This   level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Poetry Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Poetry, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of poetry on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoetryWikipedia:WikiProject PoetryTemplate:WikiProject PoetryPoetry articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. Literature Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Literature, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Literature on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LiteratureWikipedia:WikiProject LiteratureTemplate:WikiProject LiteratureLiterature articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. Middle Ages Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Middle Ages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Middle Ages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Middle AgesWikipedia:WikiProject Middle AgesTemplate:WikiProject Middle AgesMiddle Ages articles Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Well if most authors are Portuguese, I can't see the reason why it should be called the "Spanish" Amadis de Gaula. I changed it to Spanish/Portuguese...

-- 85.138.18.70 14:17, 23 September 2006 (UTC) reply

etc.

This article seems to be wrong. The genre in the form of prose novellas originated in late antiquity and was Greek and continued uninterrupted in Arab literature. Greek romances (or tales) furnished the plots for Ancient Roman comedies and are the basis for the tales of Boccaccio and other writers who inspired the comedies of Shakespeare. They feature children separated at birth or captured in slavery, star-crossed lovers, tokens of identification, and the like, and usually had a happy ending. The relation of the Romance to Romantic literature given here is confused and inaccurate. The term "Romance" comes from the fact that these Greek novels were written in the vernacular, which was referred to as speaking in the Roman way (romanice, an adverb) or in what we would call "vulgar Latin" , i.e., the non-literary vernacular Latin that gave rise to the languages that are today called Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, Dalmatian, Ladino, etc. A complicating factor is that Greeks (including Greek speakers) of late antiquity referred to themselves as Roman, because they were part of the Eastern Roman Empire, not because they spoke Latin, necessarily. "Romance" began to include all popular literature written in the vernacular as opposed to learned works composed in Ancient Latin (a dead tongue) meant to be read by scholars, but specifically romance literature referred to the highly popular medieval chivalric epics. These epics (as opposed to the traditional Greek prose romances) featured a lot of magical and fantastic elements, enchanted swords, and the like (like the special effects of today). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mballen ( talk • contribs) 18:26, 29 March 2009 (UTC) reply

Mballen, I wish you would simply contribute most of the above to the article. I will add a reference to the wikipedia article for Ancient Greek novel. Markdf10825 ( talk) 15:38, 22 June 2011 (UTC) reply

There is a lot of excellent material on the Scandinavian sagas. Is this really the place for such a full treatment of them, however? Bacchiad 18:18, 19 September 2005 (UTC) reply

There is an article Norse sagas. If the subheading were Elements of Romance in Norse sagas that might keep the discussion more on track. Shall I or would you? -- Wetman 03:07, 20 September 2005 (UTC) reply

What about adding to the article some discussion of science fiction ("space opera"), fantasy, western ("horse opera") and other such genres, which (I think) carry the romance tradition to the present day? I don't have the required sources at hand, so I hope someone else would do it. Jussi Hirvi 20 Dec. 2005

It is strange. The emphasis on Scandinavian sagas feels a bit biased. FilipeS ( talk) 20:18, 8 January 2008 (UTC) reply

I'm not really the person to do it (my knowledge of this genre is pretty limited) but it seems like there should be more mention of Chretien de Troye's contributions to this genre, particular Erec et Enide and/or The Knight of the Cart. Marie de France's Lais might also be good to include in the article, since although they are not technically romances, they share enough characteristics that they would probably be good to mention.

Certainly I think that the lais are closer to a true romance than some of the other works mentioned, like works of the 1500s or even 1400s which are really after romance was at the height of its form. Malory, although his Morte d'Arthur is certainly an important work and a good one to mention, is really after the height of romance (I don't *think* it's written in verse, either, is it?). Gawain and the Green Knight, although another good example, is also somewhat problematic because it is arguably really a parody of the genre (albeit not as strong a one as Done Quixote) and not, perhaps, an entirely serious example. Chretien and to a lesser extent Marie don't really suffer these issues; besides, they're famous examples of the genre in their own right. -- Sailor Titan 18:58, 12 November 2006 (UTC) reply

"these were assembled in imagination at a late date as the "homosexual" (actually centered on the life and deeds of Alexander the Great)"

Is this a joke? Shouldn't this read "the Matter of Rome"?

update: I see that Wiki does have an entry on "Matter of Rome" that refers to these stories, so I edited the page to remove the offending word....

Aristophanes68 ( talk) 03:11, 24 November 2007 (UTC) reply

As a result of a discussion at WT:Hatnote, it was suggested that this article might ought to be renamed. There are two literary genres called "romance"; these are represented on Wikipedia as romance novel (the modern genre) and romance (genre) (the medieval genre). The proposal is that the title romance (genre) be used as more of a site index (similar to The War of the Worlds (film)), which would probably be an expanded version of romantic fiction. This article would need to be renamed, possibly to Romance (medieval literary genre). I'd like to solicit input as to whether this move would be acceptable. Karanacs ( talk) 20:53, 25 February 2008 (UTC) reply

As I said on the discussion a set index may be the solution you are looking for because it allows a much more focused page designed to resolve just this kind of issue, with more room to go into detail (offer examples, references, etc.) which can resolve this kind of confusion.

Perhaps a simpler fix than renaming this (which would involve fixing all the links, etc.) would be to make the index at Romance (fiction) which would give you the chance to explain all the various aspects of this area and it would avoid hair splitting on whether something is or isn't a genre (which is partly how this arose in the first place). Just my twopenneth as I'm not an expert on the area. ( Emperor ( talk) 21:14, 28 February 2008 (UTC)) reply

This page should be about the genre of romance, whether it be modern or medieval, printed or in film. If it's going to be only about medieval romance, then it needs to be moved so the more generic article can take its place. ··· 日本穣 ^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:05, 15 July 2009 (UTC) reply

David Lodge wrote Small World: An Academic Romance and this fits in with the genre. It is a satire but also a quest novel that uses extraordinary circumstances and other medieval themes and methods. Does someone know how to work this modern version into the article. WikiParker ( talk) 15:51, 9 September 2009 (UTC) reply

In August 2007 this page was moved to Chivalric romance. In December the same year it was moved back.

Most articles in other Wikipedias use the word "chivalry" or "knight" in some form in the title of the article. There's probably a good reason for that. "Romance" is a very wide term, but this article indeed deals with Chivalry novels, which would probably be familiar to common people mostly through Don Quixote. To the best of my knowledge far more people today know Quixote than Amadis. This English translation of Quixote uses "books of chivalry" throughout the book itself and both "books of chivalry" or "romances of chivalry" in the introduction; "romance" is almost never alone and is usually qualified.

Given all the above reasons, i propose to move this article to Chivalric romance. -- Amir E. Aharoni ( talk) 16:57, 13 December 2009 (UTC) reply

What about the elements of Romance in Lord of the Rings. Have you heard of Northrop Frye? What is the suggestion based on? Have you contributed text to the article Romance (genre)?-- Wetman ( talk) 17:04, 13 December 2009 (UTC) reply

Lord of the Rings is a very small part of this article; I didn't claim that i am a qualified literary critic; And i don't think that it is written anywhere that one has to contribute text to an article in order to achieve the right to propose a move.

I am simply proposing to rename this article so it would reflect its actual content - chivalry books. I believe that it would make it easier to find and a little more accessible to the general public and not just to qualified literary critics. To most people today the "romance" genre is about love stories, not about chivalry. I am not proposing to dumb this article down, just to make its title less confusing. -- Amir E. Aharoni ( talk) 18:20, 13 December 2009 (UTC) reply

Why are paragraphs on the saga in general when most sagas are in fact in the older, epic genre? Chivalric sagas I could see but it's not even touching on them. Goldfritha ( talk) 01:29, 14 August 2010 (UTC) reply

Cutting. Goldfritha ( talk) 20:59, 30 August 2010 (UTC) reply

I cut this line

Medieval romances most likely have their roots in the Ancient Greek novel, for instance the well-known Alexander romance.

on the grounds that not only is it unsourced, it is not supported by anything I've ever read, which point rather to the epics as the source of the bulk of them. Goldfritha ( talk) 01:17, 31 July 2011 (UTC) reply

This line: "During the early 20th century romances were increasingly written as prose, and extensively amplified through cycles of continuation." is clearly meant to refer to the 14th or 15th century, I'm not sure which though. Possibly vandalism? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.111.185.68 ( talk) 17:54, 23 October 2011 (UTC) reply

I see the move is done and dusted. The problem is that heroic literature and romance are different and in many ways contrasting genres. The article title is now positively misleading. -- Pfold ( talk) 09:35, 19 February 2012 (UTC) reply

So what romance isn't about a hero? Lancelot is certainly a flawed hero, but still a hero. According to Wiki's titling conventions, the title suggests that romance is a type of heroic literature, not that the two are the same thing. Kauffner ( talk) 10:14, 19 February 2012 (UTC) reply

If you seriously think heroic literature means literature with a hero,... Romance is not a type of heroic literature. -- Pfold ( talk) 13:48, 19 February 2012 (UTC) reply

Also, I would like to point out that Romance (genre) was not acceptable. After the move, I redirect Romance (genre) to Romance, and then upon reviewing link, found that over 50 links to Romance (genre) were not at all about heroic literature. Thus, having this article at Romance (genre) resulted in hundreds of pages linking to the wrong article. If you want to do another move, that's fine with me, but not to Romance (genre). D O N D E groovily  Talk to me 16:58, 19 February 2012 (UTC) Is Romance (medieval literature) a good idea? D O N D E groovily  Talk to me 16:59, 19 February 2012 (UTC) reply

I agree with Pfold on this one. The title is at least possibly misleading, and I even wonder if the one who proposed it was confusing romance with chanson de geste. — Srnec ( talk) 00:02, 20 February 2012 (UTC) reply

My basic plea is for a move to a title that is not factually incorrect. Romance (medieval literature) is fine if cumbersome. But I have to say I should like to see the vote challenged. This was a very marginal vote with low participation and the fact that it was for a move to a factually incorrect title undermines the entire article. If a vote is for something that is demonstrably wrong, then the votes in favour of it would lack credibility, even if they were much more numerous. ---09:20, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

"The half-tones of ordinary human nature are not for the romance writers; every man is either a hero and a good man, or a villain...Poetic justice reigns supreme throughout the romances." -- Essays On Middle English Literature. Kauffner ( talk) 15:30, 20 February 2012 (UTC) reply

The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms has a general entry on "romance" and subsidiary one on "chivalric romance". It says that "the emphasis on heterosexual love and courtly manners distinguishes it from the chanson de geste and other kinds of epic , in which masculine military heroism predominates." I won't say that "heroic literature" is wrong (every romance has a hero), but I think that "courtly literature", for example, would be better. Srnec ( talk) 19:44, 20 February 2012 (UTC) reply

"Courtly" is fine. I suspect those who voted for heroic literature don't realize that it has a specific historical and genre meaning quite separate from the much broader concept of the hero. No medievalist would confuse the two. -- Pfold ( talk) 23:05, 20 February 2012 (UTC) reply

This moving business is a disaster, and shows how RM is broken< inviting comments from random people on a topic they known nothing about will lead to some quick "consensus", and once the editors who developed the article come back and find what happened, they will be powerless to undo the damage, because, hey, there was a "consensus".

Just undo the ill-advised move and have a proper discussion, ok? "Romance (genre)" was about a million times preferable over "romance (heroic literature)" regardless of its possible drawbacks. Try to make this about the topic and not about being right or getting your way or justifying wiki-bureaucracy, please? -- dab (𒁳) 08:47, 27 March 2013 (UTC) reply

Couldn't agree more. The present disambiguator is so inappropriate it undermines the credibility of the article itself -- Pfold ( talk) 10:01, 27 March 2013 (UTC) reply

I'm cutting this:

A related tradition existed in Northern Europe, and comes down to us in the form of epics, such as Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied. However, the richest set of Germanic literature of Romance comes from Scandinavia in the form of the legendary sagas. The setting is Scandinavia, but occasionally it moves temporarily to more distant and exotic locations (including Constantinople). There are also very often mythological elements, such as gods, dwarves, elves, dragons, giants and magic swords. The heroes often embark on dangerous quests where they fight the forces of evil, dragons, witchkings, barrow-wights, and rescue fair maidens.

on the ground that it's about epics, not romances. It needs to talk about what sort of influences they were on the later works to be appropriate. Goldfritha ( talk) 02:46, 4 December 2012 (UTC) reply

Medieval romance redirects to Chivalric romance, but the term "medieval romance" is not introduced there as a synonym. I understand that both terms are used to disambiguate the term "romance", but the question remains: was there any kind of medieval romance other than chivalric romance? This article ^[1] seems to say that at the very early times of the usage of the term "romans" there "romanses" were not necessarily chivalric and could include "free translations of Latin epics and chronicles", which, I guess, were far from "chivalric" - there were no chevaliers (knights) in Ancient Rome, right? Someone well-versed in literary lore, please update the article Chivalric romance with the clarification of the term "medieval romance", e.g., basing on the article I cited. Loew Galitz ( talk) 04:26, 25 March 2022 (UTC) reply

" there were no chevaliers (knights) in Ancient Rome, right?" Is this a joke? The equites ("cavalrymen") of Rome are traditionally called "knights" in English. Dimadick ( talk) 19:32, 25 March 2022 (UTC) reply

Is this a joke back? Here is a concept for you to revisit: " anachronism". The English are particularly notorious for using their standard English words for everything superficially similar. My fav is the habit of calling African chieftains "kings". Loew Galitz ( talk) 21:06, 25 March 2022 (UTC) reply