Seeking no doubt to appeal to his Burgundian contemporaries steeped in war culture, he made the combat scenes much more vivid and detailed while condensing the love intrigue. My initial foray into this field focused on the first half of the romance.
I will first consider his performance as a young but extremely promising combatant in the war waged by the duke of Saxony against the emperors of Constantinople and Germany. In a subsequent β very different β development, I will describe his exemplary conduct as a more mature knight intent on increasing his prestige by measuring himself against the best knights in a tournament organized in Britain by King Arthur.
The following analysis highlights the first and third phases of this war, touching only briefly on the second one. In the brief account of their combat, they immediately confront each other as all the knights and ladies in the palace rush to the windows and battlements to witness the conflict. He himself will use one-third fewer of his own men and even takes care to choose the most inexperienced ones! As for the portion detailing the actual combat, he expands it threefold by devoting 54 lines to it, which is roughly equivalent to verses.
It is no longer a simple bohort , nor is it a full-fledged tournament of the type that fifteenth-century audiences were used to seeing. With a single blow, he unhorses him before plunging back into the thick of the fray and performing wondrous feats.
Moreover, the clash between the two men and their armies is considerably more detailed β and lovingly so. This is truly combat in earnest. Qant el chanp furent tuit venu haut et bas et juene et chenu, et les gardes I furent mises,. Il sanble a ces qui les esgardent. His approach differs considerably in the two accounts.
