Exploring Knights and Vikings at the Movies
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Medievalisms and Others: Exploring Knights and Vikings at the Movies (Two knights: Indiana Jones and a protector of the Holy Grail, scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, dir. Steven Spielberg, 1989) Research Master Thesis Name: Marvin Lee Dupree Student Number: 3729389 Date: 14th August 2014 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Marco Mostert Second reader: Joanna Szwed-Śliwowska, Ph.D. candidate Acknowledgements The writing of this thesis has been a long process. From choosing my topic, dreaming about it, ignoring it and worrying about it while working on other important stuff. During its genealogy, I was encouraged by a novel I once read and its postmodern take on Iceland: “Ég er afkomandi hraustra, bláeygðra víkinga. Ég á ætt að telja til hirðskálda og sigursælla konunga. Ég er Íslendingur”. This sentiment has popped up into mind frequently, especially when I see tourists eating whale meat and wearing Viking helmets in downtown Reykjavík. Most of my writing was done in Rijeka and Vienna although it began in Budapest and was continued in Reykjavík. During my time in Croatia I have come to agree with Rebecca West, who said: “I had come to Yugoslavia to see what history meant in flesh and blood.” The topic of this thesis springs from my fascination with cinema and history. Of course, I am as guilty of dreaming of the Middle Ages as anyone. My supervisor Joanna Szwed-Śliwowska has been an excellent supervisor, she has helped shape my thesis from a “hrákasmíð”. Her comments and criticism have been of immense help, as well as her help with obtaining material. Many factors have come into play during the course of writing this thesis; including writer’s block, lack of time because of work and other obligations, not to mention sports related injuries. I am just thankful to Joanna for her patience, especially because of my tardiness, my idleness and my exuberance for all the medievalisms I mention that have to do with Skyrim and videogames in general. As for my tutor and second reader, I am grateful to Marco Mostert for his patience and instruction during my stay in Utrecht. Marco’s help and understanding in our email communication has facilitated things. I am thankful that Marco enabled me to stay longer in Budapest. The extended stay enabled me to take courses that fitted my research interests perfectly, albeit it made the construction of my first chapter a nightmare to write. I would like to thank Theo de Borba Moosburger. It was great to be able to chat and discuss these ideas with someone in a less formal setting. Gangi þér vel! Obrigado. Of course, I would like to thank my mother for helping me financially out in tight spots during my graduate studies, especially in Utrecht. Studying with a semi-defunct currency can be difficult. Despite, not being a útrásavíkingur and not becoming an 2 engineer, I am doing fine. I would also like to thank Zelda for being herself, which is more than enough. Finally, I would like to thank my shy friend Emily, who bears a remarkable resemblance to Reynard. I hope Nordic people are ok, considering how terrible they are in the news, Skyrim and literature. I would like to share some wisdom and thanks. “Did I ever tell you to eat up, go to bed, wash your ears, do your homework? No, I respected your privacy and I taught you self-reliance”. I always admired Henry Jones senior. And yes, “X” marks the spot. Thank you, Emily. 3 Contents 1. Introduction 5 1.1 Representational (in)accuracies in history................................................................... 6 1.2 “History means interpretation” 9 1.3 Between Scylla and Charybdis 11 1.4 The endless dreaming of the Middle Ages 13 2. Chapter I: “The records of ancient and medieval history are starred with lacunae” or facts versus the imaginary medieval. 14 2.1 Medievalisms as fantasies 25 3. Chapter II: Knights and Others 45 3.1 Cold War in the Middle Ages: American Medievalism’s Other 50 3.2 The Arthurian Turn in Britain 67 3.3 Pax Americana and Real Black Knights 71 4. Chapter III: The Vikings! 76 4.1 What is a Viking? 78 4.2 The Viking invasion, Wagnerian Vikings and Victorian Vikings 80 4.3 Early Portrayals of Vikings in Cinema 85 4.4 Post-war Viking Cinematic Spectacles: fissures and medievalisms 92 4.5 Ironic Vikings, “Nordic” Vikings, Mythical Vikings and Real/Reel Vikings 109 5. Conclusions 130 6. Bibliography 133 7. Filmography 144 4 1. Introduction One of the great problems when dealing with the Middle Ages is the fundamental dilemma: the epistemological problem of conceptualizing and reconstructing the period with the aid of sources.1 How much can be reconstructed is the eternal gnawing question for all medievalists, not to mention historians in general.2 Sir Philip Sidney in his treatise “Defense of Poesy” argues that a “historian, bound to tell things as things were, cannot be liberal … the historian, wanting the precept, is so tied, not to what should be but to what is, to the particular truth of things”.3 In fact this theoretical question can be juxtaposed with the mimetic question of representation that began with Ancient Greek philosophy and still reverberates today. This particular problem is quite significant since Rankean positivism within historiography and within the interpretive community subscribes to this theoretical stance.4 Depicting history within film is always subjective because the mere act of editing and the choice of subject material create an ideological stance. Indeed, the cinematic topics that deal with the Middle Ages are often analyzed under the rubrics of historical inaccuracies and in this introduction I would like to demarcate how the problematic nature of interpretation among historians can be a crucial issue within medieval studies, by emphasizing this methodological issue to medievalisms within film.5 Finally, in subchapter 1.4, the outline of my thesis is then revealed. 1 My stance is quite skeptical and I may not ascribe entirely to the dictum “there are not facts, only interpretations”, but I still I am convinced that a critical attitude towards all statements of historical orthodoxy is needed. 2 Stephen A. Kippur’s biography of Jules Michelet titled Jules Michelet: A Study of Mind and Sensibility reveals an interesting (re)construction of the Middle Ages by a famous historian: “My dreams of the Middle Ages … are ended … (Kippur, 85). Explaining this diary quote, Kippur mentions how Michelet was in a transitory phase because he was overcoming “previous historical conceptions” (ibid., 85) . Thus, Michelet stopped dreaming of a romantic Middle Ages and he became modern and found the Middle Ages to be a “place of hate”, “warlike”, “a world of illusion”. Thus Michelet moved from one medievalism framework to another. (ibid., 85) Kippur, S. A. (1981). Jules Michelet, a study of mind and sensibility. Albany, N.Y: State University of New York Press. 3 The Defense of Poesy. Sir Philip Sidney. 1909-14. English Essays: Sidney to Macaulay. The Harvard Classics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2013, from http://www.bartleby.com/27/1.html 4 Ranke and many others following in his footsteps within historiography follow the ideology that ‘objective truth’ is possible by focusing on the facts. 5 Cinematic representations are interpretations as I argue, with very subjective agendas. 5 1.1 Representational (in)accuracies in history Within the context of this debate, I wish to use a famous historical figure, Richard III. Throughout the centuries since his death the literary representation of Richard has metamorphosed, along with methodological methods in the humanities, within the historiographical tradition. The best known representation has its genealogies in Shakespeare’s play Richard III, and Harold Bloom states that “Shakespeare’s ironic, self- delighting, witty hero-villain has a troubling relation to actual history”. Bloom’s sentiments are quite an understatement but his quote helps elucidate the perception and connection of this creation in the interpretive community. Take for example Polydore Vergil’s treatment of Richard III in his Historie of England, in which he states: “Richard duke of Glocestre, who thowght of nothing but tyranny and crueltie”.6 Not only does Polydore Vergil assume to know of Richard’s cognitive processes, which occurred a generation earlier but he also helped lay the groundwork for Shakespeare’s interpretation along with the English chronicler Raphael Holinshed, who describes Richard III in the following manner: small and little of stature, so was he of bodie greatlie deformed; the one shoulder higher than the other; his face was small, but his countenance cruell, and such, that at the first aspect a man would iudge it to sauour and smell of malice, fraud, and deceit. When he stood musing, he would bite and chaw busilie his nether lip; as who said, that his fierce nature in his cruell bodie alwaies chafed, stirred, aud was euer vnquiet.7 Evidently, such a historical account is deceitful and its reliability as a ‘historical’ document or representation of Richard III is limited since it is painfully partial. As a result historians have undertaken the project of reevaluating such texts.8 Kewes and her fellow editors argue: “there is a need to study such historical texts in their own right as 6 Three books of Polydore Vergil's English history, comprising the reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, and Richard III from an early translation, are preserved among the mss. of the old royal library in the British museum.(n.d.).Retrieved September 23,2013,from,https://archive.org/stream/threebooksofpoly29verg#page /180/mode/2up/search/richard+III 7 HOLINSHED’S HISTORY OF KING RICHARD III | Richard III Society – American Branch.