Ywain, the Knight of the Lion

The twelfth century in France experienced an efflorescence of vernacular literature, especially troubadour poetry and the genre of narrative literature that encompasses the court epic of romance. Chrétien de Troyes, a native of Champagne in Northern France, is considered one of the most talented writers of romance of this period. Achieving literary greatness not so much by plot innovation as by the shaping and refining of existing and perhaps widely known material to his own purposes, de Troyes’s influence on the characteristic structure, tone, and theme of medieval romance is undeniable. As with de Troyes’s other Arthurian romances, the principal characters and episodes of this tale are Celtic in origin, and the marvelous adventures assigned to Ywain are apparently derivative of Celtic story lore. Readers will be charmed by the appropriately urbane expression of this fine narrative, imbued as it is with the ideals and sentiments of courtly knighthood.