The Knight with the Lion: The Value of a Knights Reputation - Essay Example

The Knight with the Lion: The Value of a Knight’s Reputation Analyze the value of a knight’s reputation. Yvain is a collection of adventure stories, where knights battle monsters and each other in pursuit of fame or a good reputation (among other things). As depicted in Yvain, how does a knight earn, keep, or lose his reputation? Who judges a knight’s reputation, and on what basis? What can this tell us about the values of medieval civilization? How does the pursuit of a good reputation help maintain order in the chivalrous world of the story? Consider, for example, the balance between the power of armed knights and the power of the king, or the tensions between the ladies back home in the castle and the knights off on their adventures. Yvain or the Knight with the Lion tells of Yvain, a knight in King Arthur’s court, whose adventures are initially kicked off by his desire to prove his bravery in the eyes of his fellow knights. Chivalry and courtly love are the two elements underpinning and moving the story, which is set in the medieval period of the famed fictional Arthurian era. Moreover, Chretien de Troyes’ tale highlights the importance of good reputation in the medieval period among knights and how reputation is equated to acts of chivalry and bravery especially for the benefit of the helpless like women. II Importance of the Knight’s Reputation In Yvain or the Knight with the Lion, the reader is apprised of how a knight’s reputation is made, kept and lost. Apparently, reputation for chivalry, honor and bravery is the all-most important consideration by which each knight lives by. The story’s main character Yvain is a proud man who is impelled to rush and defend his honor from a disparaging remark, obviously made in jest and presumably after several bottles of wine, insinuating inability to make good his words. The challenge, to which he rises started when his cousin Calogrenant told a group of knights that he had been defeated by a knight after he had stirred a storm-brewing magical basin at the edge of a forest. This made Yvain censure his cousin for keeping this from him for so long and promptly vowed to avenge his shame by killing the knight himself. Kay, another knight, mocks Yvain’s pronouncement insinuating that he is merely heady with wine. Stung by the remark, Yvain secretly left for the place mentioned by Calogrenant even when King Arthur himself has scheduled a date to see the place himself (de Troyes Vv 1-746). It is evident from the initial events of the tale that reputation is very important to medieval knights. Yvain’s decision to scurry secretly even to the point of pre-empting his king is not only to regain the family honor but also prove his courage and bravery. From a modern and practical point of view, his motives are nonsensical. In the first place, he did not even consider that his cousin was at fault when he tampered with the golden basin. Calogrenant had been forewarned what tampering it will result and Esclados, the king of the place, had every right to be angry with him as his kingdom sustained damage because of the storm and terrible weather that resulted from the tampering. In addition, Yvain did not really have to take Kay’s mockery seriously. He even had to stealthily disobey his king. Yvain’s action goes to show how knights value dearly what other people say and think of them. This exaggerated defernce, to the point of neurosis, for people’s opinion is encapsulated in the narrator’s description of King Arthur as one “whose fame was such that men still speak of him far and near; and I agree with the opinions of the Bretons that his name will live on forevermore” (de Troyes Vv 1-174). In the tale, Yvain keeps his reputation by doing chivalrous service one after another showcasing his courage and bravery, his extraordinary skills in combat and saving helpless maidens from dangerous situations. In every combat, however, there is a need to show proof of one’s victory to others so that they may be believed and one’s name may be perpetuated in people’s minds. In his first adventure, for example, Yvain defeated Esclados and gives him a mortal blow. Yvain is not, however, satisfied by a retreating Esclados but had to give chase to the latter’s turf for the purpose of taking with him a souvenir from Esclados body that will prove his victory. Reputation is so very important to knights that Yvain had to leave his new bride to participate in tournaments which would continue to establish Yvain’s reputation as a brave and skilful knight. In persuading Yvain to come with the party and leave his bride, Gawain reminds him that he will “degenerate” and lose his reputation if he continues to sit idly by with his wife. Gawain gives Yvain the caveat: “Cursed be he by Saint Mary who marries and degenerates! Whoever has a fair lady as his mistress or his wife should be the better for it, and it is not right that her affection should be bestowed on him after his worth and reputation are gone” (de Troyes 2415-2538). This implies two things: reputation depends on victories won, and; reputation is a condition that must be constantly sustained. This reputation must be so important that Yvain, notwithstanding having professed the greatest love for his new wife, is compelled to leave. The implication of this is that the threat of losing his reputation must have presented a graver loss to Yvain than the thought of being separated from his new wife. The preceding discussions also provide inkling as to how reputation can be lost. In the case of Calogrenant, his defeat at the hands of Esclados meant loss of reputation. This is so that Yvain raises a storm of protest upon knowing his cousin’s defeat at the hands of Esclados. The loss of reputation perhaps ripples to the other members of the family that Yvain himself has got to reclaim it by killing Esclados. Aside from defeat in a battle, reputation is also lost by sheer inactivity or the failure to sustain one’s reputation in the eyes of the public. It seems, for knights, that there is no such thing as retirement but there must be a continuous immersion in battles that would showcase their skills and bravery. Values of Medieval Civilization An entire reading of Yvain’s adventures show that in the medieval times the most cherished values are that of chivalry, bravery and assisting helpless women. When Laudine, for example, renounced Yvain and calls him a traitor after he fails to keep his promise to return to her in a year’s time, Yvain becomes mad and lives a madman’s life in the forest. When he comes to his senses, with the help of a concerned lady who also needs his help, he does not immediately seek forgiveness from Laudine. Instead, he goes out to prove his chivalry by undertaking quests where he helps maidens and other helpless people. Together with his lion, whom he saves from a dragon, Yvain saves the Lady of Noroison from the attack of a Count, Gawain’s cousins from a lecherous and bullying giant, Laudine’s lady-in-waiting from being hanged by battling the treacherous seneschal and his brothers, prohibiting the lady-in-waiting from telling her mistress of his identity, a group of women held hostage in a palace by the devil’s children, and a woman who is a victim of injustice by a greedy older sister who refuses to give her part of her inheritance (de Troyes Vv 3131-6526). Along with the preceding acts of chivalry, Yvain also demonstrates bravery by almost singlehandedly defeating all his enemies. When the warriors of Count Alier, for example, attacks the Lady of Noroison, Yvain starts an onslaught against them which raises the spirit of the men of Lady Noroison inspired by the bravery that Yvain exhibits. In saving Gawain’s relatives, Yvain single-handedly confronts the giant and slays him as he does in the rest of his adventures before he eventually asks for Laudine’s forgiveness. Yvain’s quests also illustrate that the medieval civilization put a premium on the value of assisting women and other helpless people in distress. As discussed previously, many of the people Yvain help are women who are helpless in the face of bigger and more powerful enemies. The pursuit of a good reputation also helps, incidentally, in the maintenance of an orderly and safe world. Although the knights and men in the story are primarily motivated with earning and maintaining a good reputation, this self-serving motive, nevertheless, benefited all other citizens, especially helpless women. In The Knight with the Lion, the knights are as important as the king because individually they mirror and reflect the latter’s qualities – chivalrous, brave and undaunted - as a consequence of the constant pursuit of good reputation. Thus, the knights act and have the same qualities like the king minus the title. As illustrated in the story, the presence of the knights decentralizes the king’s powers as the knights are fit enough to be delegated with some of King Arthur’s powers. The pursuit of a good reputation, on the other hand, necessarily separates the knights from their wives and families as the latter had to be left on their own while the knights go out and seek more quests to maintain their good reputation. III Conclusion The story Yvain or the Knight with the Lion is a typical Arthurian tale engrossed in tales of chivalry, bravery and succoring helpless women. It addition to reflecting medieval values, it illustrates how medieval times give premium to good reputation. The pursuit of good reputation in the medieval period is like the constant pursuit of economic well-being in contemporary times. In the medieval period, knights are preoccupied with earning and maintaining a good reputation. They are even ready to leave their wives and families for fear that they will degenerate and lose their good reputation. In contemporary times, only the pursuit of greener pastures could make a man leave his wife and family temporarily, a pursuit modern men must constantly engage in to secure their future and yes – their reputation. Works Cited De Troyes, Chretien. Yvain or the Knight with the Lion. University of Georgia Press, 1985. Read More