Alekseev M. P

Last Stand Rolanda

Roland is one of the favorite heroes of medieval legends. For many centuries, singers sang and poets wrote about his exploits in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries.

We based our story on The Song of Roland.

“The Song of Roland,” a remarkable monument of the French folk-heroic epic, tells the story of the battle of the Franks with the Saracens, who suddenly attacked them in the Roncesvalles Gorge in the Pyrenees Mountains. Knight Roland died in the battle along with a large detachment of Frankish troops.

The song about the Battle of Roncesvalles must have originally appeared among military vigilantes. It was adopted from them by singer-storytellers and over the course of many centuries it was developed and enriched.

Several written versions of the Song of Roland have come down to us. The earliest and best was created around 1170.

The main characters of the poem are the knight Roland with his friend Olivier and the emperor Charlemagne.

History says almost nothing about Roland. One ancient chronicler, describing the life of Charlemagne, mentioned in passing that three noble Franks were killed in Roncesvales, including Hruodland (Roland), the head of the Breton March (a region in northern France). But folk tales glorified Roland as a great hero. Perhaps he was especially loved by warriors, and that is why legends were formed about him.

Olivier (Olivier), his faithful friend, is a fictitious person.

The Frankish king Charlemagne (742–814; Frankish king from 768; emperor from 800) is always depicted in folk epic as a gray-bearded old man, a wise emperor. This is how the Song of Roland portrays him, although at the time of the Battle of Roncesvalles Charles was still young. The idealized image of Charles embodied the people's dream of a “good king” who would unite the country under his rule and curb the oppressive feudal lords.

In 778, Charlemagne launched a campaign of conquest in Spain. In the 8th century, most of this country belonged to Spanish Arab Muslims. In the Song of Roland they are called Moors or Saracens. Charlemagne fought not only with them - he took Spain by storm and plundered the Christian city of Pamplona.

The trip to Spain was unhappy. On the way back through the Pyrenees Mountains on August 25, 778, the rearguard (a detachment covering the retreat of the main forces) of King Charles's army was attacked at night in the narrowest and most dangerous place - the Roncesvalles Gorge - by a detachment of freedom-loving Basques - the indigenous inhabitants of the Spanish mountains.

“The Song of Roland” was created during the era of the Crusades, when European feudal lords sought to conquer the countries of the East under the guise of defending the Christian faith.

In the Song of Roland, the Basque Christians are replaced by Saracens and the battle itself is depicted as if it took place between large detachments of mounted warriors on a wide field. In fact, the Basques were sitting in ambush on the top of a wooded mountain and the battle took place on a narrow path. The Franks, taken by surprise, were unable to defend themselves and were killed.

Folk legend exalted the heroes of the Battle of Roncesvalles. It is all, from beginning to end, imbued with a feeling of love for “dear France” and her faithful sons.

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur (Arthus) is the legendary king of the Britons, the hero of ancient Celtic tales, and later of chivalric romances.

The Britons, tribes of Celtic origin, have lived since ancient times on the island of Albion - in Britain. In the 1st century BC, the Romans conquered Britain. It became a Roman province, but the Britons largely retained their identity, their language, beliefs and social structure.

At the beginning of the 5th century, the Romans recalled their legions from Britain. Soon after this, the Germanic tribes of the Angles and Saxons began to invade Britain. The Angles and Saxons, who lived in the north of what is now Germany and Denmark, crossed the German Sea on ships and landed on the southern and eastern coasts of Albion.

Arthur is mentioned in ancient chronicles as a brave warrior, leader of the Britons in their struggle for independence. At the beginning of the 6th century, he defeated the Anglo-Saxon conquerors at Mount Badon.

“It is about this Arthur,” says one chronicle of the 12th century, “that the British have created many legends and lovingly talk about him to this day. Truly he was worthy that his exploits should be given their due, not in idle fiction, but in true history.”

Arthur was killed in battle, but the British people granted immortality to their beloved hero. A legend arose that Arthur would someday return; he did not die, but lives in the magical kingdom of fairies.

The British Celts were defeated in a difficult struggle.

Only in the west of the island of Albion, in Cornwall and Wales, and in the north, in Scotland, did the Celts retain their independence. Many fled across the sea to the continent. The coast where the Britons settled was called Brittany (in the north-west of what is now France). From Brittany, the legends of King Arthur were carried by Breton singers into the depths of France.

One learned Celt who lived in England, Geoffrey of Monmouth, wrote the legendary “History of the Kings of Britain” in Latin at the beginning of the 12th century. Arthur is depicted in it, like Charlemagne, as a powerful king, the ruler of a huge state. Geoffrey of Monmouth tells about the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgan, and the fabulous island of Avalon. The History of the Kings of Britain was a great success and was translated into French and other languages.

In the 12th century, during the heyday of feudalism, the “chivalrous romance” appeared. His homeland is France. At first the novel was written in verse - after all, it arose from a song epic - and only starting from the 13th century the novel began to be written in prose.

The creators of the chivalric novel were Chretien de Troyes and the Norman Vas, who moved to England. In search of new entertaining stories, they turned to ancient Celtic legends. But, borrowing plots from Celtic legends, the writers of novels wrote in the spirit of their time, without observing historical accuracy.

The ancient heroes of Celtic legends in the novels behave like courteous knights, familiar with court customs, and bear French names. Clothes, weapons, tournaments and fights, and castles of the time when the novels were written are described in detail and accurately, with great knowledge of the matter. These novels were called Breton novels.

The most famous are the chivalric novels about King Arthur and his knights. The Arthurian novels depict a fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table with the noble goal of protecting the weak and downtrodden. The Commonwealth of the Knights of the Round Table is a poetic fiction, but this fiction has become one of the most famous legends.

English poets, following the French, began to compose verse novels about King Arthur and his knights in their native language. Around the 14th century, a wonderful poem by an unknown author, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” appeared.

In the middle of the 15th century, when the “golden age” of chivalry was already behind us, a certain Thomas Malory was thrown into prison. Bored by inactivity in the dungeon, Malory began writing about King Arthur and his knights, bringing together various Celtic tales. This is how a great prose novel was created - “The Death of Arthur”.

English stories about King Arthur differ from French chivalric romances in their spirit. French novels glorified love and adventure, while English novels were more about the brutal strife, battles and civil strife of the Middle Ages.

Knightly romances about Arthur were created over the centuries. At first, knights of the older generation act in the community of the Round Table: Gawain, Ivain, Seneschal Kay, later they are joined by Lancelot of the Lake, Perceval (Parsifal), Lancelot's son Galahad, a knight without fear and reproach.

In our time, King Arthur, his knights, the wizard Merlin, the fairy Morgana - heroes of ancient tales - have moved into English literature for children and have successfully begun in it new life. One might cite here the Oxford edition of The Tales of King Arthur and His Knights, as retold by Barbara L. Picard.

Tristan and Isolde

The folk legend about the love of Tristan and Isolde arose a long time ago, in the epic poetry of the British Celts. Many of the names of the heroes and names of places are historical: Loonois and the forest of Morois are located in Scotland, Tintagel (Tintagel) is on the coast of Cornwall. The remains of its walls have survived to this day. One of the kings of Cornwall, who reigned in the 6th century, bore the name of Mark. The name Drustan (Tristan) is also found in old Celtic legends.

One might think that the legend of Tristan and Isolde was brought to France by wandering Breton jugglers - descendants of the British Celts. In the second half of the 12th century, French and Anglo-Norman poets writing in French, created several poetic works about the love of Tristan and Isolde.

The talented poetess Maria of France wrote a short poem (le) “Honeysuckle”. It contains a story about how Tristan, grieving in separation from Isolde, threw into the waves of the stream, according to the old Celtic custom, sticks on which messages to his beloved were carved. A small poem by an unknown author, “The Madness of Tristan,” has also survived to this day.

The great poetic novel of the poet Béroul has been preserved only in fragments. Berul well conveyed in his version the beauty and grandeur of the ancient legend. The story of how Tristan saved Queen Isolde from lepers is full of drama.

The Anglo-Norman poet Thomas, in his novel about Tristan and Isolde, softened the harsh morals of a bygone era. He subtly depicts the feelings of lovers, the transitions from hatred to love, the struggle between duty and love.

In the novels about Tristan and Isolde, a lot is taken from ancient legends: a battle with a dragon, a witchcraft drink that Tristan and Isolde accidentally drank, or a story about how trees or bushes grew on their graves and closely intertwined their branches as a sign that their love is eternal and inseparable.

But the poets of the 12th century rethought the ancient legend: after all, they created their novels in a different historical era. Love in the poetry of that time is strong and beautiful; it cannot be subordinated to someone else’s will. Isolde marries on the orders of her parents, but she is unable to overcome her love for Tristan. Feudal duty towards the eldest King Mark commands Tristan to forget Isolde, but he cannot refuse her. The authors of the novels find an excuse for them: Tristan and Isolde drank the witchcraft drink of love, but at the same time it becomes clear: high love does not require justification.

Novels about Tristan and Isolde were very successful. Many imitations arose. At the beginning of the 13th century, the German poet Gottfried of Strasbourg created a poetic novel on this topic, which glorified his name.

The most poets wrote about Tristan and Isolde different countries Europe: French and English, Norwegian and German, Italian and Spanish.

Novels based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde have been favorite reading for three centuries; then she was forgotten for a long time.

In 1859, the German composer Richard Wagner, having created the opera Tristan and Isolde, resurrected the legend from oblivion.

And in 1900, the French scientist and writer Joseph Bedier (1864–1938) tried to recreate the oldest version of the novel, using all medieval sources. He did it so subtly and poetically that his book “The Romance of Tristan and Isolde” (http://earlymusic.dv-reclama.ru/biblioteka/altera/bedier-tristan-isolda.htm) was translated into different languages and entered the circle of the most beloved monuments of world literature. The Russian translation was published by the publishing house " Fiction"in 1955.

We based our retelling on the version of the poet Thomas and two ancient plays, “The Folly of Tristan” and “Honeysuckle.”

Lohengrin

One of the first to talk about Lohengrin was the German poet-singer (minnesinger) Wolfram von Eschenbach (1170–1220) in his knightly poem “Parsifal”. Parsifal, after many adventures, becomes the guardian of the Grail. Lohengrin is the son of Parsifal.

Wolfram von Eschenbach combined two stories: the legend of the Holy Grail with the legend of the Swan Knight.

The legend of the Grail Cup is of relatively late literary origin. It arose at the end of the 12th century and immediately became very popular. Many poems and novels have been written on the plot of this legend.

That's what she says.

Somewhere in a place where no one knows the way, there is a high mountain called Monsalvat. At its top there is a castle made of white marble. Knights live in this castle - the guardians of the wonderful Grail. Knights appear from time to time where it is necessary to protect the weak and offended.

Wolfram von Eschenbach wove a fairy tale motif into this legend. A wonderful creature, many say folk tales, can fall in love with a mortal person on the condition that he does not violate any prohibition. When the ban is broken - and curiosity always forces it to be broken - the wonderful husband disappears forever. In fairy tales, he himself flies in the form of a swan. But in later legends, the swan carries a rook with a knight.

In addition to the poem by Wolfram von Eschenbach, many more French and German versions of Lohengrin are known.

IN early XIX centuries, scientists began to collect and study ancient fairy tales, legends and traditions. The famous researchers and collectors of fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm, published in their retelling of the legends: “The Swan Knight” and “Lohengrin in Brabant.” This revived interest in the legend of Lohengrin.

Based on the plot of the legend, composer Richard Wagner created one of his best operas, Lohengrin (1848).

Robin Hood

The English people composed many ballads about the free shooter Robin Hood and his squad. Ballads about other free shooters have survived to this day, but Robin Hood is the most beloved and popular of them.

In honor of Robin Hood, “May Games” were held every year in old England. The village youth sang and danced around the Maypole. It was a joyful spring holiday.

Robin Hood, as the ballads portray him, is a cheerful, sharp-tongued, resourceful English peasant - a yeoman. The people endowed him best qualities: courage, kind hearted, generosity. He " noble robber" He distributes the goods taken from the hated rich to the poor and is always ready to come to the aid of the unjustly offended.

It is now difficult to establish whether Robin Hood actually existed. Some ancient chronicles say that he lived in the 12th century, when King Richard the Lionheart reigned in England. Many ballads mention King Edward. There were several kings who bore this name, and the first of them ruled in the 13th–14th centuries. Perhaps it was then that the first ballads about Robin Hood arose. Songs about him have existed among the English people for many centuries, and the memory of popular uprisings undoubtedly lives in them.

In the old days, England was covered with dense, beautiful forests rich in game. The Norman feudal lords who conquered England in the 11th century declared many forests to be protected areas. Peasants were forbidden to hunt in them under pain of severe punishment. They hated the royal foresters and were at enmity with them.

The dense thicket of the forest provided faithful shelter for peasants fleeing from their oppressors. There they again found freedom. That is why ballads sing of forests where birds sing and deer graze.

The English yeomen were good marksmen. A well-aimed arrow fired from a longbow pierced chain mail and armor and was dangerous even for a well-armed knight.

Robin Hood wages an irreconcilable war with feudal lords, churchmen and foresters. Ballads do not spare them satirical colors.

The ballads tell how Robin Hood befriended the knight Richard Lee. This corresponds to historical truth: poor knights sometimes took the side of the rebels. But Robin Hood's main friends are yeoman peasants and city artisans.

The king, according to the ballads, was sympathetic to Robin Hood. Among the peasants there was hope that the king, who was at enmity with strong and willful feudal lords, was on the side of the people and took their interests to heart. These were vain hopes.

Robin Hood has not yet been forgotten. Books and films are being created about him. He is one of the favorite heroes of young readers. M. Gershenzon's story "Robin Hood", repeatedly published by the publishing house "Children's Literature", enjoys great success among our readers.

Thomas Learmonth

“Few are so celebrated in legend as Thomas of Ersildun,” says the famous English writer, Scotsman by birth, Walter Scott. - He united in himself - or, rather, it was assumed that he united in himself - the art of poetry and the gift of prophecy; that is why even now the countrymen of Thomas from Ersildun still reverence his memory so sacredly.”

Ercildun is located in the south of Scotland. This is a village on the River Leader, near where it joins the River Tweed. The ruins of an old castle are visible on the hill. According to legend, the poet Thomas Learmont, nicknamed the Rhymer, lived in it in the 13th century.

The art of writing rhymed poetry was new then. Walter Scott reports that Thomas Learmont composed a great poem about Tristan and Isolde.

As has repeatedly happened with poets who created poems on fantastic themes, Thomas Learmonth himself began to be considered involved in the secrets of magic and a seer.

There are many legends about Thomas Learmont and the Eldon Hills, which are located near Ersildun. The knights of King Arthur sleep as if in an enchanted sleep in their caves, and Thomas Learmont wanders there at night.

Walter Scott, a great expert on Scottish legends, published a collection of Scottish ballads at the beginning of the 19th century. He included folk legends about Thomas the Rhymer and a little research about him.

In the family of M. Yu. Lermontov, there was a story that their family may come from the Scottish family of Lermontov. This story is inspired by Lermontov’s youthful poem “Desire.”

Lorelei

Especially many legends arose where nature itself - dense forests, dark mountain gorges, treacherous rapids - aroused the alarming imagination of people.

The Rhineland is rich in legends. On the banks of the Rhine there are bizarre cliffs, at their feet dangerous rapids and whirlpools lie in wait for the shuttle. And in time immemorial, a legend arose here, telling that those sailing along the Rhine are lured into the abyss of the waves by her miraculous singing by a maiden enchantress living on a high rock.

The legend was associated with the Lur-ley rock near Bacharach.

There is an opinion that this rock is named after the maiden enchantress Laura (the word “lei” translated from German means “slate rock”), and only later the name Laura is transformed into Lore Lei or Lorelei. There is another point of view: it is believed that the sorceress herself received her name from the name of the rock on which she sang.

This legend remained for a long time only a local legend. It became widely known at the beginning of the 19th century. Here is what the Soviet literary critic A. Deitch writes about this:

“The ancient Rhine legend about the river fairy Lorelei (named after the Lur-lei rock on the Rhine, near Bacharach), naturally attracted romantics who were captivated by the poetic image of the sorceress singing a seductive song on the rock and luring swimmers.” Alexander Deitch. “The Fates of Poets”, M.: “Fiction”, 1968, p. 194.

The German romantic poet and collector of folk legends Clemens Brentano was the first to create a poetic version of the legend of Lorelei (Laure Ley) and placed the ballad in his novel “Godvi” (1801–1802). He developed in his own way storyline legends.

Other German poets also wrote about Lorelei.

But the best poem about her was created by the great German poet Heinrich Heine. It became a folk song in Germany and gained worldwide fame.

We present it in A. Blok’s translation:

I don't know what this means

That I am troubled by grief;

Has been haunting me for a long time

A fairy tale from old times to me.

The twilight blows cool,

And Reina is a quiet space.

In the evening rays they turn red

Peaks of distant mountains.

Above a terrible height

Girl of wondrous beauty

Clothes burn with gold,

Plays with gold braids.

Zlaty cleans with a comb

And she sings a song:

In her wonderful singing

The anxiety is hidden.

Swimmer on a small boat

It will fill you with wild melancholy;

Forgetting the underwater rocks,

He only looks up.

Swimmer and boat, I know

They will perish among the swells;

And everyone dies like this

From Lorelei's song.

A prose version of the legend of Lorelei was created by the famous French folk art researcher E. Laboulaye in the book “German Tales of Past Times” (1869).

One of the sources of our development was a version of the legend given in the book “Folk Legends Collected by Werner Jansen” (1922).

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

There are cities to which legends and fairy tales brought worldwide fame. The city of Bremen is famous thanks to the short fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm “The Town Musicians of Bremen”. The German city of Hamelin is known throughout the world because it is home to the famous legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

According to legend, in the summer of 1284, a wandering musician rid the city of the rats that had infested it, luring them out with the sounds of a flute and drowning them in the Weser River. Not receiving the agreed payment for this, the Pied Piper took all the children out of the city in revenge.

The street along which the children left Hamelin was called Silent Street back in the 18th century. The sounds of songs or musical instruments were never heard on it.

On the old city hall there was an inscription:

“In the year 1284, the sorcerer rat-catcher lured 130 children from Hamelin with the sounds of his flute, and every single one of them died in the depths of the earth.”

What really happened? Maybe there was a storm, maybe a landslide in the mountains, just when a wandering musician came to the city? Nobody knows. It is impossible to determine the extent of truth and the extent of fiction in a legend.

According to one version of the legend, all the children drowned in the Weser, according to another, they disappeared into the depths of Mount Koppenberg. There is also this option: all the children passed through the mountain and ended up far from their hometown, in Semigradye (in the Carpathian region).

There are folk ballads about the Pied Piper. Many famous poets and writers were inspired by this legend: the great German poets Goethe and Heine, the English poet Browning, Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva.

“The Pied Piper”, “The Pied Piper” - these words have become household words. People call the Pied Piper's pipe the false promises that lead one to destruction.

William Tell

William Tell, the legendary hero of the liberation war of the Swiss people, is not a historical figure. The legend is based on an ancient folk tale about a marksman.

In the 13th century, Switzerland was conquered by the Austrians. There was a trade route to Italy through the Alps, and Switzerland was a key point on this road. The Austrian Habsburgs wanted to annex Switzerland to their possessions and put their cruel and selfish governors at its head.

The forest cantons (that is, independent regions) of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, located in the Alpine valleys, entered into a secret alliance with each other to fight for freedom (1291). Peasants and mountaineers rose up to fight for the independence of their homeland.

The legend has become so fused with reality that a 16th-century chronicle even reports the “exact” date of William Tell’s famous shot - November 18, 1307. This shot, as they say, was the signal for a popular uprising. Eight years later, the free highlanders defeated the Habsburg army at the Battle of Morgarten and forever expelled the Austrians from Switzerland. Tradition says that William Tell took part in this battle. One might think that in the legends about him lives the memory of the true heroes of the popular uprising.

Monuments have been erected to William Tell in his homeland. In the place where, according to legend, he jumped ashore from the boat, a chapel was built.

The German poet and playwright F. Schiller wrote the drama “William Tell” (1804). During the era of Napoleonic conquests, this drama called for a struggle for freedom.

Don Juan

The Spanish legend of Don Juan is one of the most famous medieval legends.

Don Juan (don Juan) is a historical figure. The chronicles and lists of the Knights of the Order of the Garter mentioned a certain Don Juan Tenorio, a courtier of the Castilian king Pedro the Cruel (XIV century). According to legend, Don Juan, a man of corrupt morals and fickle in love, once killed in a duel the commander of the order, Gonzalez de Ulloa, who was defending the honor of his daughter; then the Franciscan monks lured Don Juan to the monastery and killed him. To hide the murder, a rumor was spread that Don Juan had been cast into hell by the statue he had insulted - this was in full accordance with popular beliefs.

Spanish literary critic Ramon Menendez Pidal points out in his work “On the Sources of the “Stone Guest”” that many peoples have similar legends about the revenge of the insulted dead. In Spain, for example, they sang a romance (folk song) about how a young man grabbed a stone statue by the beard and invited it to dinner. With difficulty he escaped death.

One of the first literary adaptations of the legend was the play by the Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina “The Mischief of Seville, or the Stone Guest” (1630). Don Juan is portrayed in the play as a daring violator of moral and religious norms. He knows neither fear nor remorse and defies death itself.

Such a character could only appear in the Renaissance, on the threshold of modern times; it was generated by a humanistic protest against church dogmas about the sinfulness of everything earthly. Don Juan is endowed with a special charm; he is a complex, rich, contradictory nature.

This is how he entered subsequent literature.

From the 17th century to the present day, many literary, theatrical and musical works about Don Juan, illuminating his image in different ways.

Don Juan is loved by Donna Anna. Her image is covered in poetry. According to some versions, she is the daughter, according to others, the commander’s wife. In her heart there is a struggle between feeling and duty, which, according to old concepts of honor, obliged her to take revenge on Don Juan.

The famous French playwright Moliere (the comedy “Don Juan, or the Stone Feast”, 1665), the great English poet Byron (the satirical poem “Don Juan”, 1819–1820) and many other writers from different countries and different times wrote on the topic of the legend of Don Juan. .

The great Mozart wrote the opera “Don Giovanni” (1787) on a libretto by the Italian playwright Lorenzo da Ponte, which emphasized the humanistic features of Don Juan, who uncontrollably surrendered to the joys of life.

In Russia, A. S. Pushkin was the first to turn to the image of Don Juan in the tragedy “The Stone Guest” (1830). This tragedy is one of the highest creations of his genius.

Other Russian poets also wrote on the themes of the legend - A.K. Tolstoy, A. Blok. Ukrainian writer Lesya Ukrainka wrote the drama “The Stone Master” in 1912.

And today, interest in this legend does not wane - music is written on its themes, plays and films are created.

"Flying Dutchman"

The legend of the ghost ship “The Flying Dutchman” was born in the era of great sailings and geographical discoveries.

In search of a sea route to India, a new continent was discovered - America. Long voyages to unknown lands on sailing ships were very dangerous: ships often went missing with their entire crew.

At the end of the 15th century, the brave Portuguese navigator Bartolomeo Dias (Dias) managed to round the Cape of Good Hope. But during one of his subsequent voyages, he went missing along with his ship (May 29, 1500) near this very cape, which he originally called the Cape of Storms.

Among Portuguese sailors, a belief was born that Dias seemed to forever wander the seas on a ghost ship.

Many legends, English, Spanish, German, talk about a ship of the dead, a meeting with which foreshadows a shipwreck. The legend of the “Flying Dutchman”, which arose at the beginning of the 17th century in the Netherlands (Holland), became especially famous. She brought to us the names of two captains who once lived in Holland and, apparently, died unknown at sea. According to different versions of the legend, the captain of the ghostly ship is named Van Straaten or Van der Decken.

Nowadays, the “Flying Dutchmen” are called ships abandoned by their crew. Uncontrolled by anyone, without identification lights, they rush through the waves and pose a mortal danger to other ships in fog or storms.

Doctor Faustus

The legend of the warlock-magician Doctor Faustus, who sold his soul to the devil, arose in the 16th century in Germany and quickly became known in England and other countries.

This fantastic legend contained great possibilities for art. The image of Doctor Faustus became more and more complex and grew to titanic proportions.

First, folk puppet comedies about Doctor Faustus, his student Wagner, the funny servant Casper and the demon Mephistopheles appeared in Germany. They were a great success. These puppet comedies were also performed in England.

The remarkable English playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) created the drama “The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus.” His Doctor Faustus is a daring, powerful mind who rejects medieval scholastic science and sets himself grandiose goals, “to become henceforth equal to the deity.” To help himself, he takes demons, who ultimately destroy him.

In the 16th century, in the German city of Frankfurt am Main, the book by Johann Spies, “The Story of Doctor Johann Faust, the Famous Sorcerer and Warlock,” was published. It contains many folk legends about Doctor Faustus. But, in addition to fantastic stories, the book contains popular information about geography and astronomy. Faust, with the help of Mephistopheles, takes a walk to the stars, sees the whole Earth from above, and visits many countries. The book by Johann Spies is a kind of science fiction of that time.

Faust summons Helen, Queen of Sparta, from time immemorial. During the Renaissance, Helen was the ideal of beauty of the ancient world.

« This appearance of the Beautiful Helen in the legend of Doctor Faustus is infinitely significant.", wrote the poet Heinrich Heine.

Faust tries to miraculously find and resurrect the lost works of the Greek and Roman classics.

The great German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) wrote a brilliant dramatic poem, Faust. This is the story of the human spirit, through a painful search ascending to the heights of knowledge. At the end of his life, Faust comes to the idea that the highest goal of life is active service to the people's happiness:

This is the thought to which I am completely devoted,

The result of everything that the mind has accumulated,

Only those who have experienced the battle for life

He deserves life and freedom.

That's right, every day, every year,

Working, struggling, joking with danger,

Let the husband, the elder and the child live.

A free people in a free land

I wanted to see on days like these.

Then I could exclaim: “A moment!

Oh how wonderful you are, wait!

The traces of my struggles are embodied,

And they will never be erased."

And anticipating this triumph,

I am experiencing the highest moment right now.

(Translation by B. Pasternak)

The demon Mephistopheles in Goethe's Faust is a caustic and caustic cynic, he does not believe in anything, but he, as a spirit of doubt, awakens and disturbs human thought and thereby pushes it forward against his will.

Inspired by Goethe's poem, Pushkin created “Scene from Faust” (1825). One Russian traveler introduced Goethe to her, and he sent Pushkin a gift of his pen, with which he wrote Faust.

Doctor Johann Faust is a historical figure. Many humanist scientists testified about their meetings with him (between 1507 and 1540). There is documentary evidence that Faust studied at several universities and received academic degrees.

Faust traveled a lot in Germany and other countries. He may have visited the court French king Francis the First. Possessing wide knowledge, Faust was at the same time undoubtedly an adventurer and a charlatan. He posed as a great fortuneteller, magician and healer, taking advantage of the gullibility of rich and noble people.

That was the time of the great revolution in science, when it was just beginning, through inquisitive searches, to free itself from fantastic conjectures and ideas. In the eyes of many, all scientists (especially alchemists and astrologers) were sorcerers, and clever charlatans took advantage of this. But, having endowed Faust with witchcraft power, the popular imagination at the same time exalted and poeticized him. Faust was even credited with the invention of printing.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ROMANCE

In the knightly novel and its variety - the knightly tale - we find basically the same feelings and interests that make up the content of knightly lyrics. This is primarily the theme of love, understood in a more or less “sublime” sense. Another equally indispensable element of a knightly romance is fantasy in the dual sense of the word - as the supernatural (fairy-tale, not Christian) and as everything extraordinary, exceptional, lifting the hero above the everyday life.

Both of these forms of fiction, usually associated with a love theme, are covered by the concept of adventures or adventures that happen to knights, who always go towards these adventures. Knights perform their adventurous exploits not for the sake of a common, national cause, like some heroes of epic poems, and not in the name of honor or the interests of the clan, but for the sake of their personal glory. Ideal chivalry is conceived as an international and unchanging institution at all times, equally characteristic of ancient Rome, the Muslim East and modern France. In this regard, the chivalric romance depicts ancient eras and the life of distant peoples in the form of a picture modern society, into which readers from knightly circles look as if in a mirror, finding in it a reflection of their life ideals.

In their style and technique, chivalric romances differ sharply from heroic epics. Monologues occupy a prominent place in them, in which emotional experiences, lively dialogues, and images of appearance are analyzed. characters, a detailed description of the setting in which the action takes place.

The earliest romances of chivalry developed in France, and from here the passion for them spread to other countries. Numerous translations and creative adaptations of French samples in other European literatures(especially in German) often present works that have independent artistic significance and occupy a prominent place in these literatures.

The first experiments in the chivalric novel were adaptations of several works of ancient literature. In them, medieval storytellers could find in many cases both exciting love stories and fabulous adventures, partly echoing knightly ideas. Mythology in such adaptations was carefully expelled, but legendary tales about the exploits of heroes, which had the appearance of historical legends, were reproduced in full.

The first experience of such adaptation of ancient material to emerging courtly tastes is the novel about Alexander the Great. Like the Slavic “Alexandria,” it ultimately goes back to the fabulous biography of Alexander, supposedly compiled by his friend and comrade Callisthenes, but in fact a forgery that arose in Egypt around 200 AD. e. This novel by pseudo-Callisthenes was then translated from Greek into Latin, and this Latin edition, together with some additional texts, also forged, served as the source for several adaptations of this novel in French. The most complete and artistically developed of them is written, unlike other chivalric romances, in paired rhymed twelve-syllable verses with a caesura after the 6th syllable. The popularity of this novel explains the fact that this size was later called “Alexandrian verse”.

Strictly speaking, this is not yet a romance of chivalry. in every sense words, but only a prelude to it, because there is no love theme here, and the author’s main task is to show the height of earthly greatness that a person can achieve, and the power of fate over him. However, the taste for all kinds of adventure and fantasy found enough material here; medieval poets had no need to add anything.

The greatest conqueror of antiquity is represented in The Romance of Alexander as a brilliant medieval knight. In his youth, Alexander received two shirts as a gift from the fairies: one protected him from heat and cold, the other from wounds. When the time came to knight him, King Solomon gave him the shield, and the sword was given to him by the Amazon queen Penthesilea. Alexander in his campaigns is driven not only by the desire to conquer the world, but also by the thirst to know and see everything. Among other wonders of the East, he meets people with dog heads, finds the fountain of youth, finds himself in a forest in which, instead of flowers in the spring, young girls grow from the ground, and with the onset of winter they go back into the ground, and reaches earthly paradise. Not limiting himself to the surface of the earth, Alexander wants to explore its depths and heavenly heights. In a huge glass barrel, he descends to the bottom of the sea and examines its wonders. He then builds a glass cage in which he flies through the sky, carried by eagles. As befits an ideal knight, Alexander is distinguished by his extraordinary generosity and gives entire cities to jugglers who please him.

A significant step forward in the formation of a chivalric romance with a developed love theme is the French adaptation of the tales of Aeneas and the Trojan War. The first of them, “The Romance of Aeneas,” goes back to Virgil’s “Aeneid.” Here, two love episodes come first. One of them tragic love Dido and Aeneas, was already developed by Virgil in such detail that the medieval poet had little to add. But the second episode, connected with Lavinia, was entirely created by him. In Virgil, the marriage of Aeneas and Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus, is a purely political union in which feelings of the heart play no role. In the French novel, it is expanded into a whole story (1600 verses), illustrating the doctrine of courtly love.

Lavinia's mother tries to persuade her to marry the local prince Turnus. But no matter how hard she tries to instill in her daughter a passion for Turnus, Lavinia feels nothing for him. But when she saw Aeneas in the enemy camp from the height of her tower, she immediately felt “Cupid’s arrow” in her heart. She yearns for love and finally decides to confess to Aeneas, after which he falls in love with her and also suffers, but this makes him fight even braver. At first he wants to hide his feeling, because “if a woman is not sure of the reciprocal feeling, this makes her love even more.” However, he is unable to hide for long, and the matter quickly ends in marriage. Love is depicted in this novel consistently in two aspects - as a fatal passion (Aeneas - Dido) and as a subtle art (Aeneas - Lavinia).

“The Romance of Aeneas” is also known in the German translation of the above-mentioned (see p. 109) by Minnesinger Heinrich von Feldeke. A native of bilingual Flanders, which served as a conduit for the influences of French knightly culture in medieval Germany, Feldeke created with his Aeneid (1170-1180) the first example of this new genre in German knightly poetry.

Simultaneously with this novel, the gigantic (more than 30,000 verses) “Roman of Troy”, authored by Benoit de Saint-Maur, also appeared in France.

The source for it was not Homer (whom was unknown in the Middle Ages), but two forged Latin chronicles that appeared in the 4th-6th centuries. And. e. and supposedly written by witnesses Trojan War- the Phrygian (i.e. Trojan) Dareth and the Greek Dictys. Since Benoit used mainly the first of them, written according to the imaginary nationality of its author from the Trojan point of view, then the bearers of the highest valor for him turn out to be not the Greeks, but the Trojans. To the several love episodes that the author found in his source, he added one more, composed by himself and artistically the most developed of all. This is the love story of the Trojan prince Troil for the captive Greek Briseis, ending with the betrayal of the treacherous beauty after her departure from Troy with Diomedes. With the courtly sophistication of the manners of all the characters, the feelings of Troilus and Diomedes are not depicted in the specific tones of loving service, but much more real, and the only feature of the courtly concept of love is that the knightly valor of both heroes increases along with love. The author severely condemns female inconstancy: “A woman’s sadness does not last long. She cries with one eye and laughs with the other. Women’s moods change quickly, and even the most reasonable of them is quite frivolous.” The French poet's story served as a source for a number of adaptations of this plot by later writers, including Chaucer, Boccaccio and Shakespeare (the play Troilus and Cressida), and the name of the heroine and some details were changed.

Even more valuable material for the knightly romance were Celtic folk tales, which, being a product of the poetry of the tribal system, were full of eroticism and fantasy. It goes without saying that both of them underwent a radical rethinking in chivalric poetry. The motifs of polygamy and polyandry, temporary, freely dissolved love affairs, which filled Celtic stories and were a reflection of actual marital and erotic relationships among the Celts, were interpreted by French courtly poets as a violation of the norms of everyday life, as adultery, subject to courtly idealization. In the same way, any kind of “magic”, which in that archaic time when Celtic legends were composed, was thought of as an expression of the natural forces of nature, was now, in the works of French poets, perceived as something specifically “supernatural”, going beyond the framework of normal phenomena and beckoning knights to exploits.

Celtic legends reached French poets in two ways - oral, through the mediation of Celtic singers and storytellers, and written, through some legendary chronicles. Many of these legends were associated with the image of the fabulous “King Arthur” - one of the princes of the Britons of the 5th-6th centuries, who heroically defended the regions of England that had not yet been captured by them from the Anglo-Saxons.

The pseudo-historical frame for Arthur’s novels was the Latin chronicle of the Welsh patriot Geoffrey of Monmouth, “The History of the Kings of Britain” (circa 1137), who embellished the image of Arthur and gave him feudal-knightly features.

Geoffrey portrays Arthur not only as the king of all Britain, but also as a powerful sovereign, conqueror of a number of countries, ruler of half of Europe. Along with the military exploits of Arthur, Geoffrey talks about his miraculous birth, about his sailing, when he was mortally wounded, to the island of Avalon - the abode of immortality, about the deeds of his sister - the fairy Morgana, the wizard Merlin, etc. The court of the king of the Britons is depicted in his book as the focus of the highest valor and nobility, where, along with Arthur, his wife, the beautiful Queen Genievere, reigns, and around them group Arthur’s nephew, the valiant Gauvin, Seneschal Kay, the evil Modred, who ultimately rebelled against Arthur and was the cause of his death, etc. d. Galfrid's Chronicle was a huge success and was soon translated into French and English languages. Also drawing from Celtic folk tales, the translators added several additional features, of which the most important is the following: King Arthur allegedly ordered a round table to be built so that at the feast he would have neither the best nor the worst seats and that all his knights felt equal.

This is where the usual frame of the Arthurian romances or, as they are often called, the Romanes of the Round Table begins - a picture of the court of King Arthur as the focus of ideal chivalry in its new understanding. A poetic fiction was created that in these ancient times it was impossible to become a perfect knight in the sense of military exploits and high love without living and “working” at Arthur’s court. Hence the pilgrimage of all the heroes to this court, as well as the inclusion in the Arthurian cycle of subjects that were initially alien to him. But whatever the origin - Celtic or otherwise - these stories, called “Breton” or “Arthurian”, they transported their readers and listeners into a fantasy world, where at every step they met fairies, giants, magical springs, beautiful girls oppressed by evil offenders and expecting help from brave and generous knights.

The entire huge mass of Breton stories can be divided into four groups of works, which differ markedly from each other in character and style: 1) the so-called Breton lays, 2) a group of novels about Tristan and Isolde, 3) Arthurian novels in the proper sense of the word, and 4 ) a series of novels about the Holy Grail.

A collection of twelve le, i.e., poetic short stories of love and mostly fantastic content, composed around 1180 by the Anglo-Norman poetess Mary of France, has survived.

Maria transfers her stories, borrowed from Breton songs, to the setting of French feudalism, adapting them to the morals and concepts of her contemporary, predominantly knightly, reality.

The story about “Ioneka” tells that one young woman, married to a jealous old man, languishes in a tower under the supervision of a maid and dreams of a young, handsome knight miraculously appearing to her. As soon as she expressed this wish, a bird flew into the window of her room and turned into a beautiful knight. The knight reports that he has loved her for a long time, but could not appear without her call; from now on he will fly to her whenever she wishes. Their dates continued until the husband, suspecting something was wrong, ordered sickles and knives to be attached to the window, which the bird knight, having flown to his beloved, stumbled upon, mortally wounding himself. When the son born from him to his beloved grew up, she told the young man about his origin, and he, avenging his father’s death, killed the evil jealous man.

The background of knightly life is shown even more clearly in “Lanval,” which depicts the secret love of a knight and a beautiful fairy. This love, due to the envy of the queen who was jealous of the knight, almost cost him his life, but the knight still managed to escape with his beloved to the magical island.

Other layers of Maria are even more imbued with lyricism and do not contain any fantasy.

One of them tells how a certain king, not wanting to part with his daughter, announced that he would marry her only to someone who, without outside help, would carry her in his arms to the top of a high mountain. The young man in love with her, whom she also loved, carried her to the top, but immediately fell dead. Since then, this mountain has been called “The Mountain of Two Lovers.” In another story, a young woman, unhappy in her marriage, under the pretext of listening to the nightingale’s singing, stands for a long time in the evenings at the window, looking out the window of the house across the street, where the knight in love with her lives, also looking at her: this is their only comfort. But the jealous husband killed the nightingale and angrily threw it at his wife’s feet. She picked up the poor body and then sent it to her beloved, who buried it in a luxurious casket and treasured it ever since as a dear memory.

All the stories of Marie of France are imbued with one general assessment of human relations. The knightly shell of the plot covers their universal human content. The luxurious court life and brilliant military exploits do not attract Maria. She is saddened by all cruelty, all violence against natural human feelings. But this does not give rise to an angry protest in her, but a soft melancholy. Most of all, she sympathizes with those suffering from love. At the same time, she understands love not as magnificent service to a lady and not as a stormy fatal passion, but as a tender natural attraction to each other of two pure and simple hearts. This attitude to love brings Mary’s le closer to folk poetry.

The Celtic tale of Tristan and Isolde was known in a large number of adaptations in French, but many of them were completely lost, and only small fragments of others survived. By comparing all the fully and partially known French editions of the novel about Tristan, as well as their translations into other languages, it turned out to be possible to restore the plot and general character the oldest French novel that has not reached us (mid-12th century), to which all these editions go back.

Tristan, the son of a king, lost his parents as a child and was kidnapped by visiting Norwegian merchants. Having escaped from captivity, he ended up in Cornwall, at the court of his uncle King Mark, who raised Tristan and, being old and childless, intended to make him his successor. Growing up, Tristan became a brilliant knight and rendered many valuable services to his adopted homeland. One day he was wounded by a poisoned weapon, and, not finding a cure, in despair he gets into a boat and sails at random. The wind carries him to Ireland, and the queen there, knowledgeable in potions, not knowing that Tristan killed her brother Morolt ​​in a duel, heals him. Upon Tristan's return to Cornwall, the local barons, out of envy of him, demand that Mark marry and give the country an heir to the throne. Wanting to talk himself out of this, Mark announces that he will only marry the girl who owns the golden hair dropped by a passing swallow. Tristan goes in search of the beauty. He again sails at random and again ends up in Ireland, where he recognizes the royal daughter, Isolde Golden-haired, as the girl to whom the hair belongs. Having defeated the fire-breathing dragon that devastated Ireland, Tristan receives Isolde's hand from the king, but announces that he himself will not marry her, but will take her as a bride to his uncle. When he and Isolde sail on a ship to Cornwall, they mistakenly drink the “love potion” that Isolde’s mother gave her so that when they drink it, she and King Mark will be bound in love forever. Tristan and Isolde cannot fight the passion that engulfs them: from now on, until the end of their days, they will belong to each other. Upon arrival in Cornwall, Isolde becomes Mark's wife, but passion forces her to seek secret dates with Tristan. The courtiers try to track them down, but to no avail, and the generous Mark tries not to notice anything. In the end, the lovers are caught and the court sentences them to death. However, Tristan manages to escape with Isolde, and they wander in the forest for a long time, happy with their love, but experiencing great hardships. Finally, Mark forgives them on the condition that Tristan goes into exile. Having left for Brittany, Tristan married, seduced by the similarity of names, to another Isolde, nicknamed Beloruka. But immediately after the wedding, he repented of this and remained faithful to the first Isolde. Languishing in separation from his sweetheart, he comes to Cornwall several times, dressed up, to secretly see her. Mortally wounded in Brittany in one of the skirmishes, he sends a faithful friend to Cornwall to bring him Isolde, who alone can heal him; if successful, let his friend put out a white sail. But when the ship with Isolde appears on the horizon, the jealous wife, having learned about the agreement, orders Tristan to be told that the sail on it is black. Hearing this, Tristan dies. Isolde comes up to him, lies down next to him and also dies. They are buried, and that same night two trees grow from their two graves, the branches of which are intertwined.

The author of this novel quite accurately reproduced all the details of the Celtic story, preserving its tragic overtones, and only replaced almost everywhere the manifestations of Celtic morals and customs with features of French knightly life. From this material he created a poetic story, imbued with one common feeling and thought, which captured the imagination of his contemporaries and caused a long series of imitations.

The success of the novel is due mainly to the special situation in which the heroes are placed and the concept of their feelings. In the suffering that Tristan experiences, a prominent place is occupied by the painful awareness of the hopeless contradiction between his passion and the moral principles of the whole society, which are obligatory for him. Tristan is tormented by the knowledge of the lawlessness of his love and the insult that he inflicts on King Mark, endowed in the novel with traits of rare nobility and generosity. Like Tristan, Mark himself is a victim of the voice of feudal-knightly “public opinion.”

He did not want to marry Isolde, and after that he was by no means inclined to suspicion or jealousy towards Tristan, whom he continued to love as his own son. But all the time he is forced to yield to the insistence of informers-barons, who point out to him that his knightly and royal honor is suffering here, and even threaten him with rebellion. Nevertheless, Mark is always ready to forgive the guilty. Tristan constantly remembers this kindness of Mark, and this makes his moral suffering even worse.

The author's attitude to the moral and social conflict of Tristan and Isolde with environment dual. On the one hand, he seems to recognize the correctness of the prevailing morality, forcing, for example, Tristan to be tormented by the consciousness of his “guilt”. The love of Tristan and Isolde seems to the author to be a misfortune for which the love potion is to blame. But at the same time, he does not hide his sympathy for this love, portraying in a positive tone all those who contribute to it, and expressing obvious satisfaction over the failures or death of the enemies of those who love. The author is externally saved from contradiction by the motif of the fatal love potion. But it is clear that this motive serves only the purpose of masking his feelings, and the true direction of his sympathies is clearly indicated artistic images novel. Without going so far as to openly expose the feudal-knightly system with its oppression and prejudices, the author internally felt its wrongness and violence. The images of his novel, the glorification of love that is “stronger than death” and does not want to reckon with either the hierarchy established by feudal society or the law of the Catholic Church, objectively contain elements of criticism of the very foundations of this society.

Both this first novel and other French novels about Tristan caused many imitations in most European countries - in Germany, England, Scandinavia, Spain, Italy, etc. Their translations into Czech and Belarusian languages. Of all these adaptations, the most significant is the German novel by Gottfried of Strasbourg (early 13th century), which stands out for its subtle analysis of the emotional experiences of the heroes and masterful description of the forms of knightly life. It was Godfrey's Tristan that most contributed to the revival in the 19th century. poetic interest in this medieval plot. It served as the most important source for Wagner's famous opera Tristan and Isolde (1859).

The real creator of the Arthurian novel, who gave the best examples of this genre, is the poet of the second half of the 12th century. Chrétien de Troyes, who lived for a long time at the court of Marie of Champagne. In terms of sharpness of thought, vividness of imagination, observation and technical skill, he is one of the most remarkable poets of the Middle Ages. Celtic tales were used by Chrétien as raw material, which he rebuilt with a completely different meaning.

The frame of Arthur's court, taken from Geoffrey's chronicle, served him only as a backdrop against which he unfolded pictures of the life of a completely contemporary knightly society, posing and resolving very significant questions that should have occupied this society. For this reason, the problematic dominates in Chrétien’s novels over the most exciting adventures and vivid images. But the way in which Chretien prepares a solution to this or that problem is free from any reasoning and didacticism, since he takes internally plausible positions and saturates his very lively story with apt observations and picturesque details.

Chrétien's novels fall into two groups. In the earlier ones, Chrétien portrays love as a simple and human feeling, free from courtly idealization and sophistication.

This is the novel Erec and Enida.

Erec, the son of King Lac, a knight at Arthur's court, as a result of one adventure falls in love with a girl of rare beauty named Enida, who lives in terrible poverty. He asks Enida's hand from her father, who agrees to the girl's great joy. Having learned about this, Enida's rich cousin wants to provide her with luxurious dresses, but Erec announces that she will receive her outfit only from the hands of Queen Genievra, and takes her away in a pitiful, worn-out dress. At Arthur's court, everyone is amazed by Enida's beauty. Soon afterwards, Erek takes his wife to his kingdom, where at first they live happily, but then the courtiers begin to grumble that Erek excessive love he seemed to have become effeminate towards his wife and lost his valor. Enida, hearing this, cries at night. Having learned about the reason for her tears, Erek sees this as a lack of confidence in himself on the part of his wife and in anger announces that he is immediately setting off to perform feats. But he sets a condition: Enida will ride ahead, and no matter what danger she sees, she must under no circumstances turn around and warn her husband about it. Erec has to endure many difficult encounters with robbers, knights-errant, etc., and Enida several times, violating the ban, carefully warns him of the danger. Once, when the count who sheltered them in difficult times wanted to treacherously kill Erec at night in order to take possession of her, only Enida’s devotion and resourcefulness saved his life. Finally, after many trials, covered with wounds, but triumphant, having proven his valor and made peace with Enida, Erec returns home, and their happy life resumes.

In this novel, Chrétien poses the question: is love compatible with chivalric deeds? But in the process of solving this problem, he comes to the formulation of another, broader and more significant: what should be the relationship between lovers and what is the purpose of a woman as a lover and wife? Despite the fact that Erek’s treatment of his wife shows some rudeness and despotism, typical of the morals of that time, the novel as a whole is an apology for the dignity of women. Chrétien wanted to show in it not only that valor is compatible with love, but also that wife and lover can be combined in the person of one woman, who, on top of all this, can also be a friend, an active assistant to her husband in all matters.

Without making a woman an object of courtly adoration and not yet endowing her with the right to an equal voice with her husband, Chretien still extremely raises her human dignity, revealing her moral qualities and creative possibilities. The anti-courtly tendency of the novel is clearly reflected in its final episode.

After finishing his trip, Erek, having learned that there is a wonderful garden, access to which is guarded by a formidable knight, goes there and defeats the knight to the great joy of the latter, who has thus received liberation. It turns out that this knight was the victim of a word he carelessly gave to his “friend,” reclining in the middle of the garden on a silver bed, not to leave her until an enemy stronger than him appeared. This episode aims to contrast the free, non-coercion love of Erec and Enida with love, which has the nature of enslavement.

On the contrary, in his later novels, written under the influence of Marie of Champagne, Chrétien illustrates the courtly theory of love. This is most clearly manifested in his novel “Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart.”

An unknown, menacing-looking knight kidnaps Queen Genievere, whom the boastful and insignificant seneschal Kay failed to protect. Lancelot, in love with the queen, gives chase. He asks a dwarf he meets along the way which road the kidnapper took, to which the dwarf promises to answer if Lancelot agrees to ride in the cart first. After a moment's hesitation, Lancelot, for the sake of his boundless love for Genievre, decides to endure this humiliation. After a series of dangerous adventures, he reaches the castle of King Bademagyu, where the latter's son Meleagan, the kidnapper of Genievra, is holding Genievra captive. To free her, Lancelot challenges Meleagan to a duel. During the battle, seeing that his son is having a bad time, Bademagyu asks for the intercession of Genievere, who is watching the battle, and she orders Lancelot to give in to the enemy, which he obediently does, putting his life in danger. Honest Bademagyu declares Lancelot the winner and leads him to Genievre, but she turns her gaze away from the perplexed lover. With great difficulty, he learns about the reason for Genievra’s anger: the anger is caused by the fact that for one moment he still hesitated before getting into the cart. Only after Lancelot, in despair, wants to commit suicide, does Guenievre forgive him and for the first time in all the time that he loves her, makes an appointment with him. The freed Genievere returns to her court, while Meleagan's people treacherously seize Lancelot and put him in prison. A tournament is organized at Arthur's court, in which Lancelot, having learned about this, is eager to take part. The jailer's wife releases him on parole for a few days, Lancelot fights in the tournament, Genievre recognizes him by his valor and decides to test her guess. She tells him to tell the knight that she asks him to fight as hard as possible. Lancelot begins to behave like a coward, becoming the laughing stock of everyone. Then Genievre cancels his order, and Lancelot receives the first prize, after which he quietly leaves the tournament and returns to the dungeon. The ending of the novel is a description of how Meleagan's sister, to whom Lancelot did a great service, discovers the place of his imprisonment and helps him escape.

The whole “problematic” of this novel lies in showing what an “ideal” lover should feel and how he should behave in various situations in life. Such a task, received by Chrétien from Maria Champagne, must have weighed heavily on him, and this explains the fact that he did not finish the novel, which was completed for him by another poet, who was also in Maria’s service.

In his next novel, Yvain, or the Knight of the Lion, Chrétien moves away from the extremes of courtly doctrine, without, however, breaking with some aspects of the courtly worldview and style. He again raises the problem of the compatibility of exploits and love, but here he is looking for a compromise solution.

Chretien's novels caused a large number of imitations both in France and abroad. In particular, with great skill he transferred to German"Ereka" and "Ivena" Swabian minnesinger Hartmann von Aue (1190-1200), in the art of descriptions and psychological analysis not inferior to Chrétien.

The last group of “Breton stories,” a cycle of so-called “novels about the Holy Grail,” represents an attempt at an artistic synthesis of the secular courtly ideal of Arthurian novels with the dominant religious ideas of feudal society. Similar phenomena are observed in the spiritual-knightly orders of the Templars, Johannites, and others, which flourished around this time. At the same time, poetic fantasy, drawn from the chivalric romance from Celtic folklore, is closely intertwined with the motifs of Christian legend and popular heresies.

An expression of these tendencies is the later form of the legend of the Holy Grail. This legend has a rather complex history. One of the first authors who took on the task of processing it was the same Chrétien de Troyes.

Chrétien de Troyes’s novel “Perceval, or the Tale of the Grail” tells that the widow of a knight, whose husband and several sons died in war and tournaments, wanting to protect her last, young son, called Perceval, from the dangers of knightly life, settled with him in the deep forest. But the young man, having grown up, saw knights passing through the forest, and immediately the born knight spoke in him. He told his mother that he definitely wanted to become just like them, and she had to let Perceval go to the court of King Arthur. At first his inexperience caused him to make funny mistakes, but soon everyone came to respect his valor. On one of his trips, Perceval ends up in a castle, where he witnesses such a strange scene: in the middle of the hall lies an old sick knight, the owner of the castle, and a procession passes by him; first they carry a spear, from the tip of which blood is dripping, then a dazzlingly sparkling vessel - the “Grail”, and finally a silver plate. Out of modesty, Perceval does not dare to ask what this all means. Waking up in the morning in the room assigned to him, he sees that the castle is empty and leaves. Only later does he learn that if he had asked about the meaning of the procession, the owner of the castle would have been immediately healed, and prosperity would have come to the whole country; and inappropriate shyness took possession of him as punishment for breaking his mother’s heart by leaving. After this, Perceval vows to enter the Grail castle again and sets off to look for it in order to correct his mistake. In turn, King Arthur's nephew, Goven, goes in search of adventures. The story ends at the description of their adventures; Apparently, death prevented Chrétien from finishing the novel.

Several authors, duplicating each other, continued Chretien's novel, bringing its volume to 50,000 verses and exhausting the adventure with the Grail to the end. It is impossible to establish what the Grail was in Chretien’s view, what its properties and purpose were. In all likelihood, his image was taken from Celtic legends, and he was a talisman that had the ability to saturate people or maintain their strength and life with its mere presence. Chrétien's successors are not completely clear on this matter. However, other poets, who took up the processing of this legend after Chrétien, and completely independently of him, gave the Grail a completely different, religious interpretation, which they borrowed from Robert de Boron, who wrote a poem about Joseph of Arimathea around 1200, which sets out the prehistory of the Grail.

Joseph of Arimathea, one of Christ's closest disciples, saved the cup of the Last Supper and, when a Roman legionnaire pierced the side of the crucified Jesus with a spear, collected the blood that flowed out into it. Soon the Jews threw Joseph into prison and walled him up there, dooming him to death by starvation. But Christ appeared to the prisoner, giving him the sacred cup, which supported his strength and health until, already under Emperor Vespasian, he was released. Then, having gathered like-minded people, Joseph sailed with them to Britain, where he founded a community to store this greatest Christian shrine - the “Holy Grail”.

In one of the later editions of the legend, it is added to this that the guardians of the Grail must be chaste. The last of them committed a “carnal sin”, and the punishment for this was the injury he received. He cannot, no matter how much he would like to, die, and only the contemplation of the Grail, which is carried past him once a day, alleviates his suffering a little. When a pure-hearted knight (and this is precisely Perceval, who by his very upbringing is a “great simpleton”), getting into the castle, asks the sick man about the reason for his suffering and the meaning of the procession with the Grail, the sick man will die calmly, and the stranger will become the keeper of the sacred chalice.

Characteristic of this is the replacement of the fabulous Celtic talisman with a Christian shrine, brilliant knightly adventures for the sake of honor and glory with humble religious service, the cult of earthly joy and love with the ascetic principle of chastity. The same tendency is noticeable in all later adaptations of the legend of the Grail, which appeared in large numbers in the 13th century. in France and other European countries.

The largest monument of this kind is “Parzival” by the German poet Wolfram von Eschenbach (early 13th century), representing the most significant and independent work of this genre in the medieval German literature. Wolfram's poem in its main part follows Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, but deviates from it in a number of significant new motifs.

In Wolfram's poem the Grail - gem, brought by angels from heaven; he has the miraculous power to saturate everyone according to his desire, to give youth and bliss. The Grail Castle is guarded by knights, whom Wolfram calls "Templars". Grail Knights are forbidden to engage in love; only the king can marry. When a country is left without a king, one of the knights is sent to protect it, but he has no right to tell anyone his name and origin (the fairytale motif of the marriage ban, “taboo”). Thus, Parzival's son Lohengrin is sent by the Grail to protect Elsa, Duchess of Brabant, oppressed by rebellious vassals. Lohengrin defeats Elsa's enemies, and she becomes his wife, but, wanting to know his name and origin, she breaks the ban, and Lohengrin must return to his country. Wolfram's Lohengrin - the “swan knight”, sailing from an unknown country in a boat drawn by a swan - is a plot known in the French epic and included by Wolfram in the circle of legends about the Grail.

The poem is preceded by an extensive introduction, also absent from Chrétien, dedicated to the story of Parzival’s parents.

His father goes to seek adventure in the East, serves the Caliph of Baghdad and frees the Moorish princess, who becomes his wife and gives birth to his son. Returning to Christian countries, with his valor he wins the hand of a beautiful Christian princess and the kingdom. After his early death, the widow, in deep sorrow, retires into the forest desert, where Parzival is born. At the end of the poem, Parzival meets with his “eastern” brother, who went in search of his father, and a duel takes place between them, in which they find themselves equal in valor and strength and enter into a friendly alliance.

This introduction and conclusion expand the geographical scope of Wolfram's poem. The poet stands at the point of view of the international unity of knightly culture, which in his ideal vision embraces the West and the East, united by the Crusades. In this sense, his Parzival is undoubtedly the most significant attempt at a poetic synthesis of this culture in its secular and spiritual elements within the framework of the worldview of feudal society.

Wolfram's Parzival was also used by Richard Wagner to create two famous operas, Lohengrin (1847) and Parzival (1882).

In addition to novels based on ancient and “Breton” subjects, a third type of chivalric novel arose in France. These are novels of vicissitudes or adventures, which are usually, not entirely accurately, also called Byzantine novels, since their plots are built mainly on motifs found in the Byzantine or late Greek novel, such as shipwrecks, kidnapping by pirates, recognition, forced separation and a happy meeting lovers, etc. Stories of this kind usually came to France orally; for example, they could have been brought by the Crusaders from southern Italy (where there was a strong Greek influence) or directly from Constantinople, but sometimes, in rarer cases, by book. These Greco-Byzantine stories, widespread in the Mediterranean basin, were in some cases mixed with plots of eastern, Persian-Arab origin, such as the tales of the Arabian Nights, with a frequent theme of passionate love associated with tragic adventures. Motifs of this kind, together with traces of Arabic names, sometimes appear in French adventure novels. However, one should not assume that the direct source of these novels was necessarily Greek-Byzantine or Arabic stories. In most cases, Greek-Byzantine and partly Eastern stories served only as an impetus and, to some extent, a model for the work of French poets, who drew material from completely different sources, to a large extent: local poetic legends or actual incidents.

“Byzantine” novels, which developed somewhat later than the ancient and Breton novels, are characterized by an approach to everyday life: an almost complete absence of the supernatural, a significant amount of everyday details, a greater simplicity of the plot and tone of the narrative. This is especially noticeable in the later examples of the genre (13th century), when the taste for the exotic weakens and, along with the transfer of the setting of these novels to France, they are filled with everyday flavor. An essential feature of these novels is also that the love theme always occupies a central place in them.

The most typical of this genre are several novels, sometimes called “idyllic,” which have the same plot pattern, repeated with slight variations: two children, raised together from an early age, developed a tender affection for each other, which over the years turned into irresistible love. Their marriage, however, is hampered by the difference social status, and also sometimes religion (he is a pagan, she is a Christian, or vice versa; he is the royal son, and she is a poor captive, or he is a simple knight, and she is the emperor’s daughter, etc.). Their parents separate them, but the lovers persistently search for each other and, in the end, after a series of trials, are happily united.

The classic and at the same time the earliest example of “idyllic” novels, which influenced all other works of this kind, is “Floir and Blanchefleur”. The entire narration here is conducted in gentle, almost lyrical tones. In this regard, the selfishness or severity of the enemies of the lovers is not emphasized at all - Floire's father, a pagan king who does not want his son to marry a simple captive, or the Babylonian emir, into whose harem Blanchefleur, sold by Floire's father to visiting merchants, ends up. The author perfectly conveyed the purity of youthful feeling, as well as the charm that it has on everyone around him. When Floir, looking for the taken away Blanchefleur, asks everyone he meets about her on the way, one innkeeper immediately guesses who his beloved is, by the identical facial expression and by exactly the same as his, manifestations of sadness in one girl who recently passed through these places. Caught in a harem, Floir is saved together with Blanchefleur from death only due to the fact that each of them tries to take all the blame on himself and begs to be executed earlier and not be forced to watch the death of the other; such “unprecedented” love touches the emir, who forgives them both.

The anti-aristocratic tendencies noted in “Floir and Blanchefleur” find their complete expression in the “song-fairy tale” of the early 13th century. "Aucassin and Nicolet", definitely going beyond the boundaries of chivalric literature. The very form of this work is very unique - the alternation of poetry and prose, with small poetic passages partly lyrically complementing, partly simply continuing the narrative of the previous prose chapters. Finding its explanation in the special way of performance by two jugglers, one of whom picks up the story of the other and then passes it on to him again, this form indicates the folk origin of this genre. This is also evidenced by the special style of the story, combining sincere lyricism with lively humor.

This story is a parody of all knightly norms and ideals.

The count's son Aucassin loves the Saracen captive Nicolet and dreams only of a peaceful, happy life with her. The thought of honors, glory, and military exploits is so alien to him that he does not even want to take part in the defense of his family possessions from the enemy who attacked them. Only after his father promises him a date with Nicolet, who he locked in the tower, as a reward, does Aucassin agree to go into battle. But when, having won a victory and captured the enemy, he finds out that his father does not want to keep his promise, he releases the enemy without ransom, taking an oath that he will continue to fight and try with all his might to harm Ocassin’s father.

One cannot help but see in this an outright mockery of the feudal hierarchy and the most sacred principles of knightly practice. Aucassin does not treat religious dogmas with great respect either, when he declares that after death he does not want to go to heaven, where there are only “priests, the wretched and the crippled,” but prefers to be in hell, where it is much more fun, “if only there his tender friend was with him.”

Aucassin is even less like a knight than Floir. Other representatives of the knightly class play the role of extras in the story. But there are other, very lively and expressive figures in it - commoners, street watchmen, shepherds, depicted with remarkable truthfulness for that time and sympathy unprecedented in chivalric novels. Particularly characteristic is Aucassin's dialogue with the poor shepherd. When asked by the latter why he is so saddened, Aucassin, who is looking for Nicolet, answers allegorically that he has lost a greyhound, and then the shepherd exclaims: “My God! And what can these gentlemen come up with!”

And in contrast to this insignificant loss, he talks about the true misfortune that befell him. He accidentally lost one of the oxen entrusted to him, and the owner, demanding from him the full price of the ox, did not stop before pulling out the old mattress from under his sick mother. “This is what saddens me more than my own grief. Because money comes and goes, And if I lost now, I will win another time and pay for my bull. For this alone I would not cry. And you are killing because of some lousy dog. Damn be the one who praises you for this!

Another example of a parody (of a slightly different type) of chivalric romances is Payen de Maizières’s short poetic story “A Mule without a Bridle,” which is a comic montage of episodes and motifs found in Chrétien de Troyes.

A girl on a mule arrives at Arthur's court, complaining bitterly that the mule's bridle, without which she could not be happy, was taken away from her. Gauvin volunteers to help her and, exposing himself to great dangers, gets her a bridle, after which the girl thanks him and leaves.

The described adventure is complicated by many equally mysterious adventures, which the author tells extremely vividly and cheerfully, clearly making fun of “Breton fables.”

These symptoms of the decay of the chivalric romance foreshadow the triumph of the 13th century. a new style put forward by urban literature.

Romance. The conventional title was supposed to indicate that this is a story in a Romance language. Both lyrics and novels were written not in Latin, but in Romance languages.

The main character is a knight errant. The prototypes are single-shield knights. When going on a crusade, the knight pawned and sold all his property, and most often returned to his homeland impoverished. They became robbers. There was another way for such knights - they were hired into the city guard. In the Middle Ages, the practice of primogeniture developed - the inheritance is not divided, everything goes to the eldest. The younger sons either became monks or became knights with one shield.

The sources of the story are legends and traditions gleaned from the east, which came into contact with Celtic legends. A cycle of legends about King Arthur. Romances of chivalry are bizarre - unbridled fantasy, and 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 chivalric romances: ancient, Breton and oriental (idyllic). The earliest is ancient, influenced by Virgil, Ovid and Alexander the Great. One of the first chivalric novels is a novel about Alexander. This is not quite a romance of chivalry. A chivalric romance must have a knight. Feats in the name of a beautiful lady. Alexander the Great gave material about education, about horses, about battles, but there was no lady. From Virgil they took the Dido-Aeneas-Lavinius triangle. The authors changed the plot: Dido’s love was uncourtly, so Aeneas abandoned her, but Lavinia is a beautiful lady - Virgil has almost no information about her, so the authors drew her to their liking.

Oriental 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 a battle, an Eastern knight finds a Christian child on the battlefield, he takes him and raises him. The son of an eastern knight wants to marry this Christian woman, so they are trying to melt her into a harem. The boy looks for her and dresses up as a woman. It all ends with a wedding. In the European version, it is sold to the Vikings. "Floir and Blanchefleur", "Aucassin and Nicollet".

The main area where chivalric romances appeared was the north of France and the possessions of the English Plantagenets. This is a Breton chivalric romance. It is divided into 4 groups: 1) Breton lays; 2) Arthurian novels, novels about the knights of the round table; 3) novels about the Holy Grail; 4) apart - novels about Tristan and Isolde.

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

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

Novels about the Holy Grail. In the French version, this is the cup from which Christ drank at the last supper, and then his blood was collected there. Magic properties. The cup is lost. Legend: when it is found, prosperity will come throughout the world. But the knight is guided by chivalric ethics, and the Grail is a Christian shrine. The problem of the relationship between chivalric ethics and Christian morality. Preference is given to Christian morality. No one can find the Grail except the purest knight. "The Romance of Percival." German version - Wolfram von Eschenbach "Parzival". The Grail is not a cup, but a precious stone with the same properties. So is the cup. Altar stone. Knight Gamoret of Anjou loves exploits - the east, Ethiopia, princess Beloneska, son. He gets bored, leaves for Europe, saves Hertsiloida there, another son. He goes to war and dies. Hertsiloida decides to save Parzival from such a fate and goes into the forests. But you can't escape fate. At the age of 15, Parzival sees knights. He leaves with them. Absolute innocence and sinlessness, so he encounters 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 - only an old woman is nearby, who scolds him for not asking one single question, then he would have freed them. He has been searching for the Grail for many years.

on the topic: The originality of English novels of the Arthurian cycle

Introduction

From the time of its inception, the Old English epic was distinguished by great originality, since it absorbed not only the Germanic, but also the Celtic epic and folklore tradition.

The image of King Arthur united a large cycle of chivalric novels, transforming and changing in different historical eras. Based on the legends about King Arthur, the novels “Arthur”, “Arthur and Merlin”, “Lancelot of the Lake” and others were created. Legends about his exploits were popular not only in knighthood, but also among the people. There was a belief that King Arthur would rise from the tomb and return to earth. The plots of many French and English novels are connected with the legends about King Arthur and his knights. Along with the knights, the wizard Merlin and the fairy Morgana act. The fairytale element makes the story particularly entertaining.

Let us consider in this work the originality of the English novels of the Arthurian cycle.

1. English literature early Middle Ages <#"justify">. Prerequisites for the formation of myths about Arthur

The Celtic element in Arthurian legends is the oldest and most significant. By the beginning of our era, the Celtic civilization had already broken up into several autonomous branches, between which there was, of course, constant exchange; they had common origins, but their paths and destinies were different, as were their contributions to the formation of Arthurian legends. It was also important that many Celtic tribes had a ban on recording sacred and literary texts. When this ban was lifted, or rather forgotten, only the latest versions of Celtic legends and traditions were recorded.

Traces of Irish and Welsh variants of myths and legends in Arthurian tales are visible much more clearly than the pro-Celtic element. However, for example, the Celtic cult of lakes and springs reached the Arthurian tradition, in which a lot is said about water: heroes spend entire periods of their lives in the depths of lakes (Lancelot was raised in an underwater castle by the Lady of the Lake), appears from the lake and returns to the lake King Arthur's sword - Excalibur. The theme of the ford, which not everyone can find and where decisive battles between the heroes take place, is also very typical of Arthurian tales.

It is also impossible not to note the widespread cult of animals among the Celts, which were often endowed with supernatural powers and were in complex relationships with people, either enmity or friendship. In Arthurian legends, horses, boars, hawks, and dogs almost always have their own names and enter into active communication with people, while at the same time maintaining independence from them.

It is interesting to mention here the role of the raven in the Arthurian cycle: according to legend, Arthur did not die, but turned into a raven, and when Britain was in mortal danger, he would return and save her. Among the Celts, the raven was a mythical character. “This bird... was associated with the cult of the Sun, and later... associated with warrior deities...”

It would be erroneous to say that Celtic legends are the direct source of the legends about the Round Table of King Arthur, but they lie at the basis of these legends, and, probably, as A.D. Mikhailov notes, “... the Irish sagas are ... a parallel, to a certain extent even a model of the legends of King Arthur. There should be no linear genetic series here.” Thus, it is imprudent to see King Ulad Conchobar as a prototype of King Arthur, but his wisdom and justice are similar to the qualities of the King of Armorica, and his court at Emain Macha is reminiscent of Arthur's Camelot. “Truly, all the valiant warriors from among the husbands of Ulad found a place for themselves in the royal house during drinking parties, and yet there was no crowding. Brilliant, stately, beautiful were the valiant warriors, the people of Ulad, who gathered in this house. Many great meetings of all kinds and wonderful entertainment took place there. There were games, music and singing, heroes showed feats of dexterity, poets sang their songs, harpists and musicians played various instruments.”

In the legends about King Arthur we find echoes of Celtic myths. As A.D. Mikhailov notes: “At the same time, the multi-layered nature of myths can hardly be taken into account with sufficient accuracy. Let us add that the tales about Arthur recorded in Welsh texts are of secondary origin,<...>there are quite a few Irish elements in them. In the Celtic mythological system there is more than one layer. This system developed in constant interaction and collision with the rudiments of the mythology of the Picts (who gave world culture the prototype of Tristan) and with the tales of neighboring peoples (in particular, obviously, the Scandinavians, who had long raided the British Isles).” In addition to the multi-layered cultural traditions that influenced the formation of legends about the Round Table of King Arthur, Christianity was a very effective factor in their development. The British Isles, especially Ireland, became Christianized very early and very peacefully. The Celtic pagan culture was not destroyed, but enriched the Christian one, which, in turn, brought with it the traditions of Greek and Roman literature, and they found solid ground here. It was precisely thanks to the folk beliefs that were not supplanted by Christianity, but that adapted to it, that Arthurian legends turned out to be so saturated with motifs of the supernatural, miraculous, and fantastic. Thus, characteristic features The Celtic worldview was even strengthened in some ways thanks to the transformations caused by Christianity.

Let's look at specific examples. Thus, Merlin probably inherited the traits of the Celtic poet and soothsayer Myrddin, a clairvoyant capable of penetrating all the secrets of the past, present and future. This character embodied all the supernatural traits inherent, according to the Celts, in the philids. Myrddin, who in medieval legends turned into Merlin, was born of a maiden and as a baby was already as wise as an old man.

The origin story of King Arthur and the description of his path to the throne are very interesting. According to Celtic traditions, “upon the accession of a new king to the throne, the filid had to confirm the noble origin of the applicant and take an oath of allegiance from him to ancient customs.” When Arthur pulls the sword Excalibur out of the stone, the magician Merlin is present, testifying to Arthur’s noble origins, and the Christian archbishop, blessing him for the kingdom, and also taking an oath from him to be a true king and stand for justice (remember how easily and quickly the Christianization in the Celtic environment).

Some researchers also find echoes of Celtic legends in the story of how Arthur, the son of Uther and Igerna, was born. Thus, X. Adolf writes in his essay “The Concept of Reflection of Original Sin in Arthur’s Knightly Romance”: “We do not know what Uther is - a misreading of the name, a man or God; We don’t know what exactly Igerna allegedly did; whether this simple “war chief” belonged to the ruling family, was he a new Hercules, was he descended from a Celtic God.”

The role of women in the Arthurian cycle is also noteworthy. The Celts adopted the “custom of inheriting through the female line. For example, the hero of the medieval legend of Celtic origin, Tristan, succeeded his mother’s brother King Mark.” It is interesting to note that the name of King Arthur's wife, who plays a significant role in the cycle, is found in old Welsh texts, where it sounds like Gwynfevar - “white spirit”. During the development and transformation of Arthurian myths, the cult of the Virgin Mary is superimposed on the traditions of the Celts, which gives rise to one of the most common themes of the cycle - the theme of the Beautiful Lady.

Another image of Arthurian legends, Gawain, throughout the entire development of Arthuriana, retains a number of its original features that characterize the initial stage of the formation of myths about Arthur. Under the name Valvain or Gwolchmai, he becomes one of the earliest characters in the Arthurian cycle.

Welsh by birth, he is endowed with such primitive and crude features that the Anglo-Normans find it difficult to accept.

Gawain carries few of these traits throughout the entire cycle. They are preserved even in Malory's text dating back to the end of the 15th century: its strength grows from dawn to noon and disappears with sunset; his maternal kinship is much more important than his paternal kinship; everything connected with Gawain bears the stamp of magic, and in general his adventures have a special element of fantasy and even grotesqueness.

From the very beginning he was one of Arthur's most prominent associates and was too prominent a figure to disappear later. This did not happen, but as new characters appeared who “usurped” many of Gawain’s traits and adventures, he gradually faded into the shadows. Professor E. Vinaver writes: “The story of Gawain is especially interesting.

Gawain, as a simple and rude nature, in which traits characteristic of the pre-feudal era were still strongly reflected, from the point of view of the church and feudal norms, was morally unacceptable. Initially, he apparently acted as the queen’s lover, who saved her from imprisonment in the other world. Only much later did Lancelot, rather than Gawain, become Guinevere’s lover. And, of course, it was Lancelot who inherited many of the traits originally characteristic of Gawain.

In the story of the war between Arthur and Emperor Lucius, Gawain is given a heroic role. And at the end of the book, despite the fact that Gawain's hatred of Lancelot and determination to avenge his relatives entail tragic consequences, his image acquires a truly epic grandeur, which even his shortcomings seem to contribute to. It is perhaps necessary to bear in mind here that Malory used both French and English sources, and some of these inconsistencies are explained by the method of his work.

The conflict between Gawain and Lancelot in T. Malory symbolizes the struggle of two different ideas, two worlds. Gawain represents old world, his deepest feelings (for example, a feeling of blood relationship). Lancelot personifies the new (although, perhaps due to the archaic nature of the historical material underlying the Arthurian cycle, and in this hero there is a struggle between the old and the new), his loyalty is the loyalty of a vassal to his overlord. In this battle, the unstable balance between the two worlds, maintained by the Round Table, collapsed.

Not only does the image of Gawain undergo various changes as Arthuriana transforms under the influence of sociocultural reasons, but the image of Arthur himself acquires new meaning (in early myths, he himself, his actions and relationships with others are of great interest; in later versions, the hero, as a rule, is is one of the Knights of the Round Table, while Arthur is given the role of a symbol), ideals affirmed by legends (if at first the main theme is military achievements, then later the norms of courtly politeness are preached), etc.

Let us consider the first written origins of the formation of Arthuriana. Nennius's reference to Arthur, dating from 858, which speaks of the famous British military leader (dux bellonan), who won twelve victories over the Anglo-Saxons and Picts, can hardly be considered mythological. Note, however, that some researchers consider it as an indication of the legend of Arthur, which by this time had already firmly won the sympathy of people. So, for example, M.P. Alekseev argues this by saying that “Gildas (6th century) does not yet say anything about Arthur, although he talks in detail about the struggle of the Celts against the Anglo-Saxon conquerors; Anglo-Saxon sources, for example, Bede and the chronicles, do not report anything about him.” So, let's see where the literary versions of the Arthurian cycle originate.

For a long time, legends about Arthur existed only verbally. folk art, and Latin sources report only on the popularity of Arthurian legends in the Celtic environment (William of Malmesbury, who wrote at the beginning of the 12th century, not without condemnation, noted the extraordinary spread among the population of legends about Arthur, which the people “rave about to this day”). These sources, as E. Faral believed, served as the starting point for Geoffrey of Monmouth, his “History of the Britons,” which appeared about ten years after the works of William of Malmesbury, since it was in this book that Arthur was first depicted in full size as a world-conquering monarch, surrounded by an exquisite court and the bravest knights.

Geoffrey lived on the Welsh border, his immediate patrons were the Marcher barons, who established new forms of feudal power in this area. His History was dedicated to the most powerful of them, Earl Robert of Gloucester, and, for political insurance, to his enemy Stephen of Blois. There is no doubt that Geoffrey had good opportunity to become acquainted with the traditions of Wales. He even claimed to have in his possession “one very ancient book in the language of the Britons,” although no trace of such a book or anything like it survived. In any case, she could only give him scant material. It is also possible that he knew some of the legends, later completely forgotten, that circulated in Cornwall and Brittany.

It must be assumed that such legends really existed and Geoffrey drew a lot from them for his book. In this regard, it is interesting that, although Geoffrey cannot help but talk about the people’s faith in Arthur’s miraculous salvation, he refutes this legend to the best of his ability. Geoffrey's "History" immediately gained lasting popularity, and everyone who subsequently turned to this topic drew a lot from this book.

Let's take a closer look at how Geoffrey tells the story of the legendary king. First of all, in the History of the Britons, Arthur is a wise and just ruler. As A.D. Mikhailov writes, “in the portrayal of Geoffrey he becomes on a par with such ideal rulers (according to the ideas of the Middle Ages) as Alexander the Great or Charlemagne. But this is not yet the gray-haired wise old man that Arthur appears in the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s closest successors.

In "The History of the Britons" the whole life of the hero passes before the reader. The greatest attention is paid to his numerous victorious campaigns, to how he diligently and wisely “gathers lands” and creates a vast and powerful empire. And this empire perishes not because of the luck or courage of its enemies, but because of human gullibility, on the one hand, and treachery, on the other.” Along with Arthur's military achievements, Geoffrey tells us about the main features of his character, thereby laying the foundation for the myth of the “fairest of kings”: “The youth Arthur was fifteen years old, and he was distinguished by unheard-of valor and the same generosity. His innate benevolence was so endearing to him that there was almost no one who did not love him. So, crowned with the royal crown and observing the ancient custom, he began to shower the people with his bounty.”

It is Geoffrey of Monmouth who introduces into the story of King Arthur a romantic motif about the destructiveness of female charms - “the cause of the death of the powerful Arthurian state is ultimately the infidelity of Guinevere, who entered into a love affair with Mordred, the king’s nephew.”

. Classic Arthuriana

Speaking about classical Arthuriana, it is necessary to imagine the features of the mentality of medieval man, as well as the sociocultural processes that shaped him. Only then does it become possible to understand why there was a need for precisely that mythological reality, that second idealized world, which are presented in the works of Layamon, Chretien de Troyes, Vas, Eschenbach and others. Reflecting on the history of previous eras, people cannot help but compare them with your time. But when comparing our era or civilization with others, we, as a rule, apply our own, modern standards to them. But if we try to see the past as it “really” was, in Ranke’s words, we will inevitably be faced with the need to evaluate it objectively, to try to understand how a person of a particular era perceived the world around him.

When thinking about the cultural significance of the legends about King Arthur's Round Table, it is necessary, if possible, to take into account the unique vision of the world inherent in medieval man. Much in this era seems irrational and contradictory. The constant interweaving of polar opposites: gloomy and comical, physical and spiritual, life and death is an integral feature of the medieval worldview. Such contrasts found their basis in the social life of the era - in the irreconcilable opposites of domination and subordination, wealth and poverty, privilege and humiliation.

The medieval Christian worldview seemed to remove real contradictions, transferring them to a higher level of comprehensive supra-world categories.

It is impossible not to note the fact that the “image of the world” that developed in the minds of representatives of different social strata and passes of feudal society was not the same: knights, townspeople, peasants treated reality differently, which could not but leave a certain imprint on the medieval culture.

It should also not be overlooked that (since literacy was the property of a few) in this culture, authors mainly addressed listeners, not readers, therefore, spoken texts, not read ones, dominated in it. Moreover, these texts, as a rule, were unconditionally accepted on faith. As N.I. Conrad noted, “the “love potion” in the novel “Tristan and Isolde” is not “mysticism” at all, but simply a product of the pharmacology of that time, and not only for the heroes of the novel, but also for Gottfried of Strasbourg, not to mention about his predecessors in the treatment of the plot."

On the one hand, the medieval worldview was distinguished by its integrity - hence its specific undifferentiation, the lack of differentiation of its individual spheres; This is also where confidence in the unity of the universe comes from. Therefore, the culture of the Middle Ages should be considered as a unity of different spheres, each of which reflects all the creative practical activities of people of that time. From this point of view, one should obviously consider the cycles about King Arthur's Round Table.

On the other hand, all social processes in Britain were closely connected with the relations between different ethnic groups, the formation of the ethnic identity of the Anglo-Saxons and, later, the British. As E.A. Sherwood notes: “The transition from a tribe to a new ethnic community was closely connected among them (Anglo-Saxons - OL.) ​​with the transition from a pre-state form of organization of society to a state one.” All this is closely related to the change and impact of certain sociocultural conditions on the life of society.

The opposition of different ethnic groups to each other, their influence on each other, and sometimes their merging and the birth of a new perception of the world by the resulting ethnic community - all this is directly dependent on the awareness of territorial boundaries and on the relationship between people as landowners.

With the expansion of the spatial distribution of the new ethnic group and with the emergence of an awareness of territorial unity, society “was internally delimited along social lines, opposing itself only to external foreign ethnic groups.” Thus, simultaneously with the formation and development of territorial and ethnic self-awareness among the Anglo-Saxons, the social structure of society was becoming more and more complex. And further, as E.A. notes. Sherwood: “Despite... the conquest of England by immigrants from France, despite attempts to introduce in England the same orders that dominated the continent and slowed down the formation of peoples due to the emergence of classical feudalism there, in England... the English people very quickly arose . The early withering away of the feudal basis with the preservation of only the forms of the feudal system, the early attraction of the bulk of the free population to public life led to the rapid formation of conditions for the formation of the English nation...” All these aspects, of course, left a certain imprint on further development legends about King Arthur.

Reflecting on the cultural significance of the Arthurian cycle, one cannot help but take into account that from the very beginning there was a sharp difference between the processing of these legends in England and in France.

In England, the pseudo-historical background that Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced into the Arthurian legends has always been preserved, although this background was constantly modified and developed under the influence of French adaptations of the same plots. At the same time, French authors of poetic and prose novels of chivalry were interested in the personality of the hero, describing in every possible way his adventures, as well as the events of his personal life and the vicissitudes of sophisticated and artificial love. In addition, in the English version there is always a feeling of epic scope, which is completely absent in the French. These differences are revealed very early - already when comparing the pro-censions of Layamon, who wrote in English, and Vas, who wrote in the Norman-French dialect. Both authors borrow the plot directly from Geoffrey of Monmouth, but Vas's novel is distinguished by the precision of its style compared to the simple folk and epic silent of Layamon.

Layamon, for example, constantly remembers that Arthur was not a French, but a British king, but for Vas this has almost no care. Everything associated with Arthur in England contributed to the strengthening of the growing national spirit and was nourished by it, although, of course, we can talk about the existence of a British or English nation during the Middle Ages. Although the Round Table is first mentioned in the History of the Britons, it is rather the development of the Arthurian plot by Laillon that is of interest. This plot, found in an early version already in Welsh legends, owed its development largely to the knightly orders that arose in the 12th century. But it is also associated with legends about military detachments of kings or leaders of the feudal “heroic age”.

In French legends, the leading principle is the knightly principle, which was an integral part of the refined atmosphere of the royal courts, which arose everywhere in that era, and served as the motivation for all sorts of fantastic adventures. In contrast to the emu, Layamon emphasizes ancient motifs that were heard in Welsh legends. As a truly epic poet, he connects the legend with bloody battles for food.

Layamon's style is quite different from Vas's, which is explained by the difference in the intentions of the authors. Thus, Layamon, in the opening verses of his Brutus, declared that he wanted to tell “the noble deeds of the English,” and this theme, indeed, is the basis for him; he loves valor, energy, power, brave speeches and heroic battles; knightly courtly adventures are still alien to him, as well as the sentimental interpretation of love.”

It is no wonder that Layamon interprets the image of Arthur completely differently than you. Where it comes to military fun and feasts, “if Layamon does not skimp on depicting the pomp and splendor of the legendary British royal court, then he does this mainly for patriotic reasons, to characterize the power, strength and glory of Britain, and not just for the picturesque -decorative, aesthetic considerations that often guided you.”

The difference between these two authors is also evident in the extent to which religious motifs are present in their works. If in Layamon all the heroes are staunch defenders of Christianity, and all the villains are certainly pagans, then Vas tries, if possible, not to touch upon the topic of faith and remain a secular writer.

One of the most prominent medieval authors who addressed the Arthurian theme was the French novelist Chrétien de Troyes. The Arthurian world of Chrétien de Troyes arose a long time ago, exists for a very long time, in fact always, but exists outside of contact with the world of reality, in another dimension. It is no coincidence that according to Chrétien de Troyes, Arthur's kingdom of Logre does not have clear boundaries and is not localized geographically: Arthur reigns where the spirit of chivalry exists. And vice versa: the latter is possible only thanks to Arthur, who is his embodiment and supreme guarantor. In Chrétien de Troyes, Arthur's kingdom becomes a poetic utopia, not a social utopia, but primarily a moral one.

In his novels, Chrétien de Troyes refuses to describe in detail the entire life of the hero. It is as if he selects from the eternal existence of Arthur's world a typical hero and a striking episode to which he devotes the novel. Therefore, in a novel there is always one hero (the novel is usually named after him) and one conflict, around which all the action is concentrated. You can, of course, talk not about one hero, but about one love couple, but women in novels still occupy a subordinate place, although sometimes they play a very significant role. The concentration of the plot around one episode in which the young hero acts leads to the fact that King Arthur, the personification and defender of true chivalry, practically does not take part in the action. As much as the hero is young, active and capable of self-development, the king is infinitely wise, old and essentially static.

An important feature of Chrétien de Troyes's novels is the atmosphere of happy love and sublime idea of ​​heroism that fills them. Meaningful love and meaningful feat go hand in hand, they exalt a person, assert his right to a deeply individual, unique inner world.

The hero of Chretien's novels is of the same type. He is a knight, but that is not the main thing; he is always young. Young Erec (“Erec and Enida”), coming to the court of King Arthur for the first time; Yvain (“Ivain, or the Knight of the Lion”), although he has already received recognition as a member of the Arthurian knightly brotherhood, is also young, and the main adventures still lie ahead of him; Lancelot (“Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart”) is no exception; his character is also in internal development, in motion, although it does not undergo such strong changes as the characters of Yvain and Erec. The main plot of Chretien de Troyes's novels can be formulated as follows: “... a young hero-knight in search of moral harmony.” These are the main features of the Arthurian novel by Chrétien de Troyes

This is how J. Brereton formulates the essence of Chrétien de Troyes’s novels in the book “ Brief History French literature": "...endless adventures and exploits with weapons in hand, love stories, seduction, captivity. A lonely tower, a dark forest, a girl on a horse, an evil dwarf - everything appears in curiously detailed descriptions and can hardly be called symbolism.”61 These novels are not built on an allegorical or symbolic narrative; they are focused on the mythological worldview, which determines their special composition and special plot motivation. “... Chrétien de Troyes can describe the ideal order in the “endless” kingdom of Logre, where everything is subordinated to the will of the just King Arthur, and then calmly declare that the knight, who left the royal castle of Camelot, immediately found himself in an enchanted forest teeming with Arthur’s opponents "

For the author, there is no contradiction at all in such a transition: after all, he describes two different realities, mythologically coexisting, but not interconnected, and the hero’s transition from one to another is instantaneous and is not realized by him. J. Brereton identifies two topics that interest Chrétien de Troyes most of all: “the duty of a knight by vocation - the honor and prestige of a warrior - and the duty towards his lady.”

It is probably these two motives that cause the greatest protest from Payen de Maizières, the “author” of the novel “A Mule Without a Bridle” (if Chrétien de Troyes is translated as “Christian from Troyes”, then Payen de Maizières is “Pagan from Maizières”, a town located nearby from Troyes; we do not know who was hiding behind this pseudonym - one or more authors). In “A Mule Without a Bridle,” Gauvin, the main character, has no need to defend his honor and prestige as the strongest fighter - no one, and, first of all, the heroine herself, who on her own initiative gives him a kiss before he completes the task, doubts the knight’s success (which this cannot be said, for example, about Sir Kay, who is present here). Moreover, in “A Mule Without a Bridle” the villein turns out to be worthy of all respect - a man of far from noble origin; in the novels of Chrétien de Troyes, the villans were usually contrasted with the knights with rudeness and cowardice, but here the villeins are extremely polite and courageous.

The relationship between the knight and the ladies is also very far from the ideals of Chrétien de Troyes. Promising to become the wife of the one who returns her bridle, the girl safely leaves Arthur’s castle, apparently forgetting about this promise, and the knight does not even think of keeping her. Moreover, before receiving the reins, Gauvin dines in the company of a certain beautiful lady, who turns out to be the heroine’s sister. The latter so cordially treats the knight, who apparently fully appreciates her hospitality, that the narrator is forced to remain silent and refuse to describe the dinner.

Of course, the situations are far from the ideals of Chrétien de Troyes, all of whose characters, to one degree or another, fight for marital happiness (the exception is “Lancelot, or the Knight of the Cart,” the author wrote this novel by order of Maria Champagne). This kind of controversy is very interesting example how the Arthurian legends expressed and shaped the ideals of the Middle Ages, especially since Payen de Maizières left unchanged the mythological basis of the chivalric romance.

In the middle of the 14th century, the anonymous English novel Sir Gawain and the Green Knight appeared. B. Grebanier characterizes it as follows: “Of all the poetic novels, not one can compare in beauty with the novel by an anonymous author of the mid-14th century, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the most exquisite works among those that have come down to us from medieval literature. It is also an allegory, the purpose of which is to set an example of chastity, courage and honor - the qualities inherent in a perfect knight." As a fairly late work, the novel is allegorical through and through, “Ode “glorifies Christian virtues in complex allegories and in this merges with the typical genre of the era - the didactic allegorical poem, which arose entirely on urban soil.” middle ages english king arthur

As we can see, the differences in the interpretation of Arthurian legends by authors of different nationalities or simply holding different points of view are undeniable. At the same time, the chivalric romances that form the classical Arthuriana have a common feature: they are built on the same mythological basis. Raising various problems or discussing the priority of certain values, they create a single ideal world, a second reality, which includes norms of behavior, qualities attributed to knights, and the characteristics of their environment.

The Normanized Arthur and his court were a model of chivalry. Let's consider what features were associated with the ideal of a knight.

The knight had to come from a good family. True, sometimes they were knighted for exceptional military exploits, but almost all the knights of the Round Table flaunt their birth, among them there are many royal sons, almost everyone has a luxurious family tree.

A knight must be distinguished by beauty and attractiveness. Most Arthurian cycles provide a detailed description of the heroes, as well as their attire, emphasizing the external advantages of the knights.

The knight needed strength, otherwise he would not be able to wear armor that weighed sixty to seventy kilograms. He showed this strength, as a rule, in his youth. Arthur himself pulled out a sword stuck between two stones when he was very young (however, there was some magic involved).

A knight must have professional skills: control a horse, wield a weapon, etc.

A knight was expected to be tireless in his pursuit of glory. Glory required constant confirmation, overcoming more and more new challenges. Yvain from Chrétien de Troyes' novel "Yvain, or the Knight of the Lion" cannot remain with his wife after the wedding. Friends make sure that he does not become pampered in inaction and remembers what his fame obliges him to do. He had to wander until the opportunity came to fight with someone. There is no point in doing good deeds if they are destined to remain unknown. Pride is completely justified, as long as it is not exaggerated. Rivalry over prestige leads to stratification within the fighting elite, although in principle all knights are considered equal, symbolized in the Arthurian legends by the Round Table at which they sit.

It is clear that with such constant concern for prestige, courage is required from a knight, and the heaviest accusation is the accusation of lack of courage. The fear of being suspected of cowardice led to a violation of the elementary rules of strategy (for example, Erec in Chrétien de Troyes’ novel “Erec and Enida” forbids Enide, who is riding ahead, from warning him about the danger). Sometimes this ended in the death of the knight and his squad. Courage is also necessary to fulfill the duty of fidelity and loyalty.

The relentless rivalry did not violate the solidarity of the knightly elite as such, a solidarity that extended to the enemies who belonged to the elite. In one of the legends, a simple warrior boasts that he killed a noble knight of the enemy camp, but the noble commander orders the proud man to be hanged.

If courage was necessary for a knight as a military man, then with his generosity, which was expected of him and which was considered an indispensable property of a nobleman, he benefited the people dependent on him and those who glorified the exploits of knights at the courts in the hope of a good treat and gifts suitable for the occasion. It is not for nothing that in all the legends about the Knights of the Round Table, not the least place is given to descriptions of feasts and gifts in honor of a wedding, coronation (sometimes coinciding) or some other event.

A knight, as is known, must remain unconditionally faithful to his obligations towards his equals. The custom of making strange knightly vows, which had to be fulfilled contrary to all the rules of common sense, is well known. Thus, the seriously wounded Erec refuses to live at least a few days in King Arthur’s camp to allow his wounds to heal, and sets off on a journey, risking death in the forest from his wounds.

Class brotherhood did not prevent the knights from fulfilling the duty of revenge for any insult, real or imaginary, inflicted on the knight himself or his loved ones. The marriage was not particularly strong: the knight was constantly outside the house in search of glory, and the wife who was left alone usually knew how to “reward” herself for his absence. The sons were brought up at the courts of others (Arthur himself was brought up at the court of Sir Ector). But the clan showed unity; when it came to revenge, the entire clan also bore responsibility. It is no coincidence that in the Arthurian cycle such an important role is played by the conflict between two large rival groups - the adherents and relatives of Gawain, on the one hand, and the adherents and relatives of Lancelot, on the other.

The knight had a number of obligations towards his overlord. Knights were charged with special gratitude to the one who ordained them to knighthood, as well as care for orphans and widows. Although the knight was supposed to provide support to anyone in need of help, the legends do not speak of a single weak man offended by fate. On this occasion, it is appropriate to quote M. Ossovskaya’s witty remark: “Even, the Knight of the Lion, protects offended girls wholesale: he frees from the power of a cruel tyrant three hundred girls who, in cold and hunger, must weave cloth from gold and silver threads. Their touching complaint deserves to be noted in the exploitation literature.”

It was not so much the victory that brought glory to the knight, but his behavior in battle. The battle could have ended in defeat and death without damaging his honor. Death in battle was even a good ending to the biography - it was not easy for the knight to come to terms with the role of a frail old man. The knight was obliged to give the enemy equal chances whenever possible. If the enemy fell from his horse (and in armor he could not climb into the saddle without outside help), the one who knocked him out also dismounted to equalize the chances. “I will never kill a knight who fell from his horse! - exclaims Lancelot. “God protect me from such shame.”

Taking advantage of an enemy's weakness did not bring glory to the knight, and killing an unarmed enemy covered the killer with shame. Lancelot, a knight without fear and reproach, could not forgive himself for having somehow killed two unarmed knights in the heat of battle and noticed it when it was too late; he made a pilgrimage on foot wearing only a tailored shirt to atone for this sin. It was impossible to strike from behind. The knight in armor had no right to retreat. Anything that could be considered cowardice was unacceptable.

The knight, as a rule, had a lover. At the same time, he could only show adoration and care for a lady of his own class, who sometimes occupied a higher position in relation to him. Contrary to popular belief, sighs from afar were the exception rather than the rule. As a rule, love was not platonic, but carnal, and the knight experienced it for someone else’s wife, not his own (a classic example is Lancelot and Guinevere, Arthur’s wife).

Love had to be mutually faithful, lovers had to overcome various difficulties. The most difficult test that the lady of his heart could subject a lover to is Lancelot's Guinevere, whom he saves at the cost of dishonor. The lover is looking for Guinevere, who has been kidnapped by evil forces, and sees a dwarf riding a cart. The dwarf promises Lancelot to reveal where Guinevere is hidden, provided that the knight gets into the cart - an act that can dishonor the knight and make him the subject of ridicule (knights were carried in a cart only for execution!). Lancelot finally decides to do this, but Guinevere is offended by him: before getting into the cart, he took three more steps.

The Church tried to use chivalry to its advantage, but the Christian shell of chivalry was extremely thin. Adultery was considered a sin and was officially condemned, but all sympathies were on the side of the lovers, and at God's court (ordeals) God allowed himself to be easily deceived when it came to a treacherous spouse. Guinevere, whose affair with Lancelot lasted for years, swore that none of the eleven knights sleeping in the neighboring chambers entered her at night; Lancelot, who enjoyed this privilege, was the twelfth knight not included in the calculations. This oath was enough to save the queen from being burned at the stake. Deceived husbands often have a heartfelt affection for their wife's lover (this is how King Arthur treats Lancelot). God, too, judging by the fact that the bishop guarding Lancelot’s body dreams of angels carrying the knight to heaven, forgives sinful love.

Social relations of the Middle Ages were primarily interpersonal, that is, mostly direct and immediate. Establishing a connection between a lord and a vassal implied the acceptance of certain obligations by both parties. The vassal was obliged to serve his lord, provide him with all possible assistance, and remain faithful and devoted. For his part, the lord had to patronize the vassal, protect him, and be fair to him. Entering into this relationship, the lord accepted solemn oaths from the vassal (the ritual of homage), which made their connection unbreakable.

The peasant was obliged to pay a quitrent to the feudal lord, and he was obliged to protect his peasants, and in case of famine, feed them from his reserves. There was a very clear division of labor: not freedom and dependence, but service and fidelity were the central categories of medieval Christianity. That is why in Arthurian legends it is always very carefully sorted out who was whose squire and who was whose vassal. However, the hierarchy of privilege, freedom, dependence and lack of freedom was also a hierarchy of services. In feudal society were very clearly divided and defined by custom or law social roles, and the life of each person depended on his role.

It is impossible not to notice that in the legends very close attention is paid to material culture; Moreover, the real requirements for it, determined by the necessity of life, are closely linked with the mythical qualities with which medieval authors generously endow all kinds of armor (not pierceable with conventional weapons), weapons (piercing enchanted armor), cups (from which only those faithful to their ladies for knights), cloaks (which can only be worn by the same ladies), etc.

Let's take a closer look at some examples. Speaking about the material culture reflected in the legends of the Arthurian cycle, one cannot help but notice that a very large place is devoted to descriptions of war horses, weapons and clothing. And it is not surprising - the function of the knight was to fight: to defend his possessions, sometimes to increase them by capturing neighboring ones, or simply to maintain his prestige by taking part in tournaments (after all, you should think seriously before you try to seize, for example, the land of a knight who won several brilliant victories at the last tournament and was recognized as the strongest).

A war horse is actually one of the most important pieces of equipment a knight can wear in battle. The horses were trained in a special way, and they often helped their masters by rearing up or moving aside in time. Each war horse had its own name, it was groomed and cherished. Many legends tell of horses that spoke humanly and often gave very good advice to their masters. Considerable attention was paid to the description of the armor and weapons of the knights, the reliability and convenience of which were important for success in the campaign and victory in the tournament. The knight's weapons, as a rule, consisted of a sword and a spear, sometimes a lance. Often the sword was a family heirloom, had its own history, a name, often symbolic (some researchers give the following interpretation of the name of Arthur’s sword: Excalibur - “I cut steel, iron and everything”); When knighted, a sword was a mandatory attribute.

The clothing of knights is described in great detail in legends from the point of view of its functional significance. Before a battle, clothes are put on under the armor; it must be sewn in such a way that the armor does not rub the skin, and the metal of the armor, hot in the heat, does not touch the body. Traveling clothing was lighter to make long journeys less tiring - a constant feature of chivalric romances - and to provide protection for the knight.

The description of the ladies' clothing also allows us to judge its functional significance: it is comfortable and practical when the lady is a housewife and is engaged in practical activities (she constantly has to go down to the basements, climb the towers); the elegance of clothing is of primary importance only if it is ceremonial (in this case, fabrics, gold tassels, furs, decorations are described in detail), and color is also taken into account, since in addition to the heraldic meaning, it can be used to emphasize the beauty of the hero or heroine.

Almost every work of the Arthurian cycle features some kind of castle - enchanted, impregnable, or one that a lovely lady promises with her hand and heart to a knight after he completes his task.

To understand why such an important role in chivalric romances is often given to castles and those who inhabit them, let us dwell in more detail on a number of historical facts.

The first fortification built by order of William the Conqueror immediately after the landing of his troops in England was the motte, a fortification previously unknown in the British Isles. At first, the motte was an earthen hill surrounded by a moat. At its top, a wooden tower was built, the foundation of which was powerful logs dug into the ground. It was these fortifications that the Normans used as strongholds in Hastings. On the territory of England they erected many mottes, with their help strengthening their dominance in the conquered lands.

Usually the motte had the shape of a truncated cone or hemisphere; the diameter of its base could reach 100 m, and its height - 20 m. In most cases, a bailey was adjacent to the motte - an area fenced with an earthen rampart, a ditch, and a palisade. This double line of earthworks was called a motte and bailey castle. Another type of medieval building is a miniature bailey on the flat top of an embankment with a diameter of 30 to 100 m with the obligatory ditch and palisade. Some baileys served only as cattle pens. Small earthen fortresses were also built everywhere, with pens for livestock also adjacent to them.

Using the labor of peasants, it was possible to relatively quickly carry out earthworks associated with the construction of fortifications. The advantage of the motte was that, apart from the wooden superstructure, it was practically impossible to destroy.

Life in the castle presented the warriors from the lord’s retinue with a choice: either maintain a relationship of camaraderie, or constantly be at enmity with each other. In any case, one had to be tolerant of others and, for this, adhere to certain rules of behavior or, at least, avoid violence.

The moral norms established in the palisaded world later, at the second stage of the development of feudal society, at the end of the 11th century, inspired the troubadours. Their hymns glorified chivalry and love, but in fact they glorified two social achievements - stabilization and the development of new space. Many famous knights were at first simple warriors in the retinue of the feudal lord, but received a high rank for the valor shown in battles. At the same time, a warrior could not achieve honors unless he behaved like a real knight.

Mott also influenced the rural population. In myths, often after getting rid of the cruel beasts that inhabited the castle, or after liberating it from witchcraft, crowds of jubilant, singing and dancing peasants appeared in the formerly deserted area, thanking the knight for his protection. Many farms became dependent on the feudal lord, to whom the peasants were now obliged to pay taxes.

With the change of generations, social balance was gradually established. New relations consolidated the class community of lords, which weakened the sense of constant danger. Castles opened their gates to friends and neighbors, wars gave way to tournaments, and family coats of arms now adorned knights' shields. Where previously cunning and cruelty reigned, now valor and generosity were praised. Thus, from the second stage of the development of feudalism in the setting of the medieval motte, the foundations of the legacy that this era left to descendants and which rightfully earned the name “castle culture” began to be laid.

Conclusion

With the passing of the Middle Ages, the Arthurian cycle was not destined to develop further; True, in fairy tales (Scottish, Irish, English) Arthur appeared, waiting with his knights for the moment of awakening, or Merlin, helping one or another fairy-tale character, but this was the extent of the matter until the 19th century came.

The point is that in XVII-XVIII centuries myth-making on chivalric themes practically did not exist, since feudal ideals not only were not relevant, but could slow down and interfere with the development of society, which explains the abandonment of them in at this stage. Once again, interest in the Middle Ages and the ideals associated with it appears only among the pre-Romanticists (MacPherson’s “Songs of Ossian”). Romantics pick up medieval themes. As bourgeois ideology, focused primarily on material values, causes more and more protest, medieval themes and value systems based on the traditions of chivalry are increasingly used as counteraction.

During the development of the Arthurian cycle, the underlying Celtic mythology largely disappeared from it. “The world of Arthurian legends itself acquired mythological features. Camelot, the Round Table, the brotherhood of knights, and the search for the Grail became new mythologies. It was in this capacity that they were perceived already at the end of the Middle Ages. Therefore, the appeal to Arthurian legends in the 19th-20th centuries by ATennyson, R. Wagner, W. Morris, O. C. Swinburne, D. Joyce (in Finnegans Wake) and many others revived old myths, but the main mythologemes were here not the motives of Celtic folklore, but the ideas of the courtly Middle Ages.” The above authors saw a moral and ethical ideal in the legends of King Arthur; the Pre-Raphaelites (Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others), under the impression of Arthuriana, created their artistic style, drawing from it the impetus for creativity.

References

1. Shkunaev S.V. Traditions and myths of medieval Ireland. -M., 1991. - P. 13.

2.In the world of myths and legends. - St. Petersburg, 1995. - P. 272.

Mikhailov AD. Arthurian legends and their evolution // Malory T. The Death of Arthur. - M., 1974. - P. 799.

Icelandic sagas. Irish epic. - M., 1973. - P. 587.

Samarin R.M., Mikhailov A.D. Knightly novel // History of world literature. - M., 1984. - T. 2. - P. 570.

Geoffrey of Monmouth. History of the Britons. The Life of Merlin - M., 1984.

Culturology. Theory and history of culture. - M., 1996. - P. 146.

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This is a chivalric romance one of the leading genres of medieval literature. It originates in France in the third quarter of the 12th century under the pen of Chrétien de Troyes, who creates classic examples of the genre. In addition to France, the chivalric romance developed most actively, starting from the 13th century, in Germany. Some original examples of the genre were created in England and Spain. In Italy, the chivalric romance did not provide significant examples. There are several main cycles of the chivalric romance:

1. Breton (otherwise called novels about the Knights of the Round Table, or Arthurian), based on ancient Celtic legends preserved in Brittany (novels about Yvaine, Lancelot of the Lake, Gawain, etc.);
2. Ancient, dating back to the Greek and Roman epics (“The Romance of Alexander”, “The Romance of Troy”, “The Romance of Thebes”); about Tristan, which also goes back to Celtic legends;
3. About Parzival or the Holy Grail, in which Celtic traditions are combined with Christian ideals.

The chivalric novel emerges as a genre that embodies the ideas about the world of the feudal knightly class and is an alternative to the folk epic. In contrast to the latter, the chivalric novel immediately takes shape as a written genre, consciously authored, refusing to focus on depicting actually past events. This, in particular, explains the presence of many fairy tale features in it: the depiction of the fate of the protagonist as the basis of the plot, the presence of many fairy-tale characters, functions and motives, the special role of fantasy, and a fairy-tale chronotope. Unlike epic hero, performing feats for the honor of his family, vassal duty, or to protect Christianity from infidels, the protagonist of a chivalric romance acts for the sake of his own self-improvement, personal glory and in the name of a beautiful lady. The courtly ideal of love has a complex relationship with the military duty of a knight and forms the basis for the main conflict of a knightly novel: the personal feelings of the protagonist and his social function. It is this collision that distinguishes a chivalric romance from a fairy tale.

An important feature of the genre is psychologism - a narration about the complex internal experiences of the characters. All this speaks of the influence of courtly lyricism on the chivalric romance, which determined much in its form. Early chivalric romances are written in verse, united by rhyme rather than assonance, as in epic. The poetic form indicates a much greater degree of processing of the literary language than in the epic and other narrative genres, which later develop under its strong influence. Only from the 13th century did prose examples of the genre begin to be created. At the same time, long sets of chivalric romance appeared, primarily the Breton cycle (completed in the 15th century with “The Death of Arthur” by T. Malory), as well as epigonic works. In the same era, the first parodies of the chivalric romance appeared. In the late Middle Ages, the chivalric romance in France gave way to the allegorical poem, and on the Iberian Peninsula new examples of the genre were created, in many ways anticipating Renaissance trends in literature (a series of novels about Amadis of Gaul in Spanish and “Tirant the White” by J. Marturel in Catalan). It is this stable tradition that explains the appearance of “Don Quixote” and “The Wanderings of Persils and Sigismunda” by M. Cervantes, written in the tradition of the genre.

The question of the place of the chivalric romance in the history of the development of the novel genre as a whole has not yet been clearly resolved. A number of researchers (M.M. Bakhtin, G.K. Kosikov, etc.) refuse to recognize it as a full-fledged example of the genre that developed in modern times or even in the Renaissance. Other experts (E.M. Meletinsky, P.A. Grintser and others) believe, on the contrary, that a chivalric romance meets the main features of a modern novel.

The phrase knightly romance comes from French roman chevaleresque.