In Erec it is essentially linear and graduated in structure, moving from simple to increasingly complex and meaningful encounters. But already in Erec Chrétien was experimenting with a technique for interrupting the linearity and varying the adventures, a technique he would employ with particular success in The Knight with the Lion and The Story of the Grail, and which would be used extensively in the prose romances: interlacing. In its simplest manifestations, as it functions twice in The Knight with the Lion, interlacing involves the weaving together of two distinct lines of action: each time Yvain begins an adventure, it is interrupted so that he can complete a second before returning to finish the first. In the first instance, Yvain is on his way to defend Lunete, who has been condemned to die for having persuaded her mistress to marry the unfaithful Yvain. He secures lodging at a town that is besieged by the giant Harpin of the Mountain and, though it nearly causes him to be too late to save Lunete, he remains and defeats the giant. In the second instance, Yvain agrees to defend the cause of the younger daughter of the lord of Blackthorn, who is about to be disinherited by her sister. But before the combat with her champion, Gawain, can be concluded, Yvain is called to enter the town of Dire Adventure and free three hundred maidens who are forced to embroider for minimal wages in intolerable conditions. The same pattern recurs in The Story of the Grail, where Chrétien cuts back and forth between the adventures of Gawain and those of Perceval. The adventures in The Knight of the Cart, on the other hand, are organized according to the principle of contrapasso, by which the nature of the punishment corresponds precisely to the nature of the sin: having hesitated to step into the cart, Lancelot must henceforth show no hesitations in his service of ladies and the queen.

In the midst of the interlace in The Knight with the Lion, Chrétien introduces a complex pattern of intertextual references designed to link that poem to The Knight of the Cart, which he was composing apparently simultaneously. In the town besieged by Harpin of the Mountain, Yvain learns that the lord’s wife is Sir Gawain’s sister, but that Gawain is unable to succour them because he is away seeking Queen Guinevere, who has been carried off by ‘a knight from a foreign land’ (Meleagant) after King Arthur had foolishly entrusted her to Sir Kay. This is a direct allusion to the central action of The Knight of the Cart, and interweaves the plots of the two romances. Gawain cannot see to his own family’s welfare in The Knight with the Lion because he is concurrently engaged in a quest in The Knight of the Cart. During the second interlace pattern of The Knight with the Lion, the elder sister arrives at Arthur’s court just after Gawain has returned with the queen and the other captives from the land of Gorre, and it is specifically noted that Lancelot ‘remained locked in the tower’. This second direct reference to the intrigue of The Knight of the Cart refers, perhaps deliberately, to the point at which Chrétien abandoned this romance, leaving its completion to Godefroy de Lagny. This intertextual technique did not have the success of the interlace, but attests like it to an acute artistic awareness on the part of Chrétien to the structuring of his romances. This technique of intertextual reference could also be seen as an attempt by Chrétien to lend depth or consistency to this work, setting each romance in a broader, more involved world (a technique used later in the Lancelot-Graal, where events not specifically recounted in that work are alluded to as background material). In Chrétien’s case it might even be seen as self-promotion, encouraging the reader or listener of one romance to seek out the other.

Chrétien’s artistry was not limited to overall structure, but extends as well to the details of composition. In all of his romances Chrétien shows himself to be a master of dialogue, which he uses for dramatic effect. With the exception of Cligés, where the lengthy monologues are frequently laboured and rhetorical, his often rapid-fire conversations give the impression of a real discussion overheard, rather than of learned discourse. The pertness and wit of Lunete, as she convinces her lady first to accept the slayer of her husband as her second mate and then to take him back after he has offended her, are often cited and justly admired. Erec and Enide’s exchanges as they ride along on adventure show both the tenderness and irritation underlying their relationship. In The Knight of the Cart, the conversations between Meleagant and his father quite accurately set off their opposing characters through their choices of vocabulary and imagery, and the words used by Lancelot with the queen vividly translate his abject humility and total devotion. In The Story of the Grail, Perceval’s youthful naïveté comes across in his questions to the knights and his conversation with the maiden in the tent. In that same romance the catty exchanges between Tiebaut of Tintagel’s two daughters could not be more true to life. Chrétien gives his dialogues a familiar ring through his choice of appropriate vocabulary and a generous sprinkling of proverbial expressions. In Erec’s defiance of Maboagrain, he incorporates five proverbial expressions in only ten lines of dialogue (ll. 5873–82), using traditional wisdom to justify and support his current course of action. In the opening scene of The Knight with the Lion, Calogrenant shrugs off Kay’s insults by citing a series of proverbs, and shortly thereafter Kay himself uses proverbial wisdom to insult Yvain. Proverbs and proverbial expressions occur in the other romances as well, where they are particularly prevalent in the monologues and dialogues.

Chrétien’s use of humour and irony has been frequently noted, as has his ability to incorporate keenly observed realistic details into the most fantastic adventures. Like the dialogues, the descriptions of persons and objects are not rhetorical or lengthy, but are precise, lively and colourful.