Arthurian intertexts: Le Roman de Laurin, the First Continuation of Perceval and the Prose Tristan

Abstract

Abstract This article argues that elements from the First Continuation of Chrétien de Troyes’s Perceval (or Le Conte du Graal) (c. 1190–1200) were remodelled in the anonymous late thirteenth-century text Le Roman de Laurin, which belongs to the cycle of the Seven Sages of Rome, to create the pseudo-Gawain episode (or episode of the White Knight). This is followed by a consideration of the reasons the author may have had for making use of these Arthurian elements. These include the idea that this section of the Laurin may have formed part of the apparent literary backlash against the denigration of Gawain found in the Prose Tristan (c. 1230), the probable desire of the author to enhance his hero’s status by making him Gawain’s equal, and perhaps the desire to create a text blending the matière de Rome with the matière de Bretagne. The article then looks briefly at how some of the same elements are also found in the Prose Tristan and presents a view on the possible relationship(s) between the various works in the context of these intertextual components. Finally, there is a consideration of what these intertexts may tell us about contemporary audiences and the reception of the Laurin, in the context of a widespread engagement with the Perceval-corpus. This leads to the suggestion that, in the way it interacts with other texts, this part of Laurin might be considered typical of thirteenth-century Arthurian romance. I am indebted to the two anonymous readers of the original draft of this article for various suggested improvements.