BRITISH LITERATURE AND LEGENDS

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BRITISH LITERATURE AND LEGENDS

• Canterbury Tales and The Legends of King Arthur

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• Geoffrey Chaucers Canterbury Tales (???????)is
  an important literary work written at the end of
  the 14th century.
• It is one of the first books to be written in the
  common language of English (Middle English)

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• Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the Father of
  English literature, is considered the greatest
  English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first
  poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of
  Westminster Abbey .

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Canterbury Tales

• It is about a group of pilgrims (???) on their
  way to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine
  of Thomas Becket.
• They have a story telling contest, and the
  stories make up the Canterbury Tales.

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• Thomas Becket was killed openly at Canterbury
  Cathedral because he defied King Henry II.
• The Catholic Church quickly made him a saint
  martyr after his murder. (rare)

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Canterbury Cathedraland Thomas Becket
The shrine of Thomas Becket was destroyed during
the English Reformation, along with many other
Catholic shrines. Becket later became a saint of
the Anglican Church as well.
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• Before the Canterbury Tales, much of the
  literature was written in Norman French and
  Latin.
• The Canterbury Tales are written in Middle
  English, which developed from the more Germanic
  Old English. There were many changes in the
  language after the Normans Conquest.

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Middle English Modern English

• Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
• And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
• To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes
• And specially from every shires ende
• Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
• The hooly blisful martir for to seke
• That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

• Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
• And palmers long to seek the stranger strands
• Of far off saints, hallowed in sundry lands,
• And specially from every shires end
• Of England, down to Canterbury they wend
• The holy blissful martyr, quick
• To give his help to them when they were sick

Palmer pilgrim, shire county, martyr ??
(Becket)
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• Listen to the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales in
  the Original Middle English

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The Canterbury Tales

• The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories
  told by a group of pilgrims.
• The most famous story, The Wife of Bath, is a
  story from the King Arthur Legends.

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• For more than 1,000 years, people have created
  legends about King Arthur
• The stories represent a quest for a great and
  just Kingdom or the loss of such a Kingdom

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• King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table -
  British legends about a Great King, his loyal
  Knights, and a perfect Kingdom called Camelot.

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• Historical or just legend?
• Geoffrey of Monmouth - History of the Kings of
  Britain
• Alfred Lord Tennyson - Idylls of the King

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Geoffrey of Monmouth - History of the Kings of
Britain (1136)

• Geoffrey of Monmouth was a British cleric and
  historian.
• Unreliable, but important
• National myth

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• Many people believe a historical King Arthur
  truly existed, and the Tintagel Castle is
  believed to have been his home. (Cornwall,
  England)

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• A Knight is a gentleman warrior.
• The Knightly Virtues
• chivalry, courage, justice, purity, humility,
  etc.
• Women are to be protected.

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• chivalry 'sh iv?lre noun - the medieval
  knightly system with its religious, moral, and
  social code.
• chivalrous 'sh iv?lr?s adj. (of a man or his
  behavior) courteous and gallant, esp. toward
  women.

Knight in Shining Armor Is chivalry really
dead?
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Chivalry, Bors Dilemma
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• joust joust verb intrans. often as n. (
  jousting) historical (of a medieval knight)
  engage in a sports contest in which two opponents
  on horseback fight with lances.

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The Legends of King Arthur and Camelot

• The legends of King Arthur are still the source
  of inspiration in many kinds of art, especially
  literature.

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• Petty (??? a person who is small- minded)
• ere (before)
• Heathen (not Christian or Jewish)
• host (many people)
• To harry, harried (??)
• Swarm (??)

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• Wizard/Sorcerer
• Helps many people in the Legends of Arthur.

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• Arthurs wife, who he loves very much, and who
  betrays him in many stories.

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• Usually he is portrayed as the greatest Knight
  who tries to be loyal to Arthur, but who is in
  love with Guinevere.

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• The traitor who fought King Arthur
• Both men killed each other
• In many stories he is Arthurs son or nephew

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The Lady of the Lake
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The Lady of the Lake
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A different story of how Arthur gets the sword.
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• A famous King Arthur story is the Quest for the
  Holy Grail.
• Holy Grail is a cup from Jesus last supper,
  believed to have great spiritual powers, and so
  some of the Knights make a journey to search for
  it.

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Last Supper
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• In some stories, Arthur is not happy when the men
  go to seek the Holy Grail, but he allows his most
  spiritual Knights to go (Percival, Bors, and
  Galahad).

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The Quest for the Holy Grail

• The Knights Percival Bors see the Grail, but
  cannot fully look at the grail because of their
  immaturity
• The Knight Galahad is able to fully witness the
  grail. He is believed to be the Jesus-figure in
  the Arthurian Legends

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The Quest for the Holy Grail
Because only the most pure can see the grail.
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• The Holy Grail is symbolic of spiritual
  enlightenment, and a Kingdom of Heaven.
• Often the Holy Grail represents the end of the
  great Kingdom of Camelot.

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• In many King Arthur legends, the Knights break
  up, and then King Arthur usually dies in a battle
  against Mordred.

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• Some of the famous stories told by the pilgrims
  on the way to Canterbury are King Arthur legends.
• The Wife of Bath is the most famous story from
  the Tales, and it is about a Knight from King
  Arthurs court (?????)

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The Canterbury TalesThe Wife of Bath

• The story begins
• One of King Arthurs Knights rapes a girl
• The punishment is death, but the Queen gives him
  a chance to save himself.

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• (The Wife of Bath)
• The Queen sends the Knight on a quest to discover
  what women want the most.
• He has one year to find the answer, and if he
  fails, he will be killed.
• after one year of searching he is unable to find
  the true answer, until

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• On the road, he meets an old hag, who says she
  will give him the answer if he will agree to any
  favor she asks him.
• The hag tells him that women want is to rule
  their husband.
• The Queen accepts his answer and the knight is
  allowed to live.

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• Later, the old hag asks the Knight to marry her.
• They marry, but he is sad that she is so ugly and
  old.
• The hag tells her husband that he has a choice
• she can be always ugly and faithful, or she can
  be beautiful and unfaithful

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• The Knight, remembering what women want most,
  asks his wife to chose for herself.
• Proud of her husband, the hag became beautiful.
  And they lived happily ever after.

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The Canterbury Tales

• Though The Wife of Bath is the most famous of the
  tales, The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
  never completed the book, and so we do not know
  which of the pilgrims won the story contest.

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Review, Thomas Becket

• We will watch some more of Becket.
• We will begin the movie when King Henry II
  decides he will make Becket the Archbishop of
  Canterbury.
• The original Archbishop dies, and Henry hopes
  that making Becket the new Archbishop he will
  have more control over the church.

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Becket

• Becket supports the church over the power of the
  King. This makes King Henry II quite mad.
• A priest of the church was killed by a Norman
  nobleman.
• Becket excommunicates (????) the nobleman.

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• Henry II is angry, and tries to have Becket
  arrested.
• We will skip a long part of the movie in which
  Becket is in exile.
• Finally, we will see the murder of Becket at
  Canterbury.

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• 15 MIN 51-1.05
• gt25 MIN 1.18 1.40
• 15 MIN 2.11 2.26