Yvain: Yvain must leave!

About the scene and clip: 
The solo performer acts out the scene where Yvain says he really must leave! (He has to arrive in time to save Lunette from being burned at the stake.) He just cannot stay to help his hosts, a family in distress, much as he would like to! (Just in time, the evil giant appears, and Yvain fights and defeats him, saving the family.)

About the work:
Yvain is one of the five surviving romances by Chrétien de Troyes, who is often considered the father of Arthurian romance. This great work, in octosyllabic rhymed couplets, was composed for Marie, Countess of Champagne, around 1170. The romance recounts the adventures of Yvain, a knight of King Arthur’s court, who wins the beautiful Laudine in marriage (having killed her husband in single combat). He then loses both her love and his honor through his failure to keep a vow to return home from his knightly activities by an sf rolex datejust mens rolex calibre 2836 2813 126334bldj automatic blue dial agreed-upon date. The second half of the romance is devoted to adventures in which Yvain, accompanied by a lion, creates a new name for himself (the “Knight with the Lion”), recovers his honor through a series of good deeds, and finally wins back his wife.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at what are blend King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation:
Yvain or The Knight with the Lion, trans. Ruth Harwood Cline, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 1975, pp. 113ff. Old French: Le Chevalier au Lion (Yvain), ed./trans. David F. Hult, in Romans de Chrétien de Troyes, eds./trans. J.M. Fritz et al, Paris, Classiques Modernes/ Livre de Poche, 1994.

About the performer/ensemble: 
Rebecca Pomeranz is a Drama student in the New Studio on Broadway at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2013).

About the production: 
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2013. It was videoed by McKenzie Beehler and edited by Abigail Wahl.

Gawain: Green Knight mocks Gawain

About the scene and clip: 
The solo performer acts out the scene where the Green Knight mocks Gawain before giving him the long-awaited blow.

About the work:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best loved works of medieval literature, is an anonymous Middle English romance of the 14th century. The style is “alliterative”: each poetic line is dominated by a certain letter sound that is repeated.

The story: At Christmas, a strange, huge, all-green knight arrives at King Arthur’s court. He challenges all present to an exchange of blows with his great axe. Gawain accepts, and cuts off the knight’s head—but the green man does not die! Rather, he picks up his head and, before riding away, reminds Gawain that in a year it will be his turn to receive his blow. Gawain, in his dutiful quest for the Green Knight, encounters many adventures—in particular, at a castle where he has an exchange of gifts with the lord, and where the lady attempts repeatedly to seduce the virtuous and honorable Gawain. He finally finds the Green Knight—in a surprising conclusion to the romance.

About the genre:
Medieval romances are typically long narratives of love and adventure in which an aristocratic hero (or occasionally a heroine) proves himself in combat and courtship. Medieval romance arose in France and Anglo-Norman England in the 12th century and spread through Western and even Eastern Europe. Many early romances tell the stories of knights and ladies at King Arthur’s court. In the 12th and 13th centuries, romances are composed in verse (typically octosyllabic rhymed couplets), and are commonly performed aloud from memory by minstrels; romances are also sometimes read aloud. In the 13th century, some romances begin to be written in prose; public and private readings become more frequent.

About the edition/translation: 
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [Parallel Text Edition], tr. Simon Armitage, New York/London, W.W. Norton & Company, 2007; IV,  ll.2284;  pp. 173ff.

About the performer/ensemble:  
Rebecca Pomeranz is a Drama student in the New Studio on Broadway at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2013).

About the production: 
This performance was created for the course “Acting Medieval Literature,” taught by Prof. Timmie (E.B.) Vitz at New York University in spring 2013. It was videoed by McKenzie Beehler and edited by Abigail Wahl.