The most illustrious shaper of Arthurian legend after Geoffrey was a Frenchman, Chres tien de Troyes. A native of Champagne, he wrote in the second half of the 12th century a series of long poems in octosyllabic couplets dealing with prominent knights of Arthur's court, Erec, Lancelot, Yvain and Perceval. A fifth piece, 'Cliges,' is connected with Arthur in a different way, while a romance dealing with Tristram has not been preserved. Chrestien carried still further the process which had been begun by Geoffrey. In his hands the knights become representative of the highest chivalric culture. They are not merely patterns of bravery, but men of sensitiveness and refinement, drawn with a surprising care for psychological analysis. Chrestien introduced into his stories the elabo rate love-conventions of the day, which often produces a certain artificiality. He stood pre eminent among his contemporaries, and exerted a great influence, not only in France, but in neighboring countries as well, particularly in Germany. The and (Yvain) were trans lated by Hartmann von Aue, and the (Parziyal) of Wolfram von Eschenbach probably owes a good deal to the 'Conte del Graal,) although the extent of this indebtedness is disputed.
Chrestien's sources are no longer extant, but it seems likely that these consisted largely of short narratives in verse. Some idea of the character of .these may be gained from the Breton lais of the poetess Marie de France, although Marie's poems are no doubt far more artistic than the reworkings of popular story of which Chrestien made use. Many lays upon Arthurian subjects must have been in existence at this time. The work of Marie herself, al though indirectly most significant in considering the literary evolution of the Arthurian legends, is but slightly connected with Arthur, only one of her lays having a setting at his court.
Meanwhile the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's imaginary history was calling forth various paraphrases in England. The demand for a version in French was met by the rhymed translation of Geoffrey Gaimar,. produced shortly before the middle of the 12th century. Only a part of this is extant, but a compensa tion for its loss appears in the poem by the Norman Wace, which seems to have been con sidered a more distinguished work than Gai mar's. Wace treated Geoffrey's material with considerable freedom, making additions and omissions as he thought fit. His work falls early in the third quarter of the 12th century.
The chronicle of the British monarchs was put into English about the year 1205 by Laya mon, a monk of Ernley on the Severn, and called, after the reputed founder of the royal line, the Brut. Of this, about one-third deals
with Arthur. It was based largely on the poem of Wace, but the English monk gave a very different coloring to his work than did the elegant Norman. Arthur becomes a more truly English hero, and his deeds are told in the alliterative verse of the Germanic stock, al though rhyme and even assonance occasionally appear. The English character of the work is apparent in the vocabulary, contains very few words of Romance origin. Like Geoffrey of Monmouth, Layamon drew from traditions near the Welsh border, adding to the Arthurian story material of great interest. Particularly noteworthy is the account of the Round Table, an institution borrowed from Celtic sources to settle questions of precedence in sitting at meat.
In the further development of the Arthurian romances the tendency to exalt the individual knights rather than the great king becomes more marked. Arthur is, indeed, the most majestic figure of all, but he remains in the background, while great exploits are performed by his fol lowers. Gradually a number of cycles arise, centring about prominent figures, Gawain, Lancelot, Perceval, Yvain, Merlin. Tales origi nally unconnected with Arthur's court are partly localized there, and their heroes made members of the Round Table fellowship, as the Quest of the Holy Grail, which consists of the fusion of a Celtic narrative of adventure and an ecclesias tical legend, or the story of Tristram and Ysolt.
A vast body of verse-romances thus came into existence, together with long compilations in prose. Chaucer did his part in telling of "tholde dayes of the king Arthour) in the Wife of Bath's tale. In the 15th century the degen eration of the minstrel romance was rapid. With the decline of the chivalric system came the decay of the romantic stories which glorified it. Prose redactions, often of inferior artistic merit, became more and more common. Mean while some Arthurian material reappeared in altered form in the popular ballads. A notable exception to the general level of romance writing in this period is the