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The Dent of Myne Honde”: the Practice and Presentation of War in King Horn

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The Dent of Myne Honde”: the Practice and Presentation of War in King Horn “THE DENT OF MYNE HONDE”: THE PRACTICE AND PRESENTATION OF WAR IN KING HORN A thesis submitted to the Kent State University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for University Honors by Charles E. Edmisten, III May, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………ii INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER I. KING, KINGDOM, AND CAUSE: JUST WAR IN KING HORN…………………………………………………………………..17 II. IN DEFENSE OF LAND, LADY, AND LORD: CHIVALRY IN KING HORN……………………………………………………………….….43 III. SARACENS, CRUSADES, AND GENOCIDE: HOLY WAR IN KING HORN…………………………………………………………………..69 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………...93 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………...97 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Andrew Pfrenger, my thesis advisor, for agreeing to take on this project and for his rigorous approach to editing and revising the thesis; my oral defense committee, Dr. Susanna Fein, Dr. Esther Wamsley, and Dr. Sarah Newman, for taking the time to read and comment on the thesis; and my parents, for their consistent support of the project throughout. ii Introduction When I first read the Middle English romance King Horn (KH hereafter), a tale of a prince who must fight to reclaim his kingdom from Saracens (Muslims), I was struck by the stark brutality of the battle scenes featured in the romance. The protagonist, Horn, battles Saracen soldiers on three occasions, and each clash is described in blunt and harsh terms. The Saracens are portrayed as completely evil, and Horn fights them with a ferocity and cruelty that is noteworthy. The objective of each conflict is for every Saracen soldier to lie slaughtered on the field of battle – no one is supposed to escape. Encountering these portions of the narrative reminded me of Christian accounts of battles during the crusades, particularly the First Crusade. I investigated whether there was a relationship between these two phenomena – whether or not there was a connection between crusading ideas about Muslims and the Saracens in KH. I subsequently broadened my study to encompass other aspects of the warfare in KH, resulting in this thesis, which is a comprehensive study of the warfare in KH, particularly as it is influenced by the cultural and religious atmosphere within which it was composed. By the conclusion of this thesis, the reader should have a much clearer understanding of the warfare in KH and why it is presented as it is. The thesis’ three chapters each explore an aspect of medieval thought on war that is sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly present in KH: the venerable tradition of just war, which extended back to St. Augustine, sought to discover by whom a war could be authorized, when it 1 2 could be justified, and how it should be conducted; second, the influence of chivalry, the knightly code that stressed individual prowess, feats of arms, and violent exploits as the measure of a knight’s greatness; and holy war, a phenomenon that emerged in full force with the crusades, a series of Christian incursions into Muslim territories that had a sizeable impact on many Christians’ thinking on war and the Muslim enemy. Each of these aspects of warfare in KH is tied together, because they represent stages of Christian reflection on war in the Middle Ages. Christian thinkers had to wrestle with the question of when war could be justified; they had to come to grips with the culturally dominant force of chivalry; and they had to explain the new phenomenon of holy war that was taking Western Europe by storm at the close of the eleventh century. Eventually, a synthesis was arrived at, a synthesis that emerges in KH. This thesis will attempt to elucidate the various components that make up this synthesis as it appears in KH. In the first part of this introduction I will set forth some basic information about KH: its probable date of composition, its provenance, and how it was composed. The issue of dating KH (and the related topic of its composition) will be treated first because the dating of KH is intertwined with a major focus of this thesis: the influence of the crusades on KH. One of the conclusions I draw is that understanding how the crusades have affected KH strengthens dating KH to around the 1270s, as argued by Rosamund Allen. Thus, the dating of KH has a bearing on the conclusions that can be drawn about the impact of crusading on KH. Before examining the text’s history, a brief plot summary of the tale should be given. KH is the story of a young prince, Horn, whose father (Murry), king of Suddene, is 3 slaughtered by Saracens invading from the sea. They subsequently take over Suddene, butcher many of the inhabitants, and force them to convert to Islam. Horn and his twelve friends are set adrift at sea to die by the invaders. The boat, however, docks in Westernesse, ruled by King Aylmar. Aylmar takes in Horn and his companions and raises them in his court. When Horn comes of age, Aylmar’s daughter Rymenhild falls passionately in love with him. She demands a meeting with him in her bower and declares her love to him. Horn declines to marry her because he is supposedly of low social station. If she helps him to get knighted, though, he will fulfill her request and take her as his wife. She does, and once knighted, Horn defends Westernesse against a band of Saracen pirates. Meanwhile, however, Horn’s treacherous friend Fikenhild falsely accuses Horn of seducing Rymenhild to Aylmar. When Aylmar returns to find Horn in her bower, he assumes the worst and expels Horn from the kingdom. Horn tells Rymenhild to wait for him seven years, and if he does not return, to marry another man. He then travels to Ireland and stays in King Thurston’s court. While there, he helps the Irish deter a Saracen invasion, killing the giant who murdered his father. Word later (seven years’ time) reaches Horn that Rymenhild is about to be forcibly married to another king. Horn rushes back to Westernesse and slays his rival. But he refrains from marrying Rymenhild until he has conquered his home country. He sails with the Irish to retake Suddene, which he does, purging Suddene of all the Saracens living there. In his absence, however, Fikenhild again plots against Horn and tries to marry Rymenhild. Horn realizes this through a dream, and returns to kill Fikenhild and finally take Rymenhild as his queen. 4 The features of the plot involving Horn’s violent clashes with Saracens will be the focus of this thesis. As can be seen, clashes with Saracens occupy a considerable portion of the narrative,1 and the significance of these episodes against the broader medieval understanding of war and the place of war in Christianity will be explored in detail throughout the thesis chapters. The actual history of KH’s text as it was composed and preserved in its medieval English context will now be examined. *** The editors of the TEAMS edition of KH describe it as “probably the oldest surviving English romance,”2 and scholarship has customarily ascribed a date of c. 1225 to the tale.3 The standard reasons for this date, Rosamund Allen explains, are “the apparently early stage of development of phonology, syntax, and metrical form in the poem” and the “tacit acceptance of the date previously assigned to MS C, namely 1250/60.”4 However, the date for manuscript (MS) C (one of the three MS witnesses for KH) has now been revised to much later, and is now dated around 1300, which makes it even younger than 1 See Mary Hynes-Berry, “Cohesion in King Horn and Sir Orfeo,” Speculum 50.4 (1975): 656-58. 2 Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake, and Eve Salisbury, eds., Four Romances of England: King Horn, Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, Athelston, TEAMS Middle English Text Series (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1999), 11. All citations from the text of KH used in this thesis, with the accompanying line numbers in parentheses following the quote, are from this edition (unless otherwise specified). 3 William A. Quinn and Audley S. Hall, Jongleur: A Modified Theory of Oral Improvisation and Its Effects on the Performance and Transmission of Middle English Romance (Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1982), 25. 4 Rosamund Allen, “The Date and Provenance of King Horn: Some Interim Reassessments,” in Medieval English Studies Presented to George Kane, ed. Edward D. Kennedy, Ronald Waldron, and Joseph Wittig (Wolfeboro: D.S. Brewer, 1988), 103. 5 another KH witness, MS L, which dates to c. 1290.5 This raises some questions as to whether it is still plausible to date KH to 1225. In her essay “The Date and Provenance of King Horn: Some Interim Reassessments,” Allen argues for a later date for KH. She notes that English was not the language used for romances before 1250, Anglo-Norman being the preferred tongue.6 Dating KH to 1225, then, places it curiously before the flowering of Middle English romances like Havelok the Dane, Bevis of Hampton, and Floris and Blauncheflour, during the late 13th century.7 Allen also notes that characteristics like the supposedly archaic style (an argument for an early date) may simply reflect the text being adapted for musical accompaniment. The vocabulary and syntax similarly fail to give clear evidence for an early date.8 The argument for a later date becomes stronger in light of the fact that the traditional arguments for an early date – the dating of MS C and the style, grammar, and vocabulary of the text – are lacking based on newer research. A more natural date would be around the late 13th century, which coincides with the emergence of other major Middle English romances.
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