About study questions:

Use study questions to help you prepare for class by reading the questions before you do the assigned reading, and then, after you have done the reading, making notes of your answers and related thoughts. These notes will help you process your thoughts; be prepared to follow the lectures, contribute to class discussions, and study for the midterm and final exam.

January 10: The Legend of Tristan and Iseut

Assignment: Béroul’s Romance of Tristan. Béroul’s version begins in the middle of a sentence on p. 47 or your edition and ends on p. 148 (= Chapters 1-16).

The editor has provided a summary of previous episodes in italics on pp. 39-46, which you should read, along with a significant portion of Béroul’s text (pp. 47-127), which we will discuss on Thursday. The introduction to Béroul offers some useful information, but is problematic as well, so should be read with a critical eye.

PLEASE NOTE: Chapters 17-19 (pp. 149-65) contain episodes taken from other versions of the legend, which we will not have time to discuss in class, but which you are welcome to read.

1. How many examples of “channel crossings” do you find in Béroul’s Romance of Tristan? What lands come into play as a result of these crossings? What ethnic and/or cultural differences distinguish these lands from each other? What about other borderlands and their role? What is the significance of political borders in this 12th-century romance?
   
   
2. What is the role of the barons in Béroul’s work and how do they redefine the relationship between King Mark and his nephew, Tristan? Why are they portrayed in such negative terms? What other feudal, familial or political associations emerge in this romance and what role doe they play in the love affair b etween Tristan and Yseut?
   
   
3. Describe how the political and the erotic dimensions of this romance are intertwined. What is the exact nature of the relationship between Tristan and Yseut? What is unusual about this particular love affair? Whom does it threaten the most and why? How can the various reactions to this relationship be explained?
   
   
4. How does the romance narrator function in Béroul’s work? How, for example, does Béroul treat the subject of the queen’s adultery? In what ways does he view this issue differently than one might expect? Why might that be? What other issues concern the Béroul narrator and how does he articulate that anxiety?
   
   
5. What importance does Béroul give to ceremony, ritual and the symbolism of objects?

January 15: The Death of Tristan and Iseut

Assignment: Béroul’s Romance of Tristan, pp. 127-48; excerpts from Thomas of Britain’s Romance of Tristan and Ysolt, pp. 5-39, 121-61 (Reader).

1. Yseut’s ambiguous oath serves as one of the most dramatic episodes of Béroul’s version. What can you deduce about the medieval legal system of justice from this scene and the earlier discussions surrounding its preparations? What other options were available to Tristan and Yseut as modes of defense against their accusers? Why did they fail to pursue these other options? What is the significance of Tristan’s disguise and actions during this episode? What role do King Arthur and his knights play? How are the three barons treated? What is the status of Yseut following her oath? Of King Mark? Of the three barons? What is their final fate? How has Béroul’s narrator prepared the reader for this denouement?
   
   
2. In what country do we find Tristan at the beginning of the Thomas excerpts? Where is Yseut? What is the nature of the channel crossings in Thomas’s version of the Tristan and Yseut legend? Between what lands are these crossings made, who makes them and why? Compare the function of channel crossings in Béroul’s and Thomas’ versions of the myth.
   
   
3. While each version of the Tristan and Yseut legend treats entirely different events, the Béroul fragment presenting episodes from the middle of the legend and the Thomas fragments depicting incidents at the end of their story, what notable distinctions exist between these two French versions? For example, what roles do the feudal alliances and hostilities we examined in Béroul play in Thomas’s version? What kinds of dilemmas does Thomas choose to examine? How are they different from those that take center stage in Béroul? What new characters does Thomas introduce into the scenario and what critical roles do they play? How does the role of the narrator differ in the Béroul and Thomas versions?
   
   
4. Does the nature of Tristan’s and Yseut’s affair change in Thomas’ version? If so, how? What do we learn about their relationship in the episodes leading up to their demise and in the final death scene itself?

January 17: Channel Crossings: Genealogy and Identity

Assignment: Bennett and Hollister, Medieval Europe (Reader), pp. 266-77; and Georges Duby, William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry, pp. 1-36.

1. As you read Medieval Europe, consider William the Conqueror’s methods of social conquest following his military conquest of England. What was necessary for him to exercise the power he had gained?
   
   
2. Also in Medieval Europe, look for the social and political roles of women, especially in the examples of Matilda and Eleanor, but also those without names in this text.
   
   
3. In William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry, Duby uses as his principal source a medieval, poetic account of William, a long histoire by a man named “Jean,” written not long after William's death. Duby remakes this text as an opportunity to reveal chivalric culture and society through William Marshal’s life. Duby begins with William’s death. What do you learn about chivalric culture and society through Duby’s description and meditation on his death? List as many elements as you can find and then make a couple of generalizations based on these elements.
   
   
4. Marshal was not only a great knight, but his life spanned the period from the civil war between Stephen and Matilda to Henry III (whom Duby on his first page calls “the boy king”) and also intersected with the great people of his day. Duby, however, does not use chronological order throughout but develops his book in part according to themes. As you read the book, however, make a timeline that connects William’s life to the events of the time.
   
   

January 22: Political Dynasties and Knights Errant

Assignment: Duby, William Marshal, pp. 37-111.

1. Though William Marshal stands out as an individual in history because of the particularities of his life and the extant chanson that memorialized it, as Duby claims this is an age of the group. How are homosocial bonds encouraged in chivalric culture? In what groups does Marshal live and travel? In what ways is he successful in managing his relationships with these groups and in what ways does he fail? What tensions can you identify between individual aspirations and the group?
   
   
2. On pp. 48 ff., Duby compares William to Tristan. How are their situations socially comparable? How are they socially different? What difference does it make that one set of relationships is historical and the other fictional? How might the world of the Romance interrelate with the actions and feelings of the men and women who were knights, ladies, barons, kings and queens?
   
   
3. Tournaments play a key role in the plot of the Tristan romance and many others. Compare the tournaments in Béroul’s Tristan with those represented in Duby's history, the situations that instigate them, how they are carried out, who attends, their purposes, and the social institutions that support them or attempt to discourage them.
   
   
4. What similarities and differences does Duby bring to our attention between war and tournaments? Among other issues, consider the social bonds that are developed and threatened, the manner of fighting, the purposes.
   
   
5. Duby marks a number of channel crossings in William's life. For what purposes does he cross? What differences do you note in the kinds of events and cultural milieus on the different sides of the water? Do you notice differences in socio-political structures? What continuities do you note?

January 24: Feudalism, Fiefdoms and Marriage

Assignment: Duby, William Marshal, pp. 112-53.

1. Sociologist Gayle Rubin wrote a famous essay called, "The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex." She points out the centrality of kinship in "pre-state societies" for "organizing economic, political, and ceremonial, as well as sexual activity" and the significance of women in forming the bonds of kinship. What "traffic in women" does Duby show us? How are women used as rewards and to form social and political bonds? Do the women seem to have any agency? How does inheritance through the maternal line fit into this system (or not)?
   
   
2. What are the ethics of chivalry as Duby defines them? Which practices foster these values? Note examples of events that Duby narrates that represent well these ethics or crises in their practice. How do the ethics of chivalry foster or undermine long-term political divisions?
   
   
3. Duby alludes more than once to the development of the state as a force that runs counter to various practices of chivalry and feudalism. What specific aspects of the state does he note and how would these undermine the chivalric life? In what specific ways do they alter the significance of the Channel?
   
   

January 29: Legendary Foundations of Britain: Brutus and Arthur

Assignment: Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, pp. 49-74, 212-61 (Reader).

Note: In the 135 pages of wars, treaties, and marriages between the two excerpts, signal events include the conquest of Britain by Rome, the conversion of Britain to Christianity, the withdrawal of Roman troops when Rome is beset by Germanic tribes, the reign of a particularly weak and corrupt British king, Vortigern, the invasion of Britain by Saxon troops led by Hengist and Horsa, the marriage of the Christian Vortigern to the pagan daughter of Hengist, the birth of Merlin, the ignominious death of Vortigern, battles between the Saxons and the British, the conception by deception of Arthur, the subsequent marriage of his parents Ygerna and Utherpendragon, and the death-by-poison of Utherpendragon.

1. Consulting assigned readings in Medieval Europe and your lecture notes, review the political events and social conditions surrounding 1136, the date when Geoffrey of Monmouth may have completed his History of the Kings of Britain. As you read Geoffrey's History, including the "Dedication," consider how in its themes, plot, and characterizations it may have served the place and time of its composition. Pick out specific examples.
   
   
2. Examine the depiction of marriages: what functions do they serve? Who tends to be of higher status, the man or the woman? Compare these to Duby's representation of the functions of marriage in the twelfth century.
   
   
3. Pages 49-74 establish Brutus as the founder of Britain. What do the plot incidents suggest about the relation between Britain, on the one hand, and Poitevin (Aquitaine) and Gaul (districts that would become parts of France)?
   
   
4. In Geoffrey's chronology, Brutus is the King of Britain 1115-1092 B.C.E.; Arthur is born in the late 5th century C.E.(See the headnote above for events that intervene.) What qualities and opportunities does Arthur appear to represent for Britain at this stage in its history? What risks does he embody? How does Geoffrey suggest these?

12th Century - Arthurian Legend in France: Lancelot and Guinevere

February 5: Lancelot I and French-English Connections and Rivalries: Louis VII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II

Assignment: Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart, pp. 1-96 (lines 1-3474); Medieval Europe, pp. 277-81 (Reader)

1. What is the historical importance of the woman to whom Chrétien de Troyes dedicates Lancelot? Why might she have had an interest in Arthurian legend? How does the prologue to Lancelot enhance our understanding of the associations involved in medieval literary creation?
   
   
2. How are the social, political and moral values associated with 12th-century chivalry and knighthood that Georges Duby uncovers in William Marshal and that Geoffrey of Monmouth presents in his History of the Kings of Britain reworked in Lancelot? How are crises defined, goals established and obstacles overcome in each work? How does Lancelot's demonstration of prowess in a number of knightly adventures compare with Duby's historical portrait of William Marshal and Geoffrey's depiction of Briton leaders? Is the reader supposed to interpret the famous Cart scene at the beginning of Lancelot in light of familiar chivalric values or is there another set of ideals at work?
   
   
3. Compare the portrait of court life offered by Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien de Troyes. How does Geoffrey's Arthur compare with Chrétien's Arthur? What about Gawain? How is this character depicted in each work? What is his particular function in Lancelot? What conclusions can be drawn from these differences?
   
   
4. Where does Chrétien locate the action in Lancelot? Do these locations seem to correspond to recognizable political realms or fantasy realms? What relationships are drawn between place and politics in Lancelot?
   
   
5. How is the concept of love portrayed by Chrétien de Troyes? What are the various rhetorical devices that he adopts to convey emotions associated with love? To what degree are the images he uses drawn from the courtly love tradition? Does Chrétien's narrator function in the same way as Geoffrey's narrator? What aspects of Chrétien's narrative artistry stand out from both the romances and chronicles you have read so far?

February 7: Chivalric Values, Political Alliances and Rivalries in the Romance Tradition

Assignment: Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart, pp. 97-196 (lines 3475-7112).

1. What political alliances and rivalries are at stake in Lancelot? Are these different from the kinds of associations and oppositions found in William Marshal and the History of the Kings of Britain?
   
   
2. Many critics consider Lancelot to be a reprisal of the Tristan legend, especially since Chrétien de Troyes himself mentions having written a now lost work on Tristan. To what extent can the two relationships be compared? In what sense do they expose different issues and different symbolisms? How are conflicts defined and resolved in the two French romances about Tristan and Iseut that we discussed in Weeks I-II and Chrétien's Lancelot? Does desire function in the same way in the two legends? What about the issue of adulterous queens and the role of women?
   
   
3. Compare and contrast the goals of Lancelot and Gawain in Lancelot? What explains the different portrayal of each knight? What is the function of Gawain vis-à-vis Lancelot?
   
   
4. How are the initial bonds established between Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de Champagne undermined at the end of the work, where we discover that Godefroi de Leigni has taken over composition of the work? What appears to be Godefroi's literary function? Does he modify Chrétien's text in any way? HOw is this scribal/authorial transformation consonant with the theory of mouvance?
   
   
5. Hermits play unexpected and even critical roles in Béroul’s Tristan and in Chrétien’s Lancelot. Why are hermits chosen to function as those who facilitate the passage of protagonists from one world to the next, over invisible borders, sometimes into new kinds of alliances? By what means do they accomplish this?

February 12: Marriage and Adultery: Aristocratic Fantasies in 12 th-Century France

Assignment: Marie de France, ”Lanval,” pp. 121-30 (Reader).

1. What is the status of Lanval at Arthur’s court ? Why is he there? How is he treated? What are the problems he encounters and why? What 12th-century socio-political condition discussed by Duby in William Marshal does Lanval’s situation recall? In what ways does Marie de France question the problems associated with Lanval’s situation? How does she try to resolve the dilemmas faced by Lanval? What does the dénouement suggest about the real-life experience of 12th-century knights in situations like Lanval’s?
   
   
2. In Lanval Marie de France adopts the concept of the Other World from Celtic tradition. How does the Other World function in Lanval? What appear to be its defining characteristics? Where is the other World? Who is associated with this realms, who as access to it and why? What activities take place in the Other World and what facilitates these actions? What kinds of connections are established between the Other World and the “real world” of Arthur’s court? List all the ways in which these two worlds are incompatible with each other. How does the relationship between these two worlds figure into our discussions of medieval borders and border crossings?
   
   
3. How does the image of Arthur presented by Marie de France in Lanval compare with is portrayal in Geoffrey of Monmouth, Béroul and Chrétien de Troyes? What about the portrayal of Guinevere? How might you explain the differences in these presentations? Can you establish any connections between these various portraits of the king and queen and the literary objectives of these different works?
   
   
4. How is love defined and how does it function in Lanval? Is love inextricably intertwined with the concepts of knighthood and chivalry, as it is in Chrétien de Troyes’ Lancelot, or does it seem to operate according to a different set of values? Do you find any resonance between the depiction of love in the Tristan and Yseut legend and the love between Lanval and his lady?
   
   
5. Questions related to truth-telling and justice surface throughout Lanval. How does Marie de France negotiate these issues in her work? What is the function of the trial and its outcome in this story? How does Marie’s treatment of love and deception in society compare with that of Béroul and Thomas of Britain in their renditions of the Tristan legend and Chrétien de Troyes in Lancelot?

February 14: Marriage and Adultery: the Gentry Perspective in Late 14th-Century England

Assignment: and read Thomas Chestre, Sir Launfal, Reader, pp. 97-113. To see the text in Middle English verse, go to the TEAMS Middle English Texts site.

1. Thomas Chestre's version of Marie's lai was written in Middle English, probably in the late fourteenth century, and survives only in a single early fifteenth-century manuscript. A more literal translation, "Sir Laundevale," also survives, which was a likely source for Chestre. What might the language imply about the social milieu of the audience? What attitudes toward Arthur's court and more generally the courtly world seem implicit in the text?
   
   
2. What is Guenevere's story as presented here? What is her parentage and homeland? What is her character and how is it conveyed?
   
   
3. What is Launfal's reputation? What is his relationship to Arthur at the beginning, middle, and end of the story? What helps to build and undermine his reputation?
   
   
4. What seems to be the relationship between town and court, mayor and knight?
   
   
5. Wealth and poverty are key issues in this story, as they have been in others we have read. How is poverty depicted here? Do you agree with the analysis of A. C. Spearing, quoted by Anne Laskaya, the editor of Sir Launfal, that the English poem "masterfully satirizes a bourgeois mentality" (The Middle English Breton Lays, p. 203)? Or do you see other implications in the later version's discourse on poverty?.
   
   
6. When Sir Valentine challenges Sir Launfal to joust, our translation says that if he does not come, "his very masculinity becomes forfeit" (p. 8). The key word in Middle English is manhod (line 528), the Modern English reflex being "manhood." Look up "manhood" in The Oxford English Dictionary to see the possible meanings at the end of the fourteenth century (you'll need to go through the Library's web site, going from the homepage to reference to electronic books to Oxford English Dictionary). Do you think "masculinity" is an appropriate translation? How so? What gender issues seem to be at stake in this story?
   
   
7. What roles do tournaments and jousts play in Chestre's story? Look at how the actions are described, their narrative functions. What do they suggest about the concerned characters and about the social groups that mount them and respond to the contests?

February 19: Comparison of “Lanval” and "Sir Launfal"

Assignment: Re-read the two versions of Lanval's story. Read: Medieval Europe, pp. 281-87.(Reader)

1. Consider the manhod of Lanval as represented in Marie's and Thomas's versions of his story. How does each version make this an issue? How serious (or comic) is it? How does it relate to aspects of the chivalric life?
   
   
2. How are the knights of the Round Table depicted in the two versions of Lanval? Keeping the two versions straight, consider whether certain individuals stand out from the crowd as well as how the crowd is characterized. How are we to understand Arthur's relationship to his knights as well as the knights' relationships to each other? What role does the queen play in this matrix? In what ways do the characterizations differ from those in Chrétien's Lancelot?
   
   
3. Study the images of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere drawn by the French romance authors you have read (Béroul, Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France) and by the English Thomas Chestre. Do they share the same view of the royal couple? To what extent do the portrayals of Arthur and Guinevere preserve Geoffrey of Monmouth's depiction of the couple? How do they rewrite Arthur and Guinevere? What distinct concerns seem to be highlighted by the differences in their depictions? Might we relate these in any way to political or social situations?
   
   
4. Pick out two differences between Marie de France's and Thomas Chestre's versions of Lanval's story. Choose quotations to illustrate these differences and devise an analytical statement regarding their significance.

February 21: The Making and Breaking of Bonds of Kinship and Love:
The Death of Arthur I

Assignment: The Death of Arthur, §§ (sections) 1-61 (pp. 23-82).

1. Much of this story relates how bonds between people are formed, stressed, and broken. What are all the varieties of bonds that you see in the story? What are the factors that contribute to the creation of bonds? What are the factors that stress and break them? To what extent do connections with kingdoms play a part? To what extent does kinship play a role? What about love relationships?
   
   
2. In this narrative, what meanings does violence have? What are the actions that merit a violent response? What actions have the power to meliorate violence? How do the uses of violence in this narrative compare to those in Geoffrey's History of the Kings of Britain?
   
   
3. What does this narrative suggest about Guinevere's moral character and also about the role(s) that she (and, by implication, queens) can play in social and political relationships? Consider her through her several foils, as well as through her own actions and their results.
   
   
4. What does this narrative have to say about "lordship"? How do barons and knights relate to kings and kings to those who owe them fealty? Do kings seem more powerful than barons or vice versa? In what ways?

Note for your reading for Tuesday: Between §§ 61 and 81, a knight at Camelot (Arvalan) tries to poison Gawain with an apple by giving it to Guinevere, assuming she would give it to Gawain. Instead, she gives it to Gaheris de Karaheu, who dies instantly upon eating it. Queen Guinevere is assumed to have intended his poisoning. In another strand of the story, Lancelot rests by a spring in the forest and is accidentally wounded by a knight of Arthur's court, and the wound prevents him from going to the tournament at Camelot. Mador de la Porte, the brother of Gaheris, comes to the tournament and discovers his brother's tomb, including the inscription that indicates the queen's supposed responsibility for his death. Mador officially accuses the queen of his brother's death, but no knights step forward to defend her. She has 40 days for someone to step forward before she is executed. In the meantime, Gawain and Arthur discover on a boat that arrives at Camelot the body of the beautiful girl who died because her love of Lancelot was unrequited; hence, the queen discovers that Lancelot did not love the girl more than her. In the meantime, Lancelot having healed comes across in the forest another knight from Camelot, who tells him about the challenge to the queen's life. Hector, on his way to defend the queen, also comes across Lancelot. Bors eventually finds his way there, too. Hector and Bors ride to Camelot, Lancelot stating he will arrive at the last minute. There Bors chides the queen for having sent Lancelot away and states that he won't defend her. Gawain refuses Arthur's request to defend the queen, as do others because they all believe her guilty. Bors finally tells the queen that if no one better arrives then he will defend her. That's where you reenter the story at §81.

13th-Century Arthurian Legend: The Fading Dream
Self-Defense, Revenge and the Staging of Violence: The Death of Arthur II

Assignment: The Death of Arthur, §§ 81-97 (pp. 104-25) and §§163-204 (pp. 191-235).

Between §97 and 163, much more happens, so we'll be briefer! Important details, however, include these. Gawain learns that Lancelot has (accidently) killed Gaheriet, whom he loves more than any other, and this death makes Gawain hate Lancelot almost to the moment of his own death. Arthur and his men follow Lancelot and his men and the queen to the Castle of the Joyeuse Garde. After Arthur arrives, Lancelot sends out a message that (strangely) asserts that he has not "dishonored" Guinevere. There is a huge, very long battle there, for more than two months. At one point, Arthur and Lancelot fight directly, and, though Lancelot has the best of Arthur and the opportunity to cut off his head (to which Hector urges him), Lancelot puts the king back on his horse, and Arthur returns to his army. Quite shockingly, the Pope learns of the battle and the fact that the queen's adultery had never been proven and puts Arthur's kingdom under interdict and excommunicates the archbishops and bishops unless Arthur takes back his wife and lives "with her in peace and honour as a king should with his queen" (146)! So, with much grief, Guinevere returns to Arthur, and Lancelot and his men are allowed to depart for their home territories in Gaul without opposition. They depart with Gawain threatening war because of Gaheriet's death. Gawain does convince Arthur some time later to cross the sea with his army to make war on Lancelot to avenge Gaheriet's death. Unfortunately, he leaves Mordred in charge at home, about which Guinevere is very unhappy (see p. 156). Mordred uses the treasure, to which Arthur had given him access, to win over many barons and kings. He also produces a forged document, supposedly from Arthur, stating that he has been mortally wounded, as has Gawain, and that Guinevere is to be given as queen to Mordred. She shuts herself and allies in a tower, however, and sends a messenger to Arthur. Meanwhile, Arthur and Gawain, with their forces arrive at Lancelot's castle. Lancelot reluctantly answers Gawain's challenge to single combat, even offering to become Gawain's liegeman, along with his cousins, and go into exile as a penitent for ten years. The battle is arduous. Lancelot refuses to slay Gawain in the end. Gawain largely recovers, but the Emperor of Rome comes to attack Arthur in Gaul, claiming that Arthur owes him allegiance (cf. Geoffrey). Arthur kills the emperor, but not before Gawain's head wound (given by Lancelot) reopens as his death wound. Now you are at § 163.

1. What are the different forms of justice at Arthur’s court? To what extent are these forms of justice successful in determining guilt and innocence? How do justice and its outcomes in Arthur’s realm compare with the trials and outcomes in 12th-century romances that we’ve read? What main events and actions lead to the death of Arthur and destruction of his kingdom? What role does Arthur play in bringing about his own death? And Mordred? In what ways do Lancelot's choices set himself apart from the others at the end? Does this ending dovetail in any way with the socio-political dynamics of 13th-century France?
   
   
2. In the battle on Salisbury Plain, the Irish, the Welsh, the Saxons, and the Scots all have their parts to play. What do these labels mean within this narrative?
   
   
3. As in the Romance of Tristan and Lancelot, hermits again have significant roles to play in the Death of King Arthur. What are their roles? What does the resolution of the story at a hermitage imply about the significance of all (or part) of the preceding events? How does this scenario compare with the 12th-century romances in which hermits also figured prominently?
   
   
4. What does this story imply about socio-political relationships across the Channel? Compare this situation to those in Geoffrey’s History of the Kings of Britain and to Chrétien’s Lancelot. Pay attention to where the divisions are between peoples, how significant geography is, how imaginary or realistic the landscapes, and who is opposed to Arthur and why.

February 28: Tristan in England: Parodic Visions?

Assignment: Sir Tristrem, transl. Jessie L. Weston (lines 1-1726, 2165-2805) (Reader)

Click here to consult my Guide for Reading Weston's Translation.

1. This poet has different interests from Béroul and Thomas of Britain. What do you perceive as the main interests of the poem? How does the poet bring them out? Which interests recede into the background? Do you agree with Alan Lupack, the editor of our text, that the poem “is a deliberate parody of the received version”? If so, where and how do you see that parody emerging?
   
   
2. In order to think about this poem in its historical context, review pages 271-77 of Medieval Europe. Then consider how the poem represents relationships between kings and barons as well as between kings. What concerns do you see expressed? How? Do these seem different from those in Béroul’s Tristan? What about those expressed in The Death of Arthur?
   
   
3. Although it is uncertain where “Ermonie,” Tristrem’s home territory, is located, the narrator often names Ireland, England and London, and Wales, among other places, as important locations for the story’s action. What is the significance of these designations? How does the poem differentiate these places? How would you characterize the relationships among these countries?
   
   
4. How are bonds and/or alliances formed in Sir Tristrem? Consider both bonds between men and women, as well as bonds between men and bonds between women. What makes the bond and what maintains it? Are some kinds of alliances or bonds more important than others? How does the poem suggest this distinction?
   
   
5. How is sexual desire portrayed in this poem? What initiates it? What maintains it? Is it good or destructive? How are women portrayed? Do they have any status other than as objects of "the traffic in women"?

March 4: New Political Boundaries: Women’s Impact During Social and Cultural Crisis

Assignment: Medieval Europe, 346-56 (Reader, 81-86); Christine de Pizan: Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc (in English) (Reader, 131-35); Joan of Arc: "Letter to the English" (Reader, 137-38); Trials of Joan of Arc, 59-111 (Reader, 139-165).

1. What various roles do women play in French socio-political dynamics of this period? In what terms are males and females defined? How does Christine de Pizan characterize herself and her role in the world? In what ways does her representation of Joan of Arc embody what Christine considers to be female virtues? Male virtues? Aristocratic virtues?
   
   
2. What political alliances and hostilities inside and outside of France define the history surrounding Joan of Arc’s rise and fall? What emerges about these associations in Christine de Pizan’s Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc? While Joan of Arc’s political position is obvious, what is that of Christine de Pizan? What do we learn about these political associations and conflicts from the trial records?
   
   
3. What allegories and personifications figure centrally in Christine de Pizan’s literary world? In what sense could one say that Christine reconstructs Joan of Arc in allegorical terms?
   
   
4. What do the trial transcripts reveal about Joan’s character, her relationship with the judges, and the judges’ character? What issues appear to be most critical to the judges during their interrogation? Why? What various strategies do the judges employ in questioning Joan? How effective are they? What factors contribute most to the apparent antagonism between Joan and her questioners?
   
   

March 6: Trials, Political Alliances and Hostilities

Assignment: Joan of Arc Documents, pp. 111-128, 148-55, 170-73 (Reader, 165-86)

1. What do the formal preliminaries reveal about the judges at the trial? What kind of training do they have? What is their political position? Under what circumstances do they meet? What documents are presented?
   
   
2. What issues are the most important to the judges when they question Joan of Arc? Why? How do we know these are critical issues to the judges?
   
   
3. What do the trial transcripts reveal about Joan's character? What do they reveal about the relationship between Joan and her judges? What various strategies do the judges employ in questioning Joan? How effective are they? What factors contribute most to the antagonism between Joan and her questioners?
   
   
4. One critic, Karen Sullivan (Interrogation of Joan, University of Minnesota Press, 1999), suggests that the trial documents are less a transparent representation of Joan's words and beliefs than a cultural construction of Joan with and without her conscious participation. In what sense might one speak of a "collaboration" between Joan and her interrogators?
   
   
5. Trials figures centrally in many works we have read this quarter (Beroul's Romance of Tristan, Marie de France's "Lanval," Thomas Chestre's "Sir Launfal," Chretien de Troyes' Lancelot, The Death of King Arthur, Sir Tristrem, to a certain extent the story of William Marshal). How do the making and breaking of alliances shape the nature and outcome of these trials? Do you see any relationship between fictional trials and historic trials?

March 11: New Political Boundaries: Social and Cultural Impact in England
SGGK I

Assignment: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, fitts 1-2 (pp. 23-66)

Click here to consult my Guide for Reading Tokien's Translation.

1. We have seen Arthur and household (mesnie, remember?) feasting in other stories, only to be interrupted in startling, even disturbing, ways. Compare the interruption at stanza 7 (and its aftermath) to the others. You might consider such aspects as narrative function, thematic significance, and implications for characterization. What features do these interruptions have in common? How do their differences reveal differences significant to the meaning and mood of the tale? In SGGK What might the details of the stranger's appearance imply thematically?
   
   
2. J.R.R. Tolkien translates the last two lines of stanza 14 as "Then near to the stout man drew / the king of fearless race." The original is "The kyng as kene bi kynde / Then stod that stif mon nere." James Winny translates it as "The king, by nature bold, / Approached that man and said." The difference hinges on the translation of "kynde," which you can look up under "kind, n." in the OED. Do look it up. Also, consider what difference it makes to interpretation of this passage and Arthur as a character to translate "kene bi kynde" as "of fearless race" versus "by nature bold." Also, consider how you might justify your preference. Bring to class your notes on your ideas.
   
   
3. Consider in detail the description of the arming of Gawain (stanzas 25-28). What will readers expect of Gawain after learning all these details about his armor? Compare it to Arthur's arming in The History of the Kings of Britain (p. 217) and also to descriptions of Joan of Arc's armor, including the standard that she carried. Based on this comparison, how would you locate Gawain as a knight within the array of chivalric virtues?
   
   
4. Of course, as by now will seem inevitable to you, our hero has to cross borderlands to fulfill his quest. Geographically and politically where are these borderlands? What is the mood of the story as he ventures forth? How does the poet create this mood? What values does the narrative imply are part of this journey? Compare it to journeys by Geoffrey's Brutus and Chrétien’s Lancelot, as well as Duby's William Marshal (though he was a historical figure, Duby presents his interpretation of Marshal's life) and Joan of Arc.
   
   
5. In stanza 33, Gawain arrives at a lodging where he can celebrate Christmas. Compare this arrival to Lancelot's at King Bademagu's castle and Arthur's at Morgan's in The Death of Arthur (possibly even Joan's at Chinon). How is the arrival described? Who observes whom? What are the difficulties and what the pleasures? What expectations do the particulars raise for the protagonists and also for the audiences of the texts?
   
   
6. Compare the castle and society that Gawain left in Camelot to the one where he arrives. Consider the reception of strangers, the physical environment, the activities, the roles for men and women, and the heads of the two households--Arthur and the lord who for the time-being is nameless.

March 13: Chivalric Fantasies in Late Medieval England
SGGK II

Assignment: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, fitts 3-4 (pp. 66-121)

1. Consider all the female figures in SGGK, those referred to (e.g. Mary, Delilah) and those who are characters in the story. How is the feminine represented in this work? Is there more than one version presented? How do these representation intersect with other themes in the work including representations of masculinity?
   
   
2. Tolkien contends that the poet's "major point is the rejection of unchastity and adulterous love" (p. 5). Do you agree? What evidence is there in Tolkien's favor? What evidence undermines or contradicts his assertion?
   
   
3. What kind of a place is the Green Chapel? In what aspects might we consider it an Other world? Is its function in the story like the function of Other worlds in other stories? Do any of its features suggest similarities? If it is an Other world, then what might that imply about the castle in the wilderness? Alternatively, might Gawain's experience at the Green Chapel be considered a trial? If so, is he innocent or guilty?
   
   
4. How does this Gawain compare to the other Gawains we have seen? What does his representation in Camelot imply about him? What do the people at the castle he discovers expect of him when they learn his name? If the trials of a quest prove the qualities of a knight, then what does this quest prove about who Gawain is?
   
   
5. The manuscript for this poem dates to about 1400, and there is no reason to date the poem's composition much before that time. What elements of the poem, if any in addition to the language, seem to be indicative of the declining years of the age of chivalry? What elements, other than the language, seem to connect the poem to England to the exclusion of France?