Contribution of Knights in English Literature

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 R umors 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 returning.

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 marry.

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, then Arthur asks him to return to court.

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 grandmother as well as his sister Clarissant , whose existence was unknown to him.