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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Revaluating one of Professor Nitze's earlier suggestions, I have tried to use the concept of sovereignty for the understanding of the composition of Chrétien's Erec. This controversial concept, a husband's patriarchal sovereignty in the atmosphere of Arthurian courtliness, will be shown in this paper to be a constituent factor in Yvain, the most mature of the romances completed by Chrétien himself. Hitherto not discussed in the impressive literature, this question, one of sens, cannot be developed without some discussion of the several widely divergent views on the matière and will seem less confusing, if we begin by studying the final phase (vss. 6527 ff.), and, then, work retrospectively toward the main plot and the beginning of the romance.
1 W. A. Nitze, “The Romance of Erec, Son of Lac,” MP, xi (1914), 445 ff.
2 PMLA, lx (1945), 917-936.
3 Kristian von Troyes Yvain, ed. W. Foerster, 4th ed. (Halle/Saale: Max Niemeyer, 1912).
4 For two recent, full discussions of Chrétien's Yvain, see H. Sparnaay, Hartmann von Aue, Studien zu einer Biographie (Halle/Saale: Max Niemeyer, 1938), ii, 17-45; M. Wilczynski, A Study on the Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes (thesis of the U. of Chicago, 1940). We quote from the complete unpublished thesis.
5 The feats of arms done to regain Laudine are moral in purpose. Cf. Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 84.
6 Italics and brackets added. Sparnaay (op. cit., p. 51): “Das ist wenig höfisch gedacht.”
7 For the assumption of cynical attitudes in Chrétien and especially in Yvain, see the literature to the Matron of Ephesus theory in Wilczynski, op. cit., pp. 43-45, and A. Bruel, Romans français du moyen âge (Paris: Droz, 1934), p. 106.
8 The fact that Laudine depends on his protection is evidenced by Lunete's statement that she, Lunete, helps him not so much for his own sake, but because he is necessary to Laudine (vss. 3655 f.). It is understood that ever since the death of Esclados, Yvain was free to force her by raising the storm.
9 Op. cit., p. 43.
10 Foerster, pp. xxxii and xlvi, explains the finale, “den nicht sonderlich motivierten, eigentlich gewaltmässigen Schluss,” as a proof that the characterization of Laudine was only of minor interest for Chrétien. Against this view speaks her psychological subtleness in vss. 1653 ff. There is, however, quite as little evidence for Sparnaay's assumption that Laudine appreciates Yvain's Läuterung (op. cit., p. 43).
11 The oath is to be taken seriously, and with no such deliberate, mental reservation as in Charrette (vss. 4976, 4992), where Chrétien follows the Tristen story. Cf. Nitze, Cross, Lancelot and Guenevere, p. 16, n. 1.
12 Andreae Cappellani regii francorum de amore libri tres, ed. E. Trojel (Copenhagen, 1892), p. 141 f. Cf. C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1936), p. 36.
13 W. A. Nitze, “A new source of the Yvain,” MP, iii (1905), 275 ff., and, “The Fountain Defended,” M P, vii (1909), 153 f., 160 f., 164. For the literature to the Fairy Mistress theme in its relation to Yvain see Wilczynski, op. cit., pp. 150 ff.
14 Erec vss. 6010 ff. Nitze, M P, iii (1905), 267.
15 Sparnaay, op. cit., p. 37.
16 T. P. Cross, “The Celtic Elements in the Lays of Lanval and Graelent,” M P, xii (1915), 641. See also the summary of Ces Ulad: Weakness of Ulstermen in A. C. L. Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend (Harvard University Press, 1943), pp. 42 ff., 112.
17 De amore (ed. Trojel), p. 87.
18 About Platonism which, through St. Augustine, reached the troubadours and Northern France see comments in L. Spitzer, L'amour lointain de Jaufre Rudel et le sens de la poésie des troubadours (Univ. of Carolina St. in the Romance L. and Lit. V. 1944), pp. 15, 49, and, for the troubadours cf. A. J. Denomy, Mediaeval Studies, vi (1944), 175 ff.
19 See already A. C. L. Brown, Yvain, BSN, viii (1903), 87.
20 Gauvain has not stressed a knight's duty to protect women in their frailty. He stressed knightly displays such as tournaments (vss. 2503 ff.) and later on his choice as a protégée of the older and wrongful daughter of the lord of Noire Espine, sets him off against Yvain, the protector of the younger daughter who really deserves a champion's support (vss. 4703 ff.).
21 Yvain showed this inclination as early as at the time when Lunete came to court and was treated haughtily there by all excepting Yvain (vss. 1004 ff.).
22 For Lunete as a sub-goddess and helper of Diana (Laudine) see R. Zenker, Forschungen zur Artusepik, I. Ivainstudien (Halle, 1921, suppl. No. 70 of ZRRh), 97 ff. and Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 77.
23 The reason given vss. 589 and 740-749 that Yvain wishes to avenge the defeat of his uncle Calogrenant is quite marginal in scope, and not referred to later.
24 Cf. Nitze, M P, vii, 157 f., Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 8, no. 3. Italics added.
25 Hartmann comments: “her Iwein, jagt in âne zuht” (vs. 1056). Italics added to text of Hartmann's Iwein, ed. G. F. Benecke, K. Lachmann, 4th. (Berlin: Reimer, 1877).
26 Hartmann says: “În hat sîn selbes swert erslagen” (vs. 3224). Italics added.
27 Nitze, M P, vii (1909), 145 ff.—Specifically, the location of the Lady of Noroison in the forest of Argone (vs. 3228), points towards her affiliation with Diana, the tutelary goddess of the Ardennes. Cf. Nitze, MLN, xix (1904), 80 ff. L. A. Paton, Studies in the Fairy Mythology of the Arthurian Romances (Boston: Ginn, 1903), p. 276. Wilcznyski op. cit., p. 25. For the connection of Diana with the Arthurian tradition, the temple of Diana at Caerleon has been mentioned by C. M. Franzero, Viaggio intorno alla Britannia romana (Milan: Gregoriana, 1935), p. 74.
28 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (New York: Macmillan, 1940), p. 294. Cf. the unabridged edition, iv, 196 ff.
29 Preface to the unabridged edition (1922) and in the abridged edition of 1940, p. v.
30 Frazer, op. cit. (1940), p. 378.
31 Frazer, op. cit. (1940), pp. 264-283, 59.
32 Frazer, op. cit. (1940), pp. 289 ff.
33 Frazer, op. cit. (1940), pp. 267 f., 292, 592.
34 Nitze, M P, iii, 267 f., MP, vii, 145 f.
35 Our purpose here requires a search for sources which would warrant the use of the theme of coincidentiae oppositorum. The enormous bearing of the Fairy Mistress theme, and of the Fountain theme will be stressed later.
36 Cf. G. L. Kittredge, Study of Gawain and the Green Knight (Cambridge, Mass., 1916), p. 241. R. S. Loomis, “The visit to the Perilous Castle: a study of the Arthurian modifications of an Irish theme,” PMLA, xlviii (1933), 11001. See also, in Nitze's review of Zenker's Yvainstudien, this statement: “It is unecessary to sustain that either the Irish Serglige or the Roman Arician Diana story were the actual sources of Yvain. Its origin is amply explained if we assume that it was derived from Celtic (i.e. Welsh or Breton) folk tales, having other world, ritualistic characteristics … which the Serglige and the Diana myth help us to understand” (M P, xx [1922], 101 f.).
37 P. T. Cross, MP (xii, 1915), 643, n. 1.
38 Cf. R. Thurneysen, Irische Helden und Königssage (Halle, 1921), pp. 441, 443, 445, 460.
39 R. S. Loomis, Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927), Book n and pp. 98 ff.
40 See also Loomis, “Gawain, Gwri, and Cuchulinn,” PMLA, xliii (1928), 390 ff. and the critique of Loomis' views by M. Pitkin, The Biography of Sir Gawain in Medieval French Literature. (Unpublished thesis of the University of Chicago, 1928), p. 3 and passim.
41 Loomis, Celtic Myth, pp. 72, 77-79, 81.
42 Loomis, op. cit., p. 58 f.
43 Loomis, op. cit., p. 71.
44 Nitze, and collaborators Le Haut Livre du Graal: Perlesvaus. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932-1937), ii, 257 and Brown, PMLA, xx (1905), 677, n. 8.
45 Cf. Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 104 f.
46 Loomis, Celtic Myth, pp. 110 ff.
47 Cross and Nitze, Lancelot and Guenevere, p. 9, n. 1.
48 Cf. Pitkin, Biography of Sir Gawain, p. 8. See also Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 75, n. 5.
49 K. Müller Lisofski, “La légende de St. Jean dans la tradition irlandaise et le Druide Mog Ruith,” Etudes Celtiques, iii (1938), 46 ff.
50 Lisofsky, loc. cit., p. 49. For the recent attempt to derive Esclados from Galam, the name of an Irish giant see Brown, The Origin of the Grail Legend, p. 123, n. 17.
51 Lisofsky, loc. cit., p. 63. Loomis, JEGP, xlii (1943), 168.
52 Lisofsky, ibid.
53 Nitze, Perlesvaus, ii, 256.
54 Loomis, Celtic Myth, p. 247.
55 See the recent article by A. H. Krappe, “The Hero Champion of Animals,” MLQ, iv (1943), 267 ff.
56 For syncretism of heathen and Christian ideas in the Irish imrama see Brown, MP, xiv (1916), 385 ff.
57 Loomis, “The visit to the Perilous Castle: A Study of the Arthurian modifications of an Irish theme,” PMLA, xlviii (1933), 1001 ff.
58 See note 28.
59 See Nitze, Perlesvaus, ii, 166 f., and note 2856 (p. 281), where the basic connection of the Green Knight Story with Frazer's Golden Bough is hinted at. See also Nitze, “Is the Green Knight Story a Vegetation Myth,” M P, xxxiii (1935-36), 351-366.
60 See note 57.
61 See note 27.
62 Professor Loomis' soon forthcoming Chrétien de Troies and Celtic Tradition may well necessitate a reopening of the discussion.
63 Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 20.
64 Hartmann, Ywein vss. 2190 ff.—In a strikingly similar manner, Parzival, in the red armor of Ither, comes to the rescue against Clamide, and is mistaken for Clamide himself. Cf. Wolfram's Parzival, ed. Martin (Halle, 1900), i, vss. 1782-84, 20. For the transfer of the name of a character to his opponent cf. E. Brugger, ZFSL, liii (1930), 423-429 and W. Roach, The Didot Perceval (Philadelphia, 1941), p. 49.
65 Esclados appears “pres de midi” (vs. 411), Yvain defends Lunete “a ore de midi” (vs. 3950).
66 See also vss. 6024 f., 1436 ff., 1922 ff., 2642 ff., 2791 f., 5380 ff., discussed above.
67 Alanus de Insulis in his Anticlaudianus (tr. W. H. Cornog, [Philadelphia], 1935, p. 69), says, describing a picture: “For David and Jonathan, these are not two and yet are one; although they are separated, they are not two in spirit, but one. They have their spirits, each sharing himself with his other self. That Pirithous may return himself to himself, returned to earth, Thesus tries the places, monsters and perils in inferno, denies to be able to live in himself unless he lives in his friend. Tideus seizes arms in order that the other Tideus may reign, fights against his own Polynices, and while he desires his second self to be king, seems to demand the kingdom for himself. On the one hand Nisus exists in Euryalus, and on the other Euryalus thrives in Nisus and each of the comrades is counterbalanced by the other. Atrides is made among the Furies, and his madness Pylades judges to be his own, and Pylades suffers equally with his other and same self.” Chrétien who was perhaps a canon of the abbey of St. Loup (cf. L. A. Vigneras, MP, xxxii [1935], 341), may well have been a match for Alanus in the grasping of such coïncidentiae.
68 Cf. L. A. Paton, “The Story of Grisandole,” PMLA, xxn (1907), 269 f.
69 Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 43 ff.
70 The impression is given by the statement: “Mes ore est messire Yvains sire, Et li morz est tot obliëz” (vss. 2162-65), and, “Cil qui l'ocist est mariëz an sa fame, et ansanble gisent” (vss. 2166-67), contrary to Andreas' regula vii: “Biennalis viduitas pro amante defuncto superstiti praescribitur amanti. Sparnaay, op. cit., p. 42.”
71 See Note 25.
72 See vss. 1339 ff.
73 See note 15.
74 The connection of the Fountain with the Lion theme will be discussed.
75 The absence of the faithful lion during Yvain's combat with Gauvain towards the end of Yvain, has been explained by the circumstance still traceable in the Mabinogi, that the fight between Yvain and Gauvain took place at the fountain before the lion was introduced. Cf. Brown, PMLA, xx, 680 f.
76 vss. 2415 ff. The mythological implications claimed for this friendship will be discussed in subsequent context.
77 For this assumption see Loomis, “Gawain, Gwri, and Cúchulinn,” PMLA, xliii (1928), 384, et al.. For its critique see Pitkin, op. cit., pp. 1-27. The use of the epithet “sun of knighthood” for Gauvain (vs. 2406 f.) is a literary conceit (cf. Pitkin, op. cit., p. 56, n. 9), used also for Yvain himself (vss. 3249), and for both Gauvain and Yvain in Daniel vom Blühenden Tal (ed. G. Rosenhagen, Breslau 1894, vss. 254-257), and can hardly be claimed as evidence for Gauvain's “solar” nature.—The fact that Gauvain, Arthur, and Kev on their trip to the fountain for the purpose of raising the storm, do not encounter the Herdsman of Calogrenant's trip, and, later, of Yvain's trip, seems to show that the Herdsman was originally distinct from the Fountain theme. (Cf. Nitze, MP, vii, 158). If Gauvain were distinctly a “solar” hero, and if the Herdsman were clearly one of the shapes of Cúroi, the presence or absence of the Herdsman on Gauvain's trip should have been explained.
78 Very differently from Erec's attitude towards his last adventure, the Joie de la Cort (Erec, vss. 5449 ff.), in the Pesme Avanture, Gauvain has no part. But, inserted as it is in the adventure which leads to Yvain's duel with Gauvain, the Pesme Avanture elaborates Yvain's mood of humility climaxed in his final attitude towards Gauvain.
79 Italics added.
80 As discussed above.
81 For her location as related to the Diana cult see Nitze, MLN, xix (1904), 80 ff. and note 44 above.
82 Similarly, the ointment used by Guivret's sisters (Erec, vss. 4211-44). Cf. Paton, Fairy Mythology, pp. 64, 266 f.
83 Cf. Loomis, “Morgain La Fee and the Celtic Goddesses,” Speculum, xx (1945), 193 f.
84 Loomis, loc. cit., p. 196, n. 1, and al. loc.
85 Loomis, loc. cit., p. 189.
86 Loomis, Ibidem. Professor Loomis mentions fées other than our dame.
87 Yvain together with Gauvain and Morgain are referred to as being in Avalon. Cf. Graindor de Brie's Bataille Loquifer in LeRoux de Lincy's Livre de Légendes (Paris, 1936), p. 256.
88 Wilczynski, op. cit., pp. 87, 92. In the text see vss. 3798, 4549 ff., 4561, 4562 ff., 4701 f.
89 Vss. 962-989. Cf. E. Faral, Les arts poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle (Paris: Champion, 1924), p. 66 f. For Yvain's pseudonym see also E. Brugger, “Yvain and his Lion,” MP, xxviii (1941), 267 ff.
90 Wilczynski, op. cit., pp. 87 ff.
91 Cf. T. M. Chotzen, “Le Lion de Owein (Yvain) et ses prototypes celtiques,” Neophilologus, xviii (1932-33), 51-58,131-136.
92 Brown, PMLA, xx, 676, 679 n. 3, 680 f., 688, 706; Cross and Slover, Ancient Irish Tales, p. 163 f.
93 Wilczynski, op. cit., pp. 27 f.
94 See note 88.
95 See note 75.
96 See the Golfier episode discussed by A. Thomas, R, xxxiv (1905), 56-65 and the tradition derived from, and perhaps only reported by Peter Damianus' Epistula vi, 5. For acts of homage paid by a lion see Kittredge, BSN, viii, 182, n. 1 and L. A. Hibbard, Mediaeval Romance in England (New York, 1924), p. 222.
97 As, f.i., the eagle. Cf. Krappe, MLQ, iv, 270.
98 Cf. Brugger, MP, xxxviiii (1941), 267 ff.
99 Cf. A. G. Brodeur, “The Grateful Lion,” PMLA, xxxix (1924), 493, 498, 509 ff.
100 Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 110, discusses the lion (St. Mark) in Florent et Octavian, an animal grateful, but one which disclosed also the relationship (brotherhood) of two opponents.
101 Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 12.
102 Cf. Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 91.
103 Cf. Chotzen, Neophil, xvii, 51 ff.
104 Before reading Professor Krappe's article (MLQu, iv (1943), 267 ff., I was informed by Professor Erwin Panofsky that the episode of the Lion and the Serpent has much in common with the one told by Stesichorus (Aelian, de nat. anim., xvii, 37) of the Grateful Eagle and the Serpent. In this story (curiously omitted in Wittkower, “Eagle and Serpent,” Journal of the Warburg Institute, ii, 1939, 293) which is related, together with the Androclus story by Cesare Ripa (S.V. “Memoria grata de'beneficii ricevuti,” illustrated by a lady holding both a lion and an eagle at her feet), one of sixteen harvesters, while trying to find water, encounters an eagle enveloped by a snake. He kills the snake with his sickle, thus saving the eagle. When he brings the water to his fifteen companions, they all drink. The water was poisoned. The fifteen die. The sixteenth is prevented from drinking by the eagle who swoops down and shatters the vessel.—In this account, the vessel seems to fall under the category of testing vessels which are also known in Celtic traditions (Cf. Stokes, Windisch, Irische texte, iii, pp. 205 f., 210). The facts that the Grateful Eagle operates in the vicinity of water (river), that Yvain's lion shows his devotion at the fountain, and that some of the Celtic Fighting Animals, ancestors of the lion, are also associated with the water (Cf. Chotzen, Neoph., xviii (1932-33), 131 f.), make it not seem unreasonable to raise the question if there is any more fundamental connection between Grateful Animals (lions, eagles), the water, and testing vessels. Without being equipped here, to investigate the connection, we may go so far as to suggest that in Yvain, the fountain (with its bacin) is not without the function of a tester, with the Grateful Lion as a helper in making a hero pass his “tests.”
105 The reference which I owe to the kindness of Professor Helmut Hatzfeld is “An inquiry into the origins of Courtly Love,” Mediaeval Studies, VI (1944), 17S-260 and “Ein' Amors,” idem, vii (1945), 139-207.
106 Denomy, idem., p. 193
107 Denomy, ibid.
108 Epistula de caritate ad Carthusianos, P L, clxxxiii, 995-1000; De gradibus humililatis et superbiae, PL, cxxxxii, 941-972; De diligendo Deo, PL, clxxxiii, 973-995; In cant Canticorum sermones, i-xxrv, P.L., clxxxiii, 785-889, Cf. E. Gilson, The Mystical Theology of St. Bernard, transl. A. H. C. Downes (New York: Sheed F. Ward, 1940).
109 About the contact of the Cistercians with Troyes and the economic life at the Fairs of Champagne Cf. E. Chapin, Les villes de foires de Champagne (Paris: Champion, 1937), pp. 9 ff. About the economic adaptability to market conditions, characteristic for the Cistercians as against the Cluniacs Cf. I. W. Thompson, An Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages (New York: The Century Co., 1928), pp. 621 ff. About Cistercian foundationsin and near Troyes, Cf. E. Vacandard, Vie de St. Bernard (Paris, 1910), ii, pp. 389 ff. and the same (n, pp. 181 ff.), about the political influence of St. Bernard in settlements between Louis VII and the Count of Champagne. About the spiritual influence on chivalric ideals, of St. Bernard's treaties, De Laude Novae Militiae (PL, cxxxxv, 227), Cf. S. Painter, French Chivalry (Baltimore, 1940), pp. 68 ff.
110 Quaestiones de Mystica Terminologia (Washington: The Catholic University, 1941), passim.
111 RR, xxxv (1944), 167 f. Professor Hatzfeld refers to the social background of the troubadours, but his statement, as he told me personally, applies also to Northern France.
112 Ibid. Italics added.
113 Gilson, op. cit., p. 24, and for a chronology of the writings, pp. 15 f.
114 Cf. A. Steiner, Spec, iv, 92-94 for the date 1174-1186.
115 Chrétien may have drawn on earlier sources such as Parente has pointed out as having been used by St. Bernard.
116 For this following comparison we quote from Gilson's compact analysis (see note 108).
117 Gilson, op. cit., pp. 41, 155-157, 222.
118 Wilczynski, op. cit., p. 5, n. 3, distinguishes between avanture and mervoille in Yvain, vss. 362, 366, 370 ff. The story of the fountain is a marvel story. Cf. Nennius, De Mirabilibus Britanniae, and Wace, Rou, vs. 6415 (both in Wilczynski, ibid.).
119 Gilson, ibid.
120 See note 25.
121 Gilson, op. cit., pp. 39 ff.
122 Gilson, op. cit., pp. 155-157.
123 Gilson, op. cit., pp. 191 ff.
124 Gilson, op. cit., p. 192.
125 Wilczynski, op. cit., pp. 2, referring to Cross and Nitze, Lancelot and Guenevere, p. 86, explains Arthur's sleep in connection with the theme of otium, further developed in Yvain, vss. 2483 ff.
126 See Nitze, Perlesvaus, i, 26 ff., ii, 90, 203. The tradition may also have been related to Arthur's disappearance, the “Breton hope” for his survival and return. Cf. R. S. Loomis, MP, xxxii (1941), 289. For the persistence of this tradition and of its soporific suggestions of peace, see the Hostess' account of Falstaff's death in Shakespeare's King Henry V, Act ii, Sc. 3: “Nay sure, he's not in hell; he's in Arthur's bosom if ever a man went to Arthur's bosom. ‘A made a finer end … an it had been any Christom child … ‘ a babbled of green fields.” Cf. Raglan, The Hero, p. 215.
127 Chrétien almost expresses this standard when he contends, “Qu'ancor Vaut miaux, … Uns cortois morz qu'uns vilains vis (vss. 312).”
128 Yvain for one, received the lesson of Calogrenant's tale as all the listeners were asked to receive it, not with his ears only, but with his heart (vss. ISO ff.).
129 This derivation was suggested by Loomis, MLN, xliii (1928), 215-222.
130 Professor Loomis does not believe that Chrétien was aware of it. Cf. “Malory's Beaumains,” PULA, liv (1939), 667.
131 Vss. 3706 f.
