so you wanna get into arthurian medieval lit? well, here’s the post for you babes!

have you ever looked at at my blog and been like “what the fuck is ellian talking about? anyways i have to get in on that” well here it is babes, all laid out.

this is partially out of convenience for me whenever anyone asks me how to get started on arthuriana but also because it’s something that you can easily save and refer back to, all in one handy little post<3

What is Arthuriana?

Arthuriana is a living tradition, a body of work that has evolved for a millennium and derives from the Welsh and Breton traditions. There is no one select body of literature or work that IS arthurian canon, although a shared common perception of what embodies arthurian literature exists. Throughout history, different interpretations have come to the light and others have withered and so on and so forth — it’s a very, very rich tradition and it’s genuinely my favorite thing.

So…where do I start?

Now, that’s the question! I would say, pick your favorite knight and go from there — but chances are if you’re looking into how to start arthurian medieval lit, you don’t know much of the knights + you want a more succinct path on how to get started, which is the purpose of this post (:

A lot of people read either Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as their first foray into arthurian medieval lit and I get it — oftentimes, that’s simply what has been exposed to people in previous English classes and whatnot. However, I would genuinely recommend not to start with either of these texts — Le Morte is one of the longer texts and its prose is especially dense if you have not had any prior experience + SGATGK’s themes revolve very heavily around that of honor, chivalric duty, and vassalship which can go over reader’s heads if they are not used to topics employed in arthurian literature. (I have a post on it here if you’re ever curious!)

PDFS + EPUBS and the like (as well as the order of what I would recommend in starting arthurian medieval lit)

[1] The Lai of Lanval by Marie de France.

Summary: Lanval is a knight down on his luck — that is until he catches the eye of the Faerie Queen who proceeds to take him as her consort. The only catch is that he cannot tell the rest of the Court that he is in a relationship with her, or else he will never see her again. But of course, all the knights are perplexed because how does Lanval, who has very little wealth, all of a sudden have all these riches?? Anyways, Guinevere and Lanval have a spat and then Lanval is put on trial and the Faerie Queen has to come save his ass. It’s so enjoyable.

Links:

The Judith P. Shoaf translation (PDF) and my personal favorite<3

The Jessie L. Weston translation (available as HTML, EPUB, KINDLE, PLAIN TEXT)

[2] Chevrefoil by Marie de France.

Summary: Another lai from Marie de France… it revolves around that of Tristan and Isolde and is the sweetest, most romantic thing I’ve ever read. The hazel and the honeysuckle. Marie de France knew that in 1000 years, the gays would lose their shit over this still.

Links:

The Judith P. Shoaf translation (PDF)

[3] Sir Lancelot and the Hart with the White Foot.

Summary: This one is from the Dutch tradition of arthuriana which is arguably one of my favorites. Despite it being named after Lancelot, Gawain (his name is written as “Walewein” but that’s him) is the central character as he often is in arthurian medieval lit (genuinely guys…like 80% of arthurian works revolve around Gawain it’s…main character syndrome). There is a dog in here and Lancelot and Gawain are homoerotic with one another. It’s relatively short and HIGHLY enjoyable.

Links:

PDF

[4] Yvain: Knight of the Lion by Chrétien de Troyes. [Do NOT read Lancelot: Knight of the Cart first, trust me on this]

Summary: This is the longest work of them all on this list and I genuinely believe that it is the BEST longer work to start with, a lot of the more well known knights star in here too such as Arthur and Gawain, but this work is the BEST for introducing not only the concept of the knightly body but how the knightly body is tied with identity and honor, and ultimately, redemption. The story starts out with Yvain attempting to seek revenge on his cousin’s behalf and to restore his cousin’s honor because Calgrenant got his ass kicked by this one knight. Yvain ends up defeating the knight who was in actually, lord of this one castle. Yvain then marries Esclados’ widow, Laudine, through the help of her maid, Lynette/Luned. Yvain’s marriage is super happy and great, but it all goes wrong when Gawain comes to Court and mentions that Yvain has been slacking on his duty as Arthur’s knight (vassalship!) and Yvain thus goes out and basically parties with Gawain on the agreement with Laudine that he will return within a year or else there will be consequences; he is gifted with Laudine’s ring as a symbol of their love and devotion. However, Yvain parties TOO hard and forgets, and as much, one of Laudine’s maids makes it to Camelot after a year and says that Laudine eschews Yvain and to hand the ring over in FRONT OF THE ENTIRETY OF THE COURT. Yvain, goes mad, and lives feral in the woods for a bit before taming a lion and seeking his redemption and honor under the moniker of the “Knight of the Lion” as “Sir Yvain” is tarnished as he neither upheld the laws of chivalry nor duty to both his lord, Arthur, and to his wife (you can see the beginning themes that are so often in medieval lit mainly the knightly body and identity and chivalry! This text is a REALLY good gateway to it versus SGATGK which deals with similar topics but is considerably harder to have a grasp on). The rest is basically his redemption quest and he meets up with Lynette/Luned who has been imprisoned and together they rush to go aid Laudine who has been pressured to remarry once more by the nobles in her court.

Links:

The 1987 translation of it and the one I recommend<3 (PDF)

The William Wistar Comfort translation (HTML, EPUB, KINDLE, PLAIN TEXT)

Likewise if you’re curious, I have an entire (somewhat) cheat sheet on Arthurian characters + the major works if you want to use and refer back to it! Here is the link. CW for mentions of sexual assault and rape.

My friend Lou @/gringolet also has a post on getting into arthurian medieval literature! If you want to check his out, it’s here.

I am going to have another post up soon with a compilation of all my favorite translations + a giant masterlist of all links in one place for ease of use (: I’ll link that here and update this once that is done. (That one will have more well known texts and my favorites like the Alliterative Morte Darthure and the Bruts and the like<3)