“Yvain, the Knight of the Lion" is a medieval knightly novel by the French writer Chrétien de Troyes. It is included in the number of so-called "Arthurian novels" or novels of the "Round Table". In these works, the plot is built around the adventures of the knights of King Arthur. This image goes back to the historical figure of Arthorius, one of the Britons (V-VI centuries), who once defended the western regions of England from the Anglo-Saxons, but already in Celtic legends and oral traditions Arthur appears as the ruler of "the entire Western world".
The novel was created by Chrétien de Troyes between 1176 and 1181. His text was preserved in seven complete manuscripts and in rather numerous passages. But there is no author's manuscript among them, they all refer to the XIII - the beginning of the XIV century.
"Yvain, the Knight of the Lion" is the third novel by Chrétien de Troyes. The passion for chivalric adventures makes the main character to forget about his love for his wife. But in either case the plot of the work enters into a complex interaction with courtly norms and ideals. If the courtly code of a love affair presupposes, more often than not, the undivided, almost secret love of a knight in a married woman, the wife of her lord (this concept is widely represented in the courtly lyrics of troubadours), besides, the service of a lady often acquires a religious-mystical connotation, then Chretien insists on the compatibility of mutual love and matrimony.
The writer is not inclined, as is done in various novel versions of Tristan and Isolde, to chant adultery, tracing his dramatic upheavals, which, however, does not exclude a tense novel conflict. The question of the relationship between knightly deeds and adventures with loving service, the collision of conjugal duty and the duty of knighthood is decided here in close connection with the general problem of moral perfection of the knight: the two-part development characteristic of Chrétien brings to the fore a story the conquest of a knight by a knight as a result of a successful duel and immersing him in family happiness, then briefly outlines the departure of Yvain to the element of thoughtless chivalrous "adventures" and oblivion of the beloved, for hours she punishes him with a break, and finally tells of the suffering of a distraught, rejected knight, his healing and the degeneration of his adventures into meaningful and noble deeds in the name of justice and love, which gives him the favor and tenderness of his wife.
Thus Chrétien de Troyes maintains the ideal of a reasonable balance between love and chivalrous activity and his hero stands the test of conformity to the ideal of the impeccable courteous knight, which is also underlined by the motive of friendship between Yvain and the animal king – the lion.
