his noble knights in French, language they are not. … There are others and in English, but not all ”.

• The Tale of King Arthur (Fro the Maryage of Kynge Uther unto Kyng Arthure that Regned Aftir Hym and Ded Many Batayles). The first in the order of content and the second in the order of writing (according to Winaver). The source for it was the so-called Merlin's Continuation, a French novel created as part of a cycle conceived to counterbalance the Vulgate.
• The Noble Tale Betwyxt Kynge Arthure and Lucius the Emperor of Rome. According to Winaver, this is the first piece of art to be created.
• The Noble Tale of Sir Launcelot Du Lake. The source of Malorie's third story is some version of The Romance of Lancelot, the central part of the Vulgate, which has not come down to us. Malorie chopped off all the backstory here, including Lancelot's upbringing with the Lady of the Lake and the twists and turns of his love for the queen.
• The Tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney. The source has not been established, but the plot archetype is obvious - the chivalrous initiation of a young and unknown hero, sometimes a foundling, sometimes a bastard, sometimes an orphan, either not knowing or hiding his ancestry. At the origins of this plot is "Perceval" by Chrétien de Troyes, it can be found in "The Beautiful Stranger" by Renaud de Beauje, in "The Ider" and others. feat, proves his knightly usefulness by the strength of his hand and courtesy of disposition, wins the heart of the noble maiden Lionessa, reveals his real face.
• The Fyrst and the Secunde Boke of Syr Trystrams de Lyones. The source is the prosaic "Novel of Tristan". Malorie finally removes the tragedy of the legend, discards the mournful ending - Tristan and Isolde remain alive and well.
• The Noble Tale of the Sankgreal. Source - the fourth part of the "Vulgate", "The Search for the Holy Grail." Here Malorie is the least original, he does not dare to make any innovations, however, he decisively reduces the moralizing commentary on the plot, which in itself changes the emphasis.
• The Tale of Lancelot and Queen Gwenyvere (Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwenyvere). The source is the final Vulgate novel, The Death of Arthur, which Malorie treats quite loosely.
• Death of Arthur (The Dethe of Arthur). The source is again the French "Death of Arthur", but also the eponymous English stanza poem.

The symbolism of the Grail. The Grail is one of the most interesting and legendary symbols. The tradition of the Holy Grail of medieval European literature is a legacy of the ancient religion of the Celts, but the legend of the cup was reinterpreted in the Christian spirit. In the most popular version of the legend, this is the cup from which Jesus and the apostles drank at the Last Supper, or the one into which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ, who was nailed to the crucifixion.

This bowl is a symbolic source of life and immortality, abundance and fertility, a “wonderful provider”. At will, in the blink of an eye she gives any dishes and jewelry, and the one who drinks from her is cured of all ailments; even the dead, as soon as she touches their lips, awaken to life. Possessing the ability to miraculously saturate their chosen ones with unearthly dishes, the Grail in the Western tradition occupies the same place as the eastern sacrificial bowl with Vedic catfish, Avestan haoma or Greek ambrosia. The Grail that breathes new life into the Phoenix and gives eternal youth to those who serve him has to do with the symbolism of the Philosopher's Stone. It also acts as a barge, an ark that contains the seeds of the cyclical renewal of life, the seeds of lost traditions. The Holy Grail, which contains blood, the basis of life, is identified with the heart, and therefore with the center. The Grail combines two elements: a chalice or a shining goblet with a heart (a triangle placed on top), personifies the feminine, perceiving, watery principle; a spear or sword (a triangle pointing upwards) is a masculine, active, fiery principle. These elements are united by the carriers of life - blood or sacred liquid flowing into the chalice. The life-giving, renewing forces radiated by the solar vessel, and the forces of destruction, which appear in the form of a bleeding spear, contain a double mystery.

The symbolism of the Grail's location in the center of the Round Table, around which the knights sit, is very close to the Chinese image of the sky, which has the shape of a circle with a hole in the middle (analogous to a bowl or goblet).

For the Celts, a cup full of wine, beer or honey, which a young girl presented to the incoming king, is a symbol of supreme power. Over time, this meaning is transferred to the Grail, in search of which the Knights of the Round Table are sent.

In Christianity, the Grail is the sacred Heart of Christ. According to legend, the Grail was made by angels from an emerald that fell from Lucifer's forehead when he was cast into the abyss. Like the Virgin Mary who atoned for the sin of Eve, the blood of the Savior through the Grail atoned for the sin of Lucifer. Thus, the meaning of the Grail is increasingly associated with the torment of Christ, with the idea of ​​voluntary sacrifice and atonement. In Christian legend, the Grail was given to Adam, but left by him in Paradise after the Fall. He is still in the center of Paradise and must be found again, as the redeemer gains the cup and restores paradise for humanity.

The image of the Grail, undoubtedly, cannot be completely reduced either to a church sacrament or to a Celtic myth. For the knightly culture of the Middle Ages, the importance of the Grail as a symbol was that it combined the spirit of knightly adventures, the free play of fantasy, using fragments of a half-forgotten mythology, and Christian mysticism. This cup is a symbol of mental health and the desire to exalt, for only those seekers who have absolute purity of heart can achieve success on their path. Anyone unworthy who approaches a shrine is punished with injury and illness, however, he can expect healing from the same shrine. The Grail is a secret that is revealed only to the most worthy.

The role of the knightly romance in the history of medieval literature.

The knightly romance is the only poetic kind that has developed mainly on European soil. As an independent stand-alone genre, the novel makes its way into literature only towards the end of the Middle Ages. The author of the first such novel is the Portuguese knight Vasco de Lobeira, who wrote his famous Amadis of Gali, which was not preserved in the original (the closest Spanish translation of the early 16th century is known), but which determined all further novels about wandering knights (Chevaliers errants). The chivalrous novel retains the characteristic features of the epic, with the exception of the belief in the truth of the events being told. Everything that happens in knightly novels appears to us as something ancient, belonging to the ideal past. The times of King Arthur, like the times of Marikastanya, are only veils of the conventional past, through which historical chronology dimly shines through.

The chivalric novel took on a lot from the heroic epic, but at the same time, the new epic genre started from the hoary antiquity.

First of all, the knightly novel had its own author. It happened that sometimes the names of the creators were lost, as happened with the old French story "Aucassin and Nicolette". However, the picture of the world appears in the chivalrous novel in the author's perception. The narrator has an extremely relevant role in the story, he will reasonably argue on different topics, depending on what events the knight is involved in. The hero of a chivalric novel in valor is not inferior to the hero of the epic, but now he is fighting not so much for the king as for the glory that he needs to win the heart of the Beautiful Lady, in whose name he performs many feats.

The Norman conquest marked the beginning of a new period in the history of England.

In 1066, under the leadership of Duke William, the Normans invaded Britain and defeated the Anglo-Saxon forces led by King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. He was killed and William the Conqueror became king of England.

The conquered Anglo-Saxons were oppressed by the Norman feudal lords, whom the king generously endowed with land holdings; the Normans also took over all the highest ecclesiastical offices. The people found themselves in serfdom.

There was an incessant struggle between the feudal lords: striving to expand their possessions, they were at enmity with each other. French became the official language in the country (since the Normans used to live in France) It was spoken by the ruling elite; it was used in parliament, court, schools. The indigenous population spoke Anglo-Saxon. Latin was used in church circles.

Trilingualism affected the development of literature. Literary works appeared in Latin (scientific works, historical chronicles), French (knightly poetry) and Anglo-Saxon languages ​​(works of folk poetry, as well as a number of poems, poems and knightly novels dating back to the XIII-XIV centuries).

Only in the XIV century. in connection with the formation of the English nation, English became the main literary language.

Among the monuments of literature (XI-XII centuries) in Latin, an important place belongs to works on the history of Britain. These are The Modern History of the Monk Edmer of Canterbury, The History of the Kings of England, written by the librarian of the monastery, William of Malmsbury, The History of England, Henry of Huntingdon.

Of particular importance for the further development of medieval literature was the "History of the Britons" by Galfrid of Monmouth.

In the multivolume "History of the Britons", the images of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgana, Queen Ginevra and brave knights appear for the first time.

This is where the novels of the Arthurian cycle originate. Here, for the first time, the court of the king of the Britons is depicted as the center of valiant chivalry, and the semi-legendary Arthur is shown as a wise and powerful ruler. Galfried of Monmouth made 1 literary adaptation of the legend of King Lear and his daughters. At the end of the XII century. the work of Galfrid the Englishman appeared on the rules of versification.

In Latin in the XII-XIII centuries. satirical works are also created. Among them are Walter Map's five-volume compositions On Amusing Conversations of the Courtiers. In the form of anecdotes and funny stories, he told about them in his book.

Anti-church satirical literature, which was created among the lower clergy. These were poems in Latin that mocked the Catholic Church, sang the joys of life, glorifying wine and women.

An important place in the literature of England during the XI-XIII centuries. is occupied by works in French.

The largest work of the French folk heroic epic is "The Song of Roland".

Poetic chronicles containing descriptions of the genealogies of Norman dukes were circulated.

In the XII century. French literature is flourishing in England. It is represented by such writers as You, Benoit de Saint-Maur, Robert de Borron, Maria French. All of them are associated with the court environment and in their works they strive to satisfy its needs and tastes.

In the poetic novels "Brutus" and "The Novel of Roux" you are told the story of the Normans.

In "The Novel of Roux", consisting of 4 parts, he tells the story of the conquest of Normandy by the Viking Rollo, about his subsequent reign and his successors.
You strive to be accurate in conveying historical details and details. He describes battles and battles, praises the exploits of the Normans, culminating in the conquest of England. Following Galfried of Monmouth, you turn to Celtic legends, retelling the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The poetry of the 12th century is associated with knightly poetry. Mary of France.

She drew plots of her works from Celtic folklore, developing them in the form of poetic short stories. They tell about the love of glorious knights, fairies and wizards. Maria French writes about love experiences sincerely and simply, conveying the beauty and tenderness of human feelings. The story of one of the best poetic works of Mary of France - "Honeysuckle" was the legend of the love of Tristan and Isolde.

Knightly poetry arose in European countries among the feudal nobility. Her homeland was Provence (south of France), which reached already in the XI century. great success in economic and cultural development.

Provencal poetry served as a model for other peoples.

She was the expression of a new, secular culture. In the knightly environment, certain norms of exquisite behavior developed, according to which the knight had to be disinterested and honest, noble in relation to the weak and defenseless, bow before the "beautiful lady" and serve her as faithfully as a vassal serves his lord. Provencal poets - troubadours ( From the Provencal trobar - to find, to compose.) sang the lofty feelings of the knights; their poetry is associated with the cult of serving a lady, with the glorification of her beauty and grace. The ideal image of the knight created by the poets did not correspond to reality: there was a lot of conditional and far-fetched in it. However, the desire to convey the world of intimate experiences and feelings manifested in the lyrics of the troubadours was fruitful for the subsequent development of poetry.

Romance

The ideals of feudal society were reflected in the knightly romance.

In English, the first romances of chivalry appeared in the 13th century. At the end of the XIV century. the most famous English knightly novel "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" was created. The heroes of this poetic work are knights, who put their honor and knightly dignity above all. Such is King Arthur and his entourage, such is the mysterious Green Knight who once appears at the court of Arthur.

The main conflict in the narrative revolves around Sir Gawaine's violation of the word and his subsequent profound remorse.

The source of the knight novels about King Arthur were Celtic legends.

The semi-legendary character became the hero of many medieval legends. The image of King Arthur united a large cycle of knight novels, changing in different historical eras. The novels “Arthur”, “Arthur and Merlin”, “Lancelot of the Lake” and others based on the plot of the legends about King Arthur were written in English. It was believed that King Arthur would rise from the tomb and return to earth.

The legends of King Arthur and his glorious knights are associated with the plots of many French and English novels. They tell about how Arthur took possession of a magic sword and with its help conquered many lands, about his marriage to the beautiful Ginevra, about how knights gathered at a round table in a huge hall in his castle Camelot, about his victories and exploits in battles. ...

The heroes of these novels are also the knights of King Arthur - Sir Lancelot of the Lake, Sir Gawain, the knight Perceval.

Along with the knights, the wizard Merlin and the fairy Morgana act.

The plots of the novels are also interwoven with motifs of a religious and mystical nature associated with the history of the search for the Holy Grail, which can only be seen by those who are the ideal of moral perfection.

Echoing in the plot relation with the French knightly novels, the English novels of the Arthurian cycle have their own characteristics.

French novels are characterized by great sophistication; the theme of love takes the main place in them and is developed with great care. In the English versions, when developing similar plots, the epic and heroic principles are preserved; the feeling of real life with its cruelty, rude manners, and its drama is conveyed to a much greater extent.

In the 60s of the XV century. Thomas Mallory collected, systematized and processed the novels of the Arthurian cycle. He recounted their content in the book The Death of Arthur, which was published in 1485 and immediately became popular. This book is the most significant work of 15th century English fiction. Malorie perfectly captures the spirit of chivalry romances. He fascinatingly recounts the history of the life and exploits of King Arthur and his knights, combining in his book the best that was characteristic of both French and English knightly novels.

The legends and novels of the Arthurian cycle attracted the attention of many writers of subsequent eras. They were approached by E. Spencer, J. Milton, R. Southey, W. Scott, A. Tennison, W. Morris and others, interpreting the plots and images of medieval works in accordance with their views and requirements of the time.

Celtic folk tales, which, being the product of the poetry of the tribal system, were saturated with eroticism and fantasy, were even more grateful material for the knightly romance. It goes without saying that both have undergone a radical rethinking in knightly poetry. The motives of polygamy and polyandry, temporary, freely broken love relationships, which filled the Celtic stories and were a reflection of the actual marriage and erotic relations among the Celts, were reinterpreted by French courtly poets as a violation of the norm of everyday life, as adultery subject to courtly idealization. In the same way, all kinds of "magic", which at that archaic time, when Celtic legends were composed, was thought of as an expression of the natural forces of nature, - now, in the works of French poets, it was perceived as something specifically "supernatural", going beyond the framework of normal phenomena and beckoning knights to exploits.

Celtic legends reached the French poets in two ways - oral, through the mediation of Celtic singers and storytellers, and written - through some legendary chronicles. Many of these legends were associated with the image of the fabulous "King Arthur" - one of the British princes of the 5th-6th centuries, who heroically defended the regions of England that had not yet been captured by them from the Anglo-Saxons.

The pseudo-historical framework for the Arthurian novels was the Latin chronicle of the Welsh patriot Galfrid of Monmouth "The History of the Kings of Britain" (circa 1137), which embellished the image of Arthur and gave him feudal-knightly features.

Galfrid portrays Arthur not only as the king of all Britain, but also as a powerful sovereign, the conqueror of a number of countries, the ruler of half of Europe. Along with the military exploits of Arthur, Galfrid talks about his miraculous birth, about his departure, when he was mortally wounded, to the island of Avallon - the abode of immortality, about the deeds of his sister - the fairy Morgana, the wizard Merlin, etc. the book as the focus of the highest valor and nobility, where, along with Arthur, his wife, the beautiful queen of Genius reigns, and around them are Arthur's nephew, the valiant Gauvin, Seneschal Kay, the evil Modred, who ultimately rebelled against Arthur and was the cause of his death, etc. The Galfrid Chronicle was a huge success and was soon translated into French and English. Drawing also from Celtic folk tales, the translators introduced a few more additional features, of which the most important is the following: King Arthur allegedly ordered the construction of a round table so that he would have neither the best nor the worst places at the feast and that all his knights felt equal.

This is where the usual frame of Arthurian novels or, as they are often called, of the Round Table novels, a picture of the court of King Arthur, as the focus of ideal chivalry in its new understanding, begins. A poetic fiction was created that in these ancient times it was impossible to become a perfect knight in the sense of military exploits and high love, without living and "working" at the court of Arthur. Hence - the pilgrimage of all the heroes to this court, as well as the inclusion in the Arthurian cycle of plots, initially alien to him. But no matter what origin - Celtic or other - these stories, called "Breton" or "Arthurian", they transported their readers and listeners to a fantastic world, where at every step there were fairies, giants, magical sources, beautiful girls, oppressed by evil offenders and expecting help from the brave and magnanimous knights.

The whole huge mass of Breton stories can be divided into four groups of works, which differ markedly from each other in their character and style: 1) the so-called Breton le, 2) a group of novels about Tristan and Isolde, 3) Arthurian novels in the proper sense of the word, and 4 ) a cycle of novels about the Holy Grail.

A collection of twelve le, that is, poetic novellas of love and, for the most part, fantastic content, composed around 1180 by the Anglo-Norman poetess Maria of France, has survived.

Maria transfers her plots, borrowed from Breton songs, into the atmosphere of French feudalism, adapting them to the mores and concepts of her contemporary, mainly chivalrous, reality.

In the le about "Ioneka" it is said that a young woman, married to a jealous old man, languishes in a tower under the supervision of a servant and dreams that a beautiful young knight will miraculously come to her. As soon as she expressed this wish, a bird flew into the window of her room, which turned into a beautiful knight. The knight reports that he has loved her for a long time, but could not appear without her summoning; henceforth, he will fly to her whenever she wishes it. Their meetings continued until the husband, suspecting that something was wrong, ordered them to attach sickles and knives to the window, which the bird-knight, having flown to his beloved, stumbled upon, mortally wounding himself. When the son, born of him to his beloved, grew up, she told the young man about his origin, and he, in revenge for the death of his father, killed the evil jealous man.

The background of knightly life is shown even more vividly in Lanval, which depicts the secret love of a knight and a beautiful fairy. This love, due to the envy of the jealous knight of the queen, almost cost him his life, but the knight managed to escape with his beloved to the magical island.

Other le Marie are even more imbued with lyricism and do not contain any fantasy.

One of them tells how a certain king, not wanting to part with his daughter, announced that he would marry her only to someone who, without outside help, would carry her in his arms to the top of a high mountain. A young man in love with her, whom she also loved, carried her to the top, but immediately fell dead. Since then, this mountain has been called "The Mountain of Two Lovers." In another le, a young woman, unhappy in marriage, under the pretext that she listens to the singing of a nightingale, stands for a long time in the evenings at the window, looking out the window of the house across the street, where a knight in love with her lives, who also looks at her: this is their only comfort. But the jealous husband killed the nightingale and angrily threw him at his wife's feet. She picked up the poor little body and then sent it to her sweetheart, who buried it in a luxurious casket and shore ever since it was a dear memory.

All le Marie de France are imbued with one common assessment of human relations. The chivalrous shell of the plot covers their universal human content. Luxurious court life, brilliant military exploits do not attract Mary. She is saddened by all cruelty, all violence against natural human feelings. But this does not generate in her an angry protest, but a mild melancholy. Most of all, she sympathizes with those who suffer from love. At the same time, she understands love not as a magnificent service to a lady and not as a stormy fatal passion, but as a gentle natural attraction to each other of two pure and simple hearts. This attitude to love brings Le Maria closer to folk poetry.

Of course, all this is reflected in the literature. The development of a new genre, the knightly novel, which arose and flourished in the 12th century, was difficult and fruitful. The novel, marked by an interest in private human destiny, tangibly replaced the heroic epic, although the latter continued to exist in the XII and even in the XIII century, giving birth to many significant literary monuments.

The term "novel" appeared precisely in the 12th century. and at first designated only a poetic text in a living Romance language, in contrast to a text in Latin. In the chivalrous novel, we find mainly a reflection of the feelings and interests that made up the content of the chivalrous lyrics. This is primarily the theme of love, understood in a more or less "sublime" sense. Another equally indispensable element of a chivalric novel is fiction in the double sense of this word - as supernatural [fabulous, not Christian] and as everything extraordinary, exceptional, raising the hero above the ordinary of life. Both of these forms of fiction, usually associated with a love theme, are explained by the notion of adventure or "adventure" that happens to the knights who always go towards these adventures. The knights perform their adventurous exploits not for the sake of a common, national cause, like some heroes of epic poems, not in the name of honor or the interests of the family, but for the sake of personal glory. Ideal chivalry is conceived as an international and unchanging institution at all times, equally characteristic of Ancient Rome, the Muslim East and modern France. In this regard, the chivalrous novel depicts ancient epochs and the life of distant peoples in the form of a picture of modern society, in which readers from knightly circles, as in a mirror, find a reflection of their life ideals.

In style and technique, the novels of chivalry differ sharply from the heroic epic. In them, a prominent place is occupied by monologues, in which emotional experiences, lively dialogues, depictions of the appearance of the actors, and a detailed description of the situation in which the action takes place are analyzed.

First of all, knightly romances developed in France, and from here the hobby for them spread to other countries. Numerous translations and creative adaptations of French designs in other European literatures (especially in German) often represent works of independent artistic significance and occupying a prominent place in these literatures.

The first experiments in the knightly romance were the processing of several works of ancient literature. In it, medieval storytellers could find in many cases both exciting love stories and fabulous adventures, partly echoing chivalrous ideas.

Celtic folk tales, which, being the product of the poetry of the tribal system, were saturated with eroticism and fantasy, were even more grateful material for the knightly romance. It goes without saying that both have undergone a radical rethinking in knightly poetry. The motives of polygamy and polyandry, temporary, freely dissolved love relationships that filled the Celtic stories and were a reflection of the actual marriage and erotic relations among the Celts, were reinterpreted by French courtly poets as a violation of the norms of everyday life, as adultery subject to courtly idealization. In the same way, all kinds of "magic", which in that archaic period, when Celtic legends were composed, was thought of as an expression of the natural forces of nature, - now, in the works of French poets, it was perceived as something specifically "supernatural", going beyond the framework of normal phenomena and beckoning knights to exploits.

Celtic legends reached the French poets in two ways - oral, through the mediation of Celtic singers and storytellers, and written - through some legendary chronicles. From here comes the usual frame of Arthurian, Breton, or, as they are often called, the novels of the Round Table.

In addition to novels on antique and "Breton" subjects, a third type of knightly romance emerged in France. These are "novels of vicissitudes" or adventures, which are usually, not quite accurately, also called "Byzantine" novels, since their plots are built mainly on motives found in Byzantine or late Greek novels, such as shipwrecks, kidnapping by pirates, recognition , violent separation and a happy meeting of lovers, etc. Stories of this kind usually got to France by word of mouth; for example, they could have been brought in by the crusaders from southern Italy [where there was a strong Greek influence] or directly from Constantinople, but sometimes, in more rare cases, from books.

For the "Byzantine" novels, which developed somewhat later than the novels of antiquity and "Breton", an approximation to everyday life is characteristic: an almost complete absence of the supernatural, a significant number of everyday details, a great simplicity of the plot and tone of the narrative.

So, knightly culture did not immediately replace barbarism. This process was long and at the same time we can observe the interpenetration of cultures. Literary works also combined features of both a heroic epic and a knightly novel.

A chivalric romance is one of the leading genres of medieval literature. It appears in France, in the third quarter of the 12th century, under the pen of Chrétien de Troyes, who creates classic examples of the genre. In addition to France, the chivalrous romance most actively developed, starting from the 13th century, in Germany. Some original examples of the genre were created in England and Spain. In Italy, the chivalrous romance did not give significant examples. Several main cycles of the chivalric romance are known:

1. Breton (otherwise called the novels about the Knights of the Round Table, or Arturovsky), based on ancient Celtic legends preserved in Brittany (novels about Ivain, about Lancelot Lakes, about Gawain, etc.);
2. Antique, dating back to the Greek and Roman epics ("Roman about Alexander", "Roman about Troy", "Roman about Thebes"); about Tristan, which also goes back to Celtic legends;
3. About Parzifal or the Holy Grail, in which Celtic traditions are combined with Christian ideals.

The chivalrous novel arises as a genre that embodies the ideas of the world of the feudal-knightly class and an alternative to the folk epic. In contrast to the latter, the chivalric novel immediately takes shape as a written genre, deliberately by the author, refusing to set itself on the depiction of really past events. This, in particular, explains the presence of many features of a fairy tale in it: the depiction of the fate of the protagonist as the basis of the plot, the presence of many fairy-tale characters, functions and motives, the special role of fiction, a fairy-tale chronotope. Unlike an epic hero who performs feats for the sake of honor of a kind, a vassal duty, or to protect Christianity from infidels, the protagonist of a chivalrous novel acts for his own self-improvement, personal glory and in the name of a beautiful lady. The courtly ideal of love is in a difficult relationship with the military duty of a knight and forms the basis for the main collision of a chivalrous novel: the protagonist's personal feelings and his social function. It is this collision that distinguishes the chivalrous romance from the fairy tale.

An important feature of the genre is psychologism - a story about the complex inner experiences of the heroes. All this speaks of the influence of courtly lyrics on the chivalrous novel, which determined much in its form. The early romances of chivalry are created in poems united by rhyme, and not by assonances, as in the epic. The poetic form testifies to a much greater degree of processing of the literary language than in the epic and other narrative genres, which later develop under its strong influence. Only from the 13th century did prose examples of the genre begin to be created. At the same time, long vaults of chivalric romance appeared, primarily of the Breton cycle (completed in the 15th century with The Death of Arthur by T. Mallory), as well as epigone works. In the same era, the first parodies of the knightly romance appeared. In the late Middle Ages, the chivalric romance in France gave way to an allegorical poem, and new examples of the genre were created in the Iberian Peninsula, in many ways anticipating the Renaissance trends in literature (a series of novels about Amadis of Gaul in Spanish and "Tyrant White" by J. Marturel in Catalan). It is this stable tradition that explains the appearance of Don Quixote and The Wanderings of Persils and Sikhismund by M. Servantes, written in the tradition of the genre.

The question of the place of the knightly romance in the history of the development of the genre of the novel as a whole has not yet been unambiguously resolved.... A number of researchers (M.M. Bakhtin, G.K. Kosikov and others) refuse to recognize him as a full-fledged example of the genre that took shape in the New Time or even in the Renaissance. Other experts (E.M. Meletinsky, P.A.Grinzer, etc.) believe, on the contrary, that the chivalrous novel meets the main features of a modern novel.

The phrase knightly romance comes from French roman chevaleresque.