Calogrenant
Matter of Britain character
Attributed arms of Calogrenant
First appearance
Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
In-universe information
TitleSir
OccupationKnight of the Round Table
FamilyKing Arthur's family
RelativesYvain

In the Arthurian legend, Calogrenant is a knight of the Round Table and a relative of King Arthur. He first appears as the protagonist of the prologue to Yvain by Chrétien de Troyes.

Name variants

  • Yvain: Calogrenant; Calogrenans, Calogrenanz, Qualogrenans, Qualogrenans, Qualogrenanz,[1][2][3][4][5]
  • Iwein: Kalogreant (Kâlogrêant); Calogreant, Calogrenanz, Calogriandes, Cal[l]ogriant, Clockr[i]ant, Colocriandes, Col[l]ocriant, Galcriandt, Galocrians, Galocrian[d]t, Galogreandes, Galogreant, Glockriandes, Glockriant, Golocriandt, Kalochr[e]iant, Kalocreiant, Kalocriantes, Kalogranant, Kalogreandes, Kalogregant, Kalogrenant, Kalogriant, Kalokreiant, Kalokreygant, Kalogranandes, Kalokriandes, Kalotriant, Karlocriant, Kolocriant, Kologranant, Kologriant,[6][7]
  • Ívens saga: Kalebrant,[8]
  • Arthour and Merlin: Calogreuand, Calogreuant, Calogreaunt, Galogrenant,[9]
  • Diu Crône: Calocreant, Kalocreant,[10][11]
  • Jaufré: Calogremans, Calogrinantz, Garegronanz,[12]
  • Le Morte d'Arthur: Colgrevance, Colgrevaunce de Gore (Gorre, Goore), Collgrevaunce,[13][14][15]
  • Meraugis: Calogrenan, Calogrenans, Calogrenant, Calogrenanz, Calogrenain, Calogrenains, Galogrenant,[16][17]
  • Continuations of Perceval: Calogrinans, Calogrinant, Galogrinans,[18][19][20]
  • Prose Tristan: Calogrenant, Calogrinant, Cologrenant, Kalogrenans, Kalogrenant, Kalogurenant,[21][22]
  • Vulgate Merlin: Calogrenant, Calogrevaunt, Atalogrenant,[23][24]
  • Vulgate Lancelot: Calogrelant, Galogrant, Gallegrienant, Galogrenant, Galogrinans, Galogrinant,[25]
  • Vulgate Queste: Calegrenaus, Calogrenanz, Calogrenant, Calegrenaus, Colegrevant, Calogrinant, Calogrevaunt, Galogranant, Galogrenat, Galogrenant, Galogrenāt, Galogreuant, Galogrevant, Galogrinans, Galogrinant, Kalogrenant, Qualogrenaus, Qualogrenanz,[26][27][28]
  • Frauendienst: Kalocrîant,[7]
  • Li Tournoiemenz Anticrit: Calogrinans,[29]
  • Romance of Flamenca: Calobrenan,[30]
  • Claris et Laris: Kalogrenanz.[31]

Legend

Yvain and origins

Further information: Yvain, the Knight of the Lion
Calogrenant at the fountain in the BN MS fr.1433 manuscript of Yvain (c. 1325)

In Chrétien's Yvain, and its German and Welsh versions, Calogrenant tells a story to a group of knights and Queen Guinevere about an adventure he had in the forest of Brocéliande, where there was a magic spring that could summon a storm. Calogrenant reached the spring and summoned a massive storm, after which a knight named Esclados attacked and defeated him. Calogrenant's cousin, King Arthur's nephew Yvain, is upset that Calogrenant had never told him of this defeat, and sets out to avenge him, embarking on the adventure that sets up the remainder of events in the romance.

Calogrenant's character may have been derived from the Welsh mythology hero Cynon ap Clydno. In the Welsh version Owain, or the Lady of the Fountain, similar in plot but different in major aspects including the theme,[32] it is in fact Cynon who takes role of Chrétien's Calogrenant, but the question which version is closer to the supposed original tale is disputed.[33] Roger Sherman Loomis and some other scholars speculated that Calogrenant was used specifically as a foil for Kay (who mocks Colgrevance as he tells his story) in some lost early version of the romance Chrétien characterized him as everything Kay is not: polite, respectful, eloquent, and well-mannered. By this theory, his name can be deconstructed to "Cai-lo-grenant", or "Cai the grumbler", which would represent another opposite characteristic of Kay, who was famous for his bitter sarcasm.[34]

Other appearances

Diu Crône has him and Lancelot, who both fail, accompany the Grail-achiever Gawain on the Grail Quest.[35] In Claris et Laris, he is magically changed into a woman.[36][37]

Calogrenant also features as one of relatively minor knights in the Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate) cycle, where his kinship to Yvain is not as clear as in Chrétien. There, he dies during the Grail Quest while trying to keep the furious Lionel from killing his own brother, Bors.

In his Le Morte d'Arthur, the author Thomas Malory calls him Colgrevance and recounts his death at Lionel's hands as told in the Vulgate Queste. However, despite Colgrevance having died on the Grail Quest, he (or a different knight by the same name[38]) later reappears in Malory as one of the twelve knights who help Agravaine and Mordred trap Lancelot and Guinevere together in the queen's chambers. Lancelot has neither armour nor weapons, but manages to pull Colgrevance into the room and kill him, after which he uses Colgrevance's sword to defeat the rest of Mordred's companions.

Modern culture

In the television series Kaamelott, Calogrenant is king of Caledonia played by Stéphane Margot.

References

  1. ^ Troyes, Chrétien de (1880). Li romans dou Chevalier au Lyon von Chrestien von Troies (in French). C. Rümpler.
  2. ^ Flood, Victoria (2024). Medieval Welsh Literature and Its European Contexts: Essays in Honour of Professor Helen Fulton. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-721-2.
  3. ^ Grünkorn, Gertrud (1994). Die Fiktionalität des höfischen Romans um 1200 (in German). Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-503-03083-5.
  4. ^ Yearbook of Italian Studies (in Italian). Casalini Libri. 1980.
  5. ^ Troyes, Chrétien de; Holland, Wilhelm Ludwig (1862). Li Romans dou Chevalier au Lyon (in French). C. Rümpler.
  6. ^ Aue, Hartmann (von); Henrici, Emil (1893). Iwein: T. Anmerkungen (in German). Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.
  7. ^ a b Lichtenstein, Ulrich (von) (1888). Ulrich's von Lichtenstein Frauendienst (in German). F. A. Brockhaus.
  8. ^ Cederschiöld, Gustaf (1898). Ívens saga (in German). M. Niemeyer.
  9. ^ Sommer, Heinrich Oskar (1891). Le Morte Darthur: Studies on the sources, with an introductory essay by Andrew Lang. D. Nutt.
  10. ^ Nutt, Alfred Trübner (2022-08-15). Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail: Enriched edition. With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin. DigiCat.
  11. ^ Türlin, Heinrich von dem (2012-05-29). Die Krone: Unter Mitarbeit von Alfred Ebenbauer ins Neuhochdeutsche übersetzt von Florian Kragl (in German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-028620-5.
  12. ^ Brunel, Clovis; Brunel, Clovis Félix (1943). Jaufré: roman arthurien du XIIIe siècle en vers provençaux (in French). Société des anciens textes français.
  13. ^ Vinaver, Eugène (1947). The Works of Sir Thomas Malory: The book of Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere ; The most piteous tale of the morte Arthur Saunz Gwerdon. Clarendon Press.
  14. ^ Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table. Macmillan and Company, limited. 1900.
  15. ^ Moorman, Charles (2021-10-21). The Book of Kyng Arthur: The Unity of Malory's Morte Darthur. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-8638-2.
  16. ^ Houdenc, Raoul de (1897). Meraugis von Portlesguez: altfranzösischer Arbenteuerroman (in German). M. Niemeyer.
  17. ^ Houdenc., Raoul de (1869). Méraugis de Portlesguez: roman de la table ronde (in French). Librairie Tross.
  18. ^ Potvin, Ch (2022-03-10). Perceval le Gallois ou le Conte du Graal (in French). BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 978-3-7524-7719-1.
  19. ^ Perceval le Gallois ou le conte du Graal (in French). Dequesne-Masquillier. 1872.
  20. ^ Nutt, Alfred Trübner (1888). Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail: With Especial Reference to the Hypothesis of Its Celtic Origin. D. Nutt.
  21. ^ Ménard, Philippe (1987). Le Roman de Tristan en prose (in French). Librairie Droz. ISBN 978-2-600-00108-3.
  22. ^ Løseth, Eilert (1891). Le roman en prose de Tristan: le roman de Palamède, et la compilation de Rusticien de Pise; analyse critique d'après les manuscrits de Paris (in French). É. Bouillon.
  23. ^ Conlee, John (1998-09-01). Prose Merlin. Medieval Institute Publications. ISBN 978-1-58044-416-3.
  24. ^ Lacy, Norris J. (2010). Lancelot-Grail: The story of Merlin. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84384-234-7.
  25. ^ Lancelot (in German). Akademie-Verlag. 1948.
  26. ^ Furnivall, Frederick James (1864). La queste del saint graal (in French). J.B. Nichols and Sons.
  27. ^ Lancelot, III: Nach der Heidelberger Pergamenthandschrift Pal. Germ. 147 (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. 2024-07-24. ISBN 978-3-11-271839-1.
  28. ^ Sommer, Heinrich Oskar (1969). The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances: Les aventures ou la queste del Saint Graal. La mort le roi Artus (in French). AMS Press.
  29. ^ Huber-Rebenich, Gerlinde; Rohr, Christian; Stolz, Michael (2017-03-20). Wasser in der mittelalterlichen Kultur / Water in Medieval Culture: Gebrauch – Wahrnehmung – Symbolik / Uses, Perceptions, and Symbolism (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-043476-7.
  30. ^ Manetti, Roberta (2008). Flamenca (in Italian). Mucchi Editore. ISBN 978-88-7000-512-7.
  31. ^ Laris, Claris et (1884). Li romans de Claris et Laris (in French). Litterarischen Verein in Stuttgart.
  32. ^ Lloyd-Morgan, Ceridwen; Poppe, Erich (2019-01-15). Arthur in the Celtic Languages: The Arthurian Legend in Celtic Literatures and Traditions. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-78683-344-0.
  33. ^ Flood, Victoria (2024). Medieval Welsh Literature and Its European Contexts: Essays in Honour of Professor Helen Fulton. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 978-1-84384-721-2.
  34. ^ Loomis, Roger (1949). Arthurian Tradition and Chretien De Troyes. Columbia University Press.
  35. ^ Matthews, John (1997). Sources of the Grail: An Anthology. SteinerBooks. ISBN 978-0-940262-86-7.
  36. ^ Taylor, Karen J. (2015-12-22). Gender Transgressions: Crossing the Normative Barrier in Old French Literature. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-94479-9.
  37. ^ Roberts, Anna Klosowska (2016-05-24). Queer Love in the Middle Ages. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-08810-9.
  38. ^ Karr, Phyllis Ann (1997). The Arthurian Companion: The Legendary World of Camelot and the Round Table. Chaosium. ISBN 978-1-56882-096-5.