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Lanzelet: Eine Erzählung
Reprint der Ausgabe von 1845
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First published January 1, 1200
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April 15, 2023
Ulrich Von Zatzikhoven’s Lanzelet bears little resemblance to Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart. The events during which Lancelot becomes known as the Knight of the Cart, which Chrétien’s story revolves around, don’t even occur here. Ulrich says he is translating an Anglo-Norman poem that was discovered in the possession of Hugh de Morville, a hostage exchanged from the captured King of England to Duke Leopold to ensure the king’s freedom. The original French poem no longer exists, Ulrich’s translation is all we have.
The story follows Lanzelet from his birth, through his youth, adulthood, and later life, sketching out a series of adventures that see him accomplishing big things, proving his valor, his character, his heroism, and all without knowing his name. While not as focused, plot driven, or quite as extravagant as Chrétien’s story, it is still immense, fantastic, mysterious, filled with oddities and wonders and mythical imagination. There’s dense lore here, with all sorts of places and people that are possibly pulled from Celtic myths, French legends, Breton lais, German traditions, or that are products of more recent invention. The twelfth century was a pivotal time for Arthurian legends — a time of enormous growth, invention, evolution, and dissemination.
This translation includes an extensive set of notes compiled by three scholars who studied the poem, starting in the early twentieth century. One of the scholars, long deceased, believed almost all of the Lancelot myth was derived from Celtic sources, and the current translator, Thomas Kerry, disagrees, at least over many of the details. He still includes the notes from the former, and they make for an incredible, encyclopedic collection of lengthy insights and asides and backgrounds to almost every significant aspect of this tale. The introduction and notes combined take up more pages than the story. So we get a great Arthurian saga, and a great scholarly study and breakdown of the epic’s cultural ingredients.
There is no main plot in this saga, just a series of straight forward adventures that, though they may not seem related at first, tie together in the end. This sequence of events illustrates Lanzelet’s character and heroic capacity, his magnificence, his chivalry, how he makes a name for himself, and his incredible luck with the ladies. These events stitch together seamlessly as uninterrupted episodes, eventually involving King Arthur and his most legendary knights: Walwein (Gawain), Erec, Kay, Iwen, Tristant, and even Arthur’s rarely seen son. Along the way Lanzelet proves himself capable of the mightiest deeds against the worst odds. There are a few recurring ideas seen in these adventures, like Lanzelet becoming lord of a realm after defeating a cruel lord and winning the heart of his daughter or niece, and later in the saga, a series of captures and rescues. I’ll talk about a few that represent the bulk of his questing, since they are a stark contrast to the Lancelot story of Chrétien.
Lanzelet is taken away as a baby by a lady of mist, a mermaid from the land of maidens. His father, King Pant is killed by the uprising of his abused peasantry, which his mother barely escapes long enough to let her child be rescued. The Land of Maidens is a place noticeably inspired by the Celtic Otherworld. Here it is a land of water, hence Lanzelet being known as Lancelot du Lac, or Lancelot of the Lake. The boy is raised here with the greatest care and develops high character. The maidens teach him manners and music, the mermen teach him to defend himself in combat, and to hone all manner of physical, athletic abilities. This is part of a mythic tradition of warriors being trained by a “foster mother”, like Cuchulain, trained by the warrior woman Scathach, Achilles raised by the women of the island Scyros, and Tristan, also of Arthurian fame.
Lanzelet sets out for adventure, not knowing his own name, but wishing to prove his valor and honor. His courtly manners often give him an advantage, like on his first adventure at the castle of lord Galagandreiz of Moreiz. Lanzelet’s manners aren’t quite perfect, because he has sex with the lord’s daughter after the other adventurers turn down her seductions, enflaming the wrath of the lord who he ultimately kills. Lanzelet becomes lord of this castle and soon sets off for more fame.
He comes to another castle and is attacked by its men, slays most of them in gruesome combat, then is rescued by Ada, the niece of the castle’s lord, Linier of Limors. Linier is filled with rage at the deaths Lanzelet has caused and puts Lanzelet through a series of trials against giants and lions, finally fighting Lanzelet himself, only to fall at the nameless youth’s hand. Ada is in love with the young Lanzelet and nurses his wounds. Like before, Lanzelet is now lord of another castle through killing its previous lord and winning the heart of the lord's woman kin.
At a tournament, shortly after an exhaustive combat with Walwein, he defeats Kay, Iwein, another of Arthur’s knights, and battles Erec until they are interrupted. As in Chrétien’s Cliges, Lanzelet dons a new armor each day, of a different color, achieving victory over all the knights and capturing many. Later he sets off with his lady and her brother until they come to Shatel de Mort, a castle protected by magic, turning Lanzelet into a coward. Once again he is captive in a distant castle, by lord Mabuz.
On the promise of freedom he is sent to stop arsonists from burning lord Mabuz’s villages. The arsonists are men from Behforet, the Beautiful Wood. They are the soldiers of Lord Iweret. Summoning this lord follows a similar ritual to the one seen in Iwein. Here Lanzelet must strike a bronze cymbal hanging from a tree over a spring, and the lord will show up to kill him. Iweret murders all who strike the cymbal. He is reported to have the most beautiful daughter, Iblis. It seems a pattern is emerging in Lanzelet’s life.
Iweret has been made strong by the magical healing fruit of the Beautiful Wood. His castle is called Dodone, and it’s lavishly decorated and constructed of various exotic things: crystal, coral, onyx, jasper, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, gold, sardonyxes, amethysts, etc… Lanzelet defeats Iweret, decapitating him, and takes his daughter with whom he has fallen in love. When he later learns his identity as Lanzelet, he also discovers he is Arthur’s nephew. This also makes him Erec’s and Walwein’s cousin.
There is an episode of small similarity to the Lancelot story Chrétien tells, with Ginover’s (Guinevere) capture. Almost every other detail of the story is different. A lord named Valerin claims queen Ginover’s hand and says Arthur robbed him of her when she was in the spring of her youth. Lanzelet fights him for the queen’s honor, and of course defeats him. Is the adventure already over? It may seem like it, but this is merely a side quest, a diversion. It is the beginning of a sequence of rescues, requiring all the might of Arthur’s greatest men.
Lanzelet leaves and comes upon yet another castle. This one has shields hanging over its walls. Lanzelet fights a hundred knights in sequence, and as the victor is forced to marry the queen, being dubbed the manliest of men. Despite his heart belonging to Iblis, he is forced into adultery by this queen. She keeps him as a peaceful prisoner, not in a jail but walking freely around the castle, without weapons, with bodyguards, safe from harm.
Arthur’s four best knights, Gawain, Erec, Tristan, and Karyet go to rescue him. As they’re riding away with him, after much daring and danger, they learn Ginover has been kidnapped by Valerin. Here enters a figure much like Merlin, a wizard of the Misty Lake named Malduc. This sorcerer helps Arthur, for a price. He puts all of Valerin’s people to sleep, opening them for the slaughter by Arthur’s men. With the help of Malduc, Arthur’s son Loüt, and Diodine the Wild Man, Ginover is rescued. Malduc’s agreement was that Erec and Walwein, who in the past killed his father and brother, hand themselves over as prisoners. This they do, as their honor is peerless in all kingdoms. Malduc tortures them and starves them, and here we have yet another rescue to attempt.
Lanzelet returns the favor and leads a massive rescue attempt at Malduc’s mysterious tower. Only with the help of his daughter are they able to find him. She alone is saved from the slaughter, while the knights, along with a giant named Eseält who caries men easily over rivers and castle walls, lay waste to the wizard’s fortress. It’s a bloodbath.
There are many other adventures to be had. The kissing of a dragon who turns into a woman. There is the strange Mantle Test which apparently is an Arthurian tradition beginning in Welsh literature. The details of it imply that Ginover’s infidelity with Lanzelet as seen in Chrétien’s Lancelot story does not exist here, except maybe in thought. Then there is Lanzelet’s return to the kingdom of his birth, Genewis, and the return to Iblis’s kingdom, Dodone, both of which he rules as a benevolent, generous, compassionate king.
The German Lanzelet translation from French by Ulrich was made sometime around 1194. This was after Hartmann had popularized Arthurian legends in Germany, so there was big demand for Ulrich’s work. Today it isn’t as well known as Chrétien’s works or Hartmann’s adaptations, but it should be. It’s excellent. Like most English translations of Middle High German poetry, this one is in prose. Its medieval characteristics ring loudly throughout the writing, in his use of antiquarian terms, the vocabulary of medieval epic, folk wisdom, lofty allusions to French courtly romance.
Lanzelet’s adventures can be interpreted a number of ways, and there are about a dozen different theories on the primary theme of this tale. I can’t offer any educated insight, but my thoughts are that these adventures serve multiple purposes: to illustrate the growth and arc of Lanzelet from a nameless, joyful youth, to a hero whose conquests embolden him, to a man who knows his heritage and who claims his kingship. They also seem to have secondary, even tertiary purposes of illustrating to the twelfth century German audience the virtues and values of the chivalrous nobility, and to show the exemplary qualities of the ideal knight and king.
The story follows Lanzelet from his birth, through his youth, adulthood, and later life, sketching out a series of adventures that see him accomplishing big things, proving his valor, his character, his heroism, and all without knowing his name. While not as focused, plot driven, or quite as extravagant as Chrétien’s story, it is still immense, fantastic, mysterious, filled with oddities and wonders and mythical imagination. There’s dense lore here, with all sorts of places and people that are possibly pulled from Celtic myths, French legends, Breton lais, German traditions, or that are products of more recent invention. The twelfth century was a pivotal time for Arthurian legends — a time of enormous growth, invention, evolution, and dissemination.
This translation includes an extensive set of notes compiled by three scholars who studied the poem, starting in the early twentieth century. One of the scholars, long deceased, believed almost all of the Lancelot myth was derived from Celtic sources, and the current translator, Thomas Kerry, disagrees, at least over many of the details. He still includes the notes from the former, and they make for an incredible, encyclopedic collection of lengthy insights and asides and backgrounds to almost every significant aspect of this tale. The introduction and notes combined take up more pages than the story. So we get a great Arthurian saga, and a great scholarly study and breakdown of the epic’s cultural ingredients.
There is no main plot in this saga, just a series of straight forward adventures that, though they may not seem related at first, tie together in the end. This sequence of events illustrates Lanzelet’s character and heroic capacity, his magnificence, his chivalry, how he makes a name for himself, and his incredible luck with the ladies. These events stitch together seamlessly as uninterrupted episodes, eventually involving King Arthur and his most legendary knights: Walwein (Gawain), Erec, Kay, Iwen, Tristant, and even Arthur’s rarely seen son. Along the way Lanzelet proves himself capable of the mightiest deeds against the worst odds. There are a few recurring ideas seen in these adventures, like Lanzelet becoming lord of a realm after defeating a cruel lord and winning the heart of his daughter or niece, and later in the saga, a series of captures and rescues. I’ll talk about a few that represent the bulk of his questing, since they are a stark contrast to the Lancelot story of Chrétien.
Lanzelet is taken away as a baby by a lady of mist, a mermaid from the land of maidens. His father, King Pant is killed by the uprising of his abused peasantry, which his mother barely escapes long enough to let her child be rescued. The Land of Maidens is a place noticeably inspired by the Celtic Otherworld. Here it is a land of water, hence Lanzelet being known as Lancelot du Lac, or Lancelot of the Lake. The boy is raised here with the greatest care and develops high character. The maidens teach him manners and music, the mermen teach him to defend himself in combat, and to hone all manner of physical, athletic abilities. This is part of a mythic tradition of warriors being trained by a “foster mother”, like Cuchulain, trained by the warrior woman Scathach, Achilles raised by the women of the island Scyros, and Tristan, also of Arthurian fame.
Lanzelet sets out for adventure, not knowing his own name, but wishing to prove his valor and honor. His courtly manners often give him an advantage, like on his first adventure at the castle of lord Galagandreiz of Moreiz. Lanzelet’s manners aren’t quite perfect, because he has sex with the lord’s daughter after the other adventurers turn down her seductions, enflaming the wrath of the lord who he ultimately kills. Lanzelet becomes lord of this castle and soon sets off for more fame.
He comes to another castle and is attacked by its men, slays most of them in gruesome combat, then is rescued by Ada, the niece of the castle’s lord, Linier of Limors. Linier is filled with rage at the deaths Lanzelet has caused and puts Lanzelet through a series of trials against giants and lions, finally fighting Lanzelet himself, only to fall at the nameless youth’s hand. Ada is in love with the young Lanzelet and nurses his wounds. Like before, Lanzelet is now lord of another castle through killing its previous lord and winning the heart of the lord's woman kin.
At a tournament, shortly after an exhaustive combat with Walwein, he defeats Kay, Iwein, another of Arthur’s knights, and battles Erec until they are interrupted. As in Chrétien’s Cliges, Lanzelet dons a new armor each day, of a different color, achieving victory over all the knights and capturing many. Later he sets off with his lady and her brother until they come to Shatel de Mort, a castle protected by magic, turning Lanzelet into a coward. Once again he is captive in a distant castle, by lord Mabuz.
On the promise of freedom he is sent to stop arsonists from burning lord Mabuz’s villages. The arsonists are men from Behforet, the Beautiful Wood. They are the soldiers of Lord Iweret. Summoning this lord follows a similar ritual to the one seen in Iwein. Here Lanzelet must strike a bronze cymbal hanging from a tree over a spring, and the lord will show up to kill him. Iweret murders all who strike the cymbal. He is reported to have the most beautiful daughter, Iblis. It seems a pattern is emerging in Lanzelet’s life.
Iweret has been made strong by the magical healing fruit of the Beautiful Wood. His castle is called Dodone, and it’s lavishly decorated and constructed of various exotic things: crystal, coral, onyx, jasper, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, gold, sardonyxes, amethysts, etc… Lanzelet defeats Iweret, decapitating him, and takes his daughter with whom he has fallen in love. When he later learns his identity as Lanzelet, he also discovers he is Arthur’s nephew. This also makes him Erec’s and Walwein’s cousin.
There is an episode of small similarity to the Lancelot story Chrétien tells, with Ginover’s (Guinevere) capture. Almost every other detail of the story is different. A lord named Valerin claims queen Ginover’s hand and says Arthur robbed him of her when she was in the spring of her youth. Lanzelet fights him for the queen’s honor, and of course defeats him. Is the adventure already over? It may seem like it, but this is merely a side quest, a diversion. It is the beginning of a sequence of rescues, requiring all the might of Arthur’s greatest men.
Lanzelet leaves and comes upon yet another castle. This one has shields hanging over its walls. Lanzelet fights a hundred knights in sequence, and as the victor is forced to marry the queen, being dubbed the manliest of men. Despite his heart belonging to Iblis, he is forced into adultery by this queen. She keeps him as a peaceful prisoner, not in a jail but walking freely around the castle, without weapons, with bodyguards, safe from harm.
Arthur’s four best knights, Gawain, Erec, Tristan, and Karyet go to rescue him. As they’re riding away with him, after much daring and danger, they learn Ginover has been kidnapped by Valerin. Here enters a figure much like Merlin, a wizard of the Misty Lake named Malduc. This sorcerer helps Arthur, for a price. He puts all of Valerin’s people to sleep, opening them for the slaughter by Arthur’s men. With the help of Malduc, Arthur’s son Loüt, and Diodine the Wild Man, Ginover is rescued. Malduc’s agreement was that Erec and Walwein, who in the past killed his father and brother, hand themselves over as prisoners. This they do, as their honor is peerless in all kingdoms. Malduc tortures them and starves them, and here we have yet another rescue to attempt.
Lanzelet returns the favor and leads a massive rescue attempt at Malduc’s mysterious tower. Only with the help of his daughter are they able to find him. She alone is saved from the slaughter, while the knights, along with a giant named Eseält who caries men easily over rivers and castle walls, lay waste to the wizard’s fortress. It’s a bloodbath.
There are many other adventures to be had. The kissing of a dragon who turns into a woman. There is the strange Mantle Test which apparently is an Arthurian tradition beginning in Welsh literature. The details of it imply that Ginover’s infidelity with Lanzelet as seen in Chrétien’s Lancelot story does not exist here, except maybe in thought. Then there is Lanzelet’s return to the kingdom of his birth, Genewis, and the return to Iblis’s kingdom, Dodone, both of which he rules as a benevolent, generous, compassionate king.
The German Lanzelet translation from French by Ulrich was made sometime around 1194. This was after Hartmann had popularized Arthurian legends in Germany, so there was big demand for Ulrich’s work. Today it isn’t as well known as Chrétien’s works or Hartmann’s adaptations, but it should be. It’s excellent. Like most English translations of Middle High German poetry, this one is in prose. Its medieval characteristics ring loudly throughout the writing, in his use of antiquarian terms, the vocabulary of medieval epic, folk wisdom, lofty allusions to French courtly romance.
Lanzelet’s adventures can be interpreted a number of ways, and there are about a dozen different theories on the primary theme of this tale. I can’t offer any educated insight, but my thoughts are that these adventures serve multiple purposes: to illustrate the growth and arc of Lanzelet from a nameless, joyful youth, to a hero whose conquests embolden him, to a man who knows his heritage and who claims his kingship. They also seem to have secondary, even tertiary purposes of illustrating to the twelfth century German audience the virtues and values of the chivalrous nobility, and to show the exemplary qualities of the ideal knight and king.
May 23, 2011
This romance of Lanzelet (i.e., Lancelot) was written in Middle High German in about 1200-1204 by the Swiss poet Ulrich von Zatzikhoven. In his book, Arthurian Romance: A Short Introduction, Derek Pearsall calls it a "crude potboiler" (51), an in Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages: A Collaborative History, Hendricus Spaarnay describes it as "an Arthurian romance in its most elementary stage" (439). Both judgements are well justified. This is not a well written poem. The characters are stereotypes and Ulrich does not interrogate the world of chivalric romance intelligently or imaginatively. But it's an important romance and, for the most part, it is entertaining in this prose translation by Kenneth G. T. Webster. More to the point, Lanzelet is an important text in the development of the legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac.
ALthough Lanzelet was written after Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot: Or, the Knight of the Cart, Ulrich does not seem to have known about it, and he therefore preserves a tradition about Lancelot that pre-dates Chrétien's version of it. In this presumably earlier tradition, Lancelot has four different lovers, but none of them is Queen Guenever. There is an episode towards the end in which, as in Chrétien's poem, Lanzelet takes part in an expedition to rescue the queen, but he doesn't actually rescue her; in fact, he rescues two of Arthur's knights given to a magician as hostages as part of a deal to rescue her.
The poem begins with an account of Lanzelet's early life, abducted by water-feys and raised on an island in the middle of a lake, and this persisted as a part of Lancelot's story, most notably in the anonymous French Prose Lancelot of the Lake. Apart from this and the abduction of the queen, none of the episodes resembles any adventure Lancelot has for the rest of the Arthurian tradition. Some of them are best known for happening to other knights.
The narrative is not very unified, from a modern point of view. The medieval view was that a work was unified if it were all about one hero, whereas modern readers often prefer a unified plot. Ulrich's poem follows Lanzelet from birth to death, and the episodes are discreet. They seem to have been composed for performance, with each episode a single night's entertainment.
FOr the most part, this is an entertaining romance; and if you want to understand the development of the Lancelot legend, or of the Arthurian legend more generally, it's an important poem to read.
ALthough Lanzelet was written after Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot: Or, the Knight of the Cart, Ulrich does not seem to have known about it, and he therefore preserves a tradition about Lancelot that pre-dates Chrétien's version of it. In this presumably earlier tradition, Lancelot has four different lovers, but none of them is Queen Guenever. There is an episode towards the end in which, as in Chrétien's poem, Lanzelet takes part in an expedition to rescue the queen, but he doesn't actually rescue her; in fact, he rescues two of Arthur's knights given to a magician as hostages as part of a deal to rescue her.
The poem begins with an account of Lanzelet's early life, abducted by water-feys and raised on an island in the middle of a lake, and this persisted as a part of Lancelot's story, most notably in the anonymous French Prose Lancelot of the Lake. Apart from this and the abduction of the queen, none of the episodes resembles any adventure Lancelot has for the rest of the Arthurian tradition. Some of them are best known for happening to other knights.
The narrative is not very unified, from a modern point of view. The medieval view was that a work was unified if it were all about one hero, whereas modern readers often prefer a unified plot. Ulrich's poem follows Lanzelet from birth to death, and the episodes are discreet. They seem to have been composed for performance, with each episode a single night's entertainment.
FOr the most part, this is an entertaining romance; and if you want to understand the development of the Lancelot legend, or of the Arthurian legend more generally, it's an important poem to read.
June 28, 2024
A lovely translation and possibly one of the best notes sections I've ever come across in a book- which does in truth take up nearly as much of the book as the translation itself. The notes are well worth reading though, including not just translation considerations, but also context for symbology, commentary on Arthurian or historical debate, and parallels to other stories within the cannon.
The story itself is fascinating in how much the adventures of Lanzelet and the famous court differ from the Chrétien-derived version. Like so many other excellent books, it has left me with a list of other works I need to find and consume.
The story itself is fascinating in how much the adventures of Lanzelet and the famous court differ from the Chrétien-derived version. Like so many other excellent books, it has left me with a list of other works I need to find and consume.
February 3, 2022
not MY lancelot
December 29, 2010
Lanzelet is -- unsurprisingly -- a story focused on Lancelot, though it is a story that doesn't include Chrétien de Troyes' addition to the story of the adulterous love between Lancelot and Guinevere. Lancelot, in this story, has various maidens and queens in love with him, but eventually is faithful to a lady called Iblis -- there is no hint that he and Guinevere (Ginover, in this text) have any real relationship at all, let alone anything improper. The story of the abduction of the queen is present, and Lancelot is a foremost part of it, but he is not alone: all of Arthur's court combines to win back their queen.
This translation seems clear, and is pretty easy to read -- I think it's probably better than J.W. Thomas' translations of The Crown and Wigalois -- and comes with a good introduction and extensive notes. Definitely useful for study, I'd say, and yet still readable enough for pleasure, though you'd probably best be a Lancelot fan.
On a personal note, this text is from the German tradition, which seems to mean a generally positive attitude to Gawain. 'Walwein the faultless', hm? It's also interesting to note that though Gawain does not defeat Lancelot, nor can Lancelot defeat Gawain.
This translation seems clear, and is pretty easy to read -- I think it's probably better than J.W. Thomas' translations of The Crown and Wigalois -- and comes with a good introduction and extensive notes. Definitely useful for study, I'd say, and yet still readable enough for pleasure, though you'd probably best be a Lancelot fan.
On a personal note, this text is from the German tradition, which seems to mean a generally positive attitude to Gawain. 'Walwein the faultless', hm? It's also interesting to note that though Gawain does not defeat Lancelot, nor can Lancelot defeat Gawain.
October 30, 2018
2.0 Stars.
Compared to what other medieval literature I've read during my last years at uni, Lanzelet turned out to be quite the mediocre novel. It really left me a little underwhelmed. I think the translation (regarding composition, not accuracy) isn't what it could have been - at times so unnecessarily long-winded when Middle High German is such a matter-of-fact language - then add to that a plot that has too many ups, no real downs and therefore overall not enough edge and it amounts in an okay reading experience. I feel a bit bad about this review, because the novel doesn't have a very good standing in the literary world already (and in the end I may be judging the translator more than the author), but nothing about this was outstanding and that's a fact.
Compared to what other medieval literature I've read during my last years at uni, Lanzelet turned out to be quite the mediocre novel. It really left me a little underwhelmed. I think the translation (regarding composition, not accuracy) isn't what it could have been - at times so unnecessarily long-winded when Middle High German is such a matter-of-fact language - then add to that a plot that has too many ups, no real downs and therefore overall not enough edge and it amounts in an okay reading experience. I feel a bit bad about this review, because the novel doesn't have a very good standing in the literary world already (and in the end I may be judging the translator more than the author), but nothing about this was outstanding and that's a fact.
September 9, 2020
An excellent translation of the medieval text. It includes details of the early medieval tradition of Lancelot such as his being raised by the Queen of the Sea instead of the Lady of the Lake, though a copyist here and there updated that detail at certain points in the text. The text is in prose because the poetry would be very difficult to render in English. If you are a fan of the Arthurian tradition, particularly of Lancelot, this is a must read.
January 4, 2012
What can I say? This is a true Arthurian classic from Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, which differs from the terribly jaded Vulgate Cycle version by featuring Lancelot as the hero in his own romance ...without falling in love with Arthur's queen, Ginover, who remains chaste and faithful to Arthur. Well worth a read.
Forget all the usual waffle about adultery and sin from the Vulgate and Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, folks, "Lanzelet" is Continental Arthurian Romance at its best.
Forget all the usual waffle about adultery and sin from the Vulgate and Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur, folks, "Lanzelet" is Continental Arthurian Romance at its best.
May 10, 2013
Die Geschichte ist ja eigentlich nicht schlecht, aber die mittelalterlichen Erzähltechniken finde ich einfach viel zu anstrengend. Die Ironiekonzepte finde ich beispielsweise einfach kein bisschen komisch.
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