Four Arthurian Romances: Erec et Enide

By Chrétien de Troyes

Erec et Enide features many of the common elements of Arthurian romance, such as Arthurian characters, the knightly quest, and women or love as a catalyst to action. While it is not the first story to use conventions of the Arthurian characters and setting, Chrétien de Troyes is credited with the invention of the Arthurian romance genre by establishing expectation with his contemporary audience based on its prior knowledge of the subjects.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilder Publications, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781633841161

Reviews for Four Arthurian Romances

[391_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Erec and Enide is a wonderful Arthurian romance by Chretian de Troyes. The Cline translation is so playful and poetic, with the perfectly-rhymed couplets that match the spirit of the original.

[shushilah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Erec and Enide is, in some respects, a fairly run of the mill medieval romance. Boy is an awesome fighter, boy wins girl by being an awesome fighter, stock situations abound. In my opinion, the interesting twist comes when Erec gets too caught up in love, and then tries to re-prove himself... which includes making Enide keep her mouth shut even against common sense. I used to like this one more, but I must admit that it offends my aesthetic a little bit now because of the potential to read it as a very emotionally abusive situation. It's still an interesting read, and not to be missed. Like Yvain, it's a story about marriage, but unlike Yvain, the story revolves more around neglect of warrior's duty rather than neglect of love. The catalogue of themes could go on, but I'll stop here for now.