Ambiguità e duplicità semantica nel "Chevalier à l'épée"

The Chevalier à l’épée is a short Gauvain romance, preserved in a single manuscript (Berne, Bibliothèque de la Ville, MS 354) of the late 13th or early 14th century. The aim of this article is to propose a new interpretation of the text, especially concerning the principal episode of the romance, concerning the host and his perilous hospitality. There is no doubt that the meaning of the text emerges in the interplay between the text and the reader, who may accept, ignore or reject the irony and the double meanings that lie in the malicious telling of Gauvain’s experiences.