Instead of the start of an adventure, this text begins with a story told by a character. Lord Calogrenant tells the tale of his shame after facing the knight of the spring. What is the effect of beginning the tale this way, instead of jumping right into the action? Why might the author have decided to begin the tale in this fashion?
King Arthur & His World
ENGL 361 | Spring 2019 | Dr. Myra Seaman
Hi Gabi
I think that starting the story in this way sets it up like a traveling bard would begin his story. He is speaking in the first person, so there is some implied legitimacy to his tale whether it is true or false. Either way, people are sucked into the narrative and forced to form their own decisions about the story which comes entirely from his point of view.
Wow, I hate this blog format. I hit enter to paragraph break and it posted what I had written, so far. I guess that I have been committed to my random babblings about Yvain, now. There seems to be no turning back.
A part of me wants to believe that the narrator’s voice echoes a changing of the British people and how foreign cultures were influencing them at the time. Evidence of this may be witnessed in the “peasant who resembled a Moor”, the dragon versus the lion, and the seneschal Kay’s demeanor. The “peasant” shows that these people were in contact with far off lands. I have not quite figured out the symbolism of the battle between the dragon and lion yet, but I have my suspicions that it relates to ancient England and the far off lands that are to South. Kay’s hostile nature was perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the story to me. Especially because it was entirely different from what we read in The Knight of the Cart. In this story, Kay is a rebellious badass who has no problem with defying authority. However, in The Knight of the Cart, he is little more than a weak subservient pawn. Kay’s role in YVAIN remind’s me of the real-life person, William the Marshall, who could also be described as a seneschal and was of the most influential men in Britain during the time period that this narrative was written. William had the power to talk trash to kings and knights because he had the peoples’ support behind him. Kay’s character in this first part of the story makes we wonder if it might have been a bit of a propaghanda piece against William the Marshall or outspoken men like him. Yvain may have been some courtly commissioned piece of text written in the first person to dissuade the masses from believing they had an ability to rise to the top levels of society. Maybe this is why the story seems to be have written or told only a few years before the Magna Carta was signed.
I think Chrétien de Troyes chose to begin “The Knight of the Lion” with Calogrenant’s story in order to, firstly, showcase the concept of shame in this culture of King Arthur’s court. In the scene where Calogrenant begins to tell his story, Chrétien emphasizes his great reluctance, using words like “disgrace” (295), “shame” (301), and “difficult[y]” (296), and having Calogrenant emphasize how greatly “it pains” him (297) to even tell the story. Chrétien was likely using this narration to appeal to the emotions of his 12th century audience, helping them to connect with the court listening to Calogrenant’s story, and also with Calogrenant (not only through his trials with the knight and the spring but also as Kay begins to verbally abuse him). Chrétien also probably chose to begin this poem with a tale of a knight failing to live up to the types of heroic deeds we associate with the knights of Arthur’s court to allow Yvain to shine more. When Yvain decides “to set off alone” because he is eager to “be granted the battle” (303), the audience’s expectations of his ensuing adventure are heightened in a way they would not be had the action just begun from the first page. In this sense, I think it is an effective rhetorical move by Chrétien to begin with Calogrenant’s perspective (which Matt mentioned when he wrote it sucks the audience deeper into the narrative).
In one sense I agree with what Jules said about Chretien allowing Yvain to shine more in this story of the court through the disgrace of another knight. I also believe that this opening tale provides a frame story that contextualizes the narrative within the court. We have talked about the court being the center of all of the tales, but most of the action takes place outside of the court. This is still true, and we can almost see why, because the knights behave differently within the court. We can see Lord Calogrenant telling a realistic tale of himself. He says, “I do not wish to speak of a dream, or a fable, or a lie, which many others have served you; instead I shall tell you what I have seen myself” leading the reader to believe other adventures we hear could be only fables (297). However, Yvain’s story is contextualized later on when he finds the damsel imprisoned who went to King Arthur’s court, but they were all out chasing after Lancelot and the Queen (343). Overall, I think that the opening story purposes to make the tales sound more realistic in court, and build up the characterization of the knights.
By starting with Calogrenant’s tale, Chretien is, like Jules mentions, solidifying the concept of shame in not only the story, but in Arthurian legend itself. “The Knight of the Cart” (I think — I looked up dates to be sure) was written and/or published the same time as “The Knight with the Lion,” and in the former, as we read, Lancelot feels a bit of shame himself from time to time. By opening with Calogrenant’s tale, it’s apparent that shame rules over all the knight’s of the court, that they’re not all perfect heroes (as we see later when he returns too late to his lady on 329 and breaks the promise he made on 327). It might also just serve as a basic motivation for Yvain, who wants to avenge his cousin’s shame and prove his worth to Kay and the court (302-303).
I agree with Jules and Michael on certain points. Throughout the story we find instances in which the knights are challenged to reach greater heights than before. From the beginning we can see that Yvain was compelled to go to the spring and kill the knight due to the shame brought upon his own family. What’s interesting to me is the fact that Yvain undergoes his own test through shame and cowardice. As he is hiding in the court with the aid of the magical ring, he is challenged by the lady of the court. We read, “He is a coward to fear me: it is great cowardice that keeps him from daring to show himself before me. Ah! Phantom, cowardly creature!” (310). This is the test that Yvain must overcome this new shame to prove himself to lady despite the fact that he’s already avenged Calogrenant. Like Jules comment, I think that these instances and challenges act as springs to create even greater stories to tell.