Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Arthurian Ethics before the Pentecostal Oath: In Search of Ethical Origins in Culhwch and Olwen
- 2 Too Quickly or Not Quickly Enough, Too Rash and Too Harshly: The Arthurian Court’s Lack of Ethics in Hartmann von Aue’s Erec and Iwein and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival
- 3 The Ethics of Arthurian Marriage: Husband vs Wife in Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein
- 4 Arthurian Ethics and Ethical Reading in the Perlesvaus
- 5 Translation Praxis and the Ethical Value of Chivalry in the Caligula Brut
- 6 Imperial Ambitions and the Ethics of Power: Gender, Race, and the Riddarasögur
- 7 Lowland Ethics in the Arthur of the Dutch
- 8 Contesting Royal Power: The Ethics of Good Lordship, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the March of Wales
- 9 “As egir as any lyoun”: The Ethics of Knight-Horse Relationships in Lybeaus Desconus
- 10 Malory’s Ethical Dinadan: Moderate Masculinity in a Crisis of Hypermasculine Chivalry
- 11 Virtus, Vertues, and Gender: Cultivating a Chivalric Habitus in Thomas Malory’s Tale of Sir Gareth
- 12 Kingly Disguise and (Im)Perception in Three Fifteenth- Century English Romances
- 13 “Adventure? What is That?” Arthurian Ethics in/and the Games We Play
- 14 The Ethics of a New Edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur – and More Evidence for the Superiority of the Winchester Manuscript
- 15 The Ethics of Writing Guinevere in Modern Historical Fiction
- Afterword
- Index
10 - Malory’s Ethical Dinadan: Moderate Masculinity in a Crisis of Hypermasculine Chivalry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Arthurian Ethics before the Pentecostal Oath: In Search of Ethical Origins in Culhwch and Olwen
- 2 Too Quickly or Not Quickly Enough, Too Rash and Too Harshly: The Arthurian Court’s Lack of Ethics in Hartmann von Aue’s Erec and Iwein and Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival
- 3 The Ethics of Arthurian Marriage: Husband vs Wife in Hartmann von Aue’s Iwein
- 4 Arthurian Ethics and Ethical Reading in the Perlesvaus
- 5 Translation Praxis and the Ethical Value of Chivalry in the Caligula Brut
- 6 Imperial Ambitions and the Ethics of Power: Gender, Race, and the Riddarasögur
- 7 Lowland Ethics in the Arthur of the Dutch
- 8 Contesting Royal Power: The Ethics of Good Lordship, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the March of Wales
- 9 “As egir as any lyoun”: The Ethics of Knight-Horse Relationships in Lybeaus Desconus
- 10 Malory’s Ethical Dinadan: Moderate Masculinity in a Crisis of Hypermasculine Chivalry
- 11 Virtus, Vertues, and Gender: Cultivating a Chivalric Habitus in Thomas Malory’s Tale of Sir Gareth
- 12 Kingly Disguise and (Im)Perception in Three Fifteenth- Century English Romances
- 13 “Adventure? What is That?” Arthurian Ethics in/and the Games We Play
- 14 The Ethics of a New Edition of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur – and More Evidence for the Superiority of the Winchester Manuscript
- 15 The Ethics of Writing Guinevere in Modern Historical Fiction
- Afterword
- Index
Summary
Introduction: From Chivalric Ethos to Heteronormative Ethic
Thomas Malory portrays knighthood in the Morte Darthur (hereafter, Morte) as an institution at odds with itself. With few exceptions, the major knights of the Morte have character flaws and ethical failings that extend directly from their pursuit of hypermasculine displays of chivalric excess. Neither Sir Tristram nor Sir Lancelot can reconcile their adulterous love affairs with their duty to their lord; Sir Gawain cannot retract his blood feud with Lancelot even though it will tear his inheritance to pieces. Knights fail in the Grail Quest because of their involvement with women; and after the Grail Quest, Arthur's court revives the lethal kinship feuds and bellicose politics that existed before the Quest started. The reason for this turmoil in the community of knighthood stems from the original compact between Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the Pentecostal Oath.
Early in the Morte, Arthur makes all the knights of the Round Table swear that they will never:
Do outerage nothir mourthir, and allwayes to fle treson, and to gyff mercy unto hym that askith mercy, uppon payne of forfiture of their worship and lordship of kynge Arthure for evirmore; and allwayes to do ladyes, damesels, and jantilwomen and wydowes socour: strengthe hem in hir ryghtes, and never to enforce them, upon payne of dethe. Also, that no man take no batayles in a wrongfull quarell for no love ne no worldis goodis. So unto thys were all knyghtis sworne of the Table Rounde, both olde and younge, and every yere so were they sworne at the hyghe feste of Pentecoste.
(Neither to commit outrage or murder, always to flee treason, and to give mercy to those who asked for mercy, upon pain of death. Also, that no man takes up a battle in a wrongful quarrel for either love or worldly goods. Unto this were all knights of the Round Table sworn, both old and young, and every year they were so sworn at the high feast of Pentecost.)
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ethics in the Arthurian Legend , pp. 219 - 244Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023