Editing Knight-errant (section)

==Description==
The knight-errant is a character who has broken away from the world of his origin, in order to go off on his own to right wrongs or to test and assert his own chivalric ideals. In [[medieval Europe]], knight-errantry existed in literature, though fictional works from this time often were presented as [[non-fiction]].<ref>Daniel Eisenberg, "The Pseudo-Historicity of the Romances of Chivalry", ''Quaderni Ibero-Americani'', 45–46, 1974–75, pp. 253–259.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/historicalviewl02roscgoog] [[Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi]], ''Historical View of the Literatures of the South of Europe'', trans. Thomas Roscoe, 4th edition, London, 1885–88, Vol. I, pp. 76–79.</ref>

The template of the knight-errant were the heroes of the [[Round Table]] of the [[Arthurian cycle]] such as [[Gawain]], [[Lancelot]], and [[Percival]]. The [[quest]] [[wikt:par excellence|''par excellence'']] in pursuit of which these knights wandered the lands is that of the [[Holy Grail]], such as in ''[[Perceval, the Story of the Grail]]'' written by [[Chrétien de Troyes]] in the 1180s.

The character of the wandering knight existed in romantic literature as it developed during the late 12th century. However, the term "knight-errant" was to come later; its first extant usage occurs in the 14th-century poem ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]''.<ref>Sir Gawain arrives at the castle of Sir Bercilak de Haudesert after long journeys, and Sir Bercilak goes to welcome the "knygt erraunt." [http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010328 The Maven's Word of the Day: Knight Errant]</ref> Knight-errantry tales remained popular with [[courtier|courtly]] audiences throughout the [[Late Middle Ages]]. They were written in [[Middle French]], [[Middle English]], and [[Middle Low German|Middle German]].

In the 16th century, the genre became highly popular in the [[Iberian Peninsula]]; ''[[Amadis de Gaula]]'' was one of the most successful knight-errantry tales of this period. In ''[[Don Quixote]]'' (1605), [[Miguel de Cervantes]] [[burlesque]]d the romances and their popularity. Tales of knight-errantry then fell out of fashion for two centuries, until they re-emerged in the form of the [[historical novel]] in [[Romanticism]].