Knightly Travel in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur

Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis No 3296 Anglica Wratislaviensia XLIX Wrocław 2011

Milica Spremić University of Belgrade From Victory and Fame to Defeat and Salvation: Knightly Travel in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur

1. Introduction

Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur was completed in 1469 or 1470, and Wil- liam Caxton first published it in London in 1485. Caxton gave Malory’s work its title, and divided it into twenty-one books and five hundred and seven chapters. As Malory’s original manuscript has not survived, Caxton’s edition is one of the two extant versions of the text. Another version of Malory’s work is Professor Eu- gene Vinaver’s edition, based on the Winchester Manuscript, which was discovered in 1934. When discovered, the Winchester Manuscript had already been divided into eight Tales. It was published in 1947. The whole of Malory’s work can be read and interpreted in terms of knightly travel, since knightly quests are both the plot incentives and the raison d’être of King Arthur’s knights. This paper analyses knightly quests throughout Malory’s work with the assumption that while the travel action in Malory persists, it has different forms and aims.1 The knightly quests in the first two Tales are undertaken in order to establish King Arthur’s authority and enlarge his empire, and their climax is Arthur’s Roman campaign. Knightly quests in the central part of Malory’s work, in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Tales, are peaceful pursuits of adventure, the aims of which are achievement of fame, reputation and worship by certain knights. The last joint quest of King Arthur’s knights is the quest for the Holy Grail, described in the Sixth Tale. The aim of the Grail quest is not earthly fame, but the attainment of divine grace. Its fatal outcome was a painful admonition to King Arthur and his knights that they had neglected knightly ideals. Finally,

1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 17th International Medieval Congress in Leeds, Great Britain, in July 2010. The 2010 thematic strand was Travel and Exploration.

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in the Seventh and Eighth Tales, knightly quests almost cease to exist. The degradation of knightly ideals inevitably brings Arthur’s empire to its end, while his tragic, last wars against Lancelot and Mordred, are mere slaughters which destroy the knightly code of behaviour. Logically enough, they also end Malory’s work.

2. Travel to victory

Knightly quests in the first two of Malory’s Tales present us with the picture of the rise of King Arthur’s newly established kingdom. After Arthur’s successful com- pletion of the sword in the stone test, he is accepted as a new king by his people, but not by all of his late father’s vassals. Against them Arthur wages several wars out of which he comes victorious and strengthened in power, while his subjects are bestowed with longed-for peace. The climax of the formative phase of King Arthur’s state is his triumphant Roman campaign, described in the Second Tale. The Second Tale begins in a way typical of a medieval Arthurian romance — the kingly feast in Camelot is interrupted by the arrival of foreigners: When King Arthur had after long war rested, and held a royal feast and Table Round with his allies of kings, princes and noble knights all of the Round Table, there came into his hall, he sitting on his throne royal, twelve ancient men, bearing each of them a branch of olive, in token that they came as ambassadors and messengers from the Emperor Lucius, which was called at that time, Dictator or Procuror of the Public Weal of Rome. (Malory 1986, vol. I: 67) The ambassadors of the Roman Emperor Lucius bring Arthur Lucius’ require- ment for a tribute and his accusation that Arthur is a rebel since he has been neg- lecting this duty. The shameful challenge is bravely received by King Arthur and his knights; the proud and decisive expressions on their faces frighten Emperor Lucius’ men. Arthur replies that he, being the ancestor of the Roman emperor and defender of Christianity, Constantine, is the legal ruler and claimant to the Roman throne, while Lucius himself is a usurper against whom he and his knights are ready to wage war, supported by the best knights from fifteen neighbouring kingdoms. Having received Arthur’s answer to his challenge, Lucius begins to gather his own forces to confront Arthur, but instead of Christian, worthy and fearless knights, Lucius’ forces are made of the Saracens and giants. Upon leaving Britain to go to war, King Arthur appoints loyal regents, Sir Baudwin and Sir Constantine, to rule his kingdom while he is away. On his way to Rome, Arthur fights the giant of St. Michel’s Mount and kills it, putting an end to a seven-year chain of crimes and destruction of the region the giant has inhabited. In the most important battle, Lancelot wounds, and Arthur kills Lucius. In his victorious march to Rome, Arthur invades Flanders, Lorraine, Germany, Lombardy and Tuscany. In Rome, the Pope grants him the emperor’s crown, which is the culmination of Arthur’s power, glory, political and military career.

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On this knightly travel, King Arthur and his knights won their greatest victory. Edmund Reiss claims that, having been given the emperor’s crown by the Pope, “Arthur and his Order receive the blessing of the Church and the crown of the Western world” (Reiss 1966: 90). According to Reiss, this means that the way of life and the ideals of the Round Table have become universal and, more importantly, in accordance with Christianity. There is nothing else in this world that the king and his knightly order can achieve. They can only strive to turn from the mundane and get closer to God. But before the adventures in the quest of the Holy Grail, adds Reiss, Malory wants to describe the brightest and most glorious days of Arthur’s knights.

3. Travel to glory and esteem

The days described in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Tales abound in knightly quests, the aims of which are achievement of fame, esteem and worship by certain knights. The most notable in these peaceful pursuits of adventure are Arthur’s best known knights — Lancelot, Gareth, Tristan and Lamorak. They undertake such quests for two reasons: either to help those who come to King Arthur’s court in search of help, or to check and confirm their own knightly skills and efficiency. As soon as they leave Camelot, King Arthur’s knights enter what Malory calls the perilous forest. At the very beginning of the Third Tale Lancelot is fed up with leisurely days and feasting at Camelot and longs for new challenges: Thus sir Launcelot rested hym longe with play and game; and than he thought hymslef to preve in straunge adventures, and bade his nevew, Sir Lyonell, for to make hym redy, ‘for we muste go seke adventures’. So they mounted on their horses, armed at all ryghtes, and rode into a depe foreste and so into a playne. So the wedir was hote aboute noone, and sir Launcelot had grete luste to slepe. Than sir Lyonell aspyed a grete appyll-tre that stoode by an hedge, and sayde, ‘Sir, yondir is a fayre shadow, there may we reste us and oure horsys.’ (Malory 1971: 149) In the forest knights get the opportunity to show prowess and increase their glory by overcoming various obstacles. Malory’s forest is an enchanted space, a limitless and uncultivated area of omnipresent hazards, a place inhabited by knights, ladies, animals, giants and dwarfs. The perilous forest is also a dwelling- place of fairies, tall and slim, more beautiful and more powerful than the mortals, whom they invariably want as lovers. By the use of magic, they can seduce knights and take them to their Otherworld lodgings, famous as the places of rich feasts, love-making and healing (Whitaker 1984: 57). Knightly travel in the perilous forest is cyclical in nature. Each travel begins in Camelot, upon a knight’s leaving it, and ends only when he returns to King Arthur’s court. This major cycle comprises numerous smaller ones. Each day of knightly travel is cyclical: in the morning the knight rides to the

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forest in which he faces many challenges, and before the nightfall he arrives at a castle, a manor or a hermit’s abode, where he finds food and lodging. Although such places are invariably hospitable and reaching them suggests finalization of a certain phase of the quest, a successfully completed knightly travel is only the one which brings the knight back to Camelot whence he initially set forth (Whitaker, 109–110). An integral part of knightly travel to glory and reputation is taking part in tournaments, whose most notable participants are Lancelot, Tristan, Lamorak and Palomides. Lancelot wins the first prize in all three great tournaments in the Fifth Tale — the tournament at the Castell of Maydyns, the tournament at Surluse and the tournament at Lonazep.

4. Travel to attainment of God’s grace

The last joint travel of King Arthur’s knights is the quest for the Holy Grail. Its beginning is marked by the arrival of Lancelot’s son Galahad to King Arthur’s court, and by the appearance of the Holy Grail in the feasting hall of Camelot. Than entird into the halle the Holy Grayle coverde with whyght samyte, but there was none that myght se hit nother whom that bare hit. And there was all the halle fulfylled with good odoures, and every knyght had such metis and drynkes as he beste loved in thys worlde. And whan the Holy Grayle had bene borne thorow the hall, than the holy vessell departed suddeynly, that they wyst nat where hit becam. Than had they all breth to speke, and than the kyng yelded thankynges to God of Hys good grace that He had sente them. (Malory 1971: 521–522) After this marvellous event, King Arthur’s knights are willing to go on the quest for the Holy Grail. However, they are warned against taking along ladies, and made aware that whoever is sinful among them cannot hope to find the Grail. King Arthur is sick at heart because almost every one within his Order of the Round Table gets ready to go and he is aware that many will perish. The quest for the Holy Grail is not like any of the previous knightly pursuits of adventure, the outcomes of which are earthly glory and reputation. The aims of the quest for the Holy Grail are, in M. Whitaker’s words, “the acquisition of divine grace and the enjoyment of the beatific vision” (Whitaker, 79). Whitaker goes on to say that “the chief enemy of the Grail knight is not a giant, fay, or evil knight but the sins of lust, pride, avarice, self-indulgence, anger, and instability — the enemy within” (Whitaker, 80). This is why some scholars read this quest as a psychologi- cal journey to self-knowledge (Reiss 1966: 125). Although the quest for the Holy Grail outwardly resembles knightly travel, the rules of earthly chivalry do not apply to it. The landscape of the Grail quest is different from the regions King Arthur’s knights travelled through in previous quests. Instead of magnificent castles, hospitable hosts and ladies ready to help knights errant, on this journey they pass by high mountains, dark valleys, deserted

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islands, rocky shores and meandering rivers. This horrifying scenery filled with a sense of loss and abandonment is a reflection of the knights’ spiritual condition (Whitaker, 82). Finding the right way in this quest is a matter of much effort. The forest King Arthur’s knights enter at the outset of the Grail quest is not the one they used to roam through. This forest is an allegory of men’s sinful and waver- ing ways; angels and demons, God and Satan frequent it in order to either show the Christian knight the right way or to lead him to perdition. Only the chosen few are shown the proper signposts, and it is much harder for King Arthur’s knights to find lodging at the end of the day. If they are lucky enough to come across a man- sion or some such place, more often than not it turns out to be a devil’s dwelling (Whitaker, 83). In abbeys or hermits’ abodes, the knights meet monks who teach them to be virtuous and to read unusual symbols. On one such occasion Sir Gawain learns from a good man why he is considered a wicked knight: Whan ye were made first knyght ye sholde have takyn you to knyghtly dedys and vertuous lyvyng. And ye have done the contrary, for ye have lyved myschevously many wyntris. And sir Galahad ys a mayde, and synned never, and that ys the cause he shall enchyve where he goth that ye nor none suche shall never attayne, nother none in youre felyship, for ye have used the moste untrewyst lyff that ever I herd knyght lyve. (Malory 1971: 535) Arthur’s knights’ quest for the Holy Grail ended in failure. Many of them were killed or wounded, and only a few succeeded in leaving it at the very beginning without consequences. Such an outcome is due to the fact that earthly laws do not apply to the quest for the Holy Grail, and that the victory cannot be won by ordinary skills and prowess. For this victory, a knight ought to possess virtues of a higher order, the principal among them being chastity. The most famous Arthurian knight, Lancelot, was only partially successful in the Grail quest. His long-lasting, adulterous affair with Queen Guinevere, made it impossible for him to find the Grail, and nowhere is his awareness of his trans- gression more explicit than in the following words: My synne and my wyckednes hath brought me unto grete dishonoure! For whan I sought worldly adventures for worldley desyres I ever encheved them and had the bettir in every place, and never was I discomfite in no quarell, were hit ryght were hit wronge. And now I take uppon me the adventures to seke of holy thynges, now I se and undirstonde that myne olde synne hyndryth me and shamyth me, that I had no power to stirre nother speke whan the holy bloode appered before me. (Malory 1971: 538) Bors, Perceval and Galahad, only three out of one hundred and fifty knights of the Round Table, successfully completed the Grail quest. Galahad is a chaste and pure knight, a marvellous person whose coming was prophesied. Together with Bors and Perceval, Galahad attains the Grail in the castle of Corbenic whence, by will of God, he takes it to the holy city of Sarras. In Sarras Galahad is made king, but he rules it for only a year. Pure and perfect as he is, he prays to God to leave this world and join him in heaven, and his prayer is soon granted.

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Perceval lives on as a hermit for another couple of years, while only Bors returns to Camelot to tell the king and the remaining Round Table knights how the Grail quest ended. The tragic outcome of the Grail quest was a painful admonition to King Arthur that, being sunk in sin, envy and mutual conflicts, his kingdom and his Order were not worthy of God’s grace.

5. End of travel

In the last two Tales, knightly travel almost ceases to exist. When it does occur, it either reflects the degradation of the knightly moral code and principles or, like the travel of the Maid of Astolat’s dead body in a boat, predicts tragic fu- ture events. Those knights who have survived the quest for the Holy Grail ignore the messages they received, while Lancelot’s renewed affair with Queen Guinevere becomes more passionate and unleashes gossip in court. As Muriel Whitaker ob- serves, Camelot ceases to be the centre of knightly life and pleasures. It is no longer the place where unknown ladies come to ask for help, where dwarves ap- pear as heralds, or where defeated adversaries of the Round Table knights come to ask King Arthur and Queen Guinevere for mercy. Arthur’s court becomes instead a dangerous place of intrigues, plots and unbridled hatred, inevitably leading to his kingdom’s final destruction (Whitaker, 99–100). Lancelot’s affair with the Queen is revealed in one such plot, which results in Arthur’s waging his last three wars. The first two wars are fought in France, against his best knight, and the third takes place back in England, where Arthur fights against his bastard son Mordred, who has usurped the throne in his absence. These last wars do not have anything in common with Arthur’s Roman campaign described in the Second Tale. Instead of knightly prowess, virtue and victory, we are presented with images of the battlefield covered with disemboweled bodies, torn piece by piece, and with birds of prey. Within this apocalyptic scenery, father and son, Arthur and Mordred, fatally wound each other. The king and most of his knights lie dead on the battlefield near Salisbury. This is the end not just of their last earthly travel, but also of their civilization.

6. Final remarks

The motif of travel is therefore omnipresent in Malory’s Le Morte Darthur: from travel to victory and enlarging the empire, to travel to glory and reputation, to travel to the attainment of God’s grace with a warning outcome, to travel with disregard of knightly code of behaviour, and final travel to destruction and death. Each travel in Malory’s work reflects the circumstances in his kingdom: while it was strong

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and powerful, Arthur’s knights performed noble exploits in their quests, but with its weakening knightly travel actions decreased in number and quality. The decline of knightly ideals, and knightly travel turned into slaughter, bring Malory’s work to its logical, tragic end. However, it should be noted that Malory’s work does not end with the already mentioned image of the blood-soaked battlefield. From the closing paragraphs of Le Morte Darthur, we learn that fairy queens lay the mortally wounded King Arthur in a barge, and that he travels to Avalon whence he might return healed one day to be king again. Queen Guinevere and Lancelot enter monastic orders, thus choosing the road of seclusion and repentance, while a few of Lancelot’s surviving cousins and fellow-knights travel to the Holy Land to fight against the infidels and give their lives for Christ’s faith. In spite of all-embracing tragedy, these last scenes may be said to hold out hope because travel, though changed in form, does not end, and because they all choose the road of salvation.

References

Malory, T. 1971. Works. Vinaver, E. (ed.). London: Oxford University Press. Malory, T. 1986. Le Morte Darthur. In two volumes. Cowen, J. (ed.). London: Penguin Books. Reiss, E. 1966. Sir Thomas Malory. New York: Twayne Publishing. Whitaker, M. 1984. Arthur’s Kingdom of Adventure: The World of Malory’s Morte Darthur. Cam- bridge, Totowa, NJ: D.S. Brewer and Barnes & Noble.

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