Chivalry In Mallory's Arthur, Percival, And The Green Knight
995 Words4 Pages
The notion of western thought has been so dependent on the manuscripts commonly referred to as epic poems. These epics are the story that entire civilizations use a moral code. Eventually these individual fables come together to create the entity known as western thought. When looking at the subsets of these beliefs, chivalry seems to be one of the most common. Where did this idea originate? How did it evolve from epic to epic? The way we think about chivalry today is best seen in the three epic poems; Mallory’s Arthur, Percival, and The Green Knight. Mallory’s Arthur is the epitome of chivalry. Almost like reading the bible, it is obvious what the code of chivalry is by reading this text. In book two, the monster, “rapes women in a violent…show more content… One of main attributes of chivalry is loyalty. Percival is the knight who never left the side of King Arthur even in the darkest of times. Paul Djupe mentions in Religious Brand Loyalty and Political Loyalties, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, “Religion and politics are so morally parallel that one may have trouble telling one from the other.” In the dark ages and medieval times, politics and religion were essentially the same thing. Since Percival committed his loyalty to Arthur he was politically aligned to the king. This also aligned him closer to god, according to his speech regarding why he supports Arthur, “Ever since Excalibur has chosen the new king, I shall swear my loyalty to him, and onto the people of his kingdom.” He has no hesitations, and no wavering loyalty at any level of this chose to support…show more content… When he arrives a year after his almost beheading and “calls out to the knight who committed to the deal” he has no fear to who it may be. The St. Louis Post, did an article on what beheading mean in the context of the public. Not surprisingly, people get afraid of beheadings. This means that the Green Knight was able to overcome this fear—which is very courage. This upholds the code of chivalry to the strictest interpretation of the formalities. In the modern time this is still one of the most sought out qualities for a leader. A nation wants someone who is strong, and courageous to lead the country through the rough times. The Green Knight would be this