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1[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chrtiendetroyes.jpg]]
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3->''"Without fear Love is incomplete,\
4a burning fire that casts no heat;\
5a day with no sunshiny hours;\
6a summer season with no flowers;\
7a comb whose honey has been lost;\
8a wintertime without a frost;\
9a blank book and a moonless sky.\
10That is the way I would descry\
11the man not fearful or appalled,\
12for by him Love goes unrecalled."''
13-->-- '''Chrétien de Troyes''', ''Cligès'' 3847-57 (translation by Ruth Harwood Cline)
14
15Chrétien de Troyes (flourished 1165-80) was a French poet in the late 12th century, most well known for his {{Myth/Arthurian|Legend}} {{epic poem}}s which became seminal works of the ChivalricRomance genre, [[FollowTheLeader emulated countless times]] by later poets.
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17Chrétien is best known writing the earliest stories to contain the [[Myth/KingArthurAndTheHolyGrail Grail]] (although the "Holy" part got added later) and the Guinevere/Lancelot affair (although that was his patron's idea, not his). Ironically, these elements come from two stories that he didn't even fishing writing. The three other stories he ''did'' complete have less legacy.
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19Little is known of the life of Chrétien, but he may have frequented the court of Marie, Countess of Champagne, and visited England. His work also followed Wace's ''Roman de Brut'' (1155), a translation of Geoffrey of Monmoth's ''Literature/HistoriaRegumBritanniae'', introducing the Arthurian legend to continental Europe.
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21A non-Arthurian poem, ''Guillaume d'Angleterre'', is also attributed to Chrétien, but the authorship is uncertain.
22
23----
24!!The Arthurian romances of Chrétien de Troyes are:
25
26[[index]]
27* ''Literature/ErecAndEnide'' (circa 1170): A submissive wife who proves her love for her husband by disobeying him.
28* ''[[Literature/{{Cliges}} Cligès]]'' (circa 1176): The victim of a marriage made under constraint fakes her death.
29* ''Literature/YvainTheKnightOfTheLion'' (between 1177 and 1181): A widowed woman hastily marries her husband's killer; her new husband falls from grace and has his honour restored later.
30* ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart'' (between 1177 and 1181): Introduced the love affair of Lancelot and Guinevere.
31* ''Literature/PercevalTheStoryOfTheGrail'' (between 1181 and 1190): Introduced Myth/KingArthurAndTheHolyGrail (although it wasn't yet holy, merely magical). Chrétien left this unfinished.
32[[/index]]
33
34----
35!! Tropes in Chrétien's romances:
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37* DepravedDwarf: ''Literature/ErecAndEnide'' and ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart'' both have an IncitingIncident involving an ugly dwarf who seems to be employed by the antagonist.
38* HonestAdvisor: ''Literature/ErecAndEnide'' and ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart'' both open with Arthur making some sort of decision and then Gawain telling him that was a dumb idea.
39%%* GoKartingWithBowser: Lancelot is in an epic contest of arms with another knight. After swinging at one another for quite some time, they take a break, have a chat, get their breath back, and start back up again. They're quite civil.
40* NoNameGiven: Chrétien is kind of weird about names.
41** Chrétien's stories are full of nameless {{bit character}}s, often referred to as "damsel" and "knight" (or other occupational titles). Many of them are unimportant minor characters where NominalImportance names sense. But not always. For example, Meleagant's sister from ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart'' who '''rescues the protagonist''' really warrants a name, but doesn't get one. On the flip side, Chrétien has no problem naming lots of bit characters ''at court''. In ''Literature/ErecAndEnide'' he randomly lists off the names of Arthur's ten top knights, ranks, and then over two dozen more unranked. It seems like those are pre-named characters from the mythos and Chrétien was resistant to naming {{original character}}s.
42** Chrétien has a habit of withholding the names of characters who ''do'' have names for a really long time before reveling them -- such as Yder and Enide in ''Literature/ErecAndEnide'', and Lancelot in ''Literature/LancelotTheKnightOfTheCart''.

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