Table Of ContentEREC AND ENIDE
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CHRETIEN DE TROYES
Translated by
RUTH HARWOOD CLINE
THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS
Athens & London
© 2000 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Set in 11/14 Centaur by Walton Harris
Printed digitally in the United States of America
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition
of this book as follows:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
LCCN Permalink: http://lccn.loc.gov/99030721
Chrétie n, de Troyes, 12th cent.
Uniform Title: Erec et Enide. English
Erec and Enide / Chrétien de Troyes ; translated by Ruth Harwood Cline.
xxv, 225 p. ; 23 cm.
isbn 0-8203-2146-x (alk. paper)
isbn 0-8203-2141-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 215–225) and index.
1. Erec (Legendary character)—Romances.
2. Romances—Translations into English.
3. Arthurian romances.
I. Cline, Ruth Harwood. II. Title.
pq1445.e6 e5 2000
841'.1 21 99-30721
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN for this electronic edition: 978-0-8203-4051-7
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION ix
EREC AND ENIDE
Prologue 1
The Hunt of the White Stag 2
The Sparrow Hawk 11
The Kiss 37
Erec's Wedding 53
The Edinburgh Tournament 61
Erec's Departure for Carnant 65
Enide Recalls Erec to Chivalry 73
The Three Robbers 82
The Five Robbers 86
Count Galoain 91
Guivret the Small 107
King Arthur's Court 115
Cadoc of Cabruel and Two Giants 126
Count Oringle of Limors 134
Guivret Returns 144
Guivret's Sisters 149
The Joy of the Court 157
Erec's Coronation 189
NOTES 203
BIBLIOGRAPHY 215
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Sometimes a question can change the direction of a career. As I was completing
Lancelot, Professor Evelyn Vitz asked for my opinion as a translator about the
identity of Chretien de Troyes. I concluded from the internal evidence that he
was a well-educated, religious aristocrat of about the same age as Count Henri
of Champagne. His career included contacts with the comital court in Troyes;
with Bury St. Edmund, Norfolk, and Windsor in England; with Rennes,
Brittany; and with Beauvais and Lagny in modern France. At one point I specu-
lated that Chretien was a kinsman of the count, and I examined the genealogies
of Count Henri and his father, Thibaut the Great, to see if his relatives had
connections with those regions. I learned with interest of the English connec-
tions of the count's uncle Henry, bishop of Winchester and abbot of
Glastonbury, and of his brother Guillaume, archbishop of Sens and Reims and
papal legate in England. The most exciting possibility for a match with Chretien
was the counts little-known half brother Hugh of Blois. Hugh was a wounded
knight, who entered religion as a monk of Tiron. Subsequently, Hugh became
abbot of St. Benet of Holme in Norfolk, of Chertsey outside Windsor Forest
near London, and of Lagny in Champagne near Paris. Further research showed,
however, that Hughs death or deposition at Lagny occurred in 1171, which would
preclude his being the poet Chretien who began his romances around that year.
The common connections with Norfolk, Windsor, and Lagny suggest that the
poet had come into contact with Hugh, perhaps as a member of his entourage.
My researches on Abbot Hugh brought me into contact with Professor
Bennett Hill of the Department of History of Georgetown University, through
my long-standing friend Professor Jo Ann Moran Cruz. They encouraged me
to enter a doctoral program at Georgetown and to research the foundation of
Hugh s congregation of Tiron as the topic for my dissertation. Thus the ques-
tion about the identity of Chretien led to my use of language and translating
skills in scholarship as well as government service.
Verse translation is a long and solitary venture with much research and
revision. Chretiens works have been extensively and intensively studied. Articles
have been written about interpretations of a phrase or about the personalities
of his finely drawn characters. Admiration of Chretiens genius enabled me to
[vii]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
see the translations of his romances to completion without ever becoming tired
of the project.
I wish to express my deepest appreciation to my colleagues in the American
Translators Association for their recognition of my efforts to render Chretien
de Troyes into English. Translators recognize the magnitude of the complexi-
ties of the source language and the effectiveness of the resolution of the dilem-
mas in the target language. Receiving the Louis Galantiere Prize for the best
non-German literary translation published in the United States between 1990
and 1992 for Lancelot was one of the most wonderful moments of my life.
I am exceedingly grateful for the unfailing love and support of my husband,
William R. Cline, who encouraged me in the decision to enter the doctoral pro-
gram of the Department of History of Georgetown University after almost
fifteen years of service as a language officer at the U.S. Department of State.
Our daughters, Alison Cline Earles and Marian Cline le Grelle, have also been
a constant source of encouragement. This translation is dedicated to my younger
brother, Robert Hodge Harwood. I have long intended to dedicate a transla-
tion of Chretien to him, and Erec and Enide seems most appropriate because of
the courage of the straightforward hero.
[viii]
INTRODUCTION
Chretien de Troyes was a writer of such brilliance that his works dominate the
literature of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Chretien created the
Arthurian romance as a literary genre. He was the first to write long love stories
in Old French verse about the knights of King Arthurs Round Table and to
situate Arthur's court at Camelot. He wrote the earliest known version of the
love affair between Lancelot and Guinevere and the story of Perceval and the
Quest of the Grail. His romances circulated widely in Europe and inspired ad-
aptations and continuations in many languages over the centuries. The sources
of the works of Malory, Chaucer, Tennyson, and Wagner, among many others,
include the romances of Chretien de Troyes.
The birth and death dates of Chretien de Troyes are unknown. The widest
range is estimated to be from 1135 to 1191. Presumably he was a mature adult
when he wrote his first romance, Erec and, Enide, around 1170. Among other
indicators, the Christmas coronation in Nantes at the end of Erec may reflect a
historical celebration in 1169. In the prologue to his second romance, Cliges, after
referring to Erec, Chretien mentions other works. He wrote a vernacular render-
ing, now lost, of Ovid s Art of Love, The Amores, and Cures for Love. He wrote two
tales based on Ovid s Metamorphoses: a version of the Pelops legend, which he calls
The Shoulder Bite and which has been lost, and a tale of the metamorphosis of a
hoopoe, swallow, and nightingale, which is known as Philomena.l He wrote a ver-
sion of the Tristan legend called King Mark and Fair Isolde, which has also been
lost. The beginnings of his third and fourth romances, Lancelot; or, The Knight of
the Cart and Yvain; or, The Knight with the Lion, seem to reflect the exceptionally late
Pentecost of 1177, which fell two weeks before the 24 June feast of St. John.
Lancelot is written for and dedicated to the Countess Marie of Champagne. It
was completed by the clerk Godefroi de Leigny (Lagny) at Chretiens direction.
Yvain s plot structure is similar to that of Erec and is set in the forest of Paimpont/
Broceliande in Brittany. Chretien is thought to have worked on it alternately
with Lancelot? His haste to complete both works may be related to the departure
of Count Henri of Champagne for the Holy Land in 1179. Perceval; or, The Story
of the Grail, written for and dedicated to Count Philip of Flanders, regent of
France and godfather of the youthful King Philip Augustus, was probably started
between 1179 and n8i.3 The continuator Gerbert de Montreuil wrote between
[ix]
