The Implementations of the Arthurian Myths - Coursework Example

The implementations of the Arthurian Myths in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Death of Arthur Outline: A) Introduction: Arthurian myths B) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Death of Arthur C) Conclusion. Foreword: the present report discusses the peculiarities of two popular Arthurian cycle romances - Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by an anonymous author) and The Death of Arthur (by Sir Thomas Malory). In the report I will dwell upon the two romances as in their style, motifs, themes and narrative structure, and compare them. Introduction: Arthurian Myths King Arthur is one of the most popular figures in the literature of the Middle Ages, and he is famed in multiple romances, chronicles, poems and legends written in almost all main European languages of that epoch. Arthur is depicted in them in two ways: either as a historical person – or as a mystical, tale-like character. The significance of the legendary King must have been very big, since this character sometimes “draws” different plots into the “Arthurian” cycle of narrations –e.g. those that deal with the famous search for the Holy Grail. In the present report I will discuss two romances belonging to the Arthurian cycle: one of them is medieval (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), and another one was written by Sir Thomas Malory later in XVth century (The Death of Arthur). Sir Gawain, the central character of the romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is one of the Knights of the Round Table, and thus the specified romance belongs to the Arthurian cycle. Concerning The Death of Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, this is, perhaps, the most famous romance belonging to the “Arthurian cycle”, in which the author brings the Arthurian legends in accordance with the “spirit” of contemporary society, and for that sake shifts the emphasis from delicateness and spirituality characteristic of Middle Ages towards power and manliness – the values and virtues of the XVth century. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight vs The Death of Arthur Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is English romance dated by the XIVth century – the century of J. Chaucer. Sir Gawain was one of the most popular characters of the contemporary knight romances. Analysing the text of the romance, it is hardly possible to overlook the linguistic virtuosity of its anonymous author that allows to build and develop an exciting plot, as well as to convey the idea of the romance in a very meticulous way, implementing intricate stylistic and narrative techniques. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is quite complicated in terms of structure and style. There have been multiple attempts to find the books that could have served as possible sources for Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, yet all these searches were in vain, and this enables the researchers to regard the romance as an original work. Therefore it is considered very important for the development of the English literature. To the contrary, The Death of Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory written in the XVth century, was mainly a successful and creative compilation and re-working of the French sources. However, it is important to notice that Sir Malory incorporated certain specific English features into his book, and this made it more realistic for the English readers in terms of place names, traditions, etc. For the English reader, at least, no other record of chivalry will ever seem so noble. Malory wrote two centuries and a half after the close of the great creative epoch, and the lateness of his date wellnigh destroys his value as a source. To the scholar he must probably remain a mere compiler who added little or nothing, and reduced his materials to one tenth their original bulk. But to the lover of romance, his book is the glorious consummation of a long development. It was written at the perfect moment. When printing was once well under weigh, the old traditions broke and romance could no longer flourish; but at first the new art served the old life well. Malory's work, finished in 1469, waited sixteen years for print; but the old knight seems almost by a sort of prescience to have reduced the enormous task of his material to practicable printing bulk. And it was by a significant stroke of good luck that the Morte Darthur, honored by a memorable Preface, was one of the first books to issue from Caxton's press. (Scudder 178) Even though it is well known what sources Sir Thomas Malory used for creating his work, however nobody can tell which versions of these sources he used, so, as Elizabeth Archibald writes in her review of Raluca L. Radulescu’s book “The Gentry Context for Malory's 'Morte Darthur'”, “we can never be absolutely certain that a particular phrase or episode is his own invention”. (Archibald 219) However, according to R. Radulescu, Malory in his Morte Darthur put significant emphasis upon the XVth-century gentry concerns: “the interrelated concepts of worship, friendship, lordship, fellowship, governance and violence” – and even though these concepts may be said to be central to any kind of the Arthurian cycle work, “some at least seem to have had special resonances in fifteenth-century England” (the concepts of worship, fellowship, etc.). (cited from: Archibald 219). In Malory’s book, Sir Gawain is depicted as a rather unpleasant character: he is rough, cruel, hot-headed, and eager to revenge. Reading Thomas Malory’s work, it is quite hard to understand why Sir Gawain had become a typical positive character of the English literature, almost as popular as King Arthur himself. However, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this character embodies the most important virtues of the knighthood – courtesy, generosity, piety, and ability to be a real friend. During the course of the book, these virtues of Sir Gawain are tested, and as a result he proves to be a real knight. Perhaps this made the romance attractive for the medieval audience – it was not only interesting and intriguing but also conveyed topical motifs of the contemporary life. The image of Sir Gawain in the romance of an anonymous writer is very dynamic and psychologically more real than, say, the characters of the earlier legends and sagas – perfect and “stale” in this perfection, and thus looming unnatural. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the significant elements of the narration is the spiritual changes happening to the central character in the process of his adventures, and not the adventures themselves. In the plot of the romance, there is an element of suddenness – Sir Gawain has to defend not only the values of the society he lives in, but rather defend himself. Some researchers (Stephen Greenblatt, Lee Patterson, Victoria L. Weiss) focus their attention on the importance of man in medieval literature, and describe such view of history as “the real is as imagined as the imaginary” (the words of Clifford Geertz). (Weiss 403) This phrase is of particular reference to chivalry as while this phenomenon has been recognized primarily as a beautiful tale full of vows, love, tournaments, royal entries, etc., “the grand apotheosis effected by these beautiful forms of play became inextricably tied to defining the self” (Weiss 404) – and this offers a very interesting perspective upon Sir Gawain: Because of their class-affirming, self-affirming status, games had an importance and significance for aristocrats like the king's nephew that was far beyond what their playful grandeur would suggest to a modern observer. In Sir Gawain, the hero finds himself in danger of losing his life as a consequence of his participation in what his challenger insists on calling “a Cristmasse game.” Everyone at court seems to regard the Green Knight's challenge and the obligation it places upon Gawain with the utmost seriousness. At the same time in paradoxical fashion, medievals show every sign of having been able to distinguish play from real life. (Weiss 404) The Green Knight embodies the unpredictable Fate, and it is interesting to note that in many situations depicted in the romance, Sir Gawain acts not in accordance with the canons of the knight romance, but in a more conventional, true to life manner, that made him closer to the reading audience, and therefore easier to understand for them. In this aspect, Sir Gawain is very much of a truly literary character rather than a mythological one. He is, to a certain extend, ideal, but he can still make mistakes or be prone to certain weaknesses, and that is why Sir Gawain combines epical and human features – perhaps that is what makes him so popular. His virtues have successfully been proven, yet not fully: though Gawain has come to the contest with the Green Knight in due time (sticking to his promise) and did not object to the Green Knight’s hitting him (being brave), he did not follow the rules of the contest fully, trying to avoid the Green Knight’s sword – that is why, he was not honest enough. Many motifs in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are related to Christianity: e.g. the Holy Grail motif and others. There is a belief among scholars that “Christianity is figured not merely as the romance's default world view but as an active player in this fascinating game. The Green Knight's godgame of chivalry ultimately merges with Christianity's godgame of spirituality, forcing Gawain to confront his limitations in these two key aspects of his identity”. (Pugh 525) As for Thomas Malory’s work, in terms of style, plot and idea, it remains within the boundaries of medieval legends. The chivalrous ideal for Malory is in serving the God, as well as those people a Knight should be faithful to – his lady and, still more important, his suzerain. Lancelot, who could well be considered a sinner in other traditions, as he is Guinevere’s lover, is nevertheless a most faithful knight for Malory: “...as longe as ye were knyghte of erthely knyghthode ye were the moost maruellous man of the world and moost aduenturous” (Malory, book XV, cap. VI, p. 663); “I knowe wel thow hast not thy pyere of ony erthely synful man” (Malory, book XV, cap. VI, p. 663); “...who that hath sir Launcelot vpon his partye hath the moost man of worship in the world vpon his side” (Malory, book XVIII, cap. IV, p. 731); “and he be your loue ye loue the mooet honourable knyghte of the world and the man of moost worship”. (Malory, book XVIII, cap. XIV, p.749). In terms of narrative structure, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight consists of 2530 alliterated non-rhymed verses with some rhymed lines incorporated into the body of the romance. Structurally and plot-wise, the romance is divided into four parts corresponding to the stages of plot development: King Arthur and his Knights’ encounter with the unknown Green Knight, Sir Gawain’s trip to the chapel where he is supposed to meet the Green Knight and his stay at the castle on the hill, Gawain’s encounter with the Green Knight (who admits being he owner of the castle), and finally, Gawain’s coming back to Arthur and the rest of the Knights and his admitting his sins. Apart from the images of the romance, its language is also of great importance. In Anglo-Saxon poetry there was no rhymes, and the main component of the poetic form was alliteration, and this technique is used in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as well: “With sturne chere ther he stod he stroked his berde”. (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 334) Other peculiarities of the poem are wide use of epithets and rich synonymy. The style of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is characterized by using traditional and constant epithets that describe objects and phenomena from the viewpoint of the “traditional” epic ideal (sharp knife, tall cliff, bright fire, tight-knitted knot, bright silk brocade, brave man, noble knight, lovely lady, generous favour). Evaluative epithets are very important for the romance, e.g. the Knights of the Round Table are characterized as renowned, brave, bold, fearless, noble, chivalrous, with virtues adorned). The use of these traditional epithets is a significant feature or the poem making it close to the medieval epos; however it is not epos it its pure form because of a very strong lyrical and personal impact of the poem’s author and the already mentioned “imperfection” of the main character. All in all, the poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is of a very emotional character, and its intricate and tense plot makes the reader compassionate observer of the events depicted in it. Sir Thomas Malory’s novel about King Arthur was named The Death of Arthur by W. Caxton, and it is, as it has already been mentioned, a compilation and, in a way, a revision of the multiple legends of the “Arthurian” cycle. It was Caxton who subdivided Malory’s work into 21 book and 507 chapters. Tale of King Arthur is the first part of the whole Thomas Malory’s work, and it summarizes many plots connected with the legendary character, including Arthur’s acquiring the magical sword, his marriage, the prophesies of Merlin, etc. The Death of Arthur is considered a pure romance in terms of plot, structure, and author’s independent approach to the interpretation of the events. The romance’s imagery, plot and style stimulated further development of the Arthurian theme in the following centuries. Thomas Malory’s work is full of dramatic events – in fact, it reflects the contemporary English life with its new ideals and cultural demands. Its structure reminds of a sequence of separate novels, yet the genre of The Death of Arthur is a combination of novel and romance, and at the same time it goes beyond the boundaries of these two genres. This complicated nature of The Death of Arthur is due to multiple plots incorporated into it, and the unity of all tales constituting the romance. Conclusion Sir Thomas Malory’s romance The Death of Arthur was created as a combination of the old and new, traditions and innovations, and its plot, style, imagery, structure and themes reflect the peculiarities and discrepancies of the contemporary epoch. When reading Malory’s book, one must accept some of its peculiarities as the fictional conventionality – e.g. discrepancies in plot, time, and meanings in the novel. Thomas Malory uses as sources for his work big cycles of knight romances and legends, that often contain different versions of one and the same event or story, and when compiling his own version Malory as often as not changes the consequence of certain episodes, shifts them in time, etc. – and this often causes discrepancies and repetitions. When describing the events of the Arthurian epoch, Malory often combines them with the events of contemporary society (in the novel there are descriptions of battles of War of the Roses that Malory heard of or even participated in, etc.). That is why the text of the novel is full of anachronisms. Sir Thomas Malory is trying to establish connection between the legendary events and historical reality – i.e. he tries to name the exact location of the events taking place in The Death of Arthur (finding the correlations of legendary castles, islands, rivers, and cities on the real geographic map of his century); however not always is he able to exactly identify the personality of his characters. This might be attributed to the fact that in the sources used by the writer, a lot of characters have been mentioned, many of which have the same or similarly sounding names. Malory also often interprets both events and personalities in a way that is very different from original sources; however this only adds the sparkle of individuality into The Death of Arthur. Concerning Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it is one of the central novels of Middle Ages English literature, and besides this is the only long novel whose main character is Sir Gawain. The novel is very different from any other Arthurian text, above all because of its main character who embodies a choice between an “ideal” knight (man) and a man who has faults and sins that are natural for any human being. The direct source of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is not known, besides it is possible that the author included several different stories into his work so that to make it more interesting and alluring. Works Cited 1. Archibald, Elizabeth. “The Gentry Context for Malory's 'Morte Darthur'”. The Modern Language Review. Vol. 101, Issue 1, 2006, P. 219+. 2. Pugh, Tison. “Gawain and the Godgames”. Christianity and Literature. Vol. 51. Issue 4. 2002, P. 525+ 3. Scudder, Vida D. Le Morte Darthur of Sir Thomas Malory & Its Sources. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1917. Retrieved on April 3, 2009 from www.questia.com database. 4. Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght. Retrieved on March 30, 2009 from: 5. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory, Oxford, 1947. Retrieved from Project Gutenberg database. 6. Weiss, Victoria L. “The Play World and the Real World: Chivalry in 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'”. Philological Quarterly. Vol. 72. Issue 4. 1993, P. 403+ Read More