Knightly novels and stories. “Celtic Legends in a French Knightly Novel. Self-control task

1 ... The novel as a genre arises and develops during the Middle Ages during the XII century, and is formed and functions within the knightly estate. The main area of ​​birth of the novel was the northern and central lands of France. Originally, a novel was understood as a work of secular content, written in one of the Romance languages, and not in classical Latin. As the chivalric novel develops in Western European literature of the Middle Ages, it acquires a genre definiteness: as a large form of an epic, showing a significant period of the hero's life through narration and description. A chivalric romance is formed under the influence of a variety of factors: chivalrous modernity, the era of the Crusades, ideas about the ideal knight, epics and heroes of antiquity, folk epic songs and heroic epics, oriental tales, Christian hagiographies. But the decisive influence on the genesis of the knightly romance was exerted by the literary adaptations of the Celtic legends about the tribal leader Arthuros.

2 ... The chivalric romance is formed gradually and begins its development with the novels of the "antique cycle". These novels cannot be considered properly chivalrous, since they have not yet found a way to combine love and knightly exploits. The behavior of the hero still has a state, and not a personal orientation, although the characters of the heroes lose their uniqueness, are subjected to psychological development. Historical novels based on antique subjects cannot be called, since ancient heroes have been transferred to the chivalrous modernity of the 12th century. estates. In addition, already in these novels, the desire to create the ideal of a knight is revealed, to show the ways to achieve this ideal. Thus, "Alexandria" by Lambert de Thor and Alexander de Berne shows how Alexander the Great was brought up and trained in order to become an exemplary knight and hero: in addition to the arts of fighting and riding, Alexander learns the art of hunting, playing chess, writing, counting and astronomy. True, Alexander directs his abilities more towards understanding the world (he rises in a cage carried by two vultures, under the clouds, descends to the bottom of the sea) than to search for love and glory, which would define him as a modern reference knight.

3 ... The chivalrous ideals and the chivalrous dream of an ideal monarch found expression not in the novels of the "antique cycle" that contributed to the formation of the genre tradition, but in the novels of the "Arthurian cycle", the origins of which lie in Celtic and Welsh legends and in their later adaptations. The most productive material for the knightly novel was the legend of the tribal leader of the Britons Arthur or Arthuros (Y century AD), who united the Celtic tribes in the struggle against the Anglo-Saxons. The cleric and poet Galfried of Monmouth in the Latin chronicle History of the Kings of Britain (1136) portrays Arthur (Arthuros) as an all-European monarch. And the historiographer and poet Robert Vas, in the French processing of the chronicle, seeks not so much to give Arthur the features of an ideal king, but to develop the plot and political implications of the chronicle. You are introduced to the idea of ​​a knightly brotherhood, the image of the Round Table, develops themes of betrayal and treachery of vassals, adultery, introduces magical, fairy-tale characters - Merlin, Morgana. Vasa's kingdom of Arthur is attributed to the past, such distancing expressed a reproach of modernity, far from the ideals of the knightly brotherhood. The utopian character of the state of King Arthur in Vasa's interpretation is described by G. Stadnikov as follows: “A figurative embodiment of the main principle of this“ state ”is the Round Table - a table of harmony, friendship, peace. Sitting at this table, all knights are equal. Therefore, the “Breton Cycle”, or the “King Arthur” cycle, is also called the “Round Table” cycle ”47. In the "Arthurian novels" the traditional, formulaic plot frame is the image of "the picture of the court of King Arthur as the focus of the ideal chivalry in its new understanding ... .. Hence the pilgrimage of all heroes to this court, as well as the inclusion in the Arthurian cycle of plots originally alien to him", because it is impossible was to become a perfect knight, the hero of the novel, "in the sense of military exploits and high love, without having lived and" labored "at the court of King Arthur" 48. The "Arthurian cycle" as the most specific expression of the chivalric novel is taking shape in the Western European literary tradition in the works of C. de Trois.

Little is known about the life of Chrétien de Trois (Crestienne of Troyes). He created his most significant works at the court of Mary of Champagne (from 1164), then found a new patron Philip of Flanders (1169-1188), later his traces are lost. In Chrétien's novels, the world of King Arthur - the embodiment of ideal chivalry - arose infinitely long ago and lasts forever as the guarantor of the continuation of the existence of the knightly estate. This world is ideal, transhistorical and transcendental to reality. The heroes of Chrétien's novels perform feats and fall in love in an ahistorical world opposed to reality. The moral measure of a knight's behavior is a heroic deed - an "adventure", that is, a heroic deed accomplished in the name of love, and, moreover, morally forming a knight. Chrétien's main problem is the relationship between love and adventure, since an exemplary knight is a knight in love. The conflict between love and adventure leads Chrétien to the idea of ​​direction, the moral meaning of adventure, which ceases to be an end in itself, but has the task and result of a moral impact on the knight. "Adventure" not only glorifies the knight, but also educates him, spiritually forms. This is the reason for the persistent motive in Chrétien's novels of seeking adventure, choosing a path, including, and sometimes in the first place, in an ethical sense. The higher the ethical orientation of the hero's behavior, the more sublime and noble his image.

Solving the problem of the relationship between love and feat of chivalry, C. de Trois emphasizes the creative power of love, under the influence of which feat acquires an ethical orientation. Chrétien's novels affirm the strength of the human person. The heroes are looking for support only in themselves, therefore their personal experiences, especially love ones, are considered in such detail. Already the first novel by Chretien "Erek and Enida" (c. 1170) raises the problem of the compatibility of love and marriage, as well as happy conjugal love and chivalry. The test, which Erek assigns to himself as a knight and Enida as a loving wife, is carried out after the wedding of the heroes. Thus, the novel, already in its genesis, outlines ways to overcome the stereotype associated with the idea of ​​a happy ending as a wedding of heroes. In "Klizhes" (1175) Chretien raises the problem of adultery, which was actual for his era. Emperor Alice is married to the German princess Fenis, who is in love with his nephew Klizhes. The passion of the young people is mutual, but they exclude the very thought of adultery: Fenisa gives Alice a magic drink every night, which puts him to sleep, and when the emperor dies without confirming the innocence of his wife, Clejes and Fenisa enter into a legal marriage. GK Kosikov believes that the motive of the magic drink and the love triangle that developed between the crowned uncle, his nephew and Fenissa was elected by Chretien in polemics with the popular legends of Tristan and Isolde and their first literary adaptations. 49

In the novel "Ivain, or the Lion Knight" (between 1176-1181), the hero is shown in development, the process of character formation is depicted. Chretien, creating a psychological portrait of the hero, refers to a dynamic portrait, introspection and analytical description of the hero's feelings, direct author's characterization. Here Chretien again raises the problem of the meaningfulness and moral orientation of heroism. The renowned knight of the Round Table, Ivain, defeats the Black Knight, the guardian of the forest spring, in a fair duel. Hiding from the pursuit, Ivain hides in the castle of the knight he had just slain. The help of an intelligent servant who supplies the hero with an invisibility hat helps him to hide. Iain is shocked by the depth of grief and beauty of the widow Claudine, and he decides to marry her at all costs. Again, with the help of a reasonable servant, who inspires the mistress of the castle that no one can better protect her and the source than the one who killed her husband, Ivain manages to become Claudine's husband. Although the alliance, at least on the part of Claudine, was concluded for completely rationalistic reasons, the newlyweds love each other. But Ivain got bored and asks his wife for permission to go to King Arthur for a year. In feasts and amusements, time flies by, Ivain frivolously forgets about the appointed date, and when he returns, he finds an empty castle. Unhappy Ivain does not know where to look for Claudine and falls into madness from sadness. He, like a wild beast, wanders through the forest, sleeping on damp ground. In such and such a miserable state, one day Claudine discovers Ivain sleeping. She is full of compassion, but so far she cannot forgive her frivolous lover, because she does not know if he really began to value her love. Her dialogue with her companion Ivain hears through a dream and wakes up recovered from insanity. Now the hero knows what to do to return Claudine: he must prove to her that he is a real knight, worthy of her love. From this moment in the novel, the lion begins to accompany the hero, as a symbol of the meaningfulness and correctness of his actions. The duel with the Black Knight was caused by Ivain's selfishness and self-affirmation, who needed to prove to everyone, and above all to his antagonist Gowain, that he was the bravest and strongest knight. Now, recovered from insanity, Ivain performs completely different feats: he frees the girls-weavers, languishing in captivity with the giant, and acts as the protector of the girl, deprived of her sister when dividing the inheritance. Claudine is present at this judicial duel and forgives Ivain after the victory. Ivain's exploits in the second part of the novel are the exploits of a true knight who does not just strive for glory, but protects the weak, unjustly offended, humiliated and insulted. Thus, the adventure morally shapes the knight, acts not as an entertaining plot node or knightly amusement, but as a psychologically justified stage in the hero's moral evolution. Chrétien's narration alternates with descriptions that recreate pictures of everyday life. Chretien does not skimp on the description of tournaments, holidays, feasts, room decoration. Thus, the chivalrous romance becomes a reflection of the real life of the knightly estate. Chrétien is not afraid to show that the courtly ideal does not correspond to moral requirements ("Clejes") or humanity ("Ivain").

The image of Lancelot from the novel "Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart" (between 1176-1181), most likely commissioned by Chrétien's patroness, Maria Champagne, fully corresponded to the courtly ideal with its conventions and limitations. Chrétien shows a knight who, even during the battle, does not risk turning his back on his lady watching the fight, and prefers to fight with his back to the enemy, looking at the mirror, and the lady cannot forgive him for the moment of confusion that Lancelot experienced before getting into the dirty cart a carrier who knows the way to the prison of the kidnapped Guinevere. Apparently, this novel was not particularly interesting to Chrétien, and he entrusted its completion to his student. Chretien created problematic, innovative works, and the programmatic convention of the courtly ideal, which did not express true feelings, hardly interested him.

Chrétien's last, unfinished novel, Perceval, or the Tale of the Grail (1181-1191), offers a new motive for the cyclization of chivalrous romances - the motive of the search for the Holy Grail. Here the love-adventure beginning fades into the background, giving way to the search for moral enlightenment, striving for the Christian ideal. It is quite natural that the problem of the hero's moral improvement from heroic deed to heroism, the hero's correspondence not to the courtly ideal, but to the moral one, led Chretien to the actualization of the Christian legend about the Grail, since only a knight worthy of it can own the Grail. The theme opened by Chretien is developed in the German knightly novel, in particular, Wolfram von Eschenbach shows that the reason for Parzifal's discrepancy with the Christian ideal of the guardian of the Grail is his excessive adherence to courtly etiquette, although over time Parzival manages, after many victories over himself, to find the castle of the Fisher King again and to become the recipient of the shrine.

The combination in a knightly novel of love and adventure elements in the reception of an adventure opens up great opportunities for inclusion in the novel. a large number plug-in episodes, retarding the action and allowing to sharpen the listeners' attention. Fantastic episodes reminded the reader that he is in a world of fiction, but contains an instructive lesson. In a chivalric romance, literature takes on an intrinsic value as a second reality, parallel to the present. The plots of knightly novels are fictional, they are not connected with the actual historical basis, as in the epic. A miracle in a knightly romance is equal to a hero, surmountable. By the power of spirit or weapon, the hero is able to remove the spell, break the spell, defeat the evil force (dragon, sorcerer). Christian miracles were incomprehensible and insurmountable, but now the thought of the surmountability of a miracle strengthened the individualization of the hero, emphasized his human strength.

The world of Chrétien's novels merges with reality at the point of ethical reference, and not in factual certainty, literally copied reality of the 12th century. "The frame of the Arthurian courtyard, taken from the chronicle of Galfried," indicate the authors of the textbook "History of Foreign Literature. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance ”(M., 1987) - served him (Chretien) only as a decoration, against the background of which he developed pictures of the life of a chivalrous society that was quite contemporary to him, posing and resolving very significant issues that should have occupied this society. This issue dominates in Chrétien's novels over the most fascinating adventures and vivid images. But the way Chretien prepares a solution to a particular problem is free from any kind of reasoning and edification, since he takes internally plausible propositions and saturates his very lively story with apt observations and picturesque details ”50.

4 ... The cycle of novels about Tristan and Isolde forms a separate line in the history of the knightly romance. GK Kosikov, referring to French sources, points out: “The novel about Tristan and Isolde survived in two incomplete versions, recorded by the Norman trouvers Tom (70-80s of the XII century) and Berul (90s), however they go back to earlier editions and are based on the Celtic epic-mythological collision ”51. To the above sources, you can add the following, actually novel: the German novel by Eilhart von Oberg (c. 1190), the German novel by Gottfried of Strasbourg (early 13th century), the French prose novel about Tristan (c. 1230), as well as interpretations made in other genre forms : le "On the Honeysuckle" of Mary of France, a small English poem "Sir Tristrem" (late XIII century), the Scandinavian saga of Tristan (1126), the episodic French poem "The Madness of Tristan", known in two versions (about 1170). The above list eloquently testifies to the great interest that the legend aroused in the Mature Middle Ages. The list can be continued with adaptations of the legend, created by medievalists of the XIX-XX centuries Joseph Bedier (1898) and Pierre Champion (1938), the processing of the latter is given in the "Library of World Literature" in volume 22 "Medieval Novel and Tale" (Moscow, 1974).

The specificity of the source material associated with the archaic origin of the images of the legend (O.M. Freidenberg indicates that, perhaps, the characters of the legend act as a sublimation of pre-anthropomorphic deities representing the elements participating in the solar myth: the sun and the sea) 52, leads to a clash of the archaic and modern semantic principles in the medieval adaptations of the legend.

In the plot about Tristan and Isolde, the medieval novel faced an insoluble conflict: the love of the heroes is criminal, it violates moral norms, but, at the same time, those who drank a witch's love drink, the heroes are not to blame for their forbidden passion, as they can, they resist it, but they are not destined never beat her to the end. Even death does not put an end to their love: a branch that grows from Tristan's grave grows into Isolde's grave, this branch is cut down three times and it grows back three times. Even the innovative novel of Chrétien de Troyes, built on a rational basis, despite the wonderful exploits of the heroes, did not know a tragic collision (it was not for nothing that O. Mandelstam called the abyss of the “gothic soul” rational!). Here medieval authors had to comprehend something irrational. The paradox, according to G.K. Kosikov's observations, was that "all the author's (as well as the reader's) sympathy is entirely on the side of the lovers: not only the good hermit Ogrin, but even the" divine judgment "is inclined to their side" 53. The love passion of the heroes came from the archaic world, it is, according to MM Bakhtin's definition, "a miracle, mystery, magic, disease" 54 inherent in the Celtic saga, and in a world where heroes live and act, different laws rule - the laws of King Mark ... The figure of this particular hero turned out to be the most susceptible to interpretations: depicting King Mark as cowardly and vindictive, one could justify the heroes, since then Isolde would naturally choose a more worthy one. But King Mark finds heroes in the forest of Maurois and, without harming them, leaves a ring and a glove, through these symbols of marital and vassal loyalty, recalling the duty of both heroes. After this generous act, Tristan returns Isolde to King Mark. But having received wounds that changed him beyond recognition, he returns again and plays the role of a jester until Isolde recognizes him, and their meetings and persecution of the insidious courtiers are resumed again. It is the persecution of courtiers who reveal to King Mark the truth, which he would like not to notice, that act as the driving force in the development of the plot. It is they who answer the idea of ​​the imperfection of chivalry and the search for the ideal, which in the work of Chretien led to the emergence of the knightly utopia of the Arthurian brotherhood of the Round Table. The courtiers are driven not by the desire for virtue, but by the fear that the place of the childless and not very active King Mark will be taken by the ideal knight Tristan, brave and noble, who can demand from them conformity to the same chivalrous ideals. It is the courtiers who force King Mark to marry and have offspring so that the throne does not go to his nephew Tristan. And then Mark finds the golden hair, brought by two swallows, and sets an incomprehensible task - to find its owner, his future wife - a task that no courtier can cope with except Tristan. The insidious Audre (in Champion's transcription - Andrette) tracks Tristan when he comes to Isolde's bedchamber and invites King Mark to climb a tree to witness the betrayal, but the lovers who spotted the king play a very “correct”, courteous dialogue; Audre prepares an ambush for Tristan, but a strong and valiant hero escapes death, later, again pursued and surrounded, Tristan makes his fantastic leap into the sea from the window of the chapel, and the sea saves him.

Tristan is the bravest and strongest warrior in the kingdom of Mark, he is endowed with almost superhuman abilities, like the heroes of archaic epics. These abilities do not fit into the framework of vassal service and human understanding: the elements themselves help Tristan. The sea plays a special role in the development of events: from across the sea, Morholt arrives for tribute and inflicts a wound on Tristan from which one cannot die, but one cannot live either, Tristan equips a boat and gives himself up to the waves, believing that if a giant inflicted a wound on him, arriving from the other side of the sea, the sea will heal him or destroy him; the sea brings Tristan to the shores of Ireland, where the only girl in the world who is able to cure him lives - Isolde; across the sea, Tristan finds Mark's chosen one - Blond Isolde, calm happens at sea, and the heroes, suffering from thirst, drink a love drink not intended for them; Isolde, whom the dying Tristan sent for, is in a hurry on a ship to the kingdom of Tristan to heal him, but the lies of his wife, Isolde the Belarussian, does not allow salvation to come true. The forest is no less disposed to the heroes, in the forest glade Isolde, carried across the stream by Tristan in disguise, swears an oath of his innocence and passes the test of fire; in the woods, lovers are hiding from King Mark and the persecutions of his retinue, leading a secluded life full of hardships in a hut in the forest thicket. Tristan's miraculous healing, his extraordinary valor, the wonderful abilities of Isolde, who knows how to heal, help from the primordial elements and nature itself - put the heroes outside the courtly world. But it is to this world that they belong and are aware of their wrongness and the danger they are exposed to. It is this duality of the situation that pushes the heroes to cruel acts: Isolde plans to kill Branjien, but then bitterly regrets her plan. Tristan more than once makes an attempt to leave Isolde, to fulfill his duty to King Mark, but inevitably comes back. The courtly ideal did not allow mad love. Already in the "Novel about Aeneas" ("antique cycle") two types of love were depicted: Dido's insane passion, which is condemned, and Lavinia's rational noble love, which is welcomed. The courtly world could not come to terms with insane passion, therefore, in the versions of the novel about Tristan and Isolde, opportunities were sought to justify it. Such an excuse for the heroes was a love drink (although not all plot episodes in this context received an explanation, in particular, it remained incomprehensible why Isolde did not kill the defenseless Tristan, having discovered that he was her uncle's killer, who needed revenge). Unable to explain the passion of the heroes other than by the miraculous intervention of a witch's drink, and to make peace with it, the courtly romance, justifying it, emphasized the suffering of the heroes who violate the duty. This circumstance is indicated by A. D. Mikhailov 55 and G. K. Kosikov. 56 It was the psychologism of the novel that became the beginning, harmonizing archaic and courtly meanings.

5. Idyllic novels appear in France as juggling versions of chivalric novels, they are characterized by elements of comic and parody. The novels of the "Byzantine cycle" correspond plot structure the late Greek novel ("Fluar and Blancheflor"), reproducing episodes of sea voyage, shipwreck, kidnapping by pirates, sale into slavery, recognition, trial and the triumph of justice. Strictly speaking, these are not romances of chivalry: exploits are replaced by vicissitudes of fate, courage is replaced by patience, military skill is replaced by cunning and ingenuity. The fortitude of the heroes is shown not in a duel, but in love. The plot of the novel and the features of the conflict (love of people of different faiths) shifted the focus of the narrative towards everyday life. And in the fairy-tale song "Ocassen and Nicolette" elements of parody appear. The warlike behavior of Aucassin, who does not want to be a knight, a country in which they fight with cheeses, in which women fight and men give birth to children - episodes parodying the traditional narrative clichés of chivalric romances. The elements of parody speak not so much about the crisis of the genre as about the development of a stable genre canon.

The specific motive of the French idyll is the belonging of lovers to different faiths and their different social status... This collision is resolved in favor of love, and not religious and social (the love of the captive and the prince is portrayed) norms.

In urban literature, the fablio "On the gray horse in apples" offers its own version of the courtly novel reading from the point of view of the play of an almighty chance, which, however, turns out to be on the side of the disadvantaged and offended. The interaction of the chivalric novel with urban literature opened up significant opportunities for the development and enrichment of the novel genre itself.

Romance. The conditional name was supposed to indicate that we have a story in the Romance language. Both the lyrics and the novels were written not in Latin, but in the Romance languages.

The main character is a wandering knight. The prototypes are one-guard knights. Gathering on a crusade, the knight pledged and sold all property, and most often returned to his homeland impoverished. They became robbers. There was another way for such knights - they were hired as city guards. In the Middle Ages, the practice of primacy took shape - the inheritance is not divided, everything goes to the elder. The younger sons went either to the monks, or to the same knights-one-guard.

The sources of the narration are legends and traditions gleaned from the east that came into contact with Celtic legends. The cycle of legends about King Arthur. Chivalric romances are bizarre - an unbridled fantasy, but at the same time a detailed description of the life of the British Isles. The third source is antiquity, Virgil and Ovid.

There are three types of knightly novels: antique, Breton and oriental (idyllic). The earliest is antique, influenced by Virgil, Ovid and Alexander the Great. One of the first knightly novels is a novel about Alexander. This is not quite a chivalric romance yet. A chivalric romance must have a knight. Feats in the name of a beautiful lady. Alexander the Great gave material about education, horses, battles, but the lady was not there. From Virgil they took the Dido-Aeneas-Lavinia triangle. The authors altered the plot: Dido's love was uncourse, so Aeneas left her, but Lavinia is a beautiful lady - Virgil has almost no information about her, so the authors finished drawing her to their liking.

Eastern is no longer quite a novel. He is monotonous, but he was loved. The plot is always the same: the action takes place either in the east or in Europe. After the battle, the Eastern knight finds a Christian child on the battlefield, he takes him and brings up. The son of an eastern knight wants to marry this Christian woman, so they are trying to float her into a harem. The boy is looking for her, disguises himself as a woman. It all ends with a wedding. In the European version, it is sold to the Vikings. "Fluir and Blanchefleur", "Ocassen and Nicollet".

The main area where romances of chivalry appear was the north of France and the possession of the English Plantagenets. This is a Breton knightly romance. It is divided into 4 groups: 1) Breton le; 2) Arthurian novels, novels about the knights of the round table; 3) novels about the holy grail; 4) apart - the novels about Tristan and Isolde.

Le - a collection of 1175 by the Anglo-Norman poetess Narly of France has been preserved. 12 le. Le is a poetic novella of love and adventure content with a tragic ending. The ending is always tragic. Le "Mountain of two lovers". The king gives his daughter in marriage to someone who, in his arms, without stopping, will raise her to the top of a high mountain. One knight informs her, but dies at the very top, she dies of grief for him.

Arthurian novels - French author Chretien de Troyes is considered the creator of the classic knightly novel. He lived at the court of Mary Champagne. A type of a small adventurous one-character one-event lyric poetic knightly novel. The author's interest in acute psychological conflicts. The concept of courtly love, controversy with the creators of the novels about Tristan and Isolde. Chrétien de Trois even writes Anti Tristan and Isolde. The novels are dedicated to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur is a real historical person. Disputes about its origin. The Celts were conquered by the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Saxons. The Celts are first pushed back, and then, rallying around the leader Artorius, they repulse the Angles and the Saxons, albeit not for long. This is one of the versions - the most probable. A legend arose about a king who fought for independence. Legend has it that he did not die, but fell into a deep sleep in the depths of the island of Avallon. These legends gave a reason to turn to the theme of the struggle for justice. Round table - the idea of ​​equality for the elect. Each chair at the table has a name. Lack of estate dogma. Gradually, the legend of Arthur becomes a utopia, a myth. There is no real kingdom of Arthur. The most famous novels are "The Romance of Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart", "Ewen, the Lion Knight" and "Percival". As a hero, he usually chooses a knight still young and capable of development, but already well-deserved. This is a conflict. It is difficult for such a person to change. The enchanted well, the red knight, the procession to the castle. Lady Ladina, a cunning servant who, with her cunning, passes off the mistress for Ivan. Chretien was interested in the problem: are knightly deeds compatible with knightly love and ethics. No. Even is bored, he leaves, performs feats, adventures drive him to madness.

Novels about the Holy Grail. In the French version, this is the cup from which Christ drank on the last supper, and then his blood was collected there. Magical properties. The bowl is lost. Legend: when it is found, prosperity will come throughout the world. But the knight is guided by knightly ethics, and the Grail is a Christian shrine. The problem of the relationship between knightly ethics and Christian morality. Christian morality is preferred. No one can find the Grail except the purest knight. "The Novel of Percival". German version - Wolfram von Eschenbach "Parzival". The grail is not a chalice, but a gem with the same properties. As a bowl. Altar stone. Knight Gamoret of Anjou loves exploits - east, Ethiopia, princess Belonesca, son. It becomes boring, leaves for Europe, rescues Herziloida, another son there. Goes to war, dies. Hercyloida decides to save Parzifal from such a fate, goes into the woods. But you can't escape fate. At 15, Parzival sees knights. He leaves with them. Absolute innocence and sinlessness, so he meets a strange vision: the king is fishing, sad, polite. Everyone in the castle is waiting for something. Procession. But Parzival goes to bed. He wakes up - there is only an old woman nearby, who scolds him for not asking one single question, then he would free them. Seeking the Grail for many years.

It is customary to distinguish three cycles of medieval knightly novels: antique (based on the traditions of the antique novel, on plots related to antiquity), Byzantine (whose origins are in the Byzantine novel tradition) and the so-called Breton stories (based on legends and myths of the ancient Celts in conjunction with new courtly motives). The Breton tales proved to be the most productive variety of the chivalrous romance. In turn, Breton stories are usually divided into four groups: Breton le, novels about Tristan and Isolde, novels of the Arthurian cycle and novels about the Holy Grail.

Breton le. By tradition, medieval knightly novels include works written in the genre of le (1t, a word of Celtic origin). These are a kind of micro-novels, small poetic novels, which, unlike novels, include not a series of episodes lined up in a chain (like a "novel of the road"), but one episode. Le Maria French. The first known and brightest representative of this genre was Maria of France, a poet of the second half of the 12th century, who lived at the court of King Henry II of England.

She wrote a collection of 12 le in Old French. In le "Lanval" in a concentrated and extremely laconic ida, the features of a medieval knightly novel are presented. Already in the original plot formula - the knight Lanval fell in love with the fairy - we find the very core of the genre: adventure as a combination of love and fantasy. The fairy responded to Lanval's love by demanding that the knight keep their relationship a secret (the principle of courtly love).

But, in accordance with the courtly code, Lanval must love the wife of his overlord, King Arthur, Genievra, and she expects from him loving service. Lan-wal, violating the ban, confesses to Genievra that he loves a woman who is more beautiful than the queen. The most offended by this confession is King Arthur, to whom the Genius complained about Lanval's disrespect.

He demands from Lanval to prove that there is someone more beautiful than his wife, otherwise the knight will be executed. But the fairy, also offended by the violation of the secret of love, disappears. Lanval cannot prove his case and must perish. When everything is ready for execution, a fairy appears astride a wonderful horse, and everyone is forced to admit that she is more beautiful than Genievra. Lanval jumps on the horse's croup and, together with the fairy, is carried away to an unknown country, from where he no longer returned (apparently, Lanval and the fairy went to Avallon - the land of immortality in Celtic legends). In Lanval, the author's position is clearly manifested: Maria French condemns the extremes of the courtly code of love, she is on the side of love as a natural feeling, and not as a form of service to the overlord through love-service to his wife.

Novels about Tristan and Isolde. At the beginning of the XX century. French academician Joseph Bedier showed that the incompletely poetic "Novel of Tristan" by Berul and "Novel of Tristan" by Tom, le Maria of France "On Honeysuckle" (XII century), the novel "Tristan" by Gottfried of Strasbourg (early XIII century) , the prosaic "Romance of Tristan" by Luz del Gata and Elie de Boron (about 1230, the names of the authors, possibly pseudonyms) and many other medieval texts date back to the unresolved novel of the mid-12th century.

Owned by some unknown but brilliant author, and tried to reconstruct the original text. The cycle stands somewhat apart from other medieval novels. The legend is probably based on some historical events of the 6th century. (it is assumed that the name Tristan goes back to the name of the Pictish warrior Drust or Drustan, the name of Isolde is not identified). The work is written according to a different model than typical knightly novels, it contains only elements of the construction of the "romance thresholds", the courtly rules of love are almost not represented, there are several very ancient elements. This is the beginning of the novel: King Mark, under pressure from the courtiers, agrees to marry.

But he does not want to marry. A bird flies into the hall and drops golden hair from its beak. The king sends his entourage in search of a girl with such hair - only he will marry her. This is a very ancient motive, in which there is not a hint of a courtly understanding of love.

Mark's nephew Tristan also goes in search of the girl; on the way he fights a dragon (also an ancient mythological motive). He, wounded, unconscious, is found and healed by Isolde. Opening his eyes and seeing a girl with golden hair, not yet knowing that this is the Irish princess Isolde, Tristan experiences a strong feeling - a harbinger of great love (this, on the contrary, is a new motive that embodies the concept of love of the 12th century). A moral conflict arises: as a vassal of Mark, Tristan must deliver the girl to the king, and as a man he feels (and mutually) affection for her, which must inevitably turn into love. This is where the genius of the unknown author comes into play.

Obviously, he himself is torn apart by a contradiction: as a man of the CPV., He defends the principles of vassal loyalty, the sanctity of feudal marriage and at the same time wants to praise the power of love, which, according to the courtly concept, arises outside of marriage. How to get out of this contradiction? And the writer finds his own, the author's way of resolving the conflict: he connects the legend of the love of Tristan and Isolde with another legend - about a magic drink. While returning by ship from Ireland to Britain, the young heroes accidentally (a new element of the author's narration) drink a love drink made by the maid Isolde, who wanted to help her mistress and Mark overcome alienation and experience love in marriage that cannot be destroyed by any force. Now the love of Tristan and Isolde, born at the first glance of the heroes at each other, flares up like an irresistible passion.

The love potion motive allows the author to remove all moral accusations against Tristan and Isolde even after she married King Mark, and, on the contrary, in the most unattractive light present the courtiers' informers who interfere with the lovers and, ultimately, become one of the reasons for their death. The author creates a novel about unhappy love, which, nevertheless, is stronger than death. This theme will become one of the most fruitful plot schemes in literature, reflected in the story of Francesca da Rimini in “ Divine Comedy"Dante (where in the second circle of hell, next to the souls of Francesca and her beloved, Dante places the shadows of Tristan and Isolde), in William Shakespeare's tragedy" Romeo and Juliet "and in many other works. Novels of the Arthurian cycle.

The cycle about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table became the most characteristic of the medieval novel. Arthur is a real person, the leader of the Britons, in the 5th-6th centuries. retreating to Wales under the onslaught of the Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. In the novels, Arthur appears as the most powerful king of Europe, only at his court can the hero become a true knight. The most accomplished knights of King Arthur are united by the name Knights of the Round Table. They gather together with the king at a huge round table standing in his castle Camelot - a symbol of equality (a rectangular table symbolized feudal inequality, vassal dependence: at its "upper" end sat the overlord, on his right hand was the most noble vassal, on his left hand - the second most important vassal, then other vassals were seated in descending order, and behind the "lower" end - the most ignorant of those present). At the round table, the king was the first among equals.

This equality was violated only in the plots of knightly novels, since one of the knights of the Round Table (the one whose name the novel is named after) always turned out to be the most daring, strong, gallant - an example of all knightly virtues, the embodiment of the chivalrous ideal. Chrétien de Troyes. The most significant author of knightly novels, the creator of the Arthurian cycle was french writer Chrétien de Trois (c. 1130 - c. 1191), apparently associated with the courts of Countess Maria of Champagne (one of the main centers of the Courtoisie) and Count Philippe of Flanders. Starting with the development of a plot about Tristan and Isolde (the novel has not survived), already in the next novel - "Erek and Enida" - he lays the foundations of the Arthurian cycle.

When in the middle of the XII century. the first novels of chivalry are being written, the old heroic epic is still alive, some classical monuments, like the Song of the Nibelungs, have not been created. The more sharply the difference between the old and the new form is felt. It is already evident in the choice of the plot. The old epic is addressed to the national tradition; the new one begins with antique plots: "The novel about Alexander", "The novel about Thebes", "The novel about Troy".

The difference is somewhat blurred by the fact that in this neighborhood the old epic changed its character and its hero acquired new adventurous courtly features. Some heroes will be reborn so much that they can take root in the novel genre. So, french epic about Charlemagne will become one of the main plot cycles of the novel along with antique and Breton.

And yet it is significant that ancient subjects were chosen for the very first novels. They were based not on memory, transmitted orally, but on a book source, which early novelists especially like to refer to. They seem to point with complete confidence to all kinds of evidence allegedly left by the participants in the destruction of Troy or the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Of course, these were all fake works, however, which arose in late antiquity (like the notes of the Greek Dictis or the Phrygian Dareth) in order to expose the factual inconsistency of Homer and were long appreciated for "reliability". So new and precious is the very desire of the novelists - to refer to the source. This did not occur to the old epic poet, primarily because he felt that he was not the author, but the keeper of the tradition. The novelist, on the other hand, is the author. Chronologically, he is almost the first to whom this modern word is applicable. What he creates - in poetry or prose - he realizes on top of these and all other genre clarifications as book.

Authorship is a fact of writing, literature. And the novelist responds to this condition, remembering that in his time and early written evidence must have had some important qualities: it is documentary, requires confidence in itself and meets this requirement. The authors of the first novels, who do not yet feel themselves to be enough authors to establish and preserve their name, are already taking on a new responsibility. Hence the links to their story sources. And if, believing such references to be evidence of only gullibility and naivety, we refuse to recognize the right of historical authenticity for works, then we must not overlook the fact that it was thanks to this illusion of authenticity that they acquired in the eyes of contemporaries the right to belong to a new culture. That culture that lives and continues not by oral tradition, but by written tradition, passed from one author to another under personal responsibility.

Let the early novelists lack the skill that historians would later call criticism of the text, that is, the ability to analytically distinguish fact from fiction, but it is important that they already feel personally responsible for what they are telling. This made a step towards personal creativity, which very soon will declare itself the right to free ownership of the plot, the right to fiction.

Paradoxical as it may seem, this is so: a novel that began with a claim to authenticity will very quickly move on to invented, author's plots. The claim to authenticity is the first reaction to the acquisition of literary status: things that are important and truthful should be recorded. By the way, this claim will not disappear, but will turn into one of the most enduring narrative devices in the novel genre. It includes references to various kinds of discovered, found, accidentally acquired manuscripts, in relation to which future novelists will allegedly act only as publishers.

The first reaction to the written and literary condition of creativity will very soon be followed by a second, when the novelist feels like an author, which is accompanied not only by a new responsibility, but also by a new right. The right to compose, invent. The novelist becomes a writer, and what comes out of his pen becomes literature and, moreover, fiction. This is where it starts.

Coming up with a plot, the author acts as the creator of a new world that has its own space and time. The old epic time has passed, the fixed distance that separated the present from the heroic national past has collapsed. However, we are running a little ahead, in any case, we forget that the person of the 12th century, creating something new, was more inclined to veil the novelty than to show it off. This is why the very technique of the footnotes, certifying the authenticity, was not forgotten with the change of the novel's plot.

The authors of the first novels were learned clergy who compiled chronicles, as the chronicles were called in the West. The chronicler was, apparently, and the person who first used the word "novel" - Norman you. Finishing the last lines of his story about the Trojan Brutus, you are informed that in 1155 he is completing his "novel". In his mouth (or, more precisely, iodine with his pen), this means that, although he narrates the events of antiquity, although he himself lives in England, where the majority of the population speaks the Germanic dialect, he does not write in the Germanic dialect, and does not in Latin, and in Romance, Old French. If I didn’t want to say anything more, the word “novel” very quickly became the designation of a new literary form, which was to be the fate of the most widespread and popular genre of subsequent centuries, which acquired the meaning of an epic of modern times.

The homeland of courtly poetry was the south of France. The novel is born in its north, and gains support at the English court. In 1066, the Normans, who came from the north of France, from Brittany, led by Duke William, who as the king of the new dynasty would be called the Conqueror, conquered England. The newcomers did not mix with the indigenous population for a long time, even in language: the English spoke the language of Germanic origin, and the Normans spoke Old French (this linguistic contradiction is remembered and subtly, like a line of time, recreated by W. Scott at the beginning of Ivanhoe). Pretty soon, with William's closest descendants, direct male succession was interrupted, and after a 20-year feud for the throne in 1154, his female great-grandson, the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, Henry II, became king. Its goal is to consolidate the throne, and for this to substantiate the legality and antiquity of Norman rule in England.

This is where the novel came in handy, which, in turn, is based on legends. They are traced back to the "Aeneid" of the Roman poet Virgil, who was considered the greatest in the Middle Ages. Its hero - Aeneas, the surviving descendant of Trojan heroes, in turn laid the foundation for a family of heroes, one of whom, by the name of Brutus, allegedly arrived on an unnamed island and gave it his name - Britain. To establish their own mythological lineage, the Plantagenets had to prove that their lineage dates back to this legendary progenitor. They found a reason for this. Since the Britons, a Celtic tribe from which the name of the island of Britain actually originates, also gave a name to the peninsula in the north of France - Brittany, where the Normans came from, they seemed to cease to be foreigners, and their invasion took the form of a return to their historical homeland. These linguistic constructions are absolutely fantastic, but they do not contradict medieval logic, which has not yet completely freed itself from magical credulity towards word and myth.

This is why Vasa's "Brutus" appears just a year after Henry II's accession to the throne in 1154. Around the same time, an even more important book was completed, which had a wonderful literary continuation, although it itself was a kind of historical work - "The History of the Britons" by Galfrid of Monmouth. He connected many legends that went around, probably completed something and built a story.

kings of Britain, including Lear (this is where the plot of Shakespeare's tragedy originates), and, most importantly, King Arthur. His name, the semi-legendary ruler of the Celtic tribes in the 6th century, was known earlier - but legends, legends, however, made him glorious and great by Galfrid. From it, it will pass into a chivalric romance, around which the most famous cycle will develop - the Breton cycle, also known as the Arthurian, or else as the cycle of the Round Table novels.

In the XII century. the novels were exclusively poetic. In the XIII century. there are also prosaic ones, which subsequently win finally. Already in the early "Novel about Alexander" a successful form of poetic narration was found - a caesurized twelve-syllable. Entitled alexandrian verse it will have a rich history. In Russian versification, it will correspond to a caesurized six-foot iambic. This is a style of high poetic speech that retains its original association with antiquity, which later turned into the tragedy of classicism. However, in the knightly romance there were other, more mobile forms of poetic speech, for example, the octosyllabic.

Hear me everyone who is in love

And suffers damage from love,

Seniors, knights, maidens,

Both good fellows and fellows:

Who will not get bored of listening,

My story of love will teach those.

You about Young Fluire

And Blancheflor should captivate ...

(Translated by A. Naiman)

"Floir et Blancheflor" is one of the earliest monuments. A love story that knows no barriers, conquering political intrigues, intrigues, differences of faith. The Muslim-born Prince Floir has been in love with Blancheflor since childhood, and for her sake he embraces Christianity. Their spiritual relationship is predicted by the consonance of names: it means - White flower, his is a flower. Floral names color the whole story, though full of separations, tears, danger, but retaining an idyllic tone and happy resolution. It will be retelling for several centuries in many languages, turning it into a symbol of love, all-conquering by its loyalty.

It seems like an eternal story, but we already know that the novelty of the novel lies in its ability to respond to its time, to be colored by its color. The oriental flavor of "Fluir et Blancheflor" reminds of the era of the Crusades and even, more precisely, of the second campaign of 1147-1149, when the European consciousness, refined by courtesy, was prepared to perceive the charm of a foreign culture and be inspired by it.

It is assumed that even more specific circumstances of their time are echoed in this eternal love story, which, perhaps, is also associated with the court of the English Plantagenets. The wife of Henry II was Alienora of Aquitaine, the granddaughter of the first troubadour, Duke of Guillem. If someone is inclined to believe that the courtly lady is an ideal and almost disembodied figure, then the fate and personality of this illustrious patroness of poets will serve as the best refutation. First married to King Louis VII of France, she soon parted ways with him in order to become the wife of Henry II in England. And this marriage is unsuccessful. Spouses mostly live apart. Allenora prefers her inheritance in Poitou. So if, according to one of the versions, she inspired the anonymous author of "Fluir and Blancheflor", it was rather an edifying story - to bring the real circumstances of her turbulent life into greater conformity with the courtly ideal.

An idyllic tone is generally not very characteristic of a chivalrous romance. The love story here is woven into a complex world, inside which serving a lady often conflicts with a vassalage. The novel turns into a test of courage, loyalty, love. Moreover, these high values ​​are often mutually exclusive. The hero has a choice: whether to perform feats, demonstrating loyalty to the overlord, or to break it through love for a beautiful lady. Especially if the lady turns out to be the wife of the overlord, as it happens, perhaps, in the most famous knightly story about Tristan and Isolde. The legend of Tristan and Isolde is one of the most celebrated, eternal or wandering, stories of world literature. Its origins go back to Celtic antiquity, although it is difficult to judge what its original basis was and what was absorbed by it later, whether it was compiled or borrowed from a wide variety of traditions, including the Eastern ones. The core of the plot is the story of an uncle and nephew, King Mark and Tristan, which is usual for family relations, whose intimacy in this case is broken by rivalry in love. Among the Celtic legends, the closest are about Diarmuid's love for Graine, whom his aged uncle, King Finn, chose as his bride, and about Deirdre and Nice, who were separated by King Conchobar.

Isolde's love for Tristan grows out of her initial hatred, when she, having healed (as it turns out, for the second time) the winner of the dragon, recognizes him as the killer of her uncle Morholt. This intertwining of love / rivalry / hate creates a unique atmosphere of emotional tension between three close and noble people. The way out of it is only death, and the plot ends with the death of the lovers.

We can only guess to what extent it took shape in the oral tradition, and what Tom or Berul, the authors of the two that have come down to us only in excerpts from the great poems of the 12th century, did Tom or Berul for its final form. The fact that they have not been completely preserved is also a kind of mystery, since the popular plot has been repeatedly processed, rearranged, and these prose novel retellings are known in dozens of manuscripts.

We find one of the earliest literary adaptations of the legend of Tristan and Isolde in le "Honeysuckle" by the first French poetess of the 12th century. Mary of France. Le is a lyric-epic genre of courtly literature; it differs from the chivalrous novel in its small volume and limited number of episodes. This is the definition of le proposed by the 19th century French medievalist. Gaston Paris: "These are stories of love and adventure, where fairies, miracles and transformations often appear; more than once it speaks of the land of immortality - the island of Avalon, where fairies take and where they keep heroes; it mentions Arthur, whose court is sometimes the scene of action, and also Tristan ... For the most part, these are fragments of ancient mythology, usually incomprehensible and almost unrecognizable; the characters of Celtic legends naturally turned into knights; in general, a gentle and melancholic tone prevails in them ... ". "Honeysuckle" by Mary of France is about Tristan and Isolde, about their love, presented as an example of fin "amor: De Tristram e de la relue, // De lur amur que tant fu fine. Two lovers live in separation. Tristan, life whom, far from Queen Isolde, loses all meaning, decides to see his beloved at all costs ...

In her le, the poetess uses one of the most famous comparisons in medieval literature: Tristan and Isolde are like hazel and honeysuckle, which cannot live without each other, and perish if they are separated.

One could say that they are akin to Hazel by their fate, when honeysuckle grows with him and clings to him with shoots. Together It's easy for them to live like this day after day. But if you unravel the branches,

And together they do not let them grow, Hazel will bend in the bloom of years And honeysuckle followed him. "Dear friend, about us This whole sad story.

We cannot live as we do now: you - without me, and I - without you! "

(Translated by N. Sycheva)

All versions of the legend of Tristan and Isolde usually contain the following circle of plot motives.

Tristan's father dies, conquering his kingdom, and the mother, sister of Mark, King of Cornwall, dies of grief immediately after the birth of his son. Hence his name - Tristan: inherited from the Celtic source (Durst), it was interpreted in French as derived from the word "sad" (triste). The boy was brought up not knowing about his high origin. As a young man, he was kidnapped by Norwegian merchants and accidentally ended up in the court of Mark, who fell in love with the stranger for his intelligence and varied talents, including masterful playing the harp, violin and company. His tutor Roald Firm Word arrives at the court and reveals the truth: Tristan is Mark's nephew.

Tristan reclaims his lands and leaves them to the educator, not wanting to leave his found and loving uncle. At this time, Morholt, famous for his strength, arrives from Ireland, demanding unpaid tribute from Mark. Tristan was the only one who was not afraid of him, accepted the challenge and killed in a duel. However, he himself was severely wounded by a poisoned spear, no drugs work, and his body rotts, exuding an intolerable stench. Tristan asks to put it in the boat and give the harp in hand, because he cannot row. He gives himself up to the waves; the sea element is always felt as the background of this story, which takes place in the island and peninsular Celtic lands: Cornwalls, Ireland and Brittany.

The waves bring Tristan to Ireland, where he is healed by the royal daughter, Isolde Blond. The illness changed Tristan so much that they did not recognize him as the murderer of Morholt, but, having gained strength, he decides to run back to Mark. The uncle is happy, but his barons are worried, who do not want to see such a powerful hero as their master. They insist on the marriage of the king, and he agrees: picking up a woman's hair brought in by a swallow, he says that he has made a choice. But who is she? The barons believe that the king laughed at them, and only Tristan recognizes the hair by its unique golden hue. He equips a ship for Ireland.

The two countries are divided by irreconcilable enmity. However, Tristan, upon arrival, relieves the Irish from the dragon that was devouring their girls. Scorched by the flames from the monster's mouth, he is healed again by Isolde, who this time recognizes him as her uncle's killer, but resigns herself to the victor herself and reconciles the rest with him. The one who defeats the dragon, according to the condition, gets a royal daughter as his wife. Tristan takes Isolde away not for himself, but for his uncle. She is offended. The old hatred flares up in her again. However, at sea, suffering from thirst, both of them mistakenly drink a love drink given by Isolde's mother to her maid and confidante Brangienne, which was intended for the wedding night. This is how love begins, throwing them into each other's arms. It continues upon arrival in Cornwall and after Isolde's wedding to Mark. The enterprising and devoted Brangien helps the lovers to keep the secret, but the enemy barons enlist the help of a dwarf reading from the stars. He tells them when the next date will be. Finally, they manage to present Mark with evidence of treason. Tristan and Isolde are condemned by the angry king without trial. On the way to the execution, Tristan, with God's help, runs, and then saves Isolde, who was given up for abuse by the lepers. The forest becomes their shelter, where they spend long happy months. Finally, their hideout is issued by a forester. At the same time, the effect of the love drink expires and the lovers refuse life together in the forest, realizing all her madness.

Isolde returns to the court of her husband, who accepts her as wife and queen on condition that Tristan leaves Cornwall forever. The hero leaves for Brittany and, over time, marries Isolde Beloruka, partly seduced by the similarity of names, but continues to love the first Isolde. Mortally wounded in one of the knightly skirmishes, he sends a reliable friend for Isolde, who alone can heal ero. Tristan agreed with a friend that if Isolde responded to his request, a white sail would be raised on the ship, otherwise the sail would be black. Isolde Belorukaya out of jealousy lied to Tristan that the sail on the ship was black, and the hero died of grief, and after him his beloved. On the graves of Tristan and Isolde, trees grew (in another version - bushes), which intertwined with branches, symbolizing the victory of love over death.

The particular popularity of the legend of Tristan and Isolde in the centuries is due to the organic combination of folklore motives and images, pictures of feudal life and customs and the eternal theme of the opposition of love and duty. The same conflict is at the heart of the entire plot of the Breton cycle, which ends with the death of Arthur's kingdom.

The plot of the Breton cycle has evolved over the centuries, and it can only be presented historically, following the changes taking place within it. At its source, the features of real events are vaguely discernible. According to legend, Arthur was one of the Celtic leaders who were remembered not so much for their exploits as for their participation in common feuds and robberies (Galfrid attributes his death to 542). Then the story is transformed into a legend and connected to the myth. In the very name Arthur, researchers are trying to guess the mythological connections: the Indo-European root "aha" is a tiller (Russian - oratai), the Celtic "artos" is a bear, or the Irish "art" is a stone. These are guesses, mythologically leading the hero to the gods or to the elements.

The reality is different: the Celtic material for many reasons turned out to be the richest storehouse of novel plots. In addition to the dynastic necessity that existed at the Plantagenet court - to look in this direction, the Celtic traditions had unconditional merit. In them, starting with the most ancient sagas, a tense love triangle was outlined, so that the story of Tristan and Isolde is traced back to them in the most direct way. At the same time, these fragmentary stories seemed to be asking to be thought out, completed. They excited the imagination, but did not have coherence, plot completeness, leaving freedom to the author's imagination. In general, they had a necessary measure of plot fascination and historical authenticity, as it was interpreted in the 12th century.

After Galfried of Monmouth, the main names and events were inscribed in legendary history Britons, having received the necessary reinforcement in a written source. That was enough. From our point of view, we can consider that the arguments do not stand up to criticism, and then and even several centuries later they looked almost indisputable: "... if anyone says or thinks that there was no such king Arthur in the world, - in that person can see great folly and blindness, for there is< ... >a lot of evidence to the contrary. First, you can see Arthur's tomb at Glastonbury Monastery ... ".

This is how the English pioneer printer W. Caxton argued in 1485, anticipating the book of Thomas Malory "The Death of Arthur" - a prosaic collection of all legends that exist in folklore or set forth in novels and poems. Mallory summed up the plot, giving the most complete and coherent account of the main events.

King Arthur's father was Uther Pendragon, whose name is also suggestive of mythological reflections - the main dragon. As his wife, he took Ingrain, the widow of the duke, with whom he was at enmity. Still not knowing about his death, at her very hour, Uther penetrates into Ingrain's bedroom, with the help of Merlin taking the form of her husband. The born son, by agreement with Uther, is taken by Merlin, named Arthur and raised secretly from everyone. The image of Merlin is entirely the creation of Galfrid, who dedicated a separate poem "The Life of Merlin" to him.

Before his death, Uther declares Arthur heir, but his mysterious origin and the intrigues of his enemies give rise to war. It was bloody and long. King Lot, who was married to Arthur's half-sister Morgause, led her especially fiercely. From her, according to one of the versions, as a result of incest, Arthur had a son, Mordred, who in the future should become his killer.

Having won the victory, Arthur marries Guenever (the pronunciation of her name in different linguistic traditions fluctuates especially strongly - Genevre, Zheniviev). As a dowry, he receives the Round Table, once made by Merlin and given by Uther Pendragon as a gift to her father.

The shape of the table is believed to follow the shape of the round Celtic towers and has a magical meaning. T. Mallory says about this: "The round table was built by Merlin as a sign of the true roundness of the world ...". However, since the table is round, everyone behind it is equal, no one can be considered to be sitting higher or lower. Here is how Wolfram von Eschenbach, the author of the famous novel "Parzival", writes about it:

This is the best of earthly tables,

We know didn't have corners.

Be like at the head of the table

Everyone was honored,

Everyone is honored

Sit in the main place! ..

(Per.L. Ginzburg)

This meaning persists to this day in the expression "round table discussion". In total, Arthur had 150 seats at the table. The knights who had arrived with Guinevere occupied the table, the rest had to be chosen, leaving one place, disastrous, not filled. The one to whom it is intended has not yet been born. He will come later.

The idea of ​​a knightly union in the XII century. was quite timely, since it was then, in connection with the crusades, that similar spiritual and military orders were created in Europe: the Johannites, the Templars (founded in 1120), the Teutonic ... Their goal is to protect Christianity from the infidels, the life embodiment of the highest virtues. The knightly virtues remained a utopia, and the Arthurian order - its most memorable embodiment. Arthur himself, the first among equals, is an example of valor, generosity and mercy. He is imitated and the rest of the knights compete with him in this.

At first, Sir Gawaine stood out among them. The fact that he is the nephew of the king emphasized his ancient origin, because according to the logic of family relations, the sister's son is closer to his own son, since the wife was taken from a different family. The depth of myth shines through in Gawain's heroism (which is especially evident in the legends about him preserved in England, where he remained the favorite hero of the cycle). Sir Gawaine is powerful, but his strength is still in direct proportion to the cyclical life of nature, increasing threefold by noon and decreasing at the end of the day. He is natural, but because of this he is not refined and courteous enough. So, he is knighted on the solemn day of Arthur's wedding, but his very first feat turns into shame: having won a knight in a duel, he refuses merciful forgiveness, swings to cut off his head, and instead beheads a beautiful lady who was trying to cover her lover with her body. ...

If Gawaine surpasses others in knightly strength, valor, then as a courteous hero he is opposed by his cousin, the son of Arthur's second sister, the Morgana fairy - Sir Ivain.

However, as the cycle develops, both are inferior to the one who appears somewhat later, but combines all conceivable knightly and courtly virtues. This is Sir Lancelot of the Lake. He is most famous among the Knights of the Round Table. He is also predetermined by fate to be the culprit of the common destruction. He chooses Arthur's wife Guenever as his lady. The old motif of Celtic tradition, as in the case of Tristan, which confronts uncle with nephew, comes to life here again. Now people who are close not by blood, but by spiritual kinship, equal in valor and nobility, are competing.

As for the name, or rather, the nickname of Lancelot, Ozerny indicates that although among the heroes of the Arthurian cycle he is promoted to noticeable roles rather late and he has a mythological genealogy that comes from Celtic legends. He was raised by the Lady of the Lake, the keeper of magical secrets, who gave King Arthur his magic sword, Excalibur. Lancelot's father is sometimes called the god Luga (whose son in Celtic mythology was also considered the hero of the sagas Cuchulainn). However, if he inherited heroic valor, then, appearing in the plot of the Arthurian cycle, he managed to soften its harsh appearance with courtly sophistication. As his beautiful lady, he serves Guenever, not being satisfied with "love from afar." It is argued about the poetry of the troubadours to what extent it is platonic. The biographies of poets are often more frank, and from them we learn that with their love they more than once incurred the wrath of the master, the lady's husband. They had to flee. Lancelot also flees for love, but with Guinevere.

He came in time with his friends and relatives to save her from the fire, accused of committing adultery with him, and take her to his castle. Then he testifies to the queen's innocence (alas, falsely), challenges anyone who doubts it, and then, in order to avoid general strife, leaves for the sea. Arthur and Hawaii go into pursuit. In the absence of the king, Mordred makes an attempt to seize the throne, which is the reason for the disastrous war for all its participants. True, according to Celtic tradition, Arthur did not die, but only hid in order to one day return to his country.

Where is it? The geography of the Arthurian world is no less vague than its history. On the one hand, everything seems to be quite simple: these are Celtic lands - the Cornwall peninsula, perhaps Brittany in France. But on the other hand, the Celts once occupied not only the whole of Britain, but also a significant part of central Europe. Tradition easily expands the borders of Arthur's state, identifying its capital Camelot with the ancient British capital - Winchester. Malorie says this directly: "... at the walls of Camelot, which is otherwise called Winchester ..." But sometimes its capital is London ...

And the expansion of the limits does not end there. Often, Arthur is thought to be the ruler of the entire Western Christian world. It begins to seem that the Arthurian world is everywhere and at the same time - nowhere, because it opens behind the very first turn of the road, every secret path leads to it, any object points to it with meaning. You just need to be able to understand the instruction, to guess the sign. This requires magic, without which one cannot enter the enchanted world of the Arthurian epic.

Both time and space appear magical in chivalrous novels. If the first authors valued the illusion of reliability and referred to book sources, then the next generations value this illusion much less. They are fascinated by freedom of authorship, the right of imagination. And in the Arthurian cycle, since the "credibility" of this plot has already been substantiated, one can focus on the development of individual motives. The plot of each novel will be local and episodic, deployed around one hero or even around one event in his life. It is such a composition that the greatest of the authors of this genre, Chrétien de Troyes, creates and develops.

Only five novels were written by him. The first two, Erek and Enida and Klizhes, date from 1170 and 1176, respectively. At this time, Chretien lived at the court of Mary of Champagne (daughter of Alienora of Aquitaine and, therefore, great-granddaughter of the first troubadour of Duke Guillaume). According to family tradition, the cult of courtesy reigned there and interest in poetry remained. But over time, the very idea of ​​courtly love undergoes a change. In any case, her freedom, reaching the level of self-will and violation of marriage bonds (as in the story of Tristan and Isolde), is unacceptable for Chrétien. He does not allow love, which entails deception and betrayal. The love that he values ​​is reasonable and virtuous. This is conjugal love. His second novel, Klizhes, by its very plot makes one remember Tristan and Isolde, entering into an argument, sometimes almost parodying their plot. Chrétien's heroine does not forget to emphasize her difference:

The novel I know of is sickening.

Thank God you are not Tristan;

Rejected by my nature

Isolde's fair-haired love

And besides you, no one else

Will never enjoy me ...

(Translated by V. Mikushevich)

This is how Fenissa explains to her beloved Klizhes: how could he think that she, although she was forced to marry his uncle, the Emperor of Constantinople, physically belonged to him! This was not and could not be, for "whose heart, that is also the body." This is the new morality. The uncle-emperor, under the influence of the spell, believed that in his arms - Fenissa. I was wrong: it was just a ghost. But even with her beloved and worthy Klizhes, from whom her uncle stole the crown, she does not agree to flee, becoming like Isolde. She better fakes her death, undergoes a painful ordeal (did she really die?), And then go into hiding. Fortunately, the uncle himself dies in time from a fit of anger in order to leave the empire to his nephew along with his beloved.

"Klijes" was written by Chretien de Troyes at the intersection of two novel types - Breton and Oriental. His heroes are inhabitants of three empires at the same time: Germanic, Byzantine and the one where Arthur reigns. The rich descriptions of the novel show the then interest of the West in the East, which is becoming a fashion. But Klizhes is not only the nephew of the Emperor of Constantinople, but also of Sir Gawain (Gauvin), whose sister Golden-haired was his mother. No matter how wide the space of the novel is, Chretien builds the plot very compactly, highlighting the couple in love. The plot, as usual in Chrétien, has two parts: in the first, the hero demonstrates valor, in the second, the strength of the spirit.

We can say that the main interest is shifting to the spiritual sphere. This is a huge difference between the novel hero and the hero of the previous epic, which has always been an expression of the collective spirit, the generic personality. Here, individual consciousness begins to awaken, although it would be a mistake, ahead of events, to assume in the hero of the chivalrous novel "the dialectic of the soul" or the ability for internal development. He is changing, but everything that happens to him is more fair to imagine as test and epiphany.

With these words it is best to represent the fate of the hero of Chrétien's first novel - Erek. First, he, valiant and glorious, conquers Enida, whose only wealth is mental and physical beauty. They are getting married. They are happy. Happiness puts Erek to sleep, and he forgets about exploits. This worries Enida, she reproaches her husband, and he regains his sight. Erek embarks on a knightly pilgrimage, seeking exploits and performing them. Enida is allowed to accompany him, but on the condition that he will not utter a word, no matter what danger threatens him. This is an additional reason for moral hesitation, for she cannot remain silent, seeing the mortal danger threatening her husband.

Danger awaits immediately outside the house. The house is a knight's castle. A road leads from it. She leads you into the forest. This is an alien world, where it would be strange not to meet a wizard, not to find yourself at a wonderful source, not to get into an enchanted castle. The glance thrown around by the novelist gives birth to a new literary style of bright and detailed descriptiveness. Everything is wonderful, I want to pay attention to everything and take a closer look at everything, because every object can turn out to be a road sign on this magical path. Not noticing it is to skip the adventure.

The usual form of life for the novel knight is unusual. He lives in a magical, adventurous space and time. If he is afraid of anything in his fearlessness, it is ordinary and low, which can lower his dignity. When Lancelot goes to rescue Gepievra (so in Chrétien) from the hands of the villain, in order to find out where she is, he is asked to drive a section of the path on a cart. It's offensive and he hesitates taking just three steps before sitting on it. The cart is a test of knightly honor, but hesitation is insulting to his love. And the saved Genuevre feels offended; to the lot of the knight, distraught with love and despair, new trials fall out - as punishment.

However, this is the plot of another novel by Chrétien de Troyes. Between 1176 and 1181 he wrote "Ivain, or the Knight with the Lion" and "Lancelot, or the Knight of the cart". The plots are constructed as if their author wanted to test different possibilities of love, to look at it from different angles. In general, it must be said that in all Chrétien's novels there is a clear problematic task: for what purpose was this plot chosen and precisely how was it developed, what does it contain the answer to and what is the dispute with? This mobility of the narrative point of view once again reminds us of the presence author, consciously creating, having his own view of events and knowing that there are other assessments with which he correlates his own. Nothing of the kind could have been expected in a heroic epic. If there is a point of view, it is only conveyed by the singer, but in fact belonging to the collective memory.

In Chrétienne de Troyes, on the other hand, we assume a capacity for change, even to the point of self-denial and even self-parody. He created the classic form of the novel. He is imitated, his plots are continued and altered. Someone who called himself Payenne de Mezieres wrote "The Mule Without a Bridle" - a story about Arthur's knights, about saving a beautiful lady, about a duel and everything else that should be in a novel. However, everything happens with unacceptable declines: in the battle, Gawain is assisted by a villan, a commoner; in the narrative tone, one can hear either some kind of frivolity, or a mockery. Isn't it even in the author's name itself: Payen, i.e. pagan, from the unknown Mezieres. Isn't this a deliberate shape-shifting in relation to Chrétien, i.e. Christian, from the famous Troyes? Who hid behind a pseudonym? It is sometimes assumed that Chretien himself.

Certainly nothing can be said, but the possibility of such an assumption is important. The evasive, ironic manner of the novelist, in any case, allows such a version.

In Ivaine, or the Knight with the Lion, he probably comes closest to his ideal of serious love in marriage. Ivain conquers the lady in order to soon lose her, again being carried away by exploits. To return love, you need to atone for the wrongdoing, to see the light and remain true to the gained understanding.

Lancelot's story is the story of a feeling of overwhelming and maddening feeling. Perhaps that is why Chretien did not finish the novel, leaving it to one of his students. This is not the kind of love he values. His heroes are Erek, Clejes, Ivain. But he has to test himself once again in a new heroic quality.

The last novel of the writer - "Perceval, or the Tale of the Grail" associated with his move to the court of the Count of Flanders, who was married to Isabella Vermandois (friend of Alienora of Aquitaine). Here courtly love is interpreted in the spirit of Christian piety, hence the choice of the plot. The mystical legend of the Holy Grail developed somewhere in the East and became widespread in Europe in the Middle Ages. The Grail is a sacred cup, into which, according to legend, Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of the crucified Christ. Thus, as stated in the Myths of the Nations Dictionary, this vessel became a prototype of “precious receptacles for a materialized shrine”. Once containing a shrine, it will forever remain sacred and miraculous. Every person who comes into contact with him receives divine grace, while the unworthy one, on the contrary, approaching him, can be punished.

The legend merged rather late with the legend of the Knights of the Round Table. It is believed that this finally happened after a connection arose between them at the place: the Glastonbury Monastery, which included the remains of Joseph of Arimathea among its relics, announced the possession of the remains of King Arthur.

The Grail theme became the logical conclusion of the plot cycle and all courtly spirituality. Courtly love was born as a feeling for the earthly, human, but as a feeling of divine origin: God grants it and God first of all learns to love. On his earthly path, ennobling his sensual nature, his flesh, man ascends to the heavenly. A sense of belonging to the sacrament is embedded in the courtesy, and the Grail becomes the last, most complete expression of this involvement. Being consistently a hero, a knight, an ideal lover, a person prepares himself for an act that already directly converts him to God. A person can serve him by saving a Christian shrine. The reason for the crusades was to snatch the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the infidels. The Grail is a pretext for a personal feat, prepared by the hero's courtly ascent.

Not every knight is allowed to participate in the search for the Holy Grail. In addition to other merits, this work requires spiritual purity and strong faith. Sir Hawaii quickly goes astray. Sir Lancelot shows more persistence, despite his failures, to the visions predicting his failure: "Sir Lancelot, Sir Lancelot, hard as stone, bitter as wood, naked and naked as a fig leaf! Go away from here, get away from these saints. places! " And yet Lancelot deserved to reach the Grail, although he did not deserve to see it, amazed in his presence by many days of sleep.

Sir Perceval became the Knights of the Grail, having overcome the devil's temptation and established in the faith; Sir Bore and the protagonist of this part of the cycle is the pious Sir Galahad, the son of Lancelot, who took an empty disastrous place at the Round Table.

Chrétien de Troyes did not finish his last novel. Either the plot ordered by the new patrons of the poet did not captivate, or death interrupted the work ... It will be continued by others. The search for the Grail and the image of one of the knights leading it, Sir Perceval, will be developed by many authors. Immediately after Chrétien, the German writer Wolfram von Eschsnbach does this in his huge poetic novel Parzival.

The chivalrous novel comes to a completely new understanding of the human personality, which arises in the process of education, its acquisition of knowledge of social conventions, moral ascent and danger - to get away from its blessed nature. The novel is replaced by the epic, after which he promised to narrate about the authentic and historical, but carried away and carried away the readers by the magical, fabulous. It emerged as a serious moral program, albeit a utopian one; for several centuries it will become a favorite reading, entertaining many and possessing the minds, or even driving them crazy, as four centuries later will happen to the hero of Cervantes. What we know as a chivalric romance begins fiction. To her he conveyed his discoveries concerning both a new understanding of man and a new - author's- storytelling warehouse.

It was a genre in which it was unprecedentedly renewed, acquiring the features of an individual being, a hero in which a freely creative author appeared almost for the first time and who created a reader, a person who perceives the book as a special world and is ready to live according to the laws of this obviously invented, but so fascinating the world.

Circle of concepts and problems

Epic and novel: national past, illusion of authenticity, adventurous time, heroic personality.

Self-control task

Tell us about the novels of the Round Table, Camelot, Arthur, Lancelot, Tristan and Isolde, Parzifal, the Grail.

• To give an idea of ​​the Russian sounding of this verse, we present an excerpt from O. Mandelstam's translation of Racine's "Phaedra": The decision has been made, the hour of change has struck, / The pattern of the Trezen walls has always jarred me, / In deadly idleness, on a slow fire, / I am to the roots of my hair blush in the silence.
• Paris G. La litterature frangaise au moyen age. P., 1888. P. 91.
• Mallory T. Death of Arthur. M., 1973.S. 9.
• These terms belong to Μ. M. Bakhtin. See in more detail his classic work "Forms of Time and Chronotope in the Novel. Essays on Historical Poetics".

General characteristics of Anglo-Norman literature. Features of the development of English literature during 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. Under the prevailing feudal system, it contributed to the spread of French influence on the socio-political and cultural life 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 XIII-XIV 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, Historia regum Anglorum by the librarian of the Malmesbury monastery, William of Malmsbury, Historia Anglorum by Henry of Huntingdon. Particular importance for further development medieval literature had a "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 literature. 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 the five-volume works of Walter Map, De nugis curialium, on the amusing conversations of 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, subjecting them to ridicule catholic church, the mores of her 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 language 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 were circulated containing descriptions of the genealogies of the Norman dukes.

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 legendary king Ulada Konchobar, the hero of many Irish sagas, and with 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 Mallory ( 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 ("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 preface, 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, but 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, with which Malorie is quite casual.
• 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 chalice 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 emitted by the solar vessel, and the forces of destruction, which appear in the form of a bleeding spear, contain a double sacrament.

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 the sacrament of the Church or to the 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 bowl 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 chivalric romance is the only poetic kind that 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 was based on 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 in the story has an extremely relevant role, he will reasonably reason 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.