One part of preparing for an Arthurian Literature exam is making sure you know which knight is which. Two things make this difficult: first, most knights do the same sorts of things, fighting bad knights, rescuing those in need, and so on. Secondly, different knights can have similar names and the same knight can have different names in different texts.
Sir Marhaus, for example, is a knight that jousts with Sir Gawain (sometimes called Wawain) and joins the round table. In Morte Darthur, a Sir Marhalt, who is the same person as Sir Marhaus, is killed by Sir Tristram, who afterwards goes by the name Tramtrist to avoid being known by Sir Marhalt's lord.
On the other hand, in Morte Darthur Sir Galahad the High Prince and Sir Galahalt the Haut Prince are two different knights; one is Lancelot's son and only plays a role in the Grail quest while the other is a minor lord who is a knight of the Round Table for almost the entire story. If I remember correctly, there is a Sir Galihud who is a whole other character.
No comments:
Post a Comment