The Paradoxes of Honour in Malory

Summary

The word “paradox” occurs in the very first line of Alan and Barbara Lupack’s magisterial survey of Arthurian literature in the United States (Lupack and Lupack). I concentrate on the extraordinarily paradoxical nature of Malory’s own Le Morte Darthur that derives largely from the paradoxical nature of honour. I list some ten of these paradoxes rather crudely summarised, though each could bear a good deal of expansion. Though the concepts of honour changed a good deal, many of these paradoxes have held good for “communities of honour” in many countries and periods. Most of Malory’s stories and ideas derive from the thirteenth-century French romances he summarised and adapted, whose concepts of honour are fully and admirably summarised in Yvonne Robreau’s L’Honneur et la honte. (See also Kaeuper’s Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe for an important survey.) You must never tell a lie. You must tell a lie.

• 1. You must always be fair.

• 2. You must stick up for your kin and friends whether they are right or wrong.

• 3. You can only be a good knight if you are in love with a lady. A lady is a hindrance to a knight.

• 4. You must always be loyal to your lord. You must always be loyal to your lady even if she is married to your lord.

• 5. Whenever you meet a strange knight you should fight him. You should always be friendly to other good knights.

• 6. You must always fight to win. You must not fight if your opponent seems unfairly disadvantaged.

• 7. Bastardy is a moral flaw. The purest of all knights is a bastard (i.e. Galahad).

• 8. Ladies should always be respected and protected. Many ladies are dangerous, especially if beautiful.

• 9. A knight should be a lion on the field, a lamb in the hall.

• 10. Great honour is great sin. Great sin can be great honour.

These are not the only apparent self-contradictions in Malory but they centre especially on honour. (For others see, for example, Kim’s The Knight without the Sword.)

Such contradictions, stated not argued, are sometimes held against Malory. Some readers would like them discussed within the text by the author. But Malory is not Henry James, though there are times when he is like Kafka. He describes adventures and puts very general propositions in the mouths of his characters. The contradictory propositions which I have quoted at the beginning reflect the moral dilemmas inherent in the adventures.