the Good; it is listed in the inventory prepared in 1467 after his death3. Although the prologue that the prose author substituted for Chrétien’s does not indicate a patron, it is therefore probable that the work was prepared at the Burgundian court4. A longer version of the beginning has also come down to us in a codex presenting the compilation, Guiron le courtois, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), fr. 358-363, executed towards 1480-1490 for Louis de Bruges, a bibliophile in the ducal entourage at the court of Burgundy5. A single folio of this version survives as well, undoubtedly thanks to the illumination that graces it. The fragment in question is from a manuscript that also contained a copy of Guiron le courtois, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 383; it recounts Erec and Enide’s wedding night and the beginning of the tournament at Tenebroc6. The miniature, which marks a chapter break, depicts two

knights jousting during the marriage tournament; beneath it is a rubric-chapter title that reads: “Comment messire Gavain et aultres chevaliers enprinrent ung tournoy dont Erec emporta le pris et l’honneur.”7

The miniaturist presents the combat in a way that was undoubtedly similar to what he or she knew from personal experience: an audience consisting of both men and women observes the duel, which occurs within a tourney yard. The women sit inside a pavilion, while the men watch from a standpoint outside the enclosure. Two knights on horseback confront each other, swords in hand, inside a yard surrounded by a wooden fence. On the ground lie two broken lances, indicating the actors have already completed “round one” in their fight. The armor and clothing worn in the illustration resemble fifteenth-century modes: the women’s headdresses and close-fitting bodices and sleeves are typical of the period, as is the plate armor8.

However, the presentation of the combat in the illumination does not correspond to the description of the tourney found in the fifteenth-century text – for the prose author evokes a mêlée in a plain9, with Erec confronting a series of knights, much as in Chrétien’s poem, and the coronation tourney is depicted in a similar way. Historians have shown that although the mêlée-tournament, which was prominent in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, continued to exist in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it was more and more often replaced by events featuring jousts between single knights10. Why, then, did the

author of the prose Erec feature mêlées in his adaptation? Why did he add a tournament after the coronation? In this essay I will attempt to answer these questions, while studying the prose redactor’s art. Since the coronation tournament is an invention on his part, it will allow an examination of his techniques in their own right. However, for the wedding tournament, a brief comparison of the work of our adaptor with the version in Chrétien’s poem will highlight certain aspects of his methods. In both cases, I will refer to the socio-historical context11.

The wedding tournament

Both Chrétien and the prose redactor detail an event that, though stylized12, resembles twelfth- and thirteenth-century tournaments: a date is decided on in advance and two opposing sides are set up; the event itself takes place in a large open space and is a mêlée involving a good number of knights, though individual jousts occur13. In contrast,

fifteenth-century spectacles usually took place inside an enclosed space. The events were strictly regulated. Stands were usually constructed for the spectators14. As noted above, jousts between single knights grew in importance, but mêlées continued to take place; however, they became more strictly regulated and were often part of an elaborate, theatrical spectacle15. The prose redactor’s version seems to be a somewhat archaic, idealized view of the tournament, an aspect that may well be in keeping with the revival of chivalric values involving a certain nostalgia for the past that is reflected in Philip the Good’s founding of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430, at the time of his marriage to Isabel of Portugal, and in the numerous chivalric treatises produced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries16. Maurice Keen points out that this penchant does not have negative implications: “The men of that period did not … [confuse the march of time with progress; they were more inclined to think that things were going downhill as the world grew older. Their nostalgia had in consequence a positive force, prompting men to strive to maintain or to revivify past values.”17

A quick look at an outline of the wedding tournament will show how the adaptor worked.

Although he follows Chrétien’s general, stylized organization of the event, the prosateur makes a major change (#10): Erec fights against Gauvain’s side, unhorsing Sagremor instead of coming to his aid! He then jousts with Gauvain himself. Moreover, once the two knights have fallen and jumped to their feet, ready to continue their fight, King Arthur has the tournament called to an end, whereas in Chrétien’s original the tourney closes once the losing side has been driven back, inside the castle (#11)18. The adaptor abbreviates or amplifies parts of the combats. Notably, he quickens the pace as Erec confronts his first three opponents (# 4-6). He adds a comic element: when Erec unhorses the Orgueilleux de la Lande, the latter lands on the ground with his feet in the air (#4). And the adaptor substitutes a more

well-known knight, Aguischans, king of Scotland, for the second knight Erec unhorses (# 5)19.

Chrétien begins his description of the tournament with a detailed enumeration of arms and horses, in a rainbow of colors (#1 – 14 verses). The prose author follows suit, but he focuses on the tents and armor shining in the sun and the sumptuous fabrics, rewriting and expanding the scene (#1 and 2 – 23 lines, equivalent to approximately 46 octosyllables). He omits the colors and the extensive list of arms and horses that Chrétien furnishes. He further diverges from his source by adding spectators. In the twelfth-century poem Chrétien evokes no onlookers; those who observe and admire Erec’s prowess are on the field of action with him (#6 and 7). The fifteenth-century adaptor retains this aspect but also introduces women spectators, who ride to the site of the tournament on their palfreys. The narrator enlivens the description by taking their point of view; they have so much to behold that they have all they can do to look “puis cy puis la” (p. 161). Before turning to the combat, the prose redactor makes another addition, describing the call to arms – the sounding of trumpets and bugles – and the actual arming (#2). He lists the large number of “mancettes, penons et recongnoissances” that decorate the helmets, then the elements of the harness, insisting on the beauty of all the sights (the adjective “beau” is repeated six times in the space of 15 lines) (p. 161, 163). This official beginning to the event, which presents the pageantry, is more like the tournaments of the later Middle Ages20. The changes here are stylistic: they point up the adaptor’s art of description. As we shall see, other modifications are more important, affecting the meaning and structure of the romance.

When the verse and prose narrators address the combat, much like film-makers, they give a general picture of the over-all mêlée before focusing on Erec. Chrétien’s vision is figurative: he uses synecdoches, evoking the clash of lances, shields and hauberks to highlight the confrontation. Christine Ferlampin-Acher notes that Chrétien devotes very little space to the actual fights; he is more interested in the aesthetic side of the tournament21. The adaptor, more action-oriented, selects a series of verbs to describe the beginning of the event: “Et bons chevaliers d’espringuier, saulter et couchier lancez, puis rencontrer a flacz sur cez escus…” (p. 163). He then signals the “bellez chevaleriez” of the leaders of the two sides, Gauvain and Sagremors, Melis and Meliador (16 lines), finally turning to Erec, who enters the fray after it has begun. In both verse and prose our hero unhorses in quick succession three knights (#4-6). The prose redactor abbreviates the last two combats, quickening the pace. Above, all, he eliminates much of Chrétien’s description of these more and more worthy adversaries.

Once Erec has unhorsed the three knights, the description is general and brief in the original by Chrétien, who stresses Erec’s prowess in part by signaling that he captures prisoners and horses, even though he is not interested in booty (#7), details the prose author omits. The prosateur devotes twice as much space as Chrétien to Erec’s feats in this section, insisting on the marvels he performs by utilizing a series of superlatives (Chrétien: 9 verses; prose: 9 lines, equal to about 18 octosyllables).

As the tournament nears its close, Gauvain’s side has gained the upper hand and is pushing the adverse party up to the castle gates. In the prose version Erec unhorses Sagremor, then rescues Meliador, one of the leaders of the opposing side, from Gauvain, who was about to take him prisoner. During Erec’s fight against Gauvain, who has been established as a worthy adversary through the earlier evocation of his exploits (see #8), the two knights seem equally matched. Once they meet, the shock of shields, bodies, and horses is so violent that all tumble to the ground; the two men leap to their feet to continue the fight, at which point Arthur has the tournament called to an end by having retreat sounded: “Il saillent apertement sur piés, et ja ilz se fussent oultreement entreessaiéz a l’espee se le roy Artus, qui ce ne vouloit point veoir, ne eust fait sonner la retraite” (p. 167).

Readers familiar with Chrétien’s romances will recall that Arthur acts in a similar way in Cligés: on the last day of the Wallingford tournament, the king stops the joust between Cligés and Gauvain. Likewise, in the prose adaptation of this romance, which was prepared in the context of the Burgundian court around the same time as the prose Erec, the king has the combat stopped22. In all three cases, the outcome of the joust is therefore indecisive; but the hero has measured himself against Gauvain, showing he is at least his equal.

In Chrétien’s other romances Gauvain is depicted as an excellent knight who remains more or less unchanged; the hero shows his excellence by surpassing him in some way, but never by defeating him in combat23. The adaptor of the prose Erec seems to be aware of Gauvain’s reputation; his reworking suggests knowledge of Chrétien’s other works as well as familiarity with the great thirteenth-century prose romances, all of which were readily available in the duke of Burgundy’s library24 as well as in the collections of other figures at the Burgundian court, such as Louis de Bruges, seigneur de la Gruythuse25. The modification

of the outcome of the Tenebroc tournament may therefore have been influenced by romance traditions.

However, why Erec is pitted against Gauvain is a question that deserves further contemplation. As we shall see, Erec will joust again with Gauvain during the coronation tournament; this time, he will unhorse his opponent, an innovation that shows the hero has surpassed Gauvain in combat. The prose redactor has therefore set Erec against Gauvain in the wedding tournament in order to prepare and reflect his actions in the later event. I will return to this question below.

As in Chrétien’s original, the description of Erec’s participation in the tourney consists largely of a series of single combats in which he quickly unhorses his opponents in a variety of ways. Erec’s feats are in two phases: first, he fights with a lance; when that breaks, he pulls out his sword26. There are few details of his actual confrontations. The lengthiest description is of his fight with Gauvain, in which a third phase is announced but is arrested – combat on foot.

In the prose version of the romance, the tournament is a one-day event, and Erec is declared the winner. (Chrétien’s tournament is a two-day affair, but the second day is not described.) As in Chrétien, the prose combat is stylized; combatants fall to the ground, but their wounds are not evoked, and no one dies; it is clear from the start that Erec will gain all the honor. It is therefore striking that, unlike Chrétien, the prose author does not mention booty at all – Erec does not gather up the horses of those who fall to the ground, and he takes no prisoners. Only Gauvain nearly takes Meliador prisoner, but he fails. The economic side is thus played down, in contrast to Chrétien’s poem, where Erec and Gauvain capture horses and prisoners, even though Erec is depicted as uninterested in gain (#7)27.

Historians have shown that in Chrétien’s time booty – and the ransom obtained from prisoners – was an important part of tourneying28. Chrétien’s evocation therefore reflects reality. By the fifteenth century tournaments had evolved: their resemblance to real warfare had diminished. Combats had become highly codified, and they were less risky. Weapons were defined beforehand; special armor was used. These events took place within a closed field, often in the heart of a city. Mêlées continued to exist, before or after single jousts, but they were more regulated. Expensive prizes were given to the winners of both jousts and mêlées; instead of being imprisoned for ransom, the loser agreed to a forfeit29. While booty and ransom continued to play an important role in warfare, this aspect had more or less disappeared from tournaments30. Interestingly, the Erec adaptor’s description of the tournament at Tenebroc does not reflect many of these fifteenth-century changes. The main points of evolution are the disappearance of any reference to booty as well as the official beginning and end of the tournament and the attendant pageantry. As we will see, the coronation tournament is presented in a similar fashion.

The tournament at Tenebroc takes up a fairly large amount of space in Chrétien’s text – 118 verses out of 6950 in the Fritz edition, 1.7 % of the poem31. But the prose devotes even more space to it: 78 lines out of approximately 2010 total32, equivalent to about 156 octosyllabic verses, that is, 3.9 % of the whole work. The prose author has thus expanded the wedding tournament; moreover, it takes up relatively more space in the romance than it does in Chrétien’s poem33. On average, the prose Erec contains about 50 % less text than the verse; nevertheless,

there are expansions as well as abridgements34. These alterations can be unexpected; they are not without meaning. For example, Jonna Kjaer has shown that Enide’s monologues are more developed in the prose, giving her a more important role35. Why the prose augments the space devoted to this chivalric spectacle is therefore a significant question to consider.

The coronation tournament

Indeed, by adding another tournament after Erec and Enide’s coronation, the prose author considerably increases the amount of space devoted to these events: 66 lines are devoted to this second tourney, about 3.3 % of the 2010 lines of the prose romance. Together, the two tournaments occupy 144 lines – about 7.2 % of the entire text36. The prose thereby emphasizes Erec’s feats, an aspect I will return to below.

The addition of this chivalric spectacle at the time of the coronation may be due to the fact that at the Burgundian court, a tournament

was always held at the time of any important event37. But there are undoubtedly other reasons behind the choice made by our author: first, his sense of what constitutes a proper ending to the story; second, concerns related to structure, meaning, and characterization. Before attending to these questions, let us look at how the prose author depicts the coronation tournament.

At the time of Erec and Enide’s coronation, King Arthur offers livery and horses to 300 knights and orders a “small” tournament. It is noteworthy that the prose author omits all of Chrétien’s description of the coronation itself, including that of the famous robe worn by Erec; he dispenses with the ceremony in one, albeit long, sentence, hurrying on to describe King Erec’s secret preparation of black armor in order to participate in the tournament incognito, and then the tournament itself. An authorial intervention conforming to the brevity topos precedes the depiction of the combats, stating that Erec performed feats that would be too long to recount but that they will be briefly presented according to custom: Erec “fist pluseurz vaillancez et proessez qui trop seroient longuez a racompter, mais nous nous en passerons en brief selon la maniere” (p. 208-209), a statement suggesting that a description of the tournament was a sort of requirement, a set piece38.

The tournament itself has already begun when King Erec arrives, having secretly set off when he learned that the king and the ladies were on the sidelines and that the knights had begun the combat. The prosateur does not state where the combat takes place; the setting is vague. He begins his description in medias res, upon Erec’s arrival. Much like Lancelot and other heroes of thirteenth-century prose Arthurian romances, Erec chooses to fight on the weaker side, against Gauvain and Blioberis who are performing marvels. Henceforth the focus is on Erec, who immediately unhorses Gauvain, then fights Blioberis, piercing

his shield and hauberk and wounding him in the left side as he throws him to the ground. After these actions, he enters the press, where he accomplishes numerous feats. The adaptor introduces heralds who are on the field in this tournament, an aspect that reflects the evolution of their role39; upon seeing Erec’s feats, they cry out “Honneur soit donnee au chevalier aux armez noires qui vainct tout.” (p. 210) Likewise, the spectators admire his prowess, which is such that the other knights fear to meet him. The narrator insists on the fact that Erec never seems to tire. At this point, Gauvain, who has gotten up and is remounted, attacks Erec with a lance; it breaks on Erec’s shield, and Erec strikes Gauvain’s helmet with his sword, stunning him so that he loses his saddle-bows and stirrups and falls. Erec, who does not recognize Gauvain, continues on his way; Gauvain’s side flees and is defeated. Erec leaves the tournament secretly, but is followed by Arthur, who forces him to reveal his identity. The festivities that follow last two weeks, but an authorial intervention invoking once again the brevity topos suggests that the audience knows very well what they were like: “…pour la fere briefve, dez disners, souperz, dansez et esbatemenz qui furent fais durant XV jourz, nous ne ferons nulle mencion, car l’en puelt asséz savoir et entendre qu’il en y eust asséz et que toute noblesse y estoit respandue.” (p. 211)

Erec’s “disguise” in black armor makes him into an anonymous knight, allowing the combats with Gauvain to take place (since it is stated that Erec does not recognize him). It is reminiscent once again of Cligés – in both Chrétien’s verse and the prose adaptation, Cligés fights in four different sets of armor during the four-day tournament. On the first day, he sports black arms; on the last day, Cligés confronts Gauvain. The Erec author insists on the hero’s superiority to Gauvain by having him unhorse him not just once, but twice! Gauvain thus becomes something more than a counterpoise to the hero – unlike the role he plays in Chrétien’s romances. His defeat might be seen as humiliating, but the adaptor does not develop this aspect, dwelling rather on the enhancement of the hero, Erec.

It is noteworthy that this second tournament is an amalgam of stylization and realism: more romance-type elements are present than in the wedding tournament, but there are also realistic touches. On the one hand, for example, Erec’s disguise resembles Cligés’s anonymity and also that of Lancelot in tournaments in Chrétien’s Chevalier de la charrette and the Lancelot-Grail cycle40. And, as noted above, the fact that he fights against Arthur’s knights, joining the weaker side, also reflects literary traditions41. Moreover, there is no mention whatsoever of forfeits for the losers. On the other hand, Blioberis is wounded, as was often the case historically42; furthermore, in the final joust, Gauvain wields a lance, while Erec hits him with his sword43. These realistic notes serve as highlights to a somewhat archaic, literary view of the tournament; the prose adaptor’s description is once again action-oriented; it seems nostalgic but more attuned to the way these events were presented in the great prose romances than in the way the wedding tournament was presented.

The coronation tournament forms a matching piece, a pendant, to the wedding tournament, in which Erec and Gauvain’s combat is interrupted. It also provides a final event in which Erec, now king, can further demonstrate his prowess. The choice of a mêlée, which was considered more prestigious than a single joust44, allows the depiction of the hero

in triumph over all the other knights, thus enhancing his standing. Indeed, the prose author insists on this aspect of Erec’s character. As I have shown elsewhere45, he eliminates or condenses all the descriptions of Erec’s clothing and armor, focusing more on the hero’s definition as a warrior through extensive descriptions of combat. Moreover, he disambiguates Erec’s motivation: it is clear from the start that the quest he undertakes is to test Enide; Erec himself admits no fault, as he does in Chrétien when he is accused of recreantise. Other changes work to modify the relationship between Erec and Enide, who emerge as a responsible couple, ready to take on the challenge of ruling a kingdom.

However, in adding the coronation tournament the prose redactor may also have been motivated by other considerations: perhaps he did so because the ending of Chrétien’s Erec et Enide seemed inadequate to him. As Peter F. Dembowski has shown, the conclusion to Chrétien’s romance is problematic in four of the seven complete manuscripts46. In two manuscripts, Chrétien’s poem ends rather abruptly in the middle of the banquet held after the coronation (Paris, BnF fr. 794 and 1376)47; one codex offers a garbled ending (Chantilly, Condé 472); another in which the last folio is torn down the middle suggests that some kind of chivalric event took place after the coronation (a quintaine was set up in a field), perhaps improvising an ending (BnF fr. 24403). Only three manuscripts have a “full epilogue”48 that brings the coronation festivities to an end with Arthur’s largesse. We do not know which manuscript of Chrétien’s work might have been the source for our adaptor; though the suggestion of a chivalric spectacle in one of them (BnF fr. 24403) is tantalizing, the adaptor may very well have used a codex that is now lost49. Whatever the case may be, Chrétien leaves the story “open” – we do not know anything about Erec and Enide’s lives after the coronation

– whereas the prose author brings closure to the story not only by adding the tournament but also the epilogue recounting the couple’s deaths and the legal succession of the kingdom50.

The abbreviation of the coronation ceremony itself and the addition of the tournament and epilogue modify the structure of the romance – the tournament replaces the coronation as the culminating event. The de-emphasis of the coronation may have implications related to the political situation in the fifteenth century. Dembowski points out that in Chrétien’s original the coronation “ceremony is described in detail and with obvious seriousness.”51 Chrétien devotes some 520 verses to it; the prose author, a single, five-line sentence! Furthermore, he changes the site from Nantes to the legendary English archbishopric, Canterbury. There may have been external, political reasons for Chrétien’s choice: Beate Schmolke-Hasselmann has argued that the coronation scene alludes to a ceremony held in Nantes in 1169 proclaiming the son of King Henry II of England as duke of Brittany52. By moving the location to England, to a site connected to the Arthurian past, and playing down the ceremony itself, the prose author eases any political tensions or rivalries that a coronation held in such pomp and splendor on the continent might have evoked for his fifteenth-century contemporaries. The first half of the fifteenth century was marked by political strains, shifting alliances and war – the Hundred Years War, during which the Burgundians sided with the English for a time, but also the war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians53.

By focusing on the chivalric spectacle of the tournament at the time of Erec and Enide’s coronation, rather than on the ceremony itself, the prose author emphasizes Erec’s knightly qualities – traits that, according to didactic treatises and historical biographies written in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, would prepare him to be a good ruler54. The

epilogue demonstrates that this was indeed the case and that Erec’s lineage was assured, his kingdom being passed on to his eldest son. Overall, the prose redactor’s artful reworking of Chrétien’s story reflects the values of his contemporaries at the Burgundian court; moreover, and more importantly, it demonstrates a different perspective on structure, style and characterization.

Carol J. Chase

Knox College