CONTRIBUTION OF KNIGHTS IN

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Contribution

The knights in the Middle Ages was

accorded the highest rank of society

and often a member of the king’s court

They role in stories or epics is not only

a warrior but a lover.

Mostly adventure, wars and romances.

Knights in Story/Epic/Poem

The knights were bound to

womanhood through the oaths they

have sworn.

The knight must be loyal and faithful.

Win his lady through the acts of

faithfulness, manliness, skill, patience

and loyalty.

Epics and Tales

Arthurian Romances

Arthurian legends

Le Morte d'Arthur.

ROUND TABLE

King Arthur and the Knights of

the Round Table - the concept of

Equality The significance of the Round Table was that

no one person, not even King Arthur, would be able to sit at the head of such a table. A round table enforced the concept of equality. The legend states that King Arthur ordered the Round Table to be built in order to resolve a conflict among his knights concerning who should have precedence. The Round Table was therefore built to ensure that all the Knights of the Round Table were deemed equal and each of the seats at the Round Table were highly favoured places.

King Arthur and the Names of

Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur

Sir Galahad - This knight was the illegitimate

son of Sir Lancelot

Sir Launcelot Deulake ( Sir Lancelot du Lac

who fell in love with Queen Guinevere )

Sir Gawain - This knight was famed for fighting

the Green Knight

Sir Percivale - This knight was famed for

fighting the Red Knight

King Arthur and the Knights of

the Round Table - the concept of

Equality Sir Lionel - This knight was brother of Sir Bors

and cousin to Sir Lancelot

Sir Tristram de Lyones - This knight was the

son of King Meliodas & Queen Isabelle of

Lyonesse - second greatest of the Knights of

the Round Table

Sir Gareth - Sir Kay was the mentor of this

young knight

Sir Bedivere - a giant of a Knight

King Arthur and the Knights of

the Round Table - the concept of

Equality Sir Bleoberis - This knight was This knight was

an arrogant Knight who later became a hermit

Sir Brunor le Noir - aka La Cote Male Taile

because he arrived in Camelot wearing an ill-

fitting coat which had belonged to his dead

father

Sir Lucan - This knight was a most loyal and

trusted of the Knights of the Round Table

Sir Palomides - who was a Saracen knight

King Arthur and the Knights of

the Round Table - the concept of

Equality Sir Lamorak - This knight was This knight was

the third greatest of the Knights of the Round

Table

Sir Bors de Ganis - This knight was brother of

Sir Lionel and cousin to Sir Lancelot

Sir Safir - This knight was a Christian Knight of

Saracen descent

Sir Pelleas - This knight was of low birth but

one of the bravest of the Knights of the Round

Table

Sir Kay - King Arthur's foster-brother

King Arthur and the Knights of

the Round Table - the concept of

Equality Sir Ector de Maris - This knight was the Ladies

man of the Knights of the Round Table

Sir Dagonet - The jester of King Arthur

Sir Tegyr - This knight was the cup-bearer of

King Arthur

Sir Lybyus Dysconyus -Sir Guinglain was Sir

Gawain's eldest son

Sir Alymere - This knight was totally loyal to

King Arthur

Sir Mordred - This knight was the treacherous

Sir Mordred the son of King Arthur

Arthurian Romances

EREC AND ENIDE

Summary

first quarter of Erec and Enide recounts the

tale of Erec son of Lac, and his marriage to

Enide, an impoverished noble girl of Lalut. An

unarmored Erec is keeping Guinevere

company while other knights participate in a

stag hunt near Cardigan when a strange

knight and his dwarf approach the queen and

treat her servant roughly.

At the Queen's orders, Erec follows the knight,

Yder, to a far off town where he meets and

falls in love with Enide. Erec defeats Yder,

returns to Arthur's court and marries his love.

Summary

Rumors spread that Erec has come to neglect

his knightly duties due to his overwhelming

love for Enide and desire to be with her.

Erec defeats a string of knights and captures a

string of horses, overcomes two counts who in

turn attempt to kill him and have Enide, and,

after defeating him in a joust, makes a friend of

Guivret the Small, an Irish lord with family

connections to Pembroke and Scotland.

Summary

Referred to as the "Joy of the Court," in which

Erec and Enide set free prisoners and meet

relations, before in time they are crowned King

and Queen of Nantes in a lavishly-described

ceremony.

CLIGES

Summary

Story about the knight Cliges and his loved for his

uncle’s wife.

The story starts with Alexander, the son of the

Greek emperor (also called Alexander), who

comes to King Arthur's realm and marries and has

a child with Arthur's niece. This child is Cligès,

who is raised in Greece but follows his father's

footsteps to Arthur's kingdom when he is old

enough to be knighted. Alexander had inherited

the throne of Greece when his father died but

passes away himself a few years later, leaving

Constantinople in the hands of his brother Alis,

who is to rule the kingdom until Cligès matures.

Summary

Cligès falls in love with his uncle Alis' wife,

Fenice, but Fenice must pretend she is dead

for them to consummate their love.

They hide in a tower but are found by

Bertrand, who tells Alis; Cligès goes to Arthur

to ask for help in getting his kingdom back

from his uncle, but Alis dies while he is away.

Cligès and Fenice are free to marry.

YVAIN, THE KNIGHT OF

THE LION

Summary

Yvain seeks to avenge his cousin Calogrenant

who had been defeated by an otherworldly

knight Esclados beside a magical storm-making

stone in the forest of Brocéliande.

Yvain defeats Esclados and falls in love with his

widow Laudine. With the aid of Laudine's

servant Lunete, Yvain wins his lady and marries

her, but Gawain convinces him to embark on

chivalric adventure. Laudine assents but

demands he return after one year, but he

becomes so enthralled in his knightly exploits

that he forgets his lady, and she bars him from

returning.

Summary

Yvain goes mad with grief, is cured by a

noblewoman, and decides to rediscover

himself and a way to win back Laudine. A lion

he rescues from a serpent proves to be a loyal

companion and a symbol of knightly virtue,

and helps him defeat both a mighty giant and

three fierce knights. After rescuing Lunete from

being burned at the stake, she helps Yvain win

back his wife, who allows him to return with his

lion.

LANCELOT, THE

KNIGHT OF THE CART

Summary

The action centers on Lancelot's rescue of the

queen after she has been abducted by

Meleagant, the son of Bademagu.

When Queen Guinevere is abducted by the

villain Meleagant, Lancelot races to rescue

her. He suffers many trials, fights countless

foes, and risks his reputation for the woman he

loves more than his own life.

PERCEVAL, THE STORY

OF THE GRAIL

Summary

Perceval, whose mother has raised him apart

from civilization in the forests of Wales. Since

his father's death, he continually encounters

knights and realizes he wants to be one.

Despite his mother's objections, the boy heads

to King Arthur's court, where a young girl

predicts greatness for him. He is taunted by Sir

Kay, but amazes everyone by killing a knight

who had been troubling King Arthur and taking

his vermilion armor. He then sets out for

adventure. He trains under the experienced

Gornemant then falls in love with and rescues

Gornemant's niece Blanchefleur. They agree to

Summary

Returning home to visit his mother he comes

across the Fisher King, who invites him to stay at

his castle. While there he witnesses a strange

procession in which young men and women carry

magnificent objects from one chamber to another.

First comes a young man carrying a bleeding

lance, then two boys carrying candelabra. Finally,

a beautiful young girl emerges bearing an

elaborately decorated graal, or "grail", passing

before him at each course of the meal. Perceval,

who had been warned against talking too much,

remains silent through all of this and wakes up the

next morning alone. He finds his mother is dead,

then Arthur asks him to return to court.

Summary

But before long, a loathly lady enters the court

and admonishes Perceval for failing to ask his

host whom the grail served and why the lance

bled, as the appropriate question would have

healed the wounded king.

Summary No more is heard of Perceval except a short later

passage in which a hermit explains that the grail

contains a single mass-wafer that miraculously

sustains the Fisher King’s wounded father. The

loathly lady announces other quests that the

Knights of the Round Table proceed to take up and

the remainder of the poem deals with Arthur's

nephew and best knight Gawain, who has been

challenged to a duel by a knight who claims Gawain

had slain his lord. Gawain offers a contrast and

complement to Perceval's naiveté as a courtly

knight having to function in un-courtly settings. An

important episode is Gawain's liberation of a castle

whose inhabitants include his long-lost mother and

grandmother as well as his sister Clarissant, whose