What I call the irony of values has connections with verbal irony (where a parody of courtly vocabulary or clichés can reflect on the courtly ideals they stand for) and with irony of the narrator (since the rôles of poet and narrator provide us with two points of view from which to question courtly conventions). Even central values of the courtly world can be subjected to a critical scrutiny, sometimes of a radical nature (Gottfried's attitude towards the chivalric ideal), but generally in a less extreme manner (the parodic clash between different views of love, where not the value of love as such is criticised, but a rival's mistaken view of it). If under four different headings we are invited to look at courtly conventions more closely, this suggests that this category of irony is far-reaching enough to merit separate treatment.

Our approach is governed by the recognition that the values most exposed to ironic questioning, chivalry and love, may be subsumed under the general ideal of courtliness, so that the irony of values in the romance may be largely equated with a questioning of the courtly ideal.