Erec (also Erek, Ereck) is a Middle High German poem written in rhyming couplets by Hartmann von Aue.

Realising his error, he sets out from the court on a series of increasingly challenging adventures in which he tests Enite's loyalty and gains insight into the purpose of knighthood.

[6] The MS was written some 330 years after the work was created and, even though the scribe, Hans Ried, seems to have based his text on a good source, its language shows many features which could not have been part of a 12th century version.

In the 19th century Der Mantel was ascribed to Heinrich von dem Türlin, whose Diu Crône ("The Crown") was thought to contain a reference to a lost Lancelot romance of his which included this motif of the chastity-testing cloak.

[11][12] The most recent editors of the Ambraser text make a case for accepting the manuscript compiler's view that Der Mantel is part of Erec, a preface, with the main story showing how Enite came to be deserving winner of the cloak.

Whether this change was undertaken specifically in order to make it a suitable preface to Erec, or whether it was made independently and is the reason for two texts becoming associated, is impossible to determine, as is the likely date of their combination into the single work that Hans Ried used as a source.

[22][23] After a prologue, the narrative opens with a Pentecost celebration at the court of King Arthur, where a large number of noble guests have gathered.

Erec decides to participate in the tournament if Coralus can lend him armour, promising to marry Enite in case of victory.

However, he overhears Enite lamenting the fact that he has become the laughingstock of the court, and decides to leave in secret in order to seek adventure.

The couple, accompanied by Guivrez, set off in search of Arthur's court but take a wrong turning and arrive at Castle Brandigan.

There Erec will undertake a final adventure called Joie de la Curt ("Joy of the Court"): by the castle is an orchard, guarded by the knight Mabonagrin.

In some cases, Erec is closer to the Welsh Geraint ac Enid, which suggests that Hartmann may also have drawn on an oral tradition independent of Chrétien.

[37] Chrétien himself mentions this tradition and distances himself from it: "This is the tale of Erec, son of Lac, which those who try to live by storytelling customarily mangle and corrupt before kings and counts."

"[43] Erec also provided the inspiration for the "earliest known setting of any medieval romance in applied art"[44] in the form of the gold processional cross now held in the treasury of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków.

[45][46] Rushing remarks that "the convoluted structure of the crown’s visual narrative would be hard to follow without fairly extensive prior knowledge of the story".