Academic literature on the topic 'Knights and knighthood in literature'

AbstractBetween 1890 and 1920 in the United States, Protestant ministers demonstrated increasing concern for boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen. In particular, they described a two-fold “boy problem,” defined both in terms of heightened juvenile delinquency and passive effeminacy. This essay analyzes one of the chief ways in which church leaders attempted to combat these issues: the development of Christian boy ministries rooted in the stories and themes of medieval knighthood. Looking at the use of such themes in Protestant literature and in new church organizations such as the Knights of King Arthur and the Knights of the Holy Grail, this article reveals why medievalism had such power and resonance in this era. In part, the symbolic use of the Middle Ages fit well with emerging psychological theories of adolescent development. According to G. Stanley Hall and other proponents of racial recapitulation, adolescent boys were instinctually driven by a need to join their medieval forebears in fighting battles, worshiping heroes, and forming romantic relationships marked by love and chivalry. In addition, the medieval knight emerged as the ideal exemplar for dealing with both aspects of the early twentieth-century boy problem. While boys struggled with moral decadence and effeminate weakness, knights were both morally refined and confidently virile. In the end, I argue that the proliferation of medieval themes in this period reflected a growing consensus regarding the “ideal Christian man.” While uncontrolled masculine expression produced the violent man, and the suppression of masculine expression produced the weak man, carefully channeled masculine expression would produce the “knightly” man, the ideal “Christian gentleman” capable of pursuing purity and virtue through manly and aggressive means.

In the years 2016–2018, a three-volume work «Knight in war, travel and the accomodation» was published in Poland. The author of this trilogy is Jan Szymczak, Professor Emeritus at the University of Lodz (Poland). In the first two volumes, he discussed the armament and equipment of knights in medieval Poland from the 10th to the 16th century. In the first volume, the author deals with defensive weapons, in the second ― offensive. The author paid much attention to the issue of terminology related to weapons. He tries to explain the nomenclature that appears in the sources, to explain the origin of the names of weapons that appeared in Polish. In the discussed books, a lot of space is devoted to issues related to the production and prices of weapons. In the third volume, the author also deals with horses and riding gear. However, on the pages of the book we find not only information about the knight’s equipment, but also a lot of space is devoted to weapons used by citizens, peasants and mercenary soldiers. The reader will also find in this study a lot of information not only about Polish army, but also about armies of other countries of medieval Europe. On the pages of J. Szymczak’s works, we find not only the parameters of weapons and examples of their use in battles, but he also shows them as an important element of court and religious ceremonies. Although the work is dedicated to the Polish knighthood, in it there are references to ancient cultures or medieval European literature. The work contains a very rich bibliography, including handwritten and printed sources, as well as a very large selection of literature.

The present study traces the development of Sir Gawain’s traits in the Arthurian legend through an analysis of Arthurian literature in early medieval works, in transition, and in modern cycle. It aims to show what makes Sir Gawain a multiple character and how his plastic character has appealed to the literary, political, and social taste of the time of his creation and recreation. The focus will be upon the roles that the new characteristics of Sir Gawain should fulfil and the reasons which stand behind this transition in his character.The study examines the representation of Sir Gawain as a heroic knight in mainly three texts from the medieval and modern English Arthurian tradition: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae Sir Thomas Malory’s De Morte Arthur, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. Some references are made to other contemporary texts. These texts range from literary to history, providing a broad overview of the many ways in which history and romance approaches the question of the roles of knighthood and chivalry through the figure of Sir Gawain.By exploring these narratives in their historical and social contexts, the present study explains why Sir Gawain maintains certain characteristics across a particularly eventful period in English history, as well as why certain characteristics change drastically. It will also offer new insights about public perception of medieval notions of knighthood and chivalry.All translated quotations from Historia Regum Britanniae are taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of Kings of Britain, translated by Sebastian Evans (London: Dent, 1963). All Latin quotations from Wace’s Roman de Brut: A History of the British are taken fromWace, Wace’s Roman de Brut: A History of the British, edited by Judith Weiss (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002). All quotations from the Arthurian Section of Layamon’s Brut are taken from Layamon, Layamon’s Arthur: the Arthurian Section of Layamon’s Brut, edited by W.R.J. Barron and S.C. Weinberg (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2001). All quotations from Idylls of the King are taken from Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the king, edited by J. M. Gray (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983).

Monsters are perceived as humanity’s enemy that should be eradicated. However, based on Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Theory (1997), monsters play an important role in understanding humanity’s fears and anxieties. Monstrosity hinges upon the binary opposition of the Self and the Other, in which the Other is seen as a threat to the Self. With this in mind, this article addresses the female monsters of two medieval texts: Beowulf and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. This paper aims to examine the female monsters, Grendel’s mother and Morgan the Fay, as a cultural reference to unravel the patriarchal anxieties of the time. Grendel’s mother represents a threat to the homosocial hierarchal bonds of Medieval society. Meanwhile, Morgan the Fay signifies danger to knighthood, chivalry, and courtly romance. At the same time, this paper also aims to continue the critical analysis and literature of the female characters in both texts with a heavy emphasis on their Otherness.

This article investigates the social isolation of the protagonist in a crisis using the example of Iwein by Hartmann von Aue. It is an Arthurian novel written around 1203 which depicts the adventures of the knight Iwein of the Round Table. The novel embodies various medieval topics such as the struggle for honour, loyalty, knight’s duties and virtues, challenges, mythical and fantastic beasts, etc. Among these subjects, there is also the so-called crisis of a hero, which is represented by social isolation and mental illness, i. e. by the knight’s insane behaviour. Thus, the depiction of Iwein's isolation will be interpreted, analysed and critically evaluated in relation to his illness and recovery in the context of the crisis. In addition, the function and the representation of this isolation in regard to the knighthood and court society of the time will also be examined. Therefore, this article attempts to answer the following questions: How is Iwein's social isolation depicted during his crisis and what role does this isolation play during the crisis in terms of his illness and recovery? What is the difference between isolation, loneliness and marginalisation in this novel? In this paper, however, it is assumed that Iwein's isolation plays a crucial role in Iwein's illness and recovery and that his madness can only be interpreted as a symptom of this isolation. In this way, his insane episode is observed in relation to his isolation and not separately. The power of isolation does not lie in the loneliness, but in the reflection of the solitude, which allows the individuum to rebalance themselves, far from the disruptions of everyday life. After all, even today, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, things are out of balance. However, this pandemic has brought to light that even now, perhaps more than ever, one has the possibility to reconnect with oneself and with one's nature due to the isolation.

Knightly Code of Conduct in Alonso the Wise’s Siete Partidas: Text and Context Alfonso X of Castile, also known as Alfonso the Wise was one of the most eminent Medieval rulers of the Kingdom of Castile and León. This paper presents selected facts from his life, especially highlighting his achievements as a patron of science and literature, as well as propagator of the vernacular language, i.e. Castilian. A special focus herein will be on the code Siete Partidas. Written under Alfonso’s auspices, this text describes knightly customs and combines the features of fiction and legal documents. The paper consists of two parts: a commentary and a translation of Title XXI of Partida II. The commentary presents the essential information on Alfonso X, including his legislative activities connected to Siete Partidas, and also the significance of the code for Spanish legislation, the contents of the seven books (partidas), as well as its authorship. In order to provide some background of the knightly culture on the Iberian Peninsula in the 13th century, knighthood rights are also presented on the basis of other contemporary texts on related subjects, such as Ramon Llull’s The Book of the Order of Chivalry or the French anonymous treatise L’ordene de chevalerie. The translation presented in the second part of the article is the first and the only Polish version of a fragment of Siete Partidas dealing with duties, privileges and also customs. Prepared on the basis of the critical edition by Jerry R. Craddock and Jesús Rodríguez Velasco, the translation attempts to grasp the nature of the original language and content, providing notes, which facilitate comprehension of particularly challenging problems.

The Prussian knights, who were the guarantors of the Brest peace concluded on December 31, 1435, so far were sought in the list of persons who were proposed as guarantors from January 1436. It included 195 knights. However, the final list of guarantors is contained in the treaty document of the Teutonic side, which was submitted to the Polish side on August 1, 1436. The text of the peace document includes 131 knightly guarantors, but only 109 of them were Prussian knights (44 of them were accolade). However, 5 more knights possible to be identified should be added to the Prussian guarantors mentioned in the document, who have put their seals in, but are not mentioned in the text of the treaty. This comes to a total of 114 knightly guarantors from Prussia, who can be identified on the basis of information from the treaty document. In addition to the Prussians, 18 knights from Livonia (including three accolade knights) and four from New March (including no accolade knight) were included as guarantors. A prosopographic analysis of Prussian guarantors shows that the greatest number of them were knights from Upper Prussia and the Chełmno land. Out of the 114 knights there were 61 of them, and as many as 28 of them were from the small Chełmno land. It also seems that the vast majority of knightly guarantors came from families having long standing affiliations with Prussia, even though the knightly elite could still be joined by newcomers, such as Botho von Eulenburg, a member of the great master secret council. Among the knightly guarantors, we were able to identify only one person from the city patriciate. This, together with the above mentioned conclusion concerning the origin of the vast majority of guarantors from families formerly settled in Prussia, allows for a cautious suggestion that the Prussian knighthood was already at the stage of gradually closing as a social group, which also occurred against the policy of its feudal superior. The participation of the knighthood as an active factor of political events in the 30s of the 15th century, the culmination of which was establishing the Prussian Union in 1440, probably allows to state that the “warrior” layer of Prussian knighthood, initially treated by the Teutonic Order “professionally”, has evolved into a social state – typical for the late medieval feudal states – and demanded its due participation in ruling over the state.

The main aim of this article is to collect and assess all accessible data about the early development of chivalric culture in the GDL and to identify possible trends. This phenomenon is perceived as part of the history of the European knighthood in the late Middle Ages. The article also seeks to investigate the meaning of the conception of the knight in the GDL documents of the fifteenth century in order to determine the spread of knighthood in the nobility of the Grand Duchy. In the research of these aspects the flourishing of the knighthood culture at the court of Grand Duke Vytautas in the early-fifteenth century is distinguished as a period when high-ranking representatives of the country’s nobility were awarded titles; and a new enhancement is noticeable in the times of Alexander Jogailaitis when an initiative, a unique phenomenon in Poland-Lithuania, was undertaken to establish a brotherhood of knights. In the analysis of the use of the concept of knighthood, emphasis is placed on the difference between the singular use of the knightly title and the pluralistic estate conception.

While discussing the status of knights in the eleventh century, F. M. Stenton observed briefly in a footnote: the word miles is rarely added as a mark of distinction to the names of individuals granting or attesting charters of the twelfth century. In the course of the thirteenth century it becomes customary for the principal lay witnesses of a charter to be distinguished as milites, and to many clerks of this age knighthood entitled a witness to the prefix dominus in front of his name.