Le Morte d’Arthur The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights MS30109 Dawon Seong

MEDIEVAL ROMANCE

Le Morte d’ArthurThe Acts of King Arthur and

His Noble Knights

MS30109 Dawon Seong

Medieval Ro-mance?

Romance is an adventure tale that features extravagant characters, exotic places, heroic events, pas-sionate love, and supernatural forces.

Chivalry

Conventions of Medieval Ro-

mance1. Romance Hero / Idealized noble characters2. Quest:

journey3. Exotic Setting

4. Supernatural Elements

5. Hidden or Mis-taken Identities

From Le Morte D’Arthur The Crowning of Arthur

King Uther Pen-dragon

Lady Igraine Duke of Tin-tagilMerlin The

Prophet

From Le Morte D’Arthur The Crowning of

Arthur

King Uther Pen-dragon

Arthur the Baby

Merlin The Prophet






Supernatural Elements

Merlin The Prophet

Sir Ulfius had not ridden far when he was accosted by a hideous beggar. “For whom are you searching?” asked the beggar; but Sir Ulfius ig-nored him. “Very well,” said the beggar, “I will tell you: you are searching for Merlin, and you need look no further, for I am he. Now go to King Uther and tell him that I will make Igraine his if he will re-ward me as I ask; and even that will be more to his benefit than to mine.”

“Your child is des-tined for glory, and I want him brought to me for his baptism. I shall then give him into the care of fos-ter parents who can be trusted not to re-veal his identity be-fore the proper time.”

Supernatural Elements They were confronted by

a marble block into which had been thrust a beautiful sword. The block was four feet square, and the sword passed through a steel anvil which had been struck in the stone, and which projected a foot from it. The anvil had been inscribed with let-ters of gold:WHOSO PULLETH OUTE THIS SWERD OF THIS STONE AND ANVYLD IS RIGHTWYS KYNGE BORNE OF ALL BRY-TAYGNE

Idealized noble characters

Lady Igraine

“ Well spoken,” said he king; “it was I who imper-sonated the duke, so the child is mine.” He then told Igraine the story of how Merlin had arranged it, and Igraine was overjoyed to discover that the father of her child was now her hus-band.

Hidden or Mistaken Identities

Arthur the Baby

“ I shall then give him into the care of foster parents who can be trusted not to reveal his identity before the proper time.”“ My lord,” Sir Ector replied, “there is only one man living who can draw the sword from the stone, and he is the true-born King of Britain.” Sir Ector then told Arthur the story of his birth and upbringing.

ChivalryThe nobles, knowing in their hearts that the commoners were right, all knelt before Arthur and begged forgiveness for having delayed his succession for so long. Arthur forgave them and then, offering his sword at the high altar, was dubbed first knight of the realm. The coro-nation took place a few days later, when Arthur swore to rule justly, and the nobles swore him their allegiance.

From Le Morte D’Arthur Sir Launcelot du Lake

Knights of the Round Table

SIR LAUNCEL

OT






Quest: journey

One day, Sir Launcelot, feeling weary of his life at the court, and of only playing at arms, decided to set forth in search of adven-ture.

Exotic Set-ting “Sir, I can tell you: less

than a mile from here stands a well-moated cas-tle. On the left of the en-trance you will find a ford where you can water your horse, and across from the ford a large tree from which hang the shields of many famous knights. Below the shields hangs a caldron, of copper and adventure-such, indeed, that if you survive it, you will prove yourself the foremost knight in these parts for many years.”

Exaggerated Behavior Now the two knights

hurled themselves at each other like two wild bulls; swords and shields clashed together, and of-ten their swords drove into the flesh. Then sometimes one, sometimes the other, would stagger and fall, only to recover immedi-ately and resume the con-test. At last, however, Sir Tarquine grew faint and unwittingly lowered his shield. Sir Launcelot was swift to follow up his ad-vantage and, dragging the other down to his knees, unlaced his helmet and beheaded him.

Chivalry Of all his knights one was supreme, both in prowess at arms and in nobility of bearing, and this was Sir Launcelot, who was also the fa-vorite of Queen Gwyne-vere, to whom he had sworn oaths of fidelity.

“ A hard choice! Under-stand that I choose none of you, lewd sorceresses that you are; rather will I die in this cell. But were I free, I would take plea-sure in proving it against any who would cham-pion you that Queen Gwynevere is the finest lady of this land.”

“ God bless you, my lady; and when the time comes, I promise I shall not fail you.”

“Sir Launcelot du Lake. To-day I have fought to vindi-

cate the honor of the knights of the Round Table, and I know that among Sir

Tarquine’s prisoners are two of my brethren, Sir Lyonel

and Sir Ector, also your own brothe, Sir Gawain. Accord-ing to the shields there are also Sir Brandiles, Sir Galy-

huddis, Sir Kay, Sir Alydukis, Sir Marhaus, and many oth-ers. Please release the pris-oners and ask them to help

themselves to the caste treasure. Give them all my greetings and say I will see them at the next Pentecost. And please request Sir Ector and Sir Lyonel to go straight to the court and await me

there.”

Medieval Ro-mance RetoldMore plain, contempo-

rary language

Vivid sensory im-ages

Rich figurative lan-guages

By John Stein-back

From The Acts of King

Arthur and His Noble Knights

King Arthur Guinevere Sir Launcelot

Before his friend could reach the center of the hall, Sir Launcelot wriggled to his feet and approached the dais. “My lord king,” he said, “forgive me if I ask leave to go. An old wound has broken open.” Arthur smiled down on him. “I have the same old wound,” he said, “We’ll go to-gether. Perhaps you will come to the tower room when we have attended to our wounds.” And he signed the trum-pets to end the gathering, and the body-guards to clear the hall.

King Arthur

Sir Launcelot

Detailed Descrip-tions

Guinevere

Arthur on his dais sat very still and did not fiddle with his bread, and beside him sat lovely Guinevere, still as a painted statue of herself. Only her inward eyes confessed her vagrant thoughts.The queen was lovely in the firelight, all lean, down-flowing lines of green samite.

She put her fingers on his arm and a searing shock ran through his body, and his mouth opened in amazement at a hollow ache that pressed upward against his ribs and shortened his breath.

Their bodies locked together as though a trap had sprung. Their mouths met, and each devoured the other. Each fran-tic heartbeat at the walls of ribs trying get to the other un-til their held breaths burst out and Lancelot, dizzied, found the door and blundered down the stairs. And he was weep-ing bitterly.

Documents

Le Morte d’Arthur The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights MS30109 Dawon Seong