The Good, The Bad, and Gowther

When I heard that the story of Sir Gowther was going to be an interesting one, in the concept of good and evil, I knew I had to really pay attention to the story. There are a lot of things that I can say about this story to make it either seem very interesting, or very annoying. This tale is definitely a "mixed-feelings" piece.

What I found appealing was that Sir Gowther was born of Satan; which, with my lovely history of Greek and Roman mythology, was very exciting. I find tales that involve a higher, or in this case lower, figure to be extremely interesting in all aspects. Readers can understand that the actions of the character aren't truly their faults. Or are they?

Sir Gowther was in a pickle long before he was brought out to this world. Satan gave Gowther the power to know everything in the past, and God gave him the power to know everything that was going to happen in the future. If I had the situation happen to me, the first thing I would probably do is find some medicine, because that sounds like too much information for one brain to handle.

One other thing I liked about this piece was that it was a good transition piece. Throughout this, we see him go from horribly evil to surprisingly good. To having a fetish of raping and killing nuns, as well as nipples, to forgiveness and denying Satan and his work, Sir Gowther should us that anyone can make moral decisions (even with the devil and God being up our asses 24/7). 

The one thing that ticked me off was the idea that he did all these horrible things, and went to the Pope and got forgiveness. For me, even with the devil's actions, I would never thought that was acceptable to gain forgiveness. I can understand asking for forgiveness if you take a loaf of bread, not for raping and killing a copious amount of nuns.

But, hey! If you have the money, anybody can get, "forgiveness." Just remember kids, God still looks at you when you do stupid shit! Have fun with the remainder of your lives!

Sincerely,

Zach!

What is Truly Evil?

Gowther started out a "wild" child.  This continued to a point of what I would consider barbaric.  However, we (as a society) acknowledge that barbarians were still human.  When reading this, however, I was inclined to think of him as more of an Anti-Christ, half-demon figure.  But are their any real differences between the historical barbarians and Gowther?  The historical barbarians ransacked villages, looted, and, for the most part, just took what they wanted by force.  Gowther ransacked villages, looted, and, for the most part, just took what he wanted by force (including a knightly prefix of "Sir").

However, though a ruthless and savage figure at first, he learns of his dark origins and seeks redemption.  Now I wish to pause here for moment and consider a few things.  Should "Sir" Gowther continued on his dark, savage path and let us assume that is how he meets his end (perhaps he lives to be of a much older age and during one of his raids, his body fails to move how he wishes it to), would barbarians/vikings view this differently than the catholic pope of the tale would?  My answer is "yes."  The pope would have acknowledged his soul as being one of the damned and in no way would he find happiness in the afterlife.  However, vikings believed that there was no greater honor than to die in battle while holding onto one's weapon during their last breath... and, if I recall correctly, if one managed to do so, paradise was all but guaranteed.  However, seeing as the story follows religious values, it took a Catholic turn when he sought redemption for his sins and background.  In this manner, is he not more humane than vikings/barbarians?  I cannot help but ponder, what is truly evil?  Let me put this another way... what would I get if I were to ask for something that had the following two items in common: 'Son of Satan' and 'Savage'?  Most likely one would supply me with the answer "The Anti-Christ!"

However, in all religious texts, the Anti-Christ seeks power, followers, and never turns to seek redemption.  Gowther does the opposite.  Once he learns he is the spawn of Satan, he does not seek gaining unholy power and becoming the evil ruler of prophecy, but rather chooses to do good and make a new name for himself.  Now, one last thing left me curious... what will happen if he and his king's daughter (Gowther's lover) were to have a child?  I do not believe in any of the stories of Merlin (who is also the spawn of Satan), there are any of him having a child.  Merlin had magic and Gowther was unnaturally "wild"... but what would the child of a spawn of Satan be like?

It's good *thumbs up*

This story was awesome. I liked it! Demons, death, redemption, it was like an episode of Supernatural(only the greatest show in existence, fight me!). To be honest, I thought we were going to read about Gowther raping and pillaging villages until someone killed him. Come to find out he seeks redemption after discovering Mommy has been lying to him all these years about who his father was...plot twist! I do wonder if he would have bothered seeking forgiveness if he never figured out his dad was Satan. If he were Satan from Supernatural, surely not.

Look at that face! 

Another intriguing point is how Mommy dearest became impregnated with our lovable Sir Gowther...shame on you Daddy for blaming infertility on Mommy and kicking her out. Now she’s gone done and slept with Satan! For all they know he could have been the infertile one. I imagine this has to do with the time period though, if a wife cannot bear any kids, she must be the infertile one. If it’s thought that a wife can’t become pregnant, is that grounds for an automatic divorce? Divorces didn’t really happen during this time, right? So I’m guessing there are very few reasons for the Pope, or whomever, to allow one to take place. I feel like we might have discussed this in class, but a refresher wouldn’t hurt in this instance(please).

Everyone on this show is adorable 

I’m really glad the romance wasn’t a main focus of the story. We get an introduction to the silent girl, and then read how Sir Gowther was able to marry her off in the end, but to me it wasn’t a large portion of the story. This brought me immense joy. It was a nice deviation from the stories we have been reading thus far. I was actually a little glad for Gowther, he really proved himself. You go man, you go. Team Free Will.

 Overall, Sir Gowther was an awesome story. Cringe worthy at a few spots(the failed breastfeeding episode), but overall it was an enjoyable read. I’m happy that Gowther redeemed himself and received his happily-ever-after. It was actually a well rounded story, now that I think about it. Action, adventure, romance...of course I definitely would not have minded my first thoughts taking route, seeing a little demon hunting action is never a bad thing in my eyes, but beggars can’t be choosers. I’ll willingly accept canon. If only Supernatural could end in such a pleasing manner…*cough cough* Destiel.

I'm not even sorry

If I Had A Nipple For Everyone Who Died In This Story

That title only covers one particularly horrific part of the story, not to mention all the nuns that burn and the monks that get shoved off cliffs and the random dudes who are just generally slaughtered during "Sir" Gowther's insatiable thirst for blood that spans so many rhymes. And I know the point of it all is that literally anyone can be forgiven, even the son of Satan, because his lineage is out of his control and he seeks (very sudden, mind you) redemption through the Lord, and it's granted. And I know the footnote discusses the possibility of such a drastic turnaround when one finds out something traumatic, but this guy...I mean...this time he really is a devil. And he just converts to Christianity because...it's not what his father would want?

So never hang out in an orchard. Unless you want to be kidnapped and/or tricked into sex, then you should make a list of every orchard near your address and hang out nowhere else. I mean, I know it can be tempting when a stranger that looks a lot like your significant other offers you sex, but I think you're technically supposed to say no. I guess for the sake of the story he was an identical image of the Duke, so it can't really be the wife's fault, but surely she could have said something to make sure it was him first. Unless the Duke isn't into smalltalk before his lovemaking, then maybe it seemed totally natural that he just showed up and asked for it under a tree. I don't know. I've never been courted by Satan, I don't know how he does foreplay.

I imagine it's a lot like this, though

Anyways I guess it's not up to me to buy it, but I don't buy his whole repentance thing. And even if he's sincere, I guess the real question is...can you be forgiven for doing SO MANY horrible things? An uncountable number of people Sir Gowther kills, and then he's instantly sorry...and he does spend the rest of his life doing good, but can that outweigh the permanent damage of so many deaths? I'm not entirely convinced. Luckily, I don't need to be convinced, because someone believes Gowther, so as far as he's concerned, thank God for Jesus.

Gowther? I Hardly Know Her!

Honestly, this post is almost embarrassing to write. It certainly will be a significant deviation from my usual analysis - while I generally can't be swayed from Marxism, feminism, and/or post-structuralism (or similar analysis which posits itself within the radical left of the political spectrum), when reading, Sir Gowther I found my blog post practically writing itself through the thought of one of philosophy, psychology and literary theory's most hated and debated:

Get Siggy with it

The titular knight's character progression falls almost uncannily into the Freudian five stages of psychosexual development. These stages deal with the sexual impulses of the child, and how they relate to the id, ego, and superego in determining his behavior through his development. The first stage is the oral stage which deals primarily with the act of breast feeding. As young Gowther does it, he displays demonic intensity which causes several deaths. This serves to establish his exceptionally strong libido from the beginning of the text, and a major theme ultimately his his superego adopting religious moralism in an attempt to tame this impulse of the id.

The second stage, the anal stage, is deemed unimportant and skipped as the narrative advances from him at age 1 to age 15. The third stage is the phallic stage. 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BFS

Here, Gowther expresses his libido through his phallic falchion, which becomes symbolic of his ego, as it was a weapon "he could hold but no one else could bear." (140-141). His excessive use of it for violence expresses that his ego is presently dominated by the id, rather than having balance between the id and the superego. The primary motivation in this stage is the Oedipus complex, to kill his father and gain sexual possession of his mother. While this is not explicitly acted on, it is implicit in the duke dying, essentially from shame for his son's actions (154). The Oedipal element is also present in Gowther's interrogation of his mother to find his father's true identity; he is beset on killing the correct target of his psychosexual envy. The fact that he has failed to do so causes him to fixate in the phallic stage, and much of his motivation in the remainder of the story, even as he progresses through the remaining stages, is brought by his desire to absolve himself of the sins of his heritage, and in that way "defeat" his true father.

The fourth stage is the latency stage. In this stage, the sexual desires are inactive. This is where Gowther travels to Rome. This brings much of the development of his superego, of which the Pope is symbolic. Through the humiliation of having to eat the leftovers of dogs, he is immasculated and cut off from his libido.

The fifth and final stage is the genital stage. This is the stage at which Gowther has matured as an adult with healthy non-incestuous sexual drive. He demonstrates this as he fights as a knight for the emperor - he has learned, through the temperament of his religious superego, to use his phallic falchion towards good Christian causes and to protect his sexual interest (the Emperor's daughter). The daughter's salvation from death and the Pope's redeeming affirmation: "Of God you are the child. No longer fear the warlock wild, for vanquished now is he." (673-675) are final proof that Gowther, through the redemption of Christian superego, has "vanquished" his real father and can finally escape his phallic fixation and live as a well-adjusted adult.

This analysis is silly, Freud is silly and I hope to never again find myself writing it.

the devil wears...red, white and black?

So Sir Gowther…is a demon. Or a half demon fiend thing. My main question, when I got halfway through the reading was, “how much of this is actually his fault?” My initial reaction to the first half of the story was to think, “What the hell?? This guy is the worst person ever, he has no redeeming qualities, and there is no way I could ever forgive him for what he did”. But then I started to think…if he is the son of a fiend, is he aware of what he is doing, because he’s not fully human is he? And if he is not fully human, is he potentially forgivable for his deeds? I tend to think some things are not forgivable, no matter how much repentance you do, but I know that not everyone else thinks that way. After I had read the whole story I was obviously very happy to see that he had severely changed his ways after learning about his parenthood and deciding that that was not the path that he wanted to go down, but what I do not understand is what gave him this moment of reckoning? Why did he have such a great moment of clarity? I think that was what annoyed me the most, because while I appreciate what he went through in terms of repentance, it annoys me that I do not know what the catalyst was, and it is important to me. It’s not something that I can just be like, “oh yeah that makes total sense”, because it doesn’t.

 

 

to...

 

 

Sidenote: Can we also talk about the poor girl that he ends up marrying? It was borderline comical but annoying how often they called her dumb just because she couldn’t speak. Like ok, she’s mute, so what?? But that’s medieval writing for you. I have to say that I am very happy she got a happy ending out of this story. She seemed like a genuinely good character even though she had a minor plot line.

 

But the last thing I wanted to mention was how much I appreciated this line in the story, “But even thought the Pope had shriven Gowther, and God his sins forgiven, Still his heart was sore…” (II 697-699). I think this line was what made me accept this story line at the end. I needed Gowther to continue to feel the pain of what he did, because while he did an awful lot of good things, I did not want his character to be like well, ok, I did that, and now I am good to go for the rest of my life!

The devil prays to Christ?

I loved this story! By far, one of the best stories we've read so far. When I first heard this story was about the son of the devil, I was like woah? I was really shocked as to how the story turned out. Their definitely is a constant theme in the recent stories we have been reading. Forgiveness is key. But why not? Forgiveness isn't a bad thing, is it?

Who doesn't love a little peace?

I really loved how Sir Gowther redeemed himself to becoming a “good” person. The beginning of the story was definitely clear that he was the son of the devil. I understand he did things that were gory and disgusting, but he made a turnaround for the best. I also really liked how Sir Gowther didn't just get handed forgiveness. He worked his ass off and became a person he wasn't. I mean, they made him eat food from a dog’s mouth! Come on, give the man some credit. But who doesn't like bad boys?

This story was probably one of my favorite stories, aside from Emare. To me, reading this story brings me back to the old saying, “there is light at the end of the tunnel.”  I feel like we should always give people a chance, no matter the damage they have done. As for Sir Gowther, he really made a turn around to becoming someone new. It happens in our everyday lives. I understand that forgiveness may be a hard factor for some people. Just because we forgive someone, does that make EVERYTHING “okay?” Damage was done, but that doesn't necessarily mean everything is alright. But there are always second chances and forgiveness that we can turn to.

The challenge that the Pope gave Sir Gowther is out of his league. Giving up his falchion and refusing him to speak?? That’s kind of harsh. The falchion is what brought him to where he ended up in the ending. By letting Sir Gowther use his falchion while fighting off the other knights made him noticeable. It was his skill and hardship that he displayed that allowed God to forgive him of all his sins. Ultimately, since this a romance course, he led him to a dumb, but beautiful maiden!  It led to a happen ending, with marriage. Even though the emperor’s daughter was dumb and mute, it worked out well in the end. She didn't suffer as much like the other women in other stories we have read. This was a little cute happy ending that Sir Gowther ultimately deserved.

Apparently, the Cambion Can Change

... for the better! 

Overall, I really liked this story. I thought that, unlike some of our previous romances, this one balanced action with the rest of the narrative well. I also liked how even though infidelity is what sets the story in motion, there's very little emphasis on sexual transgression past Sir Gowther's birth. There's little emphasis on romantic relationships at all, which is refreshing - while the maiden is beautiful but mostly mute (which is another discussion for another time), she is not the focus of the story, or Gowther's focus either. They marry in the end once he becomes a better person, no fuss, no drama. While I understand that drama is what makes a romance, I was glad to see a female character who doesn't suffer overmuch. A lot of the action in medieval romances occurs at a woman's expense, like in Emare. I was glad to see that the trend somewhat changed here.

This tale was also sensational, and I am a huge fan of the sensational. I love the supernatural, and the concept of cambions (half-human, half-demon children) is appealing to my love of weirdness and witches and magic and all that fun stuff. I shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that Gowther was a literal hellion, but I was, because I was hoping that he would be his own person and not so... devilish? Murdering people and biting your mother's nipple off is not a great start to life, dude.

   Laverne's Jesus disapproves of your... shenanigans. 

While I liked Sir Gowther's unapologetic murdering (because it was such a non-issue; he just killed people and that was what he did), I have a difficult time really wrapping my head around the fact that, redemption aside, he did kill a lot of people and did a lot of terrible things, and that becoming forgiven doesn't change the fact that those things happened. Just because you're forgiven doesn't mean that everything is fine - the medieval idea of forgiveness and mine are two totally different things, which is sometimes makes things hard in class. 

Even though this is a little paradoxical, I was actually a little sad that Gowther had a literal "come to Jesus" moment. I love monsters, and I love it more when monsters embrace their monstrosity, I'm not quite sure why. 

Sir Gowther, immediately following his... talk... with his mom. 

But really: "oh my god" is a great summary for this tale.

Don't worry, Sir Gowther, I forgive you!

I’m beginning to see a theme here…forgiveness seems to be at the forefront of many of the last stories we’ve read in this class.  I’m sure this one will have its critics too, but I like to NOT try to find everything wrong with the story and focus on some of the good.  (What can I say? I’m an eternal optimist.) So I’d like to share my on-going debate about whether or not our hero/villain actually learns his lesson in the Christian realm of things.  Because I really think that is the point of these stories.  Regardless of the level of assholery in these characters, we can still see that they try to seek forgiveness (With the exception of the knight in the Wife of Bath’s Tale…I’m still not completely convinced of that one.) Anyway, this story is refreshing, because no one that is supposed to be (somewhat) likeable treats the main female character like shit.  That’s really awesome.

It’s interesting because yes, Gowther was a horrible person. Yes, he burned down a convent.  Yes, he killed people senselessly.  But I don’t feel as much malice toward him as I thought I would.

So here’s my theory: The stories we've been reading have been part of some sort of progression in achieving forgiveness. The Wife of Bath’s Tale basically teaches us what not to do.  Emare gets a little better because we get the sense that her father actually WANTS forgiveness, and he does at least a little something on his own volition to do it.  Sir Gowther actually suffers to earn his forgiveness.  I mean, eating from the mouth of dogs and being a fool…in my book, that’s dedication to a cause.  He also valiantly fights for a kingdom that has basically treated him as a joke.  So I’m completely okay with Gowther because I feel like he really does earn his forgiveness.  

It’s really not like this, where Emare’s father is like “Hey, these are my sins.  Good? Okay, done.”

I’m kind of tired of this “good person vs. bad person” conversation, because that’s all we ever seem to talk about now.  We can sit here and criticize these characters and pick apart every bad thing they do, but in the end I think we need to look at them as a whole.  Have they earned good-person status, despite their mistakes? In some cases, maybe not. But in many cases, they have.  Sometimes we just need to take an alternate point of view.