Writers have reflected the differences in society and individual opinions over many years in their writing by slightly altering the plot of Arthurian Romances to appeal to the interests of their community. Arthurian Romances, at early times, were written with themes of magic and violence whereas legends from later times attributed critical turning points in the plot to the power of love and were more involved, containing a long list of characters. Also affecting the differences in the times are the writer’s nationality.
Earlier Arthurian Romances were written by Celts. Their warrior mentality led the writers to depict gruesome and violent legends. The beginning of The Wife of Bath’s Tale (Canterbury Tales) blatantly describes a knight, who is supposed to uphold the strict regiment of chivalry, violently raping a virgin at first glance. Such an occurrence commonly appears throughout Celtic Arthurian Romances and is a reminder of the life of war that they led. The rest of The Wife of Bath’s Tale has mystical pretences, signifying the Celt’s belief in the gods of good and evil. The answer to the question of which the malicious knight was questing for was held by a deceptive witch, who appears to be a rich young woman after gaining the knight’s respect. The writing style of the Celts also makes the tale appear to be more mysterious by their to-the-point storytelling by leaving out the details which make tales seem real to the audience, in many cases not even giving their characters names instead of positions.
From the French perspective, Arthurian Romances took on a whole new profile. Many intertwined characters with elegant names such as Lancelot and Gwenyvere, from Excalibur, promote honor and a strong reverence of love. Whereas knights commonly took advantage of their animal instincts in the Celtic tales, they upheld a strict code of honor, chivalry, from the French perspective. The struggle within Lancelot and Gwenyvere to discover why their hearts wanted to make the wrong decision when they already had the right and best situation shows that the French did not totally understand the nature of love and believed it to be unpredictable.
Arthurian Romances have been depicted in many different ways to tell the same story in the end, but the contrast between the Celtic and French versions sticks out like a sore thumb.
The love triangle of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever is a constant theme throughout every account of the Arthurian legend. Geoffrey Ashe's The Arthurian Handbook states that "We may say that these knights are expected to serve their King..."(81). The revelation of the affair finally comes when Sir Agravaine shouts, "'Traitor Knight! Sir Lancelot, now art thou taken'"(White 569). Lancelot was summoned to Queen Guenever's bedroom, and Sir Agravaine is finally exposing the affair and gaining revenge on Lancelot for unhorsing him many times in the past. The two people that Arthur trusts most are Guenever and Lancelot. Arthur is well aware of the affair between the two, but chooses to pretend that nothing is going on. Due to this naivety, Arthur earns the disrespect (and even hatred) of Agravaine and Mordred, who eventual...
The figure of Gawain throughout Arthurian literature is an interesting one; he appears in more texts as a secondary character than any other knight named, and often gains glory even at the expense of the main hero (Busby 1980, 5). The first characteristic which separates him from the other knights is his relationship to Arthur: it is usually stated that he is Arthur's sister's son, a kinship that is found from William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum (c. 1125) and Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) onward (Busby 1980, 31). However, it is notable that Gawain often seems more like a type than an individual; in Old French literature he is never the subject of a biographical romance, as are most of the other knights, he never has one particular lady's name associated with him, and he is frequently used as a constant against which other knights are judged, the perfect embodiment of good qualities, more a symbol of perfection than an actual person (Busby 1980, 7).
One of the most enduring myths in the Western world is that of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Regardless of the origins of the tales, the fact is that by the time they had been filtered through a French sensibility and re-exported to England, they were representations of not one but several ideals. Courtly love and chivalry and the various components thereof, such as martial prowess, chastity, bravery, courtesy, and so on, were presented as the chief virtues to aspire to, and the knights as role models. Arthur's eventual fall is precisely because of having failed at some level to fulfill these ideals in his life.
Eliduc is a typical medieval story of courtly love. The Lai contains the common characteristics of other Marie de France’s Lais; as a worthy and valiant knight is confused about his love life. The knight is caught between the duty he owes his wife and the new love he feels for a foreign princess. Oddly enough, the two female characters, his wife and his secret lover have similar names; Guildeleuc and Guilliadun. This is significant because these two women meet and rather than becoming enemies as would be expected, they work as a team and live together. Over time the title of the Lai has changed to Guildeleuc and Guilliadun because it is based on the two women. Common to other medieval stories, Eliduc is moving and purifying, as it involves two innocent female characters who are caught up in a love triangle with a man who never meant to stray from his wife or emotionally hurt either of the women. Although Eliduc is similar to other Lais in many ways, it ends differently than others that have been discussed in class. The majority of Marie de France’s work ends in tragedy in terms of love, Eliduc does not, it ends with positive love. While the love between Eliduc and Guilliadun should not work out because of the secrets and adultery, the couple manages to break the social conventions of medieval society and are able to live happily together for quite some time. The three main characters in Eliduc manage to overcome obstacles of social conventions through their absolute freedom and unrestricted desires.
The Arthurian legends of Iwein and Gawain and the Green Knight are two examples of the medieval initiation story: a tale in which a character, usually in puberty or young adulthood, leaves home to seek adventures and, in the process, maturity. Through the course of their adventures, including a meeting with the man of the wilderness, temptations at the hands of women, and a permanent physical or mental wounding, the character grows from adolescent awkwardness and foolishness to the full potential knightly honor. While both Arthurian legends fit this format, the depth of character development, specifically in terms of relationships, is vastly different. Whereas Gawain and the Green Knight does little more with relationships than demonstrate the evils of female temptations, Iwein effectively explores the formation, destruction, and resurrection of numerous male and female relationships.
Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.
Sir Gawain is, undoubtably, the most varied of the Arthurian characters: from his first minor appearance as Gwalchmei in the Welsh tales to his usually side-line participation in the modern retelling of the tales, no other character has gone from such exalted heights (being regarded as a paragon of virtue) to such dismal depths (being reduced to a borderline rapist, murderer, and uncouth bore), as he. This degree of metamorphosis in character, however, has allowed for a staggering number of different approaches and studies in Gawain.
King Arthur is a great mystery debated throughout the centuries. There have been several films and texts that attempt to reveal the truth about King Arthur. Arthur Pendragon, son of Uther Pendragon, was once the king of Britain and the founder of the Knights of the Round Table. Coghlan outlines that Arthur is present in many different traditions throughout centuries (Coghlan, 1995). In the 12th century, Geoffrey of Monmouth told of Arthur as a great king who defeated barbarians by the dozens. Coghlan also mentions Malory as “the standard ‘history’ of Arthur” (Coghlan, 1995). As there are various texts that tell Arthur’s origin and his legend, this essay will focus on one of the more prominent texts, The Death of King Arthur by Peter Ackroyd.
Abstract: This is an analysis of celtic mythological motifs or themes (usually found Arthurian romances) in the medieval romance Yvain and the victorian classic, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland .}
Although King Arthur is one of the most well-known figures in the world, his true identity remains a mystery. Attempts to identify the historical Arthur have been unsuccessful, since he is largely a product of fiction. Most historians, though, agree that the real Arthur was probably a battle leader of the Britons against the Anglo-Saxons in the sixthth century. In literature, King Arthur's character is unique and ever changing, taking on a different face in every work. There is never a clearly definitive picture that identifies Arthur's character. It is therefore necessary to look at a few different sources to get better insight into the character of Arthur, the once and future king.
Marie De France’s Lanval is a remarkable short narrative that engages the reader into a world filled with unrealistic elements, but enhances on the true meaning of romance, chivalry and nature during the years that King Arthur reigned. “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” unfortunately does not have an author that can be recognized but this epic poem demonstrates the ghastly adventure of a knight who decides to defend the honor of young King Arthur against a supernatural being in this malicious game of cat and mouse. Both of these pieces of literature have enchanting characteristics that define them as a masterpiece of their era and that’s why they both are easily compared and contrasted. In addition, both Lanval and “Sir Gawain and The Green Knight” can be classified as similar through their themes, style and plots, although they are different through their language and diction. Even though both of these literatures can be viewed as similar as well as contrasting, in the end, each of these tales have illuminated the realm of fantasy throughout the court of King Arthur.
“Morte Darthur” by Sir Thomas Malory is an example of a ‘Medieval Romance’ and it regards to a series of events about the story of the great legend King Arthur and his knights. The most repetitive theme in the text is about the journey, or quest. Knights within Morte Darthur have a strong desire to seek adventure, to do noble deeds, and to find glory within the most difficult situations. However, in my opinion, I don’t think King Arthur can be portrayed as an ‘epic hero’ like Beowulf. However, King Arthur is a ‘Romance hero’ - as he is a knight of superhuman strength, intelligence and follows the code of chivalry. Whenever I hear about King Arthur, the other word that pops up to my mind is Excalibur sword. I have seen movies and cartoons about
The tales of King Arthur and many of their numerous characters are well known in literature. The Arthurian world is one of the great myths of modern times. Those great pieces of literature have many common themes, one of them being courtly love “L’amour Courtois”. This paper talks of courtly love as seen in King Arthur’s world especially examining “Yvain or the Knight with the Lion” and “Lancelot: or the Knight of the Cart”. Furthermore, one of the goals is to show how that courtly love could be seen in today in our world.
In what follows, my research paper will rely on an article by Kathy Prendergast entitled “Introduction to The Gothic Tradition”. The significance of this article resides in helping to recapitulate the various features of the Gothic tradition. In this article the authoress argues that in order to overturn the Enlightenment and realistic literary mores, many of the eighteenth century novelists had recourse to traditional Romantic conventions in their works of fiction, like the Arthurian legendary tales (Prendergast).
Closely associated to the romance tradition are two idealized standards of behavior, especially for knights: courage and chivalry. The protagonist within many medieval romances proved their worth by going on quests, as many a knights went in those times, thus returning with great tales of their travels and deeds. Many modern people think of chivalry as referring to a man's gallant treatment of women, and although that sense is derived from the medieval chivalric ideal, chivalry could be seen as more than that. Knights were expected to be brave, loyal, and honorable-sent to protect the weak, be noble to...