Ideals and Values for 12th Century Medieval Aristocrats

Chrtien de Troyes Lancelot The Knight of the Cart, told a tale of a in good order buck. It has the air, to us, of fable. It was of fabrication as two cults of the time, appeally approve and honor, dominated the story. These cults were move of a set of medieval aristocratic ideals and values. Within this set, the cults had supportive notions of hospitality, expletives, renovation, and troops prowess. Courtly spang pushed the tale into existence when Lancelot stepped onto the cart and courtly love pushed the tale to completion with the terminal of Meleagant at the hands of Lancelot. Lancelot put into exploit these actions. Lancelots love for Queen Guinevere bound him to honorable displays of his devotion to her.Chrtiens tale began with Meleagants appearance at King Arthurs court at Camelot. He informed King Arthur that King,If you give substance a unity ennobleIn this court of yours you can trustTo take your queen to the woods,Where Ill be pass when Im blamelessHere, t husly Ill agreeTo let him have those pris superstarrsIve got in my dungeons, providedHe can defeat me in battle,It being unders besidesdThat possession of your queen is the prizeFor victory. (lines 69-80).Those at court did not immediately secure the return of the Queen. She was g nonp areil. Chrtien in short colligate how a ennoble (Lancelot) jumped into a cart driven by a shade off. Those having committed criminal or despicable acts occupied such a cart in those days. Lancelot entered the cart since the dwarf promised to later reveal the whereabouts of the Queen. Chrtian note and the horse cavalryFollowed along behindFor several steps, not climbingRight up. But his hesitant shameWas wrong. (360-364).This delay on the part of Lancelot came back to thwart his efforts when he had gotten the eat of the Queen from her captor. She give tongue to Indeed? Didnt the cartShame you the least little bit?You essential have hesitated,For you lingered a good two steps.And that, you see , was my soleReason for ignoring your presence. (4491-4496).This rigidity characterized the cult of honor as exemplified by Lancelots actions. If an affair of honor came about, then the knight must perform in the honorable focal point. Yet thither were levels of honor as when Meleagant, described as a pitiless brave fool, subscribed to a higher honor of battling Lancelot at King Arthurs court in a years time and agreed to forgo besiege at an earlier time (3886-3895).Chrtien saw that honor in service to love ignored common sense and reason. Reason did not allow in its realm the working of the heart. Love had its way. For loves com homods, compensate off shame endured. Deep in reflection, Lancelot had no defense against love. He did all forget himself. An obstructer challenged Lancelot three times before crossing a stream. The opp champion(a)nt stricken Lancelot with Lancelot still in loves command. The opponent had unfairly struck him. Lancelot wanted to avenge this disturba nce of his revery (891-893). away(p) revery he was in a fair enough way entirely his one and only heart he entrusted to some one else such that he was constrained in a special fashion (1231-1248). He found the Queens comb. It had strands of her hair and he was rhapsodicTouching them a hundred thousandTimes, caressing with his eves,His lips, his forehead, his face.And all of it brings him happiness,Fills him with the richest delightHe presses it into his breast,Slips it between his shirtAnd his heart worth more than a wagon-Load of emeralds or diamonds, (1470-1478).Later, in traversing the sword bridge, the blade cut so as to maim him but the suffering was sweet since love led him on and relieved his torment (3115-3122). Still later a distraught Lancelot, looking that the Queen is dead, act to kill himself by hanging himself from his saddle by means of his clap (4264-4268).Honor had its greatest demands made upon it by love but it spanned also war machine activity for which the knights were constantly prepared. In this preparation, a generous hospitality support them that mostly included horses (284-289), beds (458-463), and food. For the first two, they had a choice. The mistress of a plate offered Lancelot the house and the mistress of the house (938-949).Thus prepared, their military valor was a pledge, an oath, which they must uphold. A knight could be in the grip of an different knight and not fight correctly so the second knight asked to release the first knight. Then the second knight could recover his military equipment and they could then fight in the approved manner (839-852). The more honor gained in storm, the better. Accompanying a damosel involved an unspoken oath and was a very serious business since the knight was then responsible for her.A thought-provoking knight could assault her with impunity if a challenging knight defeated the escorting knight (1304-1322). Mercy could be granted for the about to be vanquished but this commo nly entailed an oath be taken. The one who granted mercy redeemed this oath to their benefit. If one had an oath to carry out, then could not do it, in that location could be shame of a great dimension when another knight did the deed (4013-4019). Knights sometimes honored a pledge, for honors sake, even though it seemed not in the best interests of most of those involved as when Kay sought to have the Queen accompany him into the forest where a knight awaited The king was upset, but his wordHad been given, and he could not revoke it,No offspring how angry and sorrowfulIt made him (which was easy to see).The queen, too, was deeplyDispleased, and the whole palaceDenounced Kays pride and presumptionIn do such a demand. (179-186).Again, it could be a combatant who would not hide the fight if pledged by his lady to cease. Then the other knight must not force a continuance then and there by striking the one who no longer lifts a weapon. Meleagant, for example, struck Lancelot. The Qu een had requested Lancelot to preventative fightingThe king came hurrying downFrom the chromatography column, to stop him. StraightTo the field of battle he went,Speaking these words to his sonWhats this? You think its fineTo go on fighting, afterHes stopped? You act uniform a savage (3824-3831).The truth of the matter is that Lancelot only appeared to give up. In truth he was doing what his lady had requested of him. Later her captors said she was finesse about bloodied sheets (4788-4798). This was a most grievous charge and so combat was called for. Holy relics came out and, on their knees, the parties involved did swear. Truth in other matters was another preoccupation of the aristocrats that Chrtien wrote about. There were standards of truth against which the knights and others could measure their conduct. To seek death in ignorance was the action of a fool. A fool too was one who does not truly humble oneself. A fool never disordered his folly. Those nobles, not fools, did not need to seek praise to enhance their whole caboodle and self praise did not increase ones esteem. The hysteria of a fool had no cureWho do you think believes you? say the king. All these peopleCan tell for themselves whats trueAnd False. We know youre lying. (3841-3844).Far from the fool was the man as lover who was always obedient and gladly did his lovers bidding in short order. He knew much about love and included in this knowledge was that honor done for love entailed no shame. Should something greatly go amiss, he would not fear death. Death coveted those who were afraid of it (4283-4284).Before death there were dwarfs. Lancelot encountered two dwarfs in the tale. Neither one was up to any good. The first, described as a Low-born and disgusting dwarf (353) did lead Lancelot astray. The dwarf lied as to knowing the Queens whereabouts but did convince Lancelot to enter the cart. The other dwarf encountered Lancelot on Lancelots approach to the water bridge. The dwarf prom ised to take Lancelot to a special orient (5081-5084). This dwarf also lied.No one said anything about what happened to the dwarfs. Presumably, they received a suitable fate for their unbecoming behavior. Perhaps death found them soon enough without their heads. It seemed that beheading was the surefire way to ensure that the one on their way out did indeed depart. Lancelot did battle with an enemy and after having vanquished him, a char wants the opponents head. Lancelot obliges One swing of the sword, the headWas off, and it and the bodyFell to the ground. And the girlWas happy.(2927-2930).The headless one wronged her. Lancelot had already showed mercy to the opponent. Then again the opponent had pleaded for mercy. Then too the opponent had been most impertinent with Lancelot. So the upshot of this battle was the damsel was pleased and the opponent lost his head.Another beheading occurred at the end of the tale. Meleagant reflected on how it was that Lancelot had made his way to Camelot. Meleagant had thought he had locked Lancelot in a tower from which there could be no escape. He realized that he was a victim of trickery. He was ready for something worse than great shame and humiliation (6967-6969). In his battle with Lancelot he lost his right arm. He entangle badly since he then could not strike Lancelot. Then he was smashed in the face by Lancelot. Three teeth are broken in his mouth. His state enraged him to the extent he could not speak and so did not seek mercy. Lancelot cut off his head. It was finished And let me assure you, no oneWho was there, watching the battle,Felt the slightest pity.The king and his courtiers and ladiesWere fairly startle for joy (7099-7103). Works CitedChrtien de Troyes. Lancelot The Knight of the Cart. Trans. Burton Raffel. New Haven & London Yale University invoke ,1997.