Many authors have used material from the Arthurian legend of King Arthur for their own purposes. For example, Chrétien uses Lancelot in “The Chariot Knight” to show the conflicts that were caused by the inability of the courtly rules of love, chivalry, and Christianity to stand together. The author of The Death of King Arthur also uses the character of Lancelot as his servant. his own purposes, although his methods were very different from those of Chrétien. While Chrétien created Lancelot, a character with many French characteristics, the author of Moris uses these characteristics to incorporate the French hero into the Arthurian heroes. Through both Lancelot’s act in The Death of King Arthur and the book’s discussion of his death, Lancelot becomes the French hero of Arthurian torture.
The most obvious example of Lancelot as a French character is in his birthday. Lancelot is the son of King Banois – an imaginary place in Gaul (Appendix). In this way, Lancelot, although part of Arthur’s court in Britain and very much attached to Camelot, remains Frank through It is told in both the birth and the government, that he himself is also a Banoic king.
Lancelot is also very French in his characters. Throughout the story, Lancelot maintains his courage even when those around him treat him badly. For example, although King Arthur accuses Lancelot of treacherously attacking Guenevere and her party, when Lancelot has the opportunity to kill King Arthur, he refuses to do so, and even puts Arthur back on his horse (145). Furthermore, even after Gawain, eager for revenge against Lancelot, Arthur and his army leads Banoic to war against Lancelot, Lancelot refuses to kill Gawain when Gawain challenges him to a fight, saying “if I were victorious and had to cut off his head I would not kill him for all the world (171) Lancelot, eager to avoid the fight, goes so far as to offer to leave Banoic “in exile, barefooted and undressed, for ten years”, to appease Gawain’s desire for revenge and to avoid harming him battle (175). Militia is a very Gallic ideal, and by refusing to turn against King Arthur and Gawain, Lancelot kept two rules from the military code: to the king and to his friends. The author also seems to make Lancelot in the right way he did to Gawain. Gawain, dying on his bed, says that “the soul would be quieter after death” if he could ask for forgiveness, because it would have been so inhumane to him (193).
Another ideal that is very French in origin is courtly love. Lancelot remains faithful enough in his courtly business with Gwenever, even where more promises and available options are offered to him. Escalote’s daughter fell in love with Lancelot before the tournament at Winton. This woman was very beautiful and desirable, as Gawain himself fell in love with her and pursued her with mutual love. But when he offers his love to Lancelot, he refuses, saying that his heart is where he wants it (55). Although Lancelot believes that it has been a long time since he met a woman who deserved to be loved more than she, he could not love her because he followed the rule of the court that “a true lover does not desire to embrace in his love anyone who is more beloved.”
Since the author of Death or not the author of Math was trying to raise the French Lancelot above the Britons who were the traditional characters in the Arthurian canon, it is important to compare Lancelot’s death with Gawain, the traditional Briton. knight hero When Gawain is dying, King Arthur has a dream in which “Gawain came before him, more beautiful than he had seen him, and a crowd of poor people followed him.” These poor people speak to King Arthur, saying: “We received into the house of God because of the great kindness and charity in us because of the great mercy and charity; but the description of Lancelot’s death is very different from that of Gawain. After Lancelot dies, the archbishop who was staying has a dream that Lancelot was “in such a company of angels… [who] carried Lancelot’s soul to heaven” (234). It is interesting that the angels carried Lancelot to heaven while Gawain was walking with a crowd of poor people. The angels are symbolic of the almost divine treatment of Lancelot’s military skill and character throughout the book, as if he had been sent to earth to fulfill the purpose of God, who gives him these marks.
This divine treatment of Lancelot’s equestrian abilities and behavior toward others is also interesting when considering how the author elevates Lancelot above the British knights. Lancelot’s giving everything in conversation is characteristic of what he shares with Jesus. Lancelot not only sends Gawain and King Arthur to declare war on him, but also does not wish them any harm or any enmity against him. In addition, Lancelot is known as the best knight of the round table. Even Gawain defeats every soldier who attacks him. In fact, even though he fights Gawain at noon, when Gawain is at his strongest, Lancelot is able to defend himself and ward off Gawain’s blow, which ultimately causes his death. Jesus’ Lancelot-like behavior and almost supernatural abilities as a knight could be another reason for the author’s attempt to make this warrior the hero of the Arthurian army.
Since there were no reasons for the unknown author to make the French soldier the hero of the Arthurian battle, one reason could be that France was ruled by England during the 13th century. The Death of King Arthur is believed to have been written in the 13th century. At this time, “the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had previously been married to Louis VII of France, gave Henry II of England the largest part of western France to the British crown” (French History Timeline). The French government can be persuaded by England to express French displeasure with British rule because of what Britain has done with ‘s Arthur struggles to express his stories when he storms off the island. The author of the Arthurian legends was actually making Lancelot a hero, using British tradition to make it appear that the Gauls were superior to any of the British heroes. This would also happen if the French, because of the British rule, because of their military ideas, were trying to appear a better nation.
The Death of King Arthur is a trilogy of books that follows Lancelot from his birth to his death. The story is essentially the story of King Arthur with Lancelot, rather than the traditional British knights, as the central character. For, although the book has the title of the death of King Arthur, it does not end there; instead, it is terminated by the death of Lancelot. But the death of King Arthur, when he had brought about the death directly from the deeds of Mordred, indirectly refused to ask for Lancelot’s help in the battle against Mordred and his armies.
In the end, I believe that the author of The Death of King Arthur wrote this series as a means of accepting the bombardment of Arthurian Britain by telling the story of a French rather than a British hero. Lancelot is the main character of this book – he is the most forgiving, the most powerful and the most powerful knight. He cannot be defeated even by the best British knight, he remains faithful to the king, his friends, and the love of the court, and is ridden to heaven by angels. Nor had King Arthur so many gods departed from the earth.
References
Source: Death of King Arthur.
