Chivalric romance
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As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. These were fantastic stories about marv
Yvain fighting Gawain in order to regain the love of his lady Laudine. Medieval illumination from Chrétien de Troyes's romance, Yvain, le Chevalier au Lion
Holger Danske, or Ogier the Dane, from the Matter of France
A knight rescues a lady from a dragon.
Don Quixote
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Don Quixote is a novel by Miguel de Cervantes, written in Early Modern Spanish and published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. It is considered a founding work of Western literature and the first modern
Chivalric romance
…to suit the readers' and listeners' tastes, but by c. 1600 they were out of fashion, and Miguel de Cervantes famously burlesqued them in his novel Don Quixote. Still, the modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, damsels…
Don Quixote de la Mancha (first edition, 1605, printed by Juan de la Cuesta)
Don Quixote goes mad from his reading of books of chivalry. Engraving by Gustave Doré.
Illustration by Gustave Doré depicting the famous windmill scene
Don Quixote de la Mancha and Sancho Panza, 1863, by Gustave Doré