Romance in Medieval English Literature
No—this doesn't refer to those novels you see in the supermarket checkout line, featuring muscular hunks with rippling biceps and swooning ladies in peasant blouses. When we say "romance," we're talking about the most popular literary genre of the Middle Ages.
Originally, "romance" just meant the language certain stories were written in. These were the vernacular languages—so, not Latin, but derived from Latin (or "Roman," hence the term "romance"). That means: French, Italian, Spanish, you-get-the-picture.
Over time, the term "romance" came to mean a narrative told in either verse or prose that features the manly adventures of knights. Enter: Lancelot, Gawain, and your lesser-known knightly types like The Red Knight of the Red Lands.
One of the main conflicts in these romance novels is how the ideal knight would behave vs. how knights can often behave IRL, which can fall a bit short. Like how Sir Gawain accepts that dreaded girdle from Bertilak's wife. Yikes.
Also, brotherhood is very important. Just think of King Arthur's fabled Round Table, where all of his knights are supposed to be equal and serve as the best examples of the knightly code. Again, they don't always live up to the code or even up to snuff (Sir Mordred, anyone?), but the code definitely gives those knight-guys something to aspire to.
And what would a good adventure story be without a smattering of magic and a little supernatural spice? Medieval romances usually give us a healthy dose of both. We don't want those knights getting too full of themselves, after all.
So, the traditional medieval romance also involves tons of magic swords, enchanted girdles, and men who can shapeshift into the Jolly Green Giant. Sam and Dean would have a field day with this stuff.
Now, we don't mean to bore you with stuff you already know, but we need to talk a little about the narrative structure of the romance as well. As you might've noticed, romances are usually organized around the quest—some major goal that the knight must achieve in order to make good on a bargain, fulfill a personal dream, or simply make it home.
Usually, along the way, the knight learns something about himself, or about his society or culture. One memorable example of this journey-and-revelation narrative can be found in The Wife of Bath's Tale. The knight character in that story gets kicked out of Arthur's court and has to hunt around for a year and a day until he discovers the answer to this all-important question: What is it women desire most?
(We're not going to answer that question here Shmoopers, sorry. But if you ever figure it out, do let us know.)
The knight's quest in medieval romances also tends to make the structure of these stories highly episodic. What we mean by that is that they sometimes jump between moments of major action without providing much connective material to fill in the gaps.
As in: oh, look, this knight is jousting that other knight. Now he's in a different part of the lands talking to some different dude about how to win his lady back. Rinse, repeat.
But let us not forget about love, because love has everything to do with the medieval romance. You see, love plays a central role in many medieval romances—you're shocked, we know. Anyway, when love comes on the scene in these stories, there tends to be a lot of swooning, sighing, and other overwrought emotional reactions…
Like turning pale and trembling.
If you just thought of Lancelot and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde, and/or Palamon-Arcite-Emily, bully for you. You hit the nail on the head. That's exactly what medieval notions of romance were like.
One last thing before we peace out of this discussion: medieval romances are not about deep, complex characters. No, friends, we're firmly within the territory of "ideal" characters, or character "types," here. So, Sir Gawain is a stereotypically perfect knight, boasting such fine qualities as extraordinary bravery, knightly prowess, smooth talking, excessive generosity, and purity.
Gawain does learn a lesson at the end of his story. But he doesn't compromise any of his knightly virtue to do so. There's no real character development of the kind we expect from modern-day fiction. So if you're looking for that, we'll afraid you'll have to go elsewhere.
Chew on This
Ah, the quest. Who doesn't want to set out from court and take a year and a day to solve a puzzle, fulfill a task, or make good on a promise? Those knights, they are always off questing for something... and we've gotta admit, we're kind of jealous. Anyway, how do you think a focus on the quest might affect the structure of the medieval romance novel? Think it over, and tell us what's up with the quest in The Wife of Bath's Tale and that little-know adventure for the Holy Grail thing.
Which knight exhibits the best chivalric skills and behaviors? Medieval authors disagreed on this point, and sometimes they even jousted and threw mutton at each other over it. (In our imaginations, at least.) Sir Thomas Malory was all about Lancelot. Can you think of other knights in Le Morte D'Arthur who can measure up to Ole Lancey? What about knights from other works, like Gawain from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?