Chrétien de Troyes

 "I am a writer, I give the truth, scope!"

Chaucer, A Knights Tale (movie quote).   

I have often mentioned, in my blogs, the French poets of the 12th Century and how they came to influence the Arthurian Legend.

Chrétien de Troyes was one of these poets.

Troyes is often credited with being the inventor of the modern novel - although it would take many centuries before the first proper novel was published.

What made the work of Troyes so different to the norm of the 12th Century?

His stories had a beginning a middle and an end. He was the first to write such literature. Before this, the Celtic bards may have told tales of a battle or a particular time in history, but there was never anything coherent to their tales - there was no order. Troyes was the first to make sense of the muddle.

Little is known about Troyes's life. He may have been at the court of Marie of France the Countess of Champagne, employed as a writer and he has also been linked to Philip, the Count of Flanders.

Regardless of his life and who and where he may or many not have been, his romantic poems have had a major influence on the Arthurian Legend as we know it today. His work is considered one of the best in medieval literature - he would have ranked number one on the Amazon charts, if Amazon had been around back then! And his stories...well, lets just say that you have more than likely heard of them, even if you did not know who they were written by.

I want to look at just one of his great masterpieces today and to explore how he shaped our future opinion of Arthur and his knights.

Lancelot, le Chevalier de la Charrette

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

 

We all know the story of Lancelot - even those who do not take much interest in Arthurian Legend could probably tell you something about him.

"Lancelot was the knight who had an affair with Guinevere, Arthur's Queen."

It is interesting to note, that until Troyes work, Lancelot had been but a minor figure in the Celtic myths of Arthur's court - hardly worth a mention, and it is even suggested that there was no such knight until Troyes invented him.

It is said that Troyes patroness, Countess Maria was rather passionate about the idea of courtly love, and you can not get more romantic than the love triangle between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. Ironically, it is rumored that Troyes felt so disgusted by the adulterous nature of the story that he could not finish the work himself, but handed it over to his clerk. I wonder what he would think now, if he knew that after Arthur, Lancelot was the knight that everyone remembered?

Tell me the story.

Queen Guinevere had been abducted by the cruel and vicious knight, Meleagant. Sir Gawain embarks on a heroic rescue mission. On the road he meets a young knight, Lancelot, who has ridden his horse so hard, that the animal has died of exhaustion. Lancelot persuades Gawain to lend him a horse and then he gallops away, leaving Gawain staring after him. Gawain finally catches up with Lancelot, only to find that he has run his new horse to death as well.

Both knights realise that they are trying to rescue the same woman, Guinevere.

Lancelot encounters a dwarf with a cart - like you do!

 This dwarf tells Lancelot that he knows where Meleagant has taken Guinevere. He kindly offers for Lancelot to ride on the cart. Lancelot is reluctant, for it is dishonorable for a knight to ride upon a cart. Eventually he relents, and climbs on board. Gawain decides to follow on horseback - there is no way he is going to take a ride in a cart.

The journey is not an easy one and it is made harder by Lancelot's lowly form of transport. The pair encounter incredibly rude knights and beautiful women intent on mischief. But their progress is slow, so the two of them decide to split up, that way they would be able to cover more ground.

It is Lancelot that finds the Queen in the castle of Gorre. But Guinevere sends him away - there is no way she is getting on to the cart (what was the matter with this woman? - get on the cart).

Lancelot's only option is to find Gawain, as he has a horse, but although the Queen is proving to be stubborn and ungracious, he finds he cannot leave her alone. Guinevere, obviously realising how completely off her trolley she sounds, apologises to Lancelot and they spend a passionate night together. However, when Lancelot broke into Guinevere's chambers he hurt his hand and leaves the sheets of Guinevere's bed covered in blood. Meleagant, seeing the blood, accuses Guinevere of adultery ( because abduction is all right?) and the only knight with such an injury in the vicinity at the time is Sir Kay.

To cut a long poem short...

Lancelot challenges Meleagant to a duel, but Meleagant's father interferes and in the end the two men agree to fight each other in a years time.

Guinevere makes it home, but Lancelot does not for he is tricked by another dwarf and ends up in prison, although he is kindly let out to for the duel, as long as he comes back again afterwards.

Lancelot sees Guinevere before the fight. She tells him that if he loves her then he should lose to prove to her that his love is true. Which he does. But then, halfway through the fight, Guinevere changes her mind and tells him if he loves her then he must win. First the cart and now this - I would have walked away if I was him.

Lancelot wins and then being honorable, or incredibly stupid, returns to his captors. And here Troyes story ends. He entrusts Godefroi de Leigni to finish his work for him.

Troyes also wrote Perceval, the Story of the Grail, again he did not complete this work - maybe because he died - how inconsiderate is that?!  

No one knows if Troyes had access to any original sources to which he based his works on. He vaguely said something about Celtic myths, but unlike Monmouth he had not secret manuscript that conveniently got lost after he had finished with it. Dare I suggest that he was using something called his imagination?

His work was very popular, evident by the number of manuscripts that still survive to this day. There is, it seems, nothing better than a good story.

Was King Arthur Welsh?

I love looking at maps. I think they are absolutely fascinating, particularly old maps - the AA roadmaps of today just confuse me - thank goodness for satnavs!

Do you own an Atlas?

If you do, I am sure you will agree that they are usually so big that they do not fit on your bookcase. I have a book of old maps that is twice the size of a normal atlas. It is huge and lives on top of my wardrobe, for there is no where else to put it - although living there does have its disadvantages, especially when I want to get the maps down. That book can really hurt when you drop it and it lands on your foot. Believe me...I know! What is she rabbiting on about now? I hear you say...has she been at the sherry again? Quick hide the mulled wine.

Actually, I do have a point and I will get to it.

The problem with Britain, back in the day, is that she was split up into many different kingdoms. Sometimes these kingdoms merged and became larger kingdoms - likewise, sometimes these kingdoms broke apart. A map of Britain in AD500 would be unrecognisable to what it is now - obviously the geography of the land would be the same, it wasn't shaped like a tennis racket or anything crazy like that - I mean there were just lots of kingdoms - over 40 to be precise.

The Romans had united some of the kingdoms - for a time - if you remember your history the Romans gave up trying to conquer the holy terrors of the north and Empire Hadrian ordered a massive wall to be built to keep these barbarian warriors back.

There was no England, Wales and Scotland as such.

But there seemed to be a heck of a lot of King Arthur's.

England has one. Wales has one. Scotland has one. And one of them is even Roman. I would not be surprised if one day those astronauts will find a sword, stuck in a stone, on the moon or maybe even Mars - most likely Mars.

Historians have spent years researching, arguing, coming to conclusions and scratching their heads, about who Arthur was, and where he actually came from.

The legend states that he is from the South-West of England - no question there. Avalon is in Glastonbury, Cadbury Hill is Camelot, and Arthur has strong connections with Cornwall as well.

Cornwall...

Now Cornwall, wasn't always called Cornwall. Sometimes her name looked remarkably similar to what it does now - Cornovii, but that was not always the case.

 In AD500, she was called Cerniw. And this is where it gets a little complicated, because Wales also had a kingdom called Cerniw, which is believed to have been somewhere near Newport. Arthur is referenced to having a court in Cerniw. Do you see the problem and where I am going with it?

I have to ask...

Was King Arthur Welsh?

Let's look at the evidence - or the legend - lets look at the legend.

Firstly, there is Dinas Powys Hill Fort. Archiologists has dated this fort, near Cardiff, as being a prominent high status building dating between the 5th and 6th Century - Could this be Arthur's fort? 

There is even a hoof print of King Arthur's horse at Carn March near Gwynedd. What other evidence do you need?

For those who want to know the story of the hoof print - read on for a very brief outline.

Arthur's horse dragged a monster from the river at Llyn Barfog. The end. I told you it was brief.  If you look closely at the picture above, you can just make it out.

Wales also has plenty of lakes which could have been the location of Avalon. The two most probably locations are both in Snowdonia -Llydaw and Llyn Ogwen.

And remember, Merlin was Welsh. Carmarthen, in Wales had an Oak tree that used to stand in the town centre. It was a magical tree and even had a name - Merlin's Tree. There is also a story that Merlin was imprisoned in a hidden cave at Bryn Myrddin - Merlin's Hill - it is said if you listen very carefully, you can still hear him groaning.

Forget about Arthur being buried at Glastonbury. How about the standing stones at Pembrokeshire's Preseli Mountains? Or maybe he is buried in Glamorgan.

What about Arthwyr, King of Glamorgan and Gwent, rumour has it he became High King of Britain. He had a daughter called Morcant (Morgan). 

Do you know when you don't feel very well and you check out your symptoms on the internet and scare yourself witless thinking you are suffering from some rare tropical disease that only infects 0.000000001% of the population. I sometimes think that is what it is like when I am hunting for Arthur. He can be made to fit where ever you want him to. Now, I am not saying he isn't Welsh. He could well be. He could just as well be Scottish, who knows. And I don't think it really matters. What matters is that the stories of him are timeless and what he and his knights stood for really defines the word 'noble.' Maybe that is all we need to really know.

Also, on another note, Wales was the location of many of the scenes in the BBC series, Merlin. Maybe, Arthur and his knights were simply heading home.

Li

Sir Thomas Malory - who was he? And what does he have to do with King Arthur?

"Doo after the good and leve the evyl, and it shal brynge you to good fame and renomme."

(Do after the good and leave the evil, and it shall bring you to good fame and renown.)

                                   

If you have been reading my blogs then you may well have seen me mention Thomas Malory before. He is credited with writing Le Morte d'Arthur - the death of Arthur. You may have heard of it?!

Le Morte d'Arthur was first published in 1485 and is now one of the best known works of Arthurian literature. Many of the stories that were to follow, including the works of White and Tennyson, were strongly influenced by Malory's work.

Sometimes I think that my hunt for Arthur is like looking for a shadow in a darkened room. There are stories whispered in your ear that seem compellingly true, only they are not - take Glastonbury Abbey for example. There are stories that are so improbable that at first you dismiss them, only to realise later on that maybe you should have paid them a little more attention. Ironically, sometimes the hunt for the author of these famous stories, leaves you just as baffled as the stories themselves. And this is true when we look at  Le Morte d'Arthur.

Who actually wrote it?

There are several Sir Thomas Malory's recorded living at that time, so it is a bit like the children's game Guess Who? Do you know the one I am talking about?....Is it a man? Does he have a beard? Did he write Le Morte d'Arthur?

If only it were that easy!

Scholars generally agree that Sir Thomas Malory was born sometime in the early 15th Century. He was a nobleman who resided in Newbold Revel, Warwickshire. This Sir Thomas had a rather notable career. He inhereited his father's estate in 1434, but he did not really conform. He spent most of his life in and out of prison. His name has a long list of alleged crimes attached to it, theft, attempted murder, rape, extortion. He even escaped from Coleshill Prison, but instead of keeping a low profile, he robbed the Cistercian Monastery! He was arrested, but he must have had friends in very high places, for after two years lounging in prison, he was released through a royal pardon.

It is a thought he was a Member of Parliament - why should that come as a surprise? And he may have fought in the Hundred Year War. He was knighted in 1441.

I am surprised, what with all his shenanigans, that this Malory had time to write a masterpiece about chivalry and honour, but then again, he did spend a great deal of his time in jail, perhaps he was bored?! 

In 1460 he found himself in the notorious harsh, Newgate Prison, and it was during this time that he wrote Le Morte d'Arthur.

It does not sit easy with many that a man who was clearly the very opposite of chivalry should write a best-seller about a King who could not be dishonourable even if he tired. There have been countless attempts to link Le Morte d'Arthur with somebody - anybody - else, but it always comes back to this Warwickshire, Sir Thomas.

Sir Thomas died in prison on 31 July 1485 and Le Morte d'Arthur was published posthumously by William Caxton.

Le Morte d'Arthur

 “Malory did not invent the stories in this collection; he translated and compiled them..." Elizabeth Bryan 

Malory translated existing stories and piled them together into one big book. Originally Malory called his works;

"The hoole booke of kyng Arthur & of his noble knyghtes of the rounde table"

But Caxton had something to say about that. The book became surprisingly popular and was reprinted many times over the centuries, although sometimes things were added into the works and likewise, sometimes things were taken out. Originally Malory umbrellared eight books under Le Morte d'Arthur, but for some unfathomable reason, Coxton dived the original eight in to 21, which makes a staggering 507 chapters! 

It is what it is, a work of fiction. I don't think you can take anything away from it that is historically accurate. But, the stories are great and seemingly everlasting because they have stayed the test of time. I wonder if Malory, while dying in prison, had any idea how influential his work would become.

Sir Bors

GALANT    BRAVE     NOBLE

Who was Sir Bors and wherefore did he come?

Family history time. Bors was the son of King Bors - who was the brother of King Ban of Brittany - who was the father of Lancelot. I hope you are keeping up. I could draw a family tree I suppose, which would probably explain it a great deal more clearly...

One hour later...

...I think I am asking far too much of myself...I shall keep persevering thought for I am not one to give up...

Five minutes later...on second thoughts, perhaps I will ask my eldest to draw the tree...

Twenty minutes later....Why can't I do that??

Well that didn't take long now, did it? Me and my great ideas.

So now we know where Bors is in the family tree -- I am sure you all very much relieved and will be able to sleep easy tonight because of It? But, just to confuse the issue, in my book The Du Lac Chronicles which is out early 2016 ( I shamelessly plug ) Bors is not a member of the Du Lac family and he actually waged war on Lancelot during the Du Lac wars...and that is all I am going to tell you about my book today, so if you want to find out more, guess what you are going to have to do???!

Bors childhood.

We need to have a quick look at King Bors life so I can put Bors junior, who I am talking about today, in context. King Bors and King Ban were allies to Arthur and helped him in the struggle against the uprising of the eleven kingdoms. Unfortunately, both Bors and Ban died battling Claudas. Lancelot got lucky and was raised by the Lady of the Lake, whereas Bors junior and his brother, Lionel, were taken captive by Claudas where they had a particularly unpleasant childhood. Thankfully, they finally managed to escape - although they did kill Claudas's son, Dorin, before they left - but they say he had it coming. Claudas, for obvious reasons, was not pleased and he retaliated, but the boys were rescued by a servant of the Lady of the Lake and they spent what little remained of their childhood with their cousin, Lancelot.

To cut a long story short, all three boys end up as knights of Camelot.

Bors father's a child - but remember this is the time of sorcery and magic rings. Bors is tricked into carnal relations with King Brandegoris daughter and a son comes from the union. Bors recognises the child as his own, despite the magic ring, and he later introduces Elyan to court. In T. H. White's book, The Once and Future King, Bors is describe as an "Almost virgin." How can you be an almost virgin? The mind boggles. He is also described as being incredibly bad tempered. Maybe it was because of his "almost virgin" status? 

Ignoring White....  

Bors is very chivalrous and becomes one of the Grail Knights and, along with Percival and Galahad, he witnesses the mysteries of the Grail with his own eyes. Sadly, he is the only one to return to court after seeing the Grail.

However, believing in chivalry and honour can have it's drawbacks. I can remember, many years ago, during my school days, one particular teacher who taught us philosophy. This teacher had a thing for impossible situations where no matter what you did, someone died. She did this every single lesson, I jest not. I could give you lots of examples but, I will save you that torture and tell you about just one. Here goes...Two men are drowning in the sea, one of them was supposedly your father and other had the cure for cancer...we were told we could save only one. I pointed out that I couldn't swim, so there would be three people drowning instead of two... the teacher wasn't impressed with my answer -- personally I thought I made a valid point and I still stand by it. Nevertheless, if you were in that situation, who would you choose?

But what has this got to do with Bors? I hear you yell.

Well, Bors found himself in this situation. His brother, Lionel needed rescuing - the poor bloke was being whipped with thorns by some terrible villains, but down the road Bors witnessed the abduction of a pretty, young girl by a rogue knight...Oh my days, it is beginning to sound like an episode from that Australian soap-opera, Neighbours.

Bors decides to rescue the girl, whilst praying desperately for his brother to be delivered by the Lord. Lionel manages to escape, but he isn't too happy with his brother's choice - in fact, Lionel is so angry that he tries to kill Bors. Bors drops his weapons and says "If you want to kill me, kill me - I'll not defend myself." Maybe he was trying to call Lionels bluff, but it didn't work. Lionel said "If that is what you want, prepare to die." They probably didn't say those exact words to each other, please don't quote me on that! Sir Calogrenant and a local village hermit, try to to intervene, more fool them...Lionel kills them both. There is nothing stopping Lionel now from murdering his brother..apart from a lightening fork that is sent down from the heavens -- which I don't think actually kills him, because Lionel pops up again later on in the story -- unless Bors had two brothers called Lionel? I am assuming that he did not.

During the Lancelot and Guinevere scandle, which rocked the court of Camelot, Bors helps Lancelot rescue the Queen. He sides with Lancelot and follows him into exile from court. Eventually Bors gains the lands of Claudas. Sir Gawain writes to Lancelot asking for his help against Mordred. Lancelot does not go, but Bors and Lionel do. Lionel dies in the skirmishes immediately after the Battle of Camlann. Bors avenges him and so the story ends.

My favourite portrayal of Bors?

I think my favourite portray of Bors was played by Ray Winston in the 2004 film, King Arthur - the film is worth watching just for the banter between Bors and Lancelot ( Ioan Gruffudd ). And I also love the portrayal of the Saxons, especially Cerdic and Cynric -- I promise you, you will definitely be meeting those two in The Du Lac Chronicles, did I tell you it is out early 2016?!

  "Rus"

King Arthur's Sister in Washington Court - Book Review

This blog is going to be a little bit different, although still in keeping with the Arthurian theme. Today I am going to talk about a rather wonderful book called King Arthur's Sister in Washington Court by Kim Iverson Headlee.

Those of you who read a lot of Arthurian literature may well have come across Kim's work before, The Dragon's Dove Chronicles, perhaps?

King Arthur's Sister in Washington Court ( I am going to call it KASIWC from now on ), caught my eye because it sounded really intriguing. Arthurian legend meets baseball - what a concept!

Kim, I think, set herself quite a challenge when she wrote it, because this is a sequel to Mark Twain's  A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - so hats off to her for that.

The story is about Morgan le Fay, Queen of Gore, and is set in the year AD 600, (Morgan was lucky enough to survive the purge in Mark Twain's book). We all know of Morgan's magical prowess and she has vowed revenge upon the Yankee, Hank Morgan - who in Mark Twain's book caused a great deal of trouble for Arthur and his court.

Morgan casts a spell which is supposed to take her to 1879 Connecticut - she wants to stop Sir Boss (Hank) from ever traveling back to her time and destroying her world, but her spell goes drastically wrong and she finds herself in Washington DC In the year 2079.

She adapts remarkably quickly to modern life - she survives her first encounter with a flying limousine - which she is convinced is some sort of magical dragon. And thank goodness for magic, for she would never have been able to walk in stilettos without it!

Morgan lands on her feet and becomes the Campaign Manager for the American President, Malory Beckham Hinton - whose ambitions are so great that Morgan believes that one day the President will rule absolutely and elections will be a thing of the past.

Somehow, Morgan ends up being the owner of the London Knights - the world-champion baseball team and after that things really get interesting...

Morgan's stormy relationship with Sandy, the general manager of the Knights, is hysterical - I have lost count how many times she fired him! The story is packed with action and you never quite know what Morgan is going to do next ...will she throw the game by using magic or will she refrain herself this one time?

She also tells some incredibly amusing anecdotes about the Knights of her brother's Round Table.

To be absolutely honest, although the title and synopsis intrigued me, I was a little bit wary to start with, simply because baseball is not a national sport where I come from. The only encounter I have ever had with baseball is on my children's Nintendo Wii and I must admit, it wasn't my finest of moments. Oh, and of course, there was that Kevin Costner film, however all I learnt from Field of Dreams was "If you build it, he will come," but apart from that, I know nothing! However, my lack of knowledge did not in any way hamper the enjoyment of the book. So please do not be put off if you are not a baseball fan.

Likewise, you do not have to read Mark Twain's book to understand what is going on in this one. KASIWC stands firmly on its own two feet.

KASIWC is an incredibly well crafted piece of work, of that there is no doubt. The story is told in the first person by Morgan herself, and boy, does she have strong opinions on just about everything - some of which may be a little controversial - but hey, she is from a different era, what can you do?

It is laugh out loud funny, but at the same time some of topics that Kim explores really made me think about how little things have actually changed between Morgan's world and our own. It gave me pause for thought.

There is humour, romance, drama, magic, King Arthur and his Knights, and baseball - what more can you ask for?

I read this book in a day - and I haven't done something like that in a long time - I simply could not put it down. Which I think, in itself, says a lot about the book.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely.

So, if you are looking for something to read that is a little bit different, then what are you waiting for? Click on the links and check out Kim Iverson Headlee, King Arthur's Sister in Washington Court, today!

Kindle

Paperback

Hardcover

e-book

e-book

  

e-book