British Literature - Week 5 - "Girl power" in Lanval (more Arthurian literature)

In my last post I offered a succinct introduction to Arthurian literature. Over the next few weeks I'll zero in on a few texts exhibiting "girl power!" Arthur may (or may not) have been king, but the women in Arthurian literature exert agency and power in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Let's begin with the story of Lanval.

Marie de France, the author, is (rather obvious) a woman from France! Her status as a French female underpins the story-line of Lanval. A romance, fairytale, or lai (short stories in verse, usually about people in love), the main character, Lanval, belongs to King Arthur's court, but though he gave up all he had to serve the king, King Arthur "forgot Lanval. Lanval got nothing from the King's hand." (de France). The other men envied Lanval "for being brave and generous, for his beauty and his prowess," so though he was part of the court, he felt excluded and outcast (de France).

On a journey "just for fun," he met two lovely ladies who told him their lady sent them to bring Lanval to her. He did not hesitate! Lanval was brought to a pavilion, and taken to a woman on "so rich a bed, You'd pay a castle for the sheet" (de France). You get the picture! The woman has traveled a distance to come to Lanval and "gives him her love, and what's more, her body... afterwards she gives a present: anything he may ever want he'll get, as far as his needs extend" (de France). A true fairytale--he need only ask and he can receive whatever he wants, from a beautiful woman who pursued him. She has only one requirement - he must not reveal their meeting or their love to anyone.

Lanval uses his new wealth to ransom prisoners, give to those in need, and hold feasts. When Lanval returns to King Arthur's court, Queen Guinevere tries to seduce him! Lanval is a popular guy! The queen promises her love, and Lanval rejects her, telling her he cannot betray his king. The queen then accuses him of being gay, and his responds by revealing his love for the other woman. Lanval praises the beauty and goodness of his "fairy queen." and Guinevere is beside herself, as "pain and anger drove her wild--she'd been insulted and reviled" (de France).

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Queen Guinevere proceeds to accuse Lanval of trying to seduce her, to her husband, King Arthur, reminiscent of the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife in the book of Genesis. When Lanval comes before the King to hear the accusation, he admits the existence of the fairy queen, knowing that their love will now end. Lanval grieves, believing he will never see his fairy queen again. Instead of Lanval saving the "princess," he is saved by her. The traditional fairy tale of a knight in shining armor saving a distraught princess is flipped on its proverbial head! She arrives amid much pomp and description of her beautiful body and declares, "O King, I have loved your vassal, this one here! I mean Lanval... the queen was in the wrong... may your barons set him free!" (de France).  Lanval and the maiden (his fairy queen) ride off on a horse to Avalon, the fair island, a happy ending.

What a great story! My students, especially my female students, really enjoyed this flipped fairy tale. The theme of women's empowerment wove its way through this British Literature course. Our next foray into women's empowerment in Arthurian literature will be Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Stay tuned!

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Work Cited

France, Marie de. "Lanval." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. General Editor Stephen Greenblatt. Trans. Robert Hanning and Joan Ferrante. Vol. 9. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2012. 154-167. book.

British Literature - Week 4 - Arthurian Literature

Whew! We made it through Beowulf! Now let's tackle Arthurian literature.

What comes to mind when you think of Arthurian literature? Probably King Arthur, Lancelot, and Queen Guinevere are first on the list, possibly followed by Camelot, the knights of the Round Table, the Holy Grail, Merlin and Morgan le Fey, and maybe Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In our British Literature class we spent a few weeks on Arthurian literature, mainly because there is so much there, and it's a great way to learn about the time period, and how stories and myths evolve.

Arthurian literature is unique, I believe, because it has spanned so many centuries, and the "original story," if there is one, has been embellished, changed, added on to, or morphed so many times that what is "true" or "original" doesn't even seem to matter anymore. During the 6th - 12th century C.E. (same as A.D. but it stands for Common Era) originality was not of primary importance in writing. A writer, or a bard, or a poet, would take a story and re-create it for the current setting and culture. Not only did the story surrounding King Arthur go through many, many iterations, the story did not stay confined to England and the English language. Writers from the 6th century to the present time have continued the legend of King Arthur in English, Latin, Welsh, French, Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-Norman.

To keep track of the sources, time periods, and languages covering the myth surrounding King Arthur, I created a board. The first mention of "King Arthur" occurs in 540 C.E., and uses King Arthur as a point of reference - in  "Y Gododdin," Aneirin describes the king as "...glutting black ravens on the wall of the first,though he was not Arthur."  Hmmm. The next reference, written in Welsh by monks trying to figure out the dates of Easter, entitled "The Easter Annals," Arthur is mentioned by name: "The year 490: the battle of Badon in which Arthur bore the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on his shoulders for three days and nights and Britons were the victors." Ah, so King Arthur did exist; he led his men in battle; he led his men to victory."

A few centuries later, Nennius, writing "Historia Brittonum" in Latin, describes Arthur as a solder, but not a king: "Arthur fought against the Saxons with the Kings of the Britons, but he was commander in the battles."
Not until 1136 when Geoffrey of Monmouth writes his "History of the Kings of Britain" do we see the stories we associate with King Arthur today: Merlin's magic, King Arthur's conquest of the Roman Emperor, Arthur's mortal wound and transplant to Avalon. Centuries later, in about 1400 C.E., Sir Thomas Mallory wrote Morte Darthur, the death of King Arthur, and penned the famous lines

Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus. 

"Here lies Arthur, king once, king to be."

He was right - King Arthur lives on!  More next week...

British Literature - Week 3 - Beowulf and boasting

For Week 3 of our British Literature online excursion, we will look at boasting in Beowulf. Picture the setting -- a lord presides over a hall filled with knights indebted to their lord, willing to fight and die for him, thankful for the gifts he bestows. The lord, in this case King Hrothgar, cares for his men by feeding and housing them, and generously rewards their heroics.

"Muhammad Ali" by Rob Pratt is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0  

A large group of young men gather, and any time a large group of males assemble, chest-thumping will inevitably follow. This behavior did not originate in the sixth century in the land of Geats and Danes, and continues to rumble on in 2019.

Think of these examples:

"I’m not the greatest. I’m the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round. I’m the boldest, the prettiest, the most superior, most scientific, most skillfullest fighter in the ring today.”

 “So…we’ll start by boasting, will we? Just like old times! Very well, demigod.” 
                                                                                     ― Rick Riordan, The Lost Hero

 “As I leave my competition respirator style, climb the ladder to success escalator style.”
                                                                                    – Biggie Smalls


Although your parents may have told you not to boast, as mine did, there are a few occasions where boasting is appropriate:

• In a cover letter or a resume
• On a job interview
• On a date (?)
• In a sales job
• When presenting your art, proposal, project
• In court

Please comment below to add other suggestions for kosher boasting!

Beowulf's first boast:
Resolute in his helmet, Beowulf spoke:
“Greetings to Hrothgar. I am Hygelac’s kinsman, One of his hall-troop.
When I was younger, I had great triumphs.
Then news of Grendel, Hard to ignore, reached me at home:
Sailors brought stories of the plight you suffer 
In this legendary hall, how it lies deserted,
Empty and useless once the evening light
Hides itself under Heaven’s dome.
So every elder and experience councilman
Among my people supported my resolve
To come here to you, King Hrothgar,
Because all knew of my awesome strength.
They had seen me boltered in the blood of enemies
When I battled and bound five beasts,
Raided a troll-nest and in the night-sea
Slaughtered sea-brutes.
I have suffered extremes ...
my one request Is that you won’t refuse me, who have come this far,
The privilege of purifying Heorot,
With my own men to help me, and nobody else.
I have heard moreover that the monster scorns
In his reckless way to use weapons;
Therefore, to heighten Hygelac’s fame
And gladden his heart, I hereby renounce Sword and the shelter of the broad shield,
The heavy war-board: hand-to-hand
Is how it will be, a life-and-death Fight with the fiend. ...
If the battle takes me, send back
This breast-webbing that Weland fashioned
And Hrethel gave me, to Hygelac. Fate goes ever as fate must.” (Heaney)

Boasts in Beowulf include the following elements:

• Ancestry
• Kennings - see the 2-word expressions with metaphorical meanings (couch potato, rug rat) in blue
• Alliteration - notice the repeated use of the first letter in yellow
• Boast of past achievement and athletic prowess
• Boast of achievements to come
• Caesuras - a break in the middle of a line of verse in orange
• Epic diction and style - elevated word choice

My students were tasked with writing their own boasts - what a fun assignment for both the students and me. They had fun writing the boasts, and I greatly enjoyed reading them.

One of my students allowed me to show you her boast - enjoy!!

"I am, the Goddess of the suns sister,
 Daughter of a daring seamstress with the hands of God
and eyes that have seen sunsets in several skies
And of the wise jungle native, that has every answer to any question
Born under a roof where angels freely roamed,
Made me the honest, brave person I am today
because of their guidance and protection
As talent pulsed by through my parents blood
It was only fair for me to inherit a few gifts
A gift from God where a touch of strings
and vocals of an angel can reach the depths of the soul
But the grace of God did not begin with me
In order to understand my depths and who I am today
you must know of the others my mom birthed 
The Abel of my family with a hot head and Thor's fist
Pushed me into becoming the fierce warrior I am today
And the middle child, the ferocious queen of
"I am the oldest sister" that kept me humble,
Pushed me into learning my place and never getting on a high horse
We are a strong family of earth-steppers that enjoy
seeing sun rises in skies that are not from home
Our last name to match our earth loving souls--

Diana Campoverde
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Work Cited

Heaney, Seamus, translator. Beowulf.

http://introtoliterature.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/105858819/Sir%20Gawain%20and%20the%20Green%20Knight%20-%20Marie%20Borroff.pdf