Medieval Romance Research Paper

Bailey 1

Isaiah Bailey

Ms Henry

English

4 10/12/2015

Medieval Romance

Medieval romance is a literary genre of high culture, it's a type of romance or chivalric romance But it was popular in Early Modern Europe. There's so many stories about chivalric romance and litecatutee. adventures. Originally romance literary was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman and Occitan, and later in Portuguese, in Castilian, in English, in Italian and German. During the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a marked tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love, such as faithfulness in adversity Unlike the later form of the novel and like the chansons de geste, the genre

The epics of Charlemagne, unlike s ones as Beowulf already had feudalism rather than the tribal loyalties; this was to continue in romances. Many medieval romances recount the marvelous adventures of a chivalrous, heroic knight, often of super-human ability, who, abiding chivalry's strict codes of honor and demeanor, goes on a que and fights and defeats monsters and giants, thereby winning favor with a lady. The Matter of France most popular early, did not lend itself to the subject of courtly love, but rather dealt with hero does not think of her adventure: in The Song of Roland Roland, though betrothed to Oliver's sister, during the course of events. The themes of love were, however, to soon appear, particularly in the Matter of Britain, leading to even the French regarding King Arthurs court as the exemplar of true and noble love, so much so that even the earliest writers about courtly love would claim it had reached its true excellence there, and love was not what it was in King Arthur's day. In late medieval and Renaissance high culture, the important European literary trend was to fantastic fictions in the mode of Romance. Exemplary work, such as the English Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1408-1471), the Catalan Tirant lo Blanch, and the Castilian or Portuguese Amadis de Gaula (1508), spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well- received, producing such masterpiece of Renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto orfando furioso and Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata and other 16th-century literary works in the romance genre. The romances were freely drawn upon for royal pageantry. Queen Elizabeth I's Accession Day tilts, for instance, drew freely on the multiplicity of incident from romances for the knights' disguises Knights even assumed the names of romantic figures, such as the Swan Knight, or the coat of arms of such figures as Lancelot or Tristan. From the high Middle Ages,