Knights in Story/Epic/Poem

1. CONTRIBUTION OF KNIGHTS IN
ENGLISH LITERATURE

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. Epics and Tales
 Arthurian Romances
 Arthurian legends
 Le Morte d'Arthur.

5. ROUND TABLE

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Arthurian Romances

13. EREC AND ENIDE

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. CLIGES

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. YVAIN, THE KNIGHT OF
THE LION

21. 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

22. 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.

23. LANCELOT, THE
KNIGHT OF THE CART

24. 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.

25. PERCEVAL, THE STORY
OF THE GRAIL

26. 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

27. 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,

28. 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.

29. 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