Childish Drama?

I understand that these are fictional romances, and they are supposed to be dramatic for entertainment. I am done with this love at first sight stuff, though.

Can we call it what it really is? It's lust. Palamon and Arcite are locked up with each other; there are no other people--and definitely no women--to entertain them. So, of course, they're going to be immediately attracted to the first woman they can lay their eyes on! Naturally, it turns into an argument over who serves Emelye. But, why? Again, they're imprisoned. Emelye doesn't even know they exist, or it doesn't appear she does, so how can she be served? I'm left with so many questions here. What can they possibly do from a tower?

I suppose the author assumed this question was going to come up, so we meet a mutual friend of Theseus and Arcite. Suddenly, Arcite is allowed to go free as long he does not step foot on Athens grounds. Now, what made Theseus think he was actually going to follow this condition? Clearly, they're already enemies. I would expect him to return with an army, just as Palamon suggested! But the loss of his love (stalking. He was stalking Emelye from a tower window) causes Arcite to become gaunt and miserable. Until he can't take it anymore and risks his life to see this girl's face again.

It's a little much for thinking someone is pretty if you ask me.

A few years pass, during which Arcite becomes another person and continues to creep Emelye. How does she not suspect something? Commence the fight over love!

I have to give the two props. They stand by their knighthood and ensure that each is equally equipped for a duel. Such respect wouldn't occur if fights over women in 2017 included swords and shields; someone would sabotage something.

Why is the duel stopped, then suddenly just fine to continue--with a willing audience and judge--simply because it's a fight over love. But it's not love!

So far, I'm not a fan of this story. Petty fights and dramatic lust. Oh, and don't forget the argument that "she is my lady because I saw her first!" Aren't these supposed to be grown men? Why are they acting like children?

Impulse can make you look bad

Let's talk about Yvain, shall we?

So Calogrenant starts all this drama because he went on a little adventure and found a nifty spring that makes stuff happen. Or maybe, just maybe, it was Queen Guinevere and her demanding nature? Calogrenant only told his story because she forced him to! I feel like she's always causing trouble. No wonder men had 31 rules to live by when in a relationship with women. These medieval bitches be crazy!

Anyway. King Arthur finally wakes up from his nap, not in the least bit worried that his wife has been surrounded by and fawning all over these men. He decides that he's going to avenge Calogrenant. He'll be the hero (again) for avenging someone he loves (again) for something that (again) doesn't make much sense. Seriously, what exactly do these men think they're avenging? Maybe I read a different story, but I'm pretty sure Calogrenant "won" the little fight with the crazy storm knight? Right?

Regardless, enter Yvain! Yes, he's been there the whole time, but now we're going to learn all about his jealousy. Arthur is going to go avenge his friend? Nope, Yvain's going to beat him to it.

Wouldn't it be a bad thing to take the quest your king wants? He's going anyway. Screw waiting for everyone else and some particular date, he's going NOW. He hopes to encounter the same stuff C did - the same hospitality from the family, the weird creature called a Moor--or churl (?), and of course the nifty spring that creates a crazy storm. When the knight comes for him, he's not just going to let him disappear like C did. He chases him down and keeps fighting him until we reach some distant place where he can't get away.

Here we go with this trust thing. I get that it's all fantastic fiction and it's supposed to be entertaining, but seriously? Why do we trust every. single. person. we. meet? Y kills a guy, who I read to be somebody pretty important in this little kingdom we've ended up in, and someone decides it's no big deal. We'll just hide you until everything calms down. "Put on this ring."

I'm pretty sure Gollum/Smeagol is coming for you, strange lady. My geekish knowledge (thanks, Google, and subsequent forums) say his ring is from the 5th or 6th century. Yvain's wearing THE PRECIOUS! And while we're just hanging out, waiting for people to mourn and give up on searching for us? We're being creepy and falling in love with a woman who can't stop crying. Who does that?

Yvain, apparently. I guess the magic hoo-hah has powers even when grief is so obvious. Strange hobbit lady (as I've named the girl with the ring since she doesn't appear to have a name) is now intelligent enough to set the two up? Was this her plan all along? Or is she just rolling with what's happening around her?

Now, who on Earth would be okay with the lady of the land marrying the guy who basically JUST killed her husband? For real. I don't think I'd cheer and give presents if Jackie had decided to marry Lee Harvey Oswald. Just sayin'. But he's just so in love with her, she's the best thing that ever happened to him, and he can't live without her. So it's okay.

Yvain's not very consistent, though. He decides he wants to leave. Right now, with Arthur, and do his duties to his previous king. Um, excuse me? If you wanted to be dutiful, you should've done it by going on this great big quest with Arthur, not by yourself to prove Kay wrong? Oh, but look. He was right anyway.

If this story were to end here, at the halfway point, I would be pissed. We read all this, Yvain trying to be a hero and take the credit for himself...and it worked out in his favor. Until he just so happens to forget that he's supposed to GO BACK TO HIS WIFE. This would be the kind of horrible, horrible ending that would make me throw a book across a room. But it's not!

So where's this lion mentioned in the title? I wanna know what happens next!

Fighting over the Girls

There is so much going on in Erec and Enide's story, and we're only halfway done! I'm beginning to get whiplash.

Almost immediately (page 2) we're thrown into King Arthur's desire to hold a hunt for a white stag. Cool, dude, but apparently this is going to cause problems. You have hundreds of women in your court, and you're going to use this hunt as a competition to kiss the most beautiful of them. I guess if you're the king you can do that kind of thing. But when one of your buddies tells you it's not a good idea because fights will break out, you just say, "yeah but we're gonna do it anyway!" Let all the men fight each other over who has the most beautiful woman by his side. Great idea, your majesty.

Then we move into this strange scene with Erec, Guinevere, her maid, and the group that we're soon going to view as our enemies. It's a commonality it literature: the hero's enemy is ours, and this knight (Yder) pissed Erec off. We're off to get revenge! Yder and his dwarf are in our targets, and we hope that Erec can 1) find them, and 2) retrieve his stolen dignity. But we'll have to hit the pause button for a moment because we have to meet the most beautiful woman in the world.

Erec finds a place to stay, and good for him because it's an event that will change the rest of his life. We meet the man who hosts our hero, a father who is happy to share his home with this random (albeit handsome, as we're told) man who just rode up on his horse. Erec has no problem with handing over his horse and allowing himself to be vulnerable in this guy's house. This seems to be a theme in the medieval time period; people, specifically traveling knights, are incredibly trusting of others and their families. I keep wondering if that confidence is universal during this time period or if it's only because they have a position in Arthur's court.

On to this maiden we just met. She's put away our hero's horse and returned to her father and Erec. 

Then her father orders her to have sex with Erec.

That was my interpretation of "my dear daughter, take this lord by the hand and show him the highest honor" (7). Why is this a thing? Is this a custom that allows knights to trust strangers, engaging in 'the highest honor,' or does the ordinary person hand over anything and everything they can to impress the knights? It's all about the Magic Hoo-Hah*, I guess.

Back to Erec's quest for revenge. As we know he participates in the sparrowhawk fight. Side note: why do these men insist on fighting each other to prove who has the most beautiful woman in their possession? 

We finally meet Yder, who seems to be angry and maybe a bit arrogant before their challenge unfolds. But we also know that he's a knight, so on some level, I want to believe he's a good guy. Okay, decent, good might be stretching it. Good guys don't let dwarfs whip everyone just for the hell of it. Erec seems to be on the same wavelength because he's gonna win this fight over the sparrowhawk. But is he, though? I think at this point he's already fallen in love with the nameless (who woman we know to be Edine now). So yeah sure, I'll pretend to believe he's fighting for his revenge against the dwarf's whipping incident. The passion he puts into this battle says he has another reason for being out there. He wants to win that sparrowhawk for his lady.

Here's my biggest problem with the first half of "Erec and Edine": Yder went to the castle to surrender to Queen Guinevere. I get that he's a knight and he has to live by the rule and expectations, and by doing so, he proves himself to be honorable. But this is the question that is leaving me confused: why? What would have happened if he caught the Royals on a day when they weren't feeling so generous? He wouldn't have received Guinevere's acceptance of his presence and Arthur's decision to add him to the court. He could have easily just said

and taken his dwarf (who has proved himself to be wickedly defensive) and the lady he had to some other distant land. They could have started a new life and been the main characters of their own fictional romance story. Bonus: they would avoid the possibility of Guinevere's imprisonment.

*Thank you for the new term, Amy.

Courtly Love Then & Marriage Now

We know that there are thirty-one rules laid out under the so-called "art" of courtly love. I'm not a historian, and I definitely don't play one on TV (I'm an English major for a reason!), but I want to assume that the general population knew about this courtly love thing that was going on. These are rules set for men pursuing an affair with married women. So my major questions are: Did those knights have nothing better to do? Wasn't there crusading to get to? Couldn't they woo unmarried women? Were husbands aware when their wives were being pursued, and if so did they do or say anything? How often did these courtly relationships really result in a physical relationship? To me, the whole thing is just

Those are the thoughts that run through my head when I consider what courtly love truly was. I noticed something that intrigued me as I was reading through the rules. Something only a few in our group will understand through experience: the rules apply to modern marriage. Here the definition of modern marriage is the union of a happy couple with true love and little animosity between them. Stick with me for a moment; I'm not crazy.

I. Marriage is no real excuse for not loving. In short: there is adultery, and divorces* occur because one or both parties feel differently than when the marriage began. I don't have any personal experience with this one, but it's pretty evident for anyone who has paid attention over the last decade or two. *I realize this isn't always the case, but it is common enough to apply it to the rule.

IV. It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing. I'm going to be honest, y'all. There are days when my love for my husband is almost nonexistent. He can do or say things that I just cannot believe and the roller coaster car plunges down the hill. I'm going to spare you the Rom-Com details, but just know that there are days when that car climbs back up the hill and sits at the top for weeks afterward. Sometimes there are even loops, when both are felt within a short period of time! Do you want to know the secrets about this crazy roller coaster? It is never-ending and married couples know all about it.

VIII. No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons. Okay, so this may be stretching it a bit, but this is how my brain works. I see this directly relating to rule IV. When we go down that hill, losing a little bit of love with every foot descended, you can rest assured there is a good reason for it. I'm not going to push myself off the peak and enjoy the ride down just because I can.

X. Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice. Rarely in modern matrimony is the bond made in pursuit of wealth. The global economy doesn't allow for it, and we as a people of the twenty-first century are almost obsessed with love (the obsession could fill a book by itself).

XII. A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved. The operative word here is true. I mentioned adultery with rule I, and it applies to this rule as well. I think it's self-explanatory here that if you truly love someone, there shouldn't be any desire for another person. While the rule references the male in the relationship, it applies to either sex in our time.

XIII. When made public love rarely endures. Obviously we're not talking about marriage here, but that relationship has to start somewhere right? When my husband and I met, we worked together. Relationships were not forbidden, but there were certain rules. We broke one over the first few months of our relationship, but we didn't let anyone know we were dating at the time. Had we been found out, we might not be where we are today.

XV. Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.

XVI. When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved his heart palpitates. "Puppy love," as it's called by parents of young adults, causes what some call silly physical reactions. When true love persists and results in a marriage, these things still occur. Over time the moments are not as frequent as they were in the beginning, but they are regular enough to prove the love is still alive.

XXII. Jealously, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved. Jealously occurring when one is suspicious is natural and easily understood. The increase of love, however, when one is suspicious is difficult to put into words. The best way I can think of to explain is it is the fight or flight response. The additional love is the emotional equivalent to the fight response; no one wants to lose their spouse and love them more to prevent the loss from happening.

XXIII. He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little. Ah, that sudden onset of love. When a person can do little more than think of the person they have fallen for. It doesn't always stop just because he put a ring on it.

XXV. A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved. I may have just gotten lucky here, but I'm not sure because I have nothing else to compare it to. My husband is always thinking of me and surprising me with things he knows I will love or enjoy. I do the same for him. We rarely ever fault from this. 

XXX. A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved. Have you ever had a conversation with a married person, male or female? If you have think about it - I can almost guarantee you that at one point during that conversation they have mentioned their spouse. A married person does almost everything with their partner, and can find something in any scenery that is a reminder of them. Even in the busiest of moments in life, the mind rarely wanders from the true love.

The rules above were formed with affairs and adultery in mind. They were meant to protect men who were looking for love from the consequences of being caught. It's now eight-ish centuries later and we can still find connections to our medieval roots and ancestors in their words. It is fascinating how words can be written to mean one thing but be interpreted in a different way. So Guinevere can stay in her time period with her Arthur and Lancelot drama. I am going to stick with my time period's belief and keep just one man for both.