Medieval Romance: The Knight with the Lion

'tis but a scratch: fact and fiction about the Middle Ages

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In this episode my guest host Professor Larissa 'Kat" Tracy and I discuss my favorite medieval romance, Chrétien de Troyes' late twelfth century poem, "Yvain, the Knight with the Lion." We place the poem within its historical context--the first European industrial and commercial revolution, and the emergence of a courtly society and culture--and analyze what it reveals about aristocratic values and conceptions of love, gender relations, and chivalry in the late twelfth century.
The translation I used for the quotations is by Carleton W. Carroll (Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances. Penguin Classics. Penguin Books, 1991).
This episode includes a musical snippet from Andrei Krylov's "Noble medieval knight song" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imdIX--ZYJo

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Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada
If you have questions, feel free to contact me at [e-mail]