ord Excalibur, which only Arthur could remove from the stone, proving his rightful place on the throne. In a French version of the Arthurian romance by Chretien de Troyes, Lancelot, Arthur's chief knight and rival for Guinevere's love is introduced. Chretien also introduces Percivil, another knight of Arthur's, and the search for the Holy Grail. These early works had a great influence on later German versions of the romances, such as Erec and Iwein, by the twelfth century poet Hartmann von Aue, and the epic Parzifal, by Wolfram won Eshenbach. By the early thirteenth century the story of Tristan and Isolde was also added to the Arthurian legends, which describes the conflict between passion and duty.English Arthurian romances, dating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, were based on the stories of individual knights. Percival and Galahad, the knights of the Grail and especially Gawain were the subjects of these tales. An anonymous story of these tales is written in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which involves the moral testing of a young knight.Le Morte Darthur, by Sir Thomas Malory, was compiled in 1469 or 1470, and printed in 1485, by William Caxton. It is consider to be the first work of prose fiction in English and perhaps one of the greatest. Malory was believed to be an English knight of Warwickshire that had served for the military in France. It is also believed that he wrote Le Morte Darthur while serving time in prison for political crimes. The epic is composed of translations from old French sources and Malory's own writings. It is divided into 21 books and tells the tales of Arthur and his knights and is said to have given new life to all of the characters. The prose has been noted for its color, dignity and graceful qualities.The importance of the Arthurian romances consisted largely of keeping the memory of the knight's traditions alive. Europe began to utilize the code of chivalry to serve as a model for gentle...
