As diferentes descrições sobre a cavalaria em o Conto do Graal, de Chrétien de Troyes e em suas continuações, a de Manessier e a de Gerbert de Montreuil, durante os séculos XII e XIII

Abstract

The following research has as its theme the French and Flemish cavalries from the second half of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries. It seeks to understand the function of the Cavalry as according to Chrétien de Troyes, a great 12th century novelist, poet and writer, whose works were read and spread out through Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. The chosen source is the last work published from the author, entitled “Perceval, the Story of the Grail” (1185) for it being considered as a forerunner work about the Holy Grail and for providing a description of the idealistic knighthood and the behavioral Cavalry game. Having as base the conceptions around the theories and methodologies to deal with literary documents, as proposed by Roger Chartier in the text “Literature and History” (2000), the text “The study of medieval literature in German in Brazil at the light of Germanic Medievalism” (2005), from Álvaro Alfredo Bragança Júnior, adapted to the study of francophone literature, and the study from Sandra Jatahy Pesavento, “The World as a Text: readings of History and Literature” (2003). This ensemble of works propose thinking beyond such documents and what each work represents, being then necessary the comprehension of a series of information regarding production space, author’s biography and the transition and appropriation of such works. To understand the relations between the source and the propositions mentioned, it will be utilized the works: George Duby’s The Chivalrous Society (1977), Jean Flori’s The Chivalry: the origin of noble warriors in the Middle Ages (1988), Richard Kaeuper’s Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe and Dominique Barthélemy’s The Chivalry: from old Germania to 12th century France (2007). Furthermore, as the work disposes of alternative endings written by other poets, given the inexistence of one written by the author, the discussion regarding the comprehension of Chrétien de Troyes in relation to Chivalry will be extended, linked to the authors of “The Third Continuation” and “The Fourth Continuation” by Manessier and Gerbert de Montreuil, respectively. The study is divided in two parts: the first started with a discussion about the ways of dealing with literature, and then made an analysis about the production’s space, staging used and its influences, as well as the author’s relations to the nobles and the Chivalry. The second half regards source analysis with the objective of identifying what are the conceptions about the Chivalry to the three authors mentioned, Chrétien de Troyes, Manessier e Gerbert de Montreuil.