Loose Threads

Did anyone else notice any loose threads in this story? Let’s review:

Yvain goes to the spring to defeat the knight guarding it and avenge his cousin’s honor. Once he gets stuck in the lady’s castle, his love for the lady aside, his honor prevents him from escaping and returning home: “Since no one would ever believe in the success of his quest [unless he brought the corpse with him], he was ashamed to leave” (de Troyes 275). However, when King Arthur’s entire court arrives to the castle after Yvain marries his lady, no one??? Asks??? About his vengeance quest??? Does that not matter anymore?

The lady (hereafter referred to as Magic Spring Lady, because she has no name but she does have a magic spring) asks Yvain, “And would you dare undertake the defense of my spring for me?” (de Troyes 281). Yvain says he will, and we see him protect the spring from Unferth Kay, but when he goes away, who protects the spring? Yvain and Magic Spring Lady add exceptions to their agreement in case Yvain is imprisoned or becomes too ill to move, but they completely forget the spring. Isn’t the spring important? It seems important. It is ridiculously beautiful, almost indescribable, and guarded by a fierce fighter. Why wouldn’t Magic Spring Lady remember her magic spring? Who’s defending the spring now that Yvain has been away from Magic Spring Land for too long? I can’t imagine Magic Spring Lady doing it. She seems like she would much rather fight with words than with lance and shield. (Maybe she made Lunete do it . . .)

A vavasor and a beautiful maiden provide hospitality to both Calogrenant and Yvain while the knights are on their way to Magic Spring Land. We never hear from either of them again. Do they just . . . kind of . . . not actually matter? I would’ve thought the maiden at least would have mattered, just because beautiful women tend to matter in these kinds of stories. But . . . I guess not?

Maybe the next part of the story will tie up at least one of these loose ends. Maybe we’ll hear more about the sun and the moon.

Source (PSA: always credit the artist)

I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment.

Miranda A. Barrientos

Tony Beers (for Monday Feb 27? A bit confused as to where we are now)

The Knight with the Lion

So far this story, for me, is by far the most accessible in that both it's romantic and militaristic interludes are fewer, focusing primarily on Yavain’s travels and the subsequent “spell” he falls into after being captured by the “Lady’s” men in her castle. Just catching sight of her, he cannot be deterred, indulging all his service, attention, and will to her -- he is done for. The battles or duels are less frequent with less detail than the other stories. Chretien appears to favor more description of the inner thoughts and romantic workings of his primary characters, here, rather than flooding us with encounter after encounter -- whether duels or romantic gestures and conquests along the way -- preferring to draw us in to love’s poetic capacity and the fortitude with which matters of the heart can
strike us all so deeply.

Such strength Chretien’s love “malady” brings, that even an honored and respected powerful knight cannot escape its grip. Chretien’s “Erec and Enide” and “Knight of the Cart” do not hold the deep interior emoting the author brings to “Yavain” in this story. All these romantic fantasies, including Marie de Frances’s, have the common thread of the spell of love overwhelming their characters to the point of misbehavior and so often murder (Bisclavret’s wife and lover were certainly rendered insane by this “super drug”); but this one really got to me.

A common element in all three Chretien stories, “The Knight of the Cart”, “Erec and Enide” and “The Knight with the Lion”, that does persist, is, I suppose a necessary one to dramatize and highlight how honorable and worthy these knights were (some of them, not all); the evil “Dwarf” ingredient in Erec and Enide and again in Knight of the Court, appears in The Knight with the Lion as Kay, the seneshal, with his sharp tongue that stirs the eventual challenge accepted by Yavain, beginning his journey away from King Arthur’s court.

One question I have, though, is while the love emoted by Yavain and subsequently his Lady, appears plausible (for me anyway), her granting him leave to go with Gawain to Arthur's Court FOR A YEAR, just after marrying, doesn't seem a plausible move on her part – nor wood I expect Yavain to overstay the year contract , given the strength of his feelings. I did like, and could relate to, the insanity Yavain went through after his beloved rejected him completely when the year had passed without a word from him. That he goes mad and naked into the forest is both humorous and painful to read, depending on ones intimate relationship with a rejection and heartbreak.

Two seconds of Yvain: Okay What is Going On?

Let's clap it up for Queen G for jacking everything all up! She makes a grand appearance in yet another story! Of course, she puts on her big girl panties and forces Calogrenant to tell tale of a spring that makes sh*t get real! But hold on a sec let’s just analyze Queen G because I cannot let her slide.  Queen G in my eyes in the epitome of beloved. She literately has men doing whatever she wants them to do. She can be a b*tch and still all the men love her.

Because, Calogrenent ventured to this Trevi Fountain gone wrong. He was challenged by some random guy who popped up after this tremendous storm. Homie Calo did not come out on top after that battle though (we all probably expected him to win and the story was like sike you thought!). BUT, it’s not over because Yvain being super cool decide he was going to avenge Homie Calo’s terrible loss. So of course, Yvain follows the “truths” of this tale pours the water and the stor happens and the knight appears.

Once he appears, it is on and they start their fight. Yvain does not stop until he is dead and, we’re all like yay he did it but little did he know that the person he killed had a wife back at home and she was not happy. She was in the utmost distress.

When the widower found out he husband was dead she was like…

Another thing that I cannot let slide if the fact that this lady allowed for her HUSBAND’S MURDERER to woo her and become lovers. Like excuse me? No no no absolutely not. He literately tells her he is only physically attracted to her and she’s just all for it. I do like that he is understanding in the beginning, because she is so angry with him as she should be about the murder of her husband. I feel like she shouldn’t have let that go so easily but, I can see where she would have just gave in to it. Let’s take a little speculative look at this. She has someone who defeated and KILLED her once superman husband, whom of course she thought could not be defeated and indestructible. Also, he respects her grieving period and copes with her anger towards him.

All of the men on page 286 are infatuated with women.

Women’s beauty and place is portrayed heavily in this story. On page 286, we have speed dating gone wrong situation where men were just objectifying and preying on maidens. The men were amused by women, which is basically saying that women were entertainment.  I did not like reading this part at all I cringed reading about women that way.