Romance and Chivalry in English Medieval Literature

1
Romance and Chivalry in English Medieval
Literature
2
Historical Background

• The Anglo-Norman kings of England did not like
  being considered the vassals of the Kings of
  France
• The Norman kings of England had to create a
  mythology justifying their political independence
  from France.
• The theme of translatio imperii "proved"
  political legitimacy translated/transferred
  (translatio imperii) from the Ancients not only
  to the French, but also to England.
• They devised the story of the "first" British
  king, Brutus, who supposedly founded the kingdom
  of "Britain" ("Brut" in Anglo-Norman French).

3
Translatio Studii Et Imperii

• Refers to the the transfer/ translation
  (translatio) of culture/knowledge (studium) and
  of political power/legitimacy (imperium) from one
  civilization to another. 
• Studium sort of WRITTEN knowledge that
  constitutes literary "Authority" (auctoritas)
• Imperii political power and political
  legitimacy.
• The Norman kings of England had to create a
  mythology justifying their political independence
  from France.

4
Fabricating History

• Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the King's of
  Britain (1136) was presented as a scholarly work
  in Latin.
• This History begins with Brutus, down to the
  Anglo-Norman Kings.
• A certain war-lord named "Arthur" helped to
  organize British resistance after the fall of the
  Roman Empire
• Arthur's descendants (the English kings) can
  claim not to owe allegiance to the French.
• The story of Arthur's Round Table a fellowship
  of Knights modeled on Charlemagne's traditional
  group of warrior followers, the twelve "peers."

5
Middle English Poetry Overview

• The circumstances of writers in the English
  vernacular changed after the Norman Conquest.
• Collapse of written standard established in
  Anglo-Saxon England and exclusion of English
  writings. English poetry and prose flourished
  towards margins of society.
• Accelerating decline of French in the England of
  Edward III readers and listeners now
  increasingly turning to English.
• Continuous increase in literacy consequent
  development towards what is almost mass
  production of manuscript copies.
• Audience and market for English poetry grew in
  numbers and importance.

6
Middle English Poetry

• Brut, illustrates clearly the relative
  marginality of English in the cosmopolitan
  Channel Kingdom of the Normans and Angevins.
• Here Arthur appears for the 1st time English his
  accounts occupy more than ¼ of Lagamons 16.000
  lines
• The "round table" is the invention of the
  Anglo-Norman poet Wace
• Waces poem the Roman de Brut ("Romance of
  Brutus) "romance" originally did not refer to
  any idea of "romantic" love
• Wace dedicated his "romance" to Eleanor of
  Aquitaine

7
English Romances

• Can be broadly categorized as dealing with three
  types of historical material
• The matter of Rome (classical legends)
• The matter of France (often tales of
  Charlemagne and his nights)
• The matter of Britain (Arthurian stories/tales
  dealing with knightly heroes)

8
Romance Characteristics

• Typically, a romance tells the story of one quest
  undertaken by one knight
• The setting is a timeless fairy-tale world there
  is no "rise and fall" of Arthur's empire
• Many of these romances concern the role of love
  (courtly or otherwise) in human existence
• Frequently, the knight has some difficulty in
  working out an appropriate balance between love
  and chivalry

9
Arthurian Romance Origins

• Chrétien first had the idea of making Lancelot
  and Guenevere into courtly lovers
• Their story is recounted in a romance Chrétien
  wrote at the request of the Countess Marie of
  Champagne
• Their love is a positive, ennobling force their
  love was not regarded as immoral, adulterous
• Far from being a traitor to his king, the
  Lancelot of Chrétien's romance rescues Guenevere
  and restores her to her husband

10
Malory's Morte D'Arthure

• Based upon these 13th century French prose
  romances
• Incorporates their essentially negative view of
  Lancelot and Guenevere's love
• The original meaning of "courtly love" still
  shows the love of Lancelot and Guenevere is the
  ennobling force, and the sin that prevents him
  from becoming a "heavenly" knight
• Reaction to the theme of courtly love invented
  and developed in the "woman-influenced"
  Provençal, French and Anglo-Norman literature of
  the 12th century.

11
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

• Represents another transformation of the courtly
  love motif.
• Preserves the structure typical of French verse
  romance
• Revives an Old English verse form alliteration
• Represents a negative reaction to "courtly love"
  similar to French prose romances a rejection of
  sensual earthly love in favor of a spiritual love.

12
Romance Courtly Love vs. Church

• This love affair caught imagination of late12th
  early-13th century public the Church took
  notice
• Tended to ignore the vernacular romances as
  "popular culture
• Attacked them as vain, frivolous and "untrue"
• Regarded them as potential didactic tools, which
  should be used to teach moral "truths"
• Disapproved of romance's emphasis on love
  stories "bad" examples
• The "Vulgate Cycle" linked the Arthurian kingdom
  to Christian salvation history shift in theme
  (Quest of the Holy Grail).