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27-645: 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 . 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 par excellence in pursuit of which these knights wandered

54-658: A samurai who, wanting to test his abilities in real life conditions, would travel the land and engage in duels along the way. Non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction ) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith , to convey information only about the real world , rather than being grounded in imagination . Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively based on historical, scientific, and empirical information. However, some non-fiction ranges into more subjective territory, including sincerely held opinions on real-world topics. Often referring specifically to prose writing, non-fiction

81-554: A dragon, and Guyon has no such quest, but both knights encounter perils and adventures. In the romances, his adventures frequently included greater foes than other knights, including giants , enchantresses , or dragons . They may also gain help that is out of ordinary. Sir Ywain assisted a lion against a serpent, and was thereafter accompanied by it, becoming the Knight of the Lion . Other knights-errant have been assisted by wild men of

108-409: A lord to give his service to), but might also be in service to a king or lord, traveling either in pursuit of a specific duty that his overlord charged him with, or to put down evildoers in general. This quest sends a knight on adventures much like the ones of a knight in search of them, as he happens on the same marvels. In The Faerie Queene , St. George is sent to rescue Una's parents' kingdom from

135-445: A non-fiction work may prove inaccurate, the sincere author aims to be truthful at the time of composition. A non-fiction account is an exercise in accurately representing a topic, and remains distinct from any implied endorsement. The numerous narrative techniques used within fiction are generally thought inappropriate for use in non-fiction. They are still present particularly in older works, but are often muted so as not to overshadow

162-520: A previous era. Don Quixote is an early 17th-century parody of the genre, in reaction to the extreme popularity which late medieval romances such as Amadis de Gaula came to enjoy in the Iberian Peninsula in the 16th century. In Jean Giraudoux 's play Ondine , which starred Audrey Hepburn on Broadway in 1954, a knight-errant appears, during a storm, at the humble home of a fisherman and his wife. A depiction of knight-errantry in

189-407: Is a class of knights referred to as Hedge Knights. A Hedge Knight is a wandering knight without a master, and many are quite poor. Hedge knights travel the length and breadth of the fictional continent of Westeros looking for gainful employment, and their name comes from the propensity to sleep out in the open air or in forests when they cannot afford lodging. The life of a hedge knight is depicted in

216-479: Is also possible. Some fiction may include non-fictional elements; semi-fiction is fiction implementing a great deal of non-fiction, (such as a fictional description based on a true story). Some non-fiction may include elements of unverified supposition , deduction , or imagination for the purpose of smoothing out a narrative , but the inclusion of open falsehoods would discredit it as a work of non-fiction. The publishing and bookselling businesses sometimes use

243-482: Is even a popular literary tradition that arose during the Tang dynasty which centered on slaves who used supernatural physical abilities to save kidnapped damsels in distress and to swim to the bottom of raging rivers to retrieve treasures for their feudal lords (see Kunlun Nu ). A youxia who excels or is renowned for martial prowess or skills is usually called wuxia . In Japan, the expression musha shugyō described

270-809: Is one of the two fundamental approaches to story and storytelling , in contrast to narrative fiction , which is largely populated by imaginary characters and events. Non-fiction writers can show the reasons and consequences of events, they can compare, contrast, classify, categorise and summarise information, put the facts in a logical or chronological order, infer and reach conclusions about facts, etc. They can use graphic, structural and printed appearance features such as pictures , graphs or charts , diagrams , flowcharts , summaries , glossaries , sidebars , timelines , table of contents , headings , subheadings , bolded or italicised words, footnotes , maps , indices , labels , captions , etc. to help readers find information. While specific claims in

297-548: The Tales of Dunk and Egg . The protagonist of Lee Child 's Jack Reacher novels, Jack Reacher, is intended by the author as a modern-day reflection of classic lone heroes. East Slavic bylina (epic poetry) feature bogatyrs , knights-errant who served as protectors of their homeland, and occasionally as adventurers. Some of them are presumed to be historical figures, while others are fictional and possibly descend from Slavic mythology . Most tales about bogatyrs revolve around

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324-658: The Late Middle Ages . They were written in Middle French , Middle English , and 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 burlesqued the romances and their popularity. Tales of knight-errantry then fell out of fashion for two centuries, until they re-emerged in

351-634: The Ministry of Transport . Giraudoux studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux and upon graduation traveled extensively in Europe. After his return to France in 1910, he accepted a position with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . With the outbreak of World War I, he served with distinction and in 1915 became the first writer ever to be awarded the wartime Legion of Honour . He married in 1918 and in

378-637: The English speaking world largely because of the award-winning adaptations of his plays by Christopher Fry ( Tiger at the Gates ) and Maurice Valency ( The Madwoman of Chaillot , Ondine , The Enchanted , The Apollo of Bellac ). Giraudoux served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal , a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians. In politics he

405-455: The boundaries between fiction and non-fiction are continually blurred and argued upon, especially in the field of biography ; as Virginia Woolf said: "if we think of truth as something of granite-like solidity and of personality as something of rainbow-like intangibility and reflect that the aim of biography is to weld these two into one seamless whole, we shall admit that the problem is a stiff one and that we need not wonder if biographers, for

432-433: The court of Vladimir I of Kiev . Three popular bogatyrs— Ilya Muromets , Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich (famously painted by Victor Vasnetsov )—are said to have served him. Youxia , Chinese knights-errant, traveled solo protecting common folk from oppressive regimes. Unlike their European counterpart, they did not come from any particular social caste and were anything from soldiers to poets. There

459-531: The form of the historical novel in Romanticism . A knight-errant typically performed all his deeds in the name of a lady, and invoked her name before performing an exploit. In more sublimated forms of knight-errantry, pure moralist idealism rather than romantic inspiration motivated the knight-errant (as in the case of Sir Galahad ). Such a knight might well be outside the structure of feudalism , wandering solely to perform noble exploits (and perhaps to find

486-469: The help of a range of structures or formats such as: And so on. Common literary examples of non-fiction include expository , argumentative , functional, and opinion pieces ; essays on art or literature; biographies ; memoirs ; journalism ; and historical, scientific , technical , or economic writings (including electronic ones). Jean Giraudoux Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux ( French: [ʒiʁodu] ; 29 October 1882 – 31 January 1944)

513-412: The information within the work. Simplicity, clarity, and directness are some of the most important considerations when producing non-fiction. Audience is important in any artistic or descriptive endeavour, but it is perhaps most important in non-fiction. In fiction, the writer believes that readers will make an effort to follow and interpret an indirectly or abstractly presented progression of theme, whereas

540-746: 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 . Knight-errantry tales remained popular with courtly audiences throughout

567-580: The modern historical novel is found in Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle (1906). The knight-errant stock character became the trope of the "knight in shining armour" in depiction of the Middle Ages in popular culture , and the term came to be used also outside of medieval drama, as in The Dark Knight as a title of Batman . In the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire , there

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594-406: The most part failed to solve it." Including information that the author knows to be untrue within such works is usually regarded as dishonest. Still, certain kinds of written works can legitimately be either fiction or non-fiction, such as journals of self-expression, letters , magazine articles, and other expressions of imagination. Though they are mostly either one or the other, a blend of both

621-478: The phrase " literary non-fiction " to distinguish works with a more literary or intellectual bent, as opposed to the bulk of non-fiction subjects. Based on the author's intention or the purpose of the content, the main genres of non-fiction are instructional, explanatory, discussion-based, report-based (non-chronological), opinion-based (persuasive) and relating (chronological recounting) non-fiction. Non-fictional works of these different genres can be created with

648-415: The production of non-fiction has more to do with the direct provision of information. Understanding of the potential readers' use for the work and their existing knowledge of a subject are both fundamental for effective non-fiction. Despite the claim to truth of non-fiction, it is often necessary to persuade the reader to agree with the ideas and so a balanced, coherent, and informed argument is vital. However,

675-458: The subsequent inter-war period produced the majority of his writing. He first achieved literary success through his novels, notably Siegfried et le Limousin (1922) and Eglantine (1927). An ongoing collaboration with actor and theater director Louis Jouvet , beginning in 1928 with Jouvet's radical streamlining of Siegfried for the stage, stimulated his writing. But it is his plays that gained him international renown. He became well known in

702-574: The woods , as in Valentine and Orson , or, like Guillaume de Palerme , by wolves that were, in fact, enchanted princes. The protagonist of Cormac McCarthy 's novel All the Pretty Horses , John Grady Cole, is said to be based specifically on Sir Gawain, of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Both characters share a number of aspects and traits; both are rooted in the myths of a past that no longer exists, and both live by codes of conduct from

729-526: Was a French novelist , essayist , diplomat and playwright . He is considered among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II . His work is noted for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. Giraudoux's dominant theme is the relationship between man and woman—or in some cases, between man and some unattainable ideal. Giraudoux was born in Bellac , Haute-Vienne , where his father, Léger Giraudoux, worked for

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