Gauvain and Gringalet: Comic Masculinities in Paien de Maisières

Two short romances about Gauvain, La Mule Sans Frein and Le Chevalier à l’Épée represent the hero as a comic figure. Reading between these texts and Chrétien’s Conte du Graal reveals the degree to which the figure of the knight is queered by his relationship to horses and other animals.