Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Lady Lunete: Literary Conventions of Counsel and the Criticism of Counsel in Chrétien's Yvain and Hartmann's Iwein

  • Published:
Neophilologus Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article proposes the creation by the Old French romancier Chrétien de Troyes of a distinctly romance type of counsel distinguished by an emphasis on private counsel between individual characters and the adoption and modification of that convention by authors of Arthurian romance in the Middle High German tradition. Specifically, it examines the German author Hartmann of Aue's reception of Chrétien's convention of counsel by comparing Chrétien's own cica 1180 Yvain and Hartmann's reworking of the tale, his Iwein, from about 1195. A focal point for the comparative analysis of counsel in the two texts is the lady-in waiting, Lunete, who in both is prominent in her advice to her lady, Laudine, to marry Yvain/Iwein after he has killed Laudine's husband. From a more cultural perspective, moreover, the article clarifies the extents to which the representations of Lunete's counsel by Chrétien and his Swabian counterpart, Hartmann, function as authorial commentaries on the place of counsel in noble society. While Chrétien greatly problematizes the positive nature of counsel, in Hartmann's reinterpretation of both Chrétien's convention of counsel and his Lunete figure, counsel, in both its private and public forms, becomes singularly positive.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Works cited

  • Althoff, Gerd. Spielregeln der Politik im Mittelalter: Kommunikation in Frieden und Fehde. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, Grace M. “Women of Power: Chrétien de Troyes's Female Clerks.” Women in French Literature: A Collection of Essays. Ed. Michael Guggenheim. Stanford: Anima Libri, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arthur, Ross G. “The Judicium Dei in the Yvain of Chrétien de Troyes.” Romance Notes 28.1 (1987): 3–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashcroft, Jeffrey. “'si waren aines muotes': Unanimity in Konrad's Rolandslied and Otto's and Rahewin's Gesta Frederici.” Medieval Knighthood IV: Papers from the fifth Strawberry Hill Conference, 1990. Eds. Christopher Harper-Bill and Ruth Harvey. Woodbridge, England: Boydell P, 1992, 23–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, Geraldine. Counsel and Strategy in Middle English Romance. Camdridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartsch, Karl, ed. Kudrun. Revised by Karl Stackmann. 5th ed. Wiesbaden: F. A. Brockhaus, 1965.

  • Bloch, R. Howard. Medieval French Literature and the Law. Berkeley: U of California P, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brunner, Otto. Land und Herrschaft: Grundfragen der territorialen Verfassungsgeschichte Österreichs im Mittelalter. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carne, Eva-Maria. Die Frauengestalten bei Hartmann von Aue: Ihre Bedeutung im Aufbau und Gehalt der Epen. Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrétien de Troyes. The Knight with the Lion or Yvain (Le Chevalier au Lion). Ed. and trans. William W. Kibler. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrétien de Troyes. Erec and Enide. Ed. and trans. Carleton W. Carroll. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chrétien de Troyes. “Cligès.” Eds. and trans. Ch. Méla and O. Collet. Romans suivis des Chansons, avec, en appendice, Philomena. Ed. Michel Zink. Paris: La Pochothèque, 1994, 285–494.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, Gustave. Un grand romancier d'amour et d'aventure au XIIe siècle: Chrétien de Troyes et son œuvre. Paris: Boivin & Cie, Éditeurs, 1931.

    Google Scholar 

  • Constans, Léopold, ed. Le Roman de Thèbes: Publié d'après tous les Manuscrits. Vol. 1. Paris: Librairie Firmin Didot et Cie, 1890.

  • Dembowski, Peter F. “Monologue, Author's Monologue and Related Problems in the Romances of Chrétien de Troyes.” Yale French Studies 51 (1975): 102–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrismann, Otfrid. “‘Tandaradei’, ‘hêre vrouwe’ und die ‘schwelle des Allerheiligsten’. Frau und Tabu.” Sprache und Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 60 (1987): 36–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frappier, Jean. Étude sur Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion de Chrétien de Troyes. Paris: Société d'Édition d'Enseignement Supérieur, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geoffrey of Monmouth. The Historia regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. Ed. Neil Wright. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Germaine, Ellen. “Lunete, Women, and Power in Chrétien's Yvain.” Romance Quarterly 38.1 (1991): 15–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottfried von Straßburg. Tristan. Ed. Karl Marold. Revised by Werner Schröder. 3rd ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, Dennis H. Irony in Medieval Romance. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grimbert, Joan Tasker. Yvain dans le Miroir: Une Poétique de la réflexion dans le Chevalier au lion de Chrétien de Troyes. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haidu, Peter. “Narrativity and Language in Some Twelfth-Century Romances.” Yale French Studies 51 (1974): 133–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haidu, Peter. “Romance: Idealistic Genre or Historical Text?” The Craft of Fiction: Essays in Medieval Poetics. Ed. Leigh A. Arrathoon. Rochester, MI: Solaris P, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hannig, Jürgen. Consensus fidelium: Frühfeudale Interpretationen des Verhältnisses von Königtum und Adel am Beispiel des Frankenreiches. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanning, Robert. The Individual in Twelfth-Century Romance. New Haven: Yale UP, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann von Aue. Iwein. Eds. G. F. Benecke und K. Lachmann. 7th ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann von Aue. Iwein. Ed. and trans. Patrick M. McConeghy. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilka, Alfons. Die direkte Rede als stilistisches Kunstmittel in den Romanen des Kristian von Troyes. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1903.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, Tony. “Beginnings, Middles, and Ends: Some Interpretative Problems in Chrétien's Yvain and Its Medieval Adaptations.” The Craft of Fiction: Essays in Medieval Poetics. Ed. Leigh A. Arrathoon. Rochester, MI: Solaris P, 1984, 83–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ihring, Peter. “Die überlistete Laudine. Korrektur eines antihöfischen Weiblichkeitskonzepts in Chrétien's Yvain.” Arthurian Romance and Gender: Selected Proceedings of the XVIIth International Arthurian Congress. Ed. Friedrich Wolfzettel. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995, 147–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kern, Fritz. Gottesgenadentum und Widerstandsrecht im früheren Mittelalter: Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Monarchie. Leipzig: Verlag von K. F. Koehler, 1914.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, Hans-Peter. Erzählerbemerkungen und Erzählerkommentare in Chrestiens und Hartmanns ‘Erec’ und ‘Iwein’. Göppingen: Verlag Alfred Kümmerle, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krueger, Roberta. “Love, Honor, and the Exchange of Women in Yvain: Some Remarks on the Female Reader.” Romance Notes 25.3 (1985): 302–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Sage, David. “'Âne’ zuht’ or ‘âne schulde’?: The Question of Iwein's Guilt.” Modern Language Review 77.1 (1982): 99–113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1936.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lofmark, Carl. “The Advisor's Guilt in Courtly Literature.” German Life & Letters 24.1 (1970): 3–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorey, Christoph. “Die Schuld-Verhältnisse in Hartmanns Iwein.” Analogon Rationis: Festschrift für Gerwin Marahrens zum 65. Geburtstag. Eds. Marianne Henn and Christoph Lorey. Edmonton, Alberta: Marianne Henn and Christoph Lorey, 1994, 19–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, James R. “L'Onguent et l'Initiative Féminine dans Yvain.” Romania 112.1–2 (1991): 65–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertens, Volker. Laudine: Soziale Problematik im Iwein Hartmanns von Aue. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muscatine, Charles. “The Emergence of Psychological Allegory in Old French Romance.” PMLA 58.5 (1953): 1160–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Press, A. R. “Chrétien de Troyes's Laudine: A belle dame sans mercy?” Forum for Modern Language Studies 19.3 (1983): 158–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranawake, Silvia. “Zu Form und Funktion der Ironie bei Hartmann von Aue.” Wolfram Studien VII. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1982, 75–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothschild, Judith Rice. “Empowered Women and Manipulative Behaviors in Chrétien's Le Chevalier au Lion and Le Chevalier de la Charrete.” Medieval Perspectives 7 (1992): 171–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnell, Rüdiger. “Abaelards Gesinnungsethik und die Rechtsthematik in Hartmanns Iwein.” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte 65.1 (1991): 15–69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher, Marlis. Die Auffassung der Ehe in den Dichtungen Wolframs von Eschenbach. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schusky, Renate. “Lunete – eine ‘kuplerische Dienerin’?” Euphorion 71.1 (1977): 18–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Southern, Robert W. The Making of the Middle Ages. New Haven: Yale UP, 1953.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stengel, E., ed. Das altfranzösische Rolandslied: Kritische Ausgabe. Vol. 1. Leipzig: Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung Theodor Weicher, 1900.

  • Thomasin von Zerklaere. Der Welsche Gast. Ed. F. W. von Kries. Vol. 1. Göppingen: Kümmerle Verlag, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uitti, Karl D. with Michelle A. Freeman. Chrétien de Troyes Revisited. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wace. La partie arthurienne du Roman de Brut. Eds. I. D. O. Arnold and M. M. Pelan. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wand, Christine. Wolfram von Eschenbach und Hartmann von Aue: Literarische Reaktionen auf Hartmann im Parzival. Herne, Germany: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Kunst, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolfram von Eschenbach. Willehalm. Ed. Werner Schröder. Trans. and revised by Dieter Kartschoke. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaddy, Z. P. “Chrétien Misogyne.” Marche Romane 30.3–4 (1980): 301–07.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Modern Language, Literatures, and Linguistics, University of Oklahoma, Kaufman Hall 211, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    J. M. Sullivan

Authors
  1. J. M. Sullivan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sullivan, J.M. The Lady Lunete: Literary Conventions of Counsel and the Criticism of Counsel in Chrétien's Yvain and Hartmann's Iwein. Neophilologus 85, 335–354 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010328302589

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010328302589

Keywords

Search

Navigation