Erec and EnideIn this new verse translation of one of the great works of French literature, Dorothy Gilbert captures the vivacity, wit, and grace of the first known Arthurian romance. Erec and Enide is the story of the quest and coming of age of a young knight, an illustrious member of Arthur's court, who must learn to balance the demands of a masculine public life—tests of courage, skill, adaptability, and mature judgment—with the equally urgent demands of the private world of love and marriage. We see his wife, Enide, develop as an exemplar of chivalry in the female, not as an Amazon, but as a brave, resolute, and wise woman. Composed ca. 1170, Erec and Enide masterfully combines elements of Celtic legend, classical and ecclesiastical learning, and French medieval culture and ideals. In choosing to write in rhymed octosyllabic couplets–Chrétien's prosodic pattern–Dorothy Gilbert has tried to reproduce what so often gets lost in prose or free verse translations: the precise and delicate meter; the rhyme, with its rich possibilities for emphasis, nuance, puns and jokes; and the "mantic power" implicit in proper names. The result will enable the scholar who cannot read Old French, the student of literature, and the general reader to gain a more sensitive and immediate understanding of the form and spirit of Chrétien's poetry, and to appreciate the more Chrétien's great contribution to European literature. |
Contents
1 | |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 33 |
EREC and ENIDE | 39 |
Notes to the Poem | 253 |
Glossary of Names and Places | 265 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
amie Andreas Capellanus arms Arthur's court Arthurian Romances Avallach avanture barons beauty Béroul bliaut blow brave Cadoc castle Celtic chainse chevalier chivalry Chrétien de Troyes Cligès count courteous courtesy courtly Courtly Love dame dear destrier dress dwarf Enide's Erec and Enide Erec replied Erec's fair friend fair sire fear girl give gold grief guest Guiot Guivret hand hauberk hawk hear heard helmet honor horse host hunt joust King Arthur kiss knight lady lance Loomis lord lover Maboagrain Marie de France medieval mount neck noble Old French pain palfrey Paris Press prize Queen Guinevere rich ride rode Roques Round Table saddle seignior seneschal shame shield Sir Gawain Sir Kay speak splendid spoke squire stag sure sword tale tell Tenebroc thought tourney Trans translation vair vassal vavasor verse wedding of Erec Welsh wife wish word wounds Yder Yvain
Popular passages
Page 2 - Yvain, or The Knight with the Lion; Lancelot, or The Knight of the Cart; and Perceval, or the Story of the Grail.