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An idyllically happy marriage in which a husband is so involved that he neglects his duties as a knight; love endangered by a husband who is more interested in athletic chivalry than his wife; timorous young love; and adulterous passion-together these stories offer the most complete expression we possess from a single author of the ideals of French chivalry and of courtly love. Chretien de Troyes did not invent the Arthurian legend; he gave it a sophisticated literary form, establishing it as a major branch of European literature. Without Chretien we might today scarcely have heard of King Arthur and his brave company.
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