From Romantasy to Horror: What Medieval Retellings Teach Us About Genre

How can one story become romance, myth, or horror just by changing how it’s told? This week,  we return to Eric and Enide, cross-examining its French chivalric romance, the classic Welsh, and the darker German version, to show how you can take a single plot and reshape it by tone, culture, and genre, giving you a powerful way to remix adventures and surprise your TTRPG players without reinventing the wheel.

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Citations

• Gramuglia, Anthony. “The Reason Wonder Woman & Thor Break Myth ‘Canon’ (feat. Red from OSP).” Watch here !
• Blaisdell, Foster W., and Marianne E. Kalinke, translators. Erex Saga and Ívens Saga. U Nebraska Press, 1977. 
• Chrétien de Troyes. “Erec and Enide.” The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes, translated by David Staines, Indiana UP, 1993, pp. 1-86.
• Davies, Sioned, translator. The Mabinogion. Oxford UP, 2007. Oxford World’s Classics. 
• Gantz, Jeffrey, translator. The Mabinogion. Dorset Press, 1976.
• Guest, Charlotte, translator. The Mabinogion. 1877. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1906. Everyman’s Library. 
• Hartmann von Aue. Erec. Translated by Michael Resler, U Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
• Hartmann von Aue. Erec. Translated by Thomas L. Keller, Garland Publishing, 1987. Garland Library of Medieval Literature (Series B) 12.  
• Thomson, Robert L., editor. Ystorya Gereint uab Erbin. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies / Dundalgan Press, 1997. Medieval and Modern Welsh Series 10.